What we’re about
In 2026, the History of Philosophy Book Club will continue to study both canonical Western texts as well as philosophy from other cultures. Since 2022 we have explored Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist, Arabic, and classical Chinese philosophy alongside the traditional Western canon. This is an opportunity for those who have read mostly within the Western tradition to learn and assess new and different ideas, and to see how they have influenced varied philosophical schools. The 2026 schedule can be found here.
NOTICE: If you would like to join the History of Philosophy Book Club, we're happy to have you! Please do take a few moments to give thoughtful answers to our registration questions -- expertise in philosophy is not required, but we'd sincerely like to know about you and your interests in philosophy! As our registration form notes, one-word or excessively brief answers to the questions, as well as snarky or scornful replies, will result in an automatic rejection. Additionally, because the group meets in person, membership is currently limited to the Washington, DC metro area. Thank you for your interest and consideration.
WHO WE ARE
Did you take a philosophy class in high school or college and wish you had taken more? Do you read philosophy texts independently but have no one to discuss them with? Then this group is for you.
Somewhat of a hybrid, it is a combination study group and book club. The backgrounds of our members vary: some have never taken a philosophy course and are essentially self-taught; others have doctorates in the field. Although the majority of writers have been European and American, we have read and are open to texts from other cultures, and starting in 2022 will be making an extra effort to study them. Representative philosophers have included Plato, Averroes, Confucius, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Sartre, Arendt, Rawls, Foucault, and Butler. We often read a single book by a single author, but if their output has been substantial we will consider an anthology or collection of shorter texts. At times we engage with debates between prominent philosophers, such as the Searle-Derrida debate about meaning and interpretation. We also sometimes discuss topics such as theories of metaphor or the philosophy of mathematics, or schools of philosophy such as pragmatism.
We started the group in 2010 with the classical period and finished in 2013 with twentieth century writers, then began the cycle in more depth in 2014 and wrapped up in December 2021, beginning the historical cycle again in January 2022.
Meetings are currently held at the West End Library in DC, located 2301 L St NW, Washington, DC 20037, near the Foggy Bottom-GWU metro station.
Tips in Preparing for Meetings
After you have finished the reading, ask yourself: (1) What are the philosopher’s principal ideas? (2) What arguments are used to support them, and are they strong or weak? (3) Who were the author’s major influences, and whom in turn did he/she influence? (4) What was the historical context in which the author wrote, and did this affect what was said? (5) Are the author’s works still relevant today and, if so, how?
To help in answering these questions, attendees are encouraged to consult the secondary resources posted in each announcement. Wikipedia, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy are especially useful.
Rules of Conduct at Meetings
Avoid monopolizing the conversation. If you've been speaking for several minutes, and sense others want to get in, relinquish the floor.
Stay on topic, and keep your remarks concise and to the point.
Challenging arguments and disputing facts are fine; personal attacks are not. Derogatory, prejudiced, or discriminatory remarks of any kind are grounds for ejection from the session and termination of membership.
If you have not read at least 50% of the recommended selections, consider skipping the meeting to allow other interested people to attend.
Those who violate the rules of conduct repeatedly will be dropped from the group at the discretion of the organizers.
Note:
To remain viable, groups depend on regular attendance. Toward this end, we ask that you only RSVP "Yes" if you know that you are likely to attend. If it turns out that you cannot make it to the meeting, we ask that you cancel your RSVP as soon as possible to make room for others.
Although everyone is welcome to use our resources, our targeted audience consists of people who live in the Maryland, DC, and Virginia area.
Upcoming events
1
Blaise Pascal: Pensées and Other Works
West End Neighborhood Library, 2301 L Street NW, Washington, DC, USLife
Blaise Pascal was born in 1623 in the Auvergne region of France. His father was an expert mathematician and member of the noblesse de robe (a designation for high-level bureaucrats). His mother died when Pascal was only three. Under his father’s anti-scholastic and modern approach, Pascal read widely but idiosyncratically in law, the Bible, Church Fathers, science, and, eventually, mathematics—but relatively little in literature. By his teens, his father had introduced Pascal to the group of intellectuals associated with Père Marin Mersenne. He suffered medical issues from a young age and throughout his life and was for some time under the care of one of his sisters. He was, for example, too ill personally to conduct his famous experiment on Puy-de-Dôme that provided evidence that air pressure differs at different elevations. He had a deeply mystical or religious experience (“Night of Fire”) on the evening of November 23, 1654, after which he renounced his mathematical and scientific pursuits in favor of religious pursuits. He had notes from the Night of Fire sown into his jacket. He died at only 39 in 1662.
Themes
While Pascal did not invent the triangle named for him (it had been known not only to Chinese, Indian, and Islamic scholars but also European ones), he studied it and showed some of its properties. In physics, he did experiments with mercury demonstrating that air pressure varied with elevation and studied hydraulics, giving us what is now called Pascal’s law. He was one of the first to devise a working calculating machine, several of which still exist, creating three versions for different uses. As might be expected from someone of such evident skill in math and science, he did not care much for Aristotelian approaches, such as essences, form, and matter.
Pascal as philosopher presents some problems. In the first place, his non-scientific writings had the avowed purpose of promoting Christianity and, at times, Jansenism. His most famous work, Pensées, was not published in his lifetime but rather arranged by family and associates after his death based on written notes supposedly but not definitively intended for a work of Christian apologetics. But the psychological insights of the Pensées, and its clear and sharp style, have perhaps against his own wishes established Pascal as some sort of philosopher, if not a proto-(Christian) Existentialist. His attacks on the power and utility of reason are ironically almost coeval with the start of the European Enlightenment. Among his more famous ideas is that the heart has its reasons that the mind knows not of and discussing belief in God in terms of a wager. Is Pascal’s Wager a joke, taking to humorous extremes techniques of probability he had had a hand in developing? Or is he serious, aiming to show that reason fails when it comes to life’s most consequential decisions? Or is the Wager meant to offer reasoned support for a prior, non-rational embrace of God? We’ll discuss these and other questions to try to understand Pascal’s contributions to philosophy and what insights he can offer today.
Reading
Our readings for this month are Pensées and selections from Discussion with Monsieur de Sacy, the Art of Persuasion, and Writings on Grace. These can all be found in an edition from Oxford University Press.
Optional
- Blasie Pascal, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Pascal's Wager, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Lettres Provinciales, Wikisource
- Prayer, to Ask of God the Proper Use of Sickness, Wikisource
References for Pascal's Contributions to Math and Science
10 attendees
Past events
172
