What we're about
We are the largest philosophy Meetup in the country and also the Seattle chapter of a national organization dedicated to building communities of philosophical conversation, The Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA).
https://www.philosophersinamerica.com (https://www.philosophersinamerica.com/)
We focus on analytic philosophy (the type of philosophy typically taught in American universities), but are open to ALL approaches to philosophy. No specific background is necessary, and everyone from those who have never studied philosophy to those who have graduate degrees are welcome.
What are some distinguishing characteristics of this group?
1) DIVERSITY OF TOPICS, FORMATS AND DISCUSSION LEADERS: We have a very diverse range of discussion leaders, and a high level of participation. In the past few years, over 40 different people, ranging from philosophy professors to people just interested in philosophy, have lead discussions. Because we have a wide range of discussion leaders, we are able to cover a large range of topics. We also have many different session formats, ranging from talks with Q and A, reading groups, and casual discussions.
2) NATIONAL SUPPORT: We have the support of an outstanding national philosophy organization which shares our aims.
Anyone is free to lead a meetup session here. It can be run in a time or place of your choosing. Any broadly philosophical topic, and any format is ok. Anyone who wants to run a session should contact the organizer.
Upcoming events (5+)
Bellevue Library
This session is co-sponsored with the Think and Drink! meetup. Thanks to Rick for organizing this! For this topic, "Does God Exist?", we have Carl who holds the position of "Yes", and Greg who holds the position of "No". Both debaters have agreed to the proposed debate structure, which consists of: - Brief intervals of opening arguments - Brief intervals of cross-examination - Open Q&A with entire group (majority of event) While remaining formal, we aim to be interactive with the entire group, which is why the majority of this event will be dedicated to open, moderated discussion. The purpose for all of our events is to explore deep, often controversial topics in a respectful and productive atmosphere. It takes courage to step up and present your views to a group, so we are very thankful for Carl and Greg to come forward and participate in this fun and civil debate.
- Gene L

- Rick

- Kim

- 47 attendees
University Branch - The Seattle Public Library
This session will be moderated by Will Smith. Many political debates begin with opposing sides having different definitions for the same things. Defining "government" is not only key to resolving many of these disputes, it's also a core question in political philosophy as a whole. This meetup will explore what necessary and sufficient features are needed to distinguish government from everything else. We will discuss the merits of some existing definitions, as well as try to come up with some of our own. Link to material about Socratic definitions: https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/socdef.htm
- Will S.

- Gene L

- Charles Amadeus S.

- 27 attendees
The Collective
Update from our venue: The Collective management has started charging non-members a fee for attending events: https://thegoodai.eventbrite.com We will work to find a better way so single RSVP is sufficient - apologies for the inconvenience. Agenda:- 1) Casual Networking 2) Overview, mission & introductions of the group 3) Keynote Presentation by guest speaker or Group Discussion on Ethics & AI topics 4) Q&A 5) Open forum - Project Discussion 6) Wrap up The Good AI monthly meetup was created to empower every person to create awareness, facilitate engagements and take actions around ethics of AI. We invite people from all backgrounds - business, legal, education, non-profits, individuals, professionals and technical backgrounds. We encourage participants to suggest discussion topics, ideas, keynote speaker suggestions and any thing else which could be relevant to our members. For more information please feel free to contact: [masked] Or Visit the good ai website: http://www.thegoodai.org Looking forward to your participation at the event at a perfect collaborative downtown venue, The Collective, on every 3rd Wednesday each month. Please feel free to bring guests and please do not forget to RSVP so we can plan accordingly. PARKING: The building offers flat fee of $5 for parking after 6 pm. The parking garage is located directly behind the building (small one way street parallel to Dexter Av) Thank you, TheGoodAI Org
- Vikram M.

- 1 attendee
Graduate Seattle
We will discuss chapters 5 and 6 of "What is Philosophy?" by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. It's been difficult finding good days to schedule so I'm only doing one Friday session. We'll hold a final session to complete and summarize the book a week or two after this one. Here are some study questions prepared by Gene (thanks again!): In Chapter 5, there are many ways in which science and philosophy are contrasted. Per Deleuze, how are science and philosophy different? Paradigmatic and syntagmatic are contrasting terms in (structural) linguistics. Every item of language has a paradigmatic relationship with every other item which can be substituted for it (such as cat with dog), and a syntagmatic relationship with items which occur within the same construction (for example, in The cat sat on the mat, cat with the and sat on the mat). What do you think Deleuze means when he says "..amounts with saying with Kuhn that science is paradigmatic, whereas philosophy is syntagmatic". In Fashionable Nonsense, the physicist Alan Sokal devotes a chapter to D and G. This chapter discusses material from Chapter 5, as well as from other Deleuze books. Regarding Deleuze's use of scientific terms: "However, on closer examination, one sees that there is a great concentration of scientific terms, employed out of context and without any apparent logic, at least if one attributes to these terms their usual scientific meanings. To be sure, Deleuze and Guattari are free to use these terms in other senses: science has no monopoly on the use of words like “chaos”, “limit” or “energy”. But, as we shall show, their writings are crammed also with highly technical terms that are not used outside of specialized scientific discourses, and for which they provide no alternative definition. But the allusions are so brief and superficial that a reader who is not already an expert in these subjects will be unable to learn anything concrete. And a specialist reader will find their statements most often meaningless, or sometimes acceptable but banal and confused. We are well aware that Deleuze and Guattari’s subject is philosophy, not the popularization of science. But what philosophical function can be fulfilled by this avalanche of ill-digested scientific (and pseudo-scientific) jargon?" What do you think about this criticism? (Fashionable Nonsense is freely available online if anyone wants to see specific passages that were criticized). Note that in Chapter 6, D and G state: "it is always unfortunate ... when philosophers do science without real scientific means (we do not claim to have been doing this)". Also: "If philosophy has a fundamental need for the science that is contemporary with it, this is because science constantly intersects with the possibility of concepts and because concepts necessarily involve allusions to science that are neither examples nor applications, nor even reflections." What does Deleuze mean when he says "A real hatred inspires logic's rivalry with, or its will to supplant, philosophy. It kills the concept twice over"?What does Delueze mean when he says: "Opinion is the rule of the correspondence of one to the other; it is a function of proposition whose arguments are perceptions and affections, and in this sense it is a function of the lived."? What does Deleuze mean when he says "In every conversation the fate of philosophy is always at stake, and many philosophical discussion do not as such go beyond discussions of cheese, including insults and confrontations of worldviews."?
- Duane H.

- Jaspreet

- Clark

- 8 attendees
Past events (159)
Victrola Coffee and Art
- Bradley S.
- anmol m.

- Buzz B.

- 20 attendees