What we’re about
[Note: This group is looking for a new owner! In the meantime, join the Toronto Philosophy Meetup to find many more online philosophy events and activities: https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/
The description below is from the previous organizer of the group.]
Welcome to the Calgary Philosophy Meetup! We're a local community for people interested in reading and discussing philosophy. We hold discussions and other events on a broad range of philosophical topics and problems. No previous experience is required for any of our meetups, only a willingness to engage with the works being discussed. The only basic ground-rule is to please, as with everywhere else in life, be polite and respectful during discussions.
Feel free to propose topics you would like to see (you can do this in the Discussions section), and please contact the organizers if you would like to host an event yourself, or organize events here on a regular basis.
Featured event
Movie Discussion: Casablanca (1942) by Michael Curtiz
One of Hollywood’s most celebrated films, Casablanca follows the cynical and dashing Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a nightclub owner in the Moroccan city of Casablanca during World War II. Rick’s past unexpectedly catches up with him when Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) — the woman who broke his heart — arrives in his gin joint with her fugitive husband, desperately seeking help to escape the Nazis. As he wrestles with his decision, the film explores ideas of exile and displacement, the difficulty of remaining neutral in love and war, the inescapability of the past, and the power of luck. Casablanca was initially a solid box-office success and has over time become a classic of American cinema for its memorable dialogue and iconic performances.
Roger Ebert: "If there is ever a time when they decide that some movies should be spelled with an upper-case M, Casablanca should be voted first on the list of Movies."
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Join the Toronto Philosophy Meetup to discuss the holiday classic Casablanca (1942) directed by the Hungarian filmmaker Michael Curtiz, recently voted the 63rd greatest movie of all time in Sight & Sound's international survey of film critics and scholars. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 1944, winning for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Fun fact: the film was rushed into release to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa.
Please watch the movie in advance (102 minutes) and bring your thoughts, reactions, and queries to share with us at the meeting. You can stream it with a viewing link to be posted on the main event listing here.
A trailer.
We'll be joined by many other participants from the Toronto Philosophy Meetup at this meeting — https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/events/312442380/
Check out other movie discussions in the group, currently happening about once or twice a month.
Upcoming events
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•OnlineFoucault Interlude: A Preface to Transgression & The History of Sexuality
OnlineWe are taking a break from Bataille's Erotism (1957) to read two major texts from Michel Foucault over the next several weeks**:**
"A Preface to Transgression" (1963), and
The History of Sexuality, Volume 1 (1976)
Reading schedule
Access the weekly reading schedule at this link:
https://sites.google.com/view/existentialism-and-its-critics/
You can find all texts in the Google folder linked at the VERY BOTTOM of this description. The Zoom link is also posted there.
👇 scroll all the way down for the links 👇
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Foucault regarded Bataille as "one of the most important writers of his century" and was deeply influenced by his approach to thought and the unknown. The first piece above was written as a tribute to Bataille shortly after his death and published in the journal Critique, which Bataille himself started in 1946. It shows us the early Foucault of the archeological method. Though falling in the broadly structuralist tradition, Foucault is here nonetheless preoccupied with themes of death, the void and limit-experiences. As we see, he directly inherits the problematic of transgression that we've encountered so forcefully in Bataille.
By 1976 Foucault is well into his genealogical period. His approach to sexuality is now avowedly historical, focused on the specificity of discursive practices and the power relations that permeate them. This is a post-structuralist Foucault, less interested in sweeping logics such as that of transgression and more intent on the local and the particular.
The sustained focus on sexuality, together with the momentum we’ve gathered through our reading of Bataille, offer us an attractive opportunity to trace this rupture / evolution in Foucault's thought. Once we complete this interlude, we'll return to Part 2 of Bataille's Erotism.
SOME DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Is the well-known transition from archeology to genealogy evident in Foucault's texts on sexuality that we are reading? Does "A Preface to Transgression" fit neatly in the archeological category, or does it already contain seeds of a future development?
- What is Foucault's attitude towards transgression in The History of Sexuality? Is transgression still foundational to his understanding of sexuality in 1976?
- The death of God is a dominant theme for the early Foucault, as it is for Bataille. Yet post-structuralism is often said to distance itself from the heady obsession with death, lack, void, abyss, negation and the like. Is such a shift observable in Foucault's writings on sexuality?
- We've seen the outlines of a radical Hegelianism in Bataille (inspired by his exchanges with Kojève). Can we discern Foucault's stance towards this Hegelian background? Where does (or would) he stand on the questions of dialectic, Aufhebung, reconciliation and the negative that Bataille has addressed at various points?
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ABOUT THE BATAILLE GROUP
This is a comprehensive reading group focusing on the works of French writer Georges Bataille. We are reading key texts from Bataille himself, as well as tracing his relationship with other major thinkers such as Hegel, Nietzsche, André Breton/Surrealism, Blanchot, Lacan, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, etc.
Some familiarity with Bataille's mode and style of thought is helpful but not necessary. You're welcome to join the group in medias res at any time. See, however, the group rules below.
Please take the time to read and reflect on the reading prior to each meeting. Everyone is welcome to attend, but speaking priority will be given to people who have read the text.
Topics to be discussed in the future:
- Return to the 2nd part of Erotism
- Bataille's critique of Hegel: the negative and general economy
- Derrida's reading of Bataille in "From Restricted to General Economy"
Past topics included:
- Bataille's Erotism, Part 1 & the logic of transgression
- Bataillean transgression and Deleuzian line of flight: reading Fitzgerald's "The Crack-Up"
- Bataille's aesthetics: the rift with Surrealism
- Susan Sontag on avant-guarde literature
- Bataille's novel Blue of Noon
- Inner Experience and a-theological mysticism
- Bataille's reading of Nietzsche and critique of fascism
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MORE ABOUT BATAILLE
Georges Bataille stands out as an eclectic, fascinating and controversial figure in the world of French letters. A contemporary of Sartre and Lacan, he combined ideas from diverse disciplines to create a unique position that he called 'base materialism'. In the early 20s, Bataille abandoned Catholicism, embraced psychoanalysis and Marxism and initiated an unorthodox search for the sacred in late modernity. His obsessive pursuit of ecstatic liminal experiences took him across the boundaries of philosophy, sociology, political economy, mythology, poetry, literature and mystical theology. His works develop a libidinal economy of unconditioned expenditure, offer a critique of fascism and embrace marginal experiences in the style of the French poets. Though he remained largely outside the academic mainstream and worked as a librarian, Bataille is a formative precursor to the post-structuralist philosophers of the '60s -- and may well be more relevant to our time than ever.
In this group we look at a significant cross-section of Bataille's texts. Our aim is to understand his thought on its own terms as well as place him in the context of his predecessors and the French thinkers who followed his lead. In view of Bataille's early relationship with Surrealism, the referenced artworks will spotlight this movement.
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GROUP RULES
- Please spend 1-2 hours per week reading and preparing for the discussion.
- Keep your comments concise and relevant to the text.
- Please limit each comment to a maximum of 2-3 minutes. You're welcome to speak as many times as you wish.
- Virtual meeting courtesy: let's not interrupt each other and keep mics muted when not speaking.
- We'll focus the discussion with key passages and discussion questions. Be sure to bring your favorite passages, questions, comments, criticisms, etc.
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Join the Facebook group for more resources and discussion:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/755460079505498
If you have attended previous meetings, please fill out a brief survey at this link: https://forms.gle/tEMJ4tw2yVgnTsQD6
All readings can be found in this Google folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VPRdvZYmUKBY3cSxD8xC8sTYtSEKBXDs
Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81251109319?pwd=R3hVQ2RqcVBvaHJwYnoxMFJ5OXJldz09
Art: À mon seul désir (1979) by Gerard Fromanger2 attendees
•OnlineHeidegger & the Measure of Truth: Themes From His Early Philosophy
OnlineWelcome everyone to the next meetup series that Jen and Philip are presenting! This time around we are reading the book: Heidegger and the Measure of Truth: Themes From His Early Philosophy by Denis McManus.
Click here for the publishers' book description. Due to limited characters, I could not include here. Thank you for your understanding.
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CHAPTERS
Click here for a list of chapters.
The plan is to cover 1 chapter per meeting.
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MEETING DETAILS (2-WEEK ROTATION)
· Starting April 21
· Meetings run every 2 weeks (every other Sunday)
· Accelerated live read format, with live readings to be done on chosen paragraphs
· Read roughly 30-40 pages beforehand
· Pick a few paragraphs to discuss
· 1pm reserved for book topic
· 3pm reserved for free for all
All are welcome. However if you want to speak in the meetup, please be sure to do the assigned reading.
NOTE: We'll be joined by numerous other participants from the Toronto Philosophy Meetup at these meetings –
https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/events/calendar/
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PURPOSE OF COVERING THIS BOOK
Please note that in this meetup we will be doing philosophy, not history of ideas. We will be trying to find flaws in Heidegger's reasoning and in his mode of presenting his ideas. We will also be trying to improve the ideas in question and perhaps proposing better alternatives. Historians of ideas are people who try to understand ideas from the past. Of course philosophers must try to do this too, but they then go on to critically assess the ideas in question. In this meetup, we will be philosophers and not historians of ideas!
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CLARIFICATION OF THIS MEETUP'S ATTITUDE TO HEIDEGGER'S RACISM
Philip writes: I feel that it is important to be clear up front about how the topic of Heidegger's racist politics will be dealt with in this meetup. Throughout his life (starting as a very young man) Heidegger was drawn to far right wing, nationalist, racist views which any reasonable person should find loathsome. Yet when it comes to thinking about the way the world is and what it means to be a human in that world, Heidegger is arguably the most important philosopher of the twentieth century. Some meetups rule out any discussion of Heidegger's politics, even though this is a core aspect of Heidegger's way of thinking. This meetup will not do that. In this meetup, we will make room for discussion of how Heidegger's politics may relate to his ideas on ontology and being human. Also, it will be possible in this meetup to consider whether Heidegger's ideas on ontology and being human shaped his politics. These questions will certainly not be the main focus of the meetup (far from it). But these questions will not be ignored either.
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OTHER PHILOSOPHERS IN THIS BOOK
Please note that Denis McManus's book refers to many other philosophers, both living and dead. No one should feel overwhelmed by the task of learning about these other philosophers since Philip will fill in the relevant background information on these philosophers as they come up.
The one possible exception is Kant. The Denis McManus book does mention Kant from time to time. Although Kant is the philosopher that Philip knows best, Kant's philosophy is so vast and intricate that it just does not lend itself to easy summarization. Philip will do his best to explicate Kant when Kant's name comes up – but it is a Herculean task!
There is an awful lot of nonsense written about Kant which is widely circulated (and widely believed) in the English speaking world. Anyone who wants to explore in any depth the parts of the McManus book which deal with Kant should consider reading one of the following excellent books about Kant:
- Kant's Transcendental Idealism: An Interpretation and Defense (second edition, 2004) by Henry E. Allison. This book gives a great overview of many of the various ways of interpreting Kant. It also gives an interpretation which Philip thinks is (in broad outline) basically on the right track. However, even if you do not accept Allison's interpretation, this book is invaluable in helping the reader overcome the interpretations.
- Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: An Introduction and Interpretation
by James O'Shea.
2 attendees
•OnlineLive-Reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics – American Style
OnlineLet's try something new. For the next dozen weeks or so, starting 4/17/2022, we are going to live-read and discuss Aristotle's ~Nicomachean Ethics~. What is new and different about this project is that the translation, by Adam Beresford (2020), happens to be rendered in standard 'Murican English.
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From the translator's "Note" on the text:
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"This translation is conservative in interpretation and traditional in aim. It aims to translate the text as accurately as possible.
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"I translated every page from scratch, from a clean Greek text, rather than revising an existing translation. ... I wanted to avoid the scholars’ dialect that is traditionally used for translating Aristotle.
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"I reject the approach of Arthur Adkins, Elizabeth Anscombe, and others who followed Nietzsche in supposing that the main elements of modern thinking about right and wrong were unknown to the Greeks, or known to them only in some radically different form. My view of humanity and of our shared moral instincts is shaped by a newer paradigm. This is a post-Darwinian translation. (It is also more in line with the older, both Aristotelian and Christian view of human character.)
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"Having said that, I have no interest at all in modernizing Aristotle’s ideas. All the attitudes of this treatise remain fully Greek, very patriarchal, somewhat aristocratic, and firmly embedded in the fourth century BC. My choice of dialect (standard English) has no bearing on that whatsoever. (It is perfectly possible to express distinctively Greek and ancient attitudes in standard English.) ... I have also not simplified the text in any way. I have translated every iota, particle, preposition, noun, verb, adjective, phrase, clause, and sentence of the original. Every premise and every argument therefore remains – unfortunately – exactly as complex and annoyingly difficult as in any other version in whatever dialect.
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"Some scholars and students unwarily assume that the traditional dialect has a special connection with Greek and that using it brings readers closer to the original text; and that it makes the translation more accurate. In reality, it has no special tie to the Greek language, either in its main philosophical glossary or in its dozens of minor (and pointless) deviations from normal English. And in my view it certainly makes any translation much less accurate.
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"I will occasionally refer to the scholars’ dialect (‘Gringlish’) and its traditional glossary in the Notes."
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Here is our plan:
1. Read Intro excerpts or a summary to gain the big picture.
2. Read a segment of the translated text.
3. Discuss it analytically and interpretively.
4. Repeat again at #2 for several more times.
5. Discuss the segments evaluatively.
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Zoom is the project's current meeting platform, but that can change. The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.2 attendees
Past events
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