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.
When talking and working with people from different cultures, sometimes meanings and intentions can get lost in translation. Erin Meyer is an expert on how we communicate and collaborate differently around the world. She and Adam Grant discuss how cultural norms affect honesty and assertiveness, unpack the science behind some common American stereotypes, and identify strategies for understanding and bridging cultural divides.
About The Culture Map by Erin Meyer:
When it comes to communication styles, Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans and Asians are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians think the best boss is just one of the crowd. It's no surprise that when they try and talk to each other, chaos breaks out.
In The Culture Map, INSEAD professor Erin Meyer is your guide through this subtle, sometimes treacherous terrain in which people from starkly different backgrounds are expected to work harmoniously together. She provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business, and combines a smart analytical framework with practical, actionable advice.
Includes engaging, real-life stories from around the world that impart important lessons about global teamwork and international collaboration:
- Takaki explains to his multinational colleagues the importance of “reading the air,” or picking up on the unspoken subtext of a conversation, in Japanese communication
- Sarah sends e-mails to several Indian IT engineers only to understand later that she has offended and isolated their boss by not going through him
- Sabine doesn’t realize her job is in jeopardy after her performance review, as her American boss couches the message in a positivity rarely used in France.
- Ulrich’s Russian staff perceive him as weak and incompetent as he employs the egalitarian leadership techniques so popular in his native Denmark.
- Bo Chen – who has something urgent to say – waits patiently to be called on while his American colleagues jump in one after the other. His opportunity never comes...
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Join the Toronto Philosophy Meetup to discuss the episode "Decoding Cross-Cultural Communication with Erin Meyer" from the ReThinking podcast at this meetup. Please listen to the episode in advance (47 minutes) and bring your thoughts, reactions, and queries to share with us at the conversation.
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/307616859/
Listen here: Spotify | Apple | Adam Grant's website
Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist and bestselling author who explores the science of motivation, generosity, rethinking, and potential. Adam has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for 7 straight years. As an organizational psychologist, he is a leading expert on how we can find motivation and meaning, rethink assumptions, and live more generous and creative lives. He is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 6 books that have sold millions of copies and been translated into 45 languages: Hidden Potential, Think Again, Give and Take, Originals, Option B, and Power Moves. Adam hosts the podcasts Re:Thinking and WorkLife, which have been downloaded over 90 million times. He is a former magician and Junior Olympic springboard diver.
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Future topics for this series:
If you'd like to suggest a podcast episode for us to discuss at a future event, please send me a message or leave a comment below.
This link here is my own (regularly updated) list of listening recommendations and potential fodder for future discussions (by default it's sorted from oldest to newest but you can change it with the "sort by" button.)
Podcasts we've previously discussed:
- Why Cynicism Is Bad For You (and The Surprising Science of Human Goodness) from The Gray Area
- The Price of Neutrality: Why “Staying Out of It” Backfires in Moral Disagreement from the Stanford Psychology Podcast
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Designing The Perfect Society – 1on1 philosophical & political WORKSHOP (COH)Link visible for attendees
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
To be the speaking participant you must RSVP via Calendly.
The link to my Calendly calendar is available in my Egora profile:
Egora-ILP.org/philosopher/Cezary_JurewiczAll others are welcome to join to listen, use the chat, use the breakout rooms, and comment at the end.
About Citizen Office Hours:
If the Citizen is to be the highest authority in democracy, should we not have office hours to make ourselves available and accountable to our fellow citizens? The answer is YES – yes, we should.Also, in a democracy, there is no power without responsibility. If the citizens do not accept the responsibility of being citizens, then we do not really have any power – the power we might think we have is illusory. Therefore, all responsible citizens should make themselves available at their own "Citizen Office Hours".
This event is a publication of my Citizen Office Hours. I am making myself available to discuss any of my or your ideas published in Egora. Please be already registered for Egora before our meeting and at least somewhat familiar with my Ideological Profile so we can have a proper and thorough discussion. If you share your Ideological Profile in the comments in advance, i will take some time to study it before our meeting (ideally, the audience will do so too).
- James Joyce’s “The Boarding House” & “A Little Cloud” (Short Stories Discussion)Link visible for attendees
James Joyce’s Dubliners, first published in 1914, stands as one of the greatest and most influential short story collections in the English language. Offering an unflinching yet deeply evocative portrait of “dear dirty Dublin” at the turn of the twentieth century, it serves as both a meditation on a city in stagnation and a moral history of a people whose “golden age” has passed. Joyce’s characters — at once profoundly Irish and universally resonant — linger in the reader’s mind, their inner lives rendered with striking psychological depth. Through prose that is at once mesmerizing and meticulously crafted, Joyce captures the rhythms of Dublin speech and the quiet struggles of its citizens with extraordinary realism. This collection of fifteen stories represents Joyce at his most accessible and, arguably, his most profound. (Penguin)
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This is a series of occasional meetups (hosted by the Toronto Philosophy Meetup) to discuss short stories by various authors. We started in 2023 and generally meet every other Sunday evening. Authors we have read include Haruki Murakami, Anton Chekhov, Alice Munro, James Baldwin, Feng Menglong, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
This time we will continue our discussion of James Joyce's Dubliners with the 7th and 8th stories in the collection. In "The Boarding House", a calculating mother orchestrates a marriage between her daughter and a reluctant suitor, and in "A Little Cloud", a timid man, envious of an old friend's success, faces the reality of his own life and choices.
Please read the stories in advance (~21 pages in total) and bring your thoughts, reactions, queries, and favourite passages to share with us at the discussion. A pdf of the text will be posted on the main event page.
Stories by Joyce we've previously discussed in this group:
Note: 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/307295904/
- FTI: How can we be healthier, anywhere we live?Link visible for attendees
# FTI: ⅓ of americans are overweight, ⅓ are obese. How can we be healthier, anywhere we live?
Most americans are overweight. ⅓ are actually obese. How can we enjoy our food, but also live healthier? I would say part of it is about being in a good mental state, the other is about remembering that the body only recognizes its full 30 mins after its full. This means when we eat, we should stop eating after a small quantity of food and wait 30 minutes. If we’re full, wait till the next meal. If not eat a bit more.
Format: Lecture and discussion
Note: social time for our community 15 minutes before the presentation.
To get familiar with our organization, feel free to learn more here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E16-qv-OZZoKh4HSyHCtQ_eZA-ko_n3Kd3SwxfLpk84/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.qsvmnmkadvaqTo get familiar with our past events, feel free to check out our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmixGB9GdrptyEWovEj80zgAfter registering via zoom, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We publish our event recordings on our Youtube channel to offer our help to anyone who would like to but can’t attend the meeting, so we need to give this clause. If you don’t want to be recorded, just remain on mute and keep your video off.
Here’s our legal notice: For valuable consideration received, by joining this event I hereby grant Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns, the irrevocable and unrestricted right to use and publish any and all Zoom recordings for trade, advertising and any other commercial purpose, and to alter the same without any restriction. I hereby release Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns from all claims and liability related to said video recordings.
