Denver Philosophy Book Club

Richard will host our discussion of the On Human Nature by EO Wilson. Richard suggested this book.

No one who cares about the human future can afford to ignore Edward O. Wilson's book. On Human Nature begins a new phase in the most important intellectual controversy of this generation: Is human behavior controlled by the species' biological heritage? Does this heritage limit human destiny?

With characteristic pungency and simplicity of style, the author of Sociobiology challenges old prejudices and current misconceptions about the nature-nurture debate. He shows how...evolution has left its traces on the most distinctively human activities, how patterns of generosity, self-sacrifice, and worship, as well as sexuality and aggression, reveal their deep roots in the life histories of primate bands that hunted big game in the last Ice Age. His goal is nothing less than the completion of the Darwinian revolution by bringing biological thought into the center of the social sciences and the humanities.

Wilson presents a philosophy that cuts across the usual categories of conservative, liberal, or radical thought. In systematically applying the modern theory of natural selection to human society, he arrives at conclusions far removed from the social Darwinist legacy of the last century. Sociobiological theory, he shows, is compatible with a broadly humane and egalitarian outlook. Human diversity is to be treasured, not merely tolerated, he argues. Discrimination against ethnic groups, homosexuals, and women is based on a complete misunderstanding of biological fact.

But biological facts can never take the place of ethical choices. Once we understand our human nature, we must choose how "human" in the fullest, biological sense, we wish to remain. We cannot make this choice with the aid of external guides or absolute ethical principles because our very concept of right and wrong is wholly rooted in our own biological past. This paradox is fundamental to the evolution of consciousness in any species; there is no formula for escaping it. To understand its essence is to grasp the full predicament of the human condition.

If you would like to host one of our events and you have a book in mind, please let me, Karl Kiefer, or Mark Hopkins know, and we will create a Meetup event for your book, assuming your suggested title qualifies as a book on philosophy in our view, and assuming that we deem you to be qualified to host. Our criteria are somewhat vague, but let's just say that we are not interested in books on the supernatural. We are interested in books that you might find in a syllabus for a college philosophy course. We are also focused on finding hosts who have demonstrated ability to direct philosophical conversation. You can always email me at camkruger@gmail.com if you have questions and/or suggestions.

As always, it's essential that everyone who comes to the meeting reads the book in its entirety and brings something for the potluck.

Happy reading!

Sally will host our discussion of the Hegel, A Very Short Introduction by Peter Singer. Sally suggested this book.

Hegel is regarded as one of the most influential figures on modern political and intellectual development. After painting Hegel's life and times in broad strokes, Peter Singer goes on to tackle some of the more challenging aspects of Hegel's philosophy. Offering a broad discussion of Hegel's ideas and an account of his major works, Singer explains what have often been considered abstruse and obscure ideas in a clear and inviting manner.

About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

If you would like to host one of our events and you have a book in mind, please let me, Karl Kiefer, or Mark Hopkins know, and we will create a Meetup event for your book, assuming your suggested title qualifies as a book on philosophy in our view, and assuming that we deem you to be qualified to host. Our criteria are somewhat vague, but let's just say that we are not interested in books on the supernatural. We are interested in books that you might find in a syllabus for a college philosophy course. We are also focused on finding hosts who have demonstrated ability to direct philosophical conversation. You can always email me at camkruger@gmail.com if you have questions and/or suggestions.

As always, it's essential that everyone who comes to the meeting reads the book in its entirety and brings something for the potluck.

Happy reading!

Richard will host our discussion of The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking by Leor Zmigrod. Richard suggested this book.

Named a best book of the year by The Guardian and The Telegraph

Why do some people become radicalized?
How do ideologies shape the human brain?
And how can we unchain our minds from toxic dogmas?

In The Ideological Brain, Leor Zmigrod reveals the deep connections between political beliefs and the biology of the brain. Drawing on her cutting-edge research, she exposes the complex interplay between cognition and environment that predisposes some individuals to inflexible ways of thinking. The human brain faces a set of dilemmas every day: how to achieve coherence from fragmented sensory inpsuts and how to attain connection with other people in an increasingly atomized and isolating world. Ideologies offer a shortcut, providing easy answers, scripts to follow, and a sense of shared identity. But ideologies also come at a cost: demanding conformity and suppressing individuality through rigid rules, repetitive rituals, and intolerance. Once ideologies grip our minds, they fundamentally transform the way we think, act, and interact with others, making us less sensitive and adaptable.

Guiding readers through her innovative experiments, Zmigrod uncovers the hidden mechanisms driving our beliefs and behaviors and argues that our politics are not superficial but rather woven into the fabric of our minds. Her results show that ideologues across the political spectrum struggle to change their thought patterns when faced with new information. While some individuals are more susceptible to dogmatic thinking than others, all of us can strive to be more flexible, and Zmigrod ultimately explains how we can keep our minds open in the face of extreme ideologies. Eye-opening, provocative, and unforgettable, The Ideological Brain is a groundbreaking book that challenges us to resist black-and-white thinking and reassess our closest convictions.

If you would like to host one of our events and you have a book in mind, please let me, Karl Kiefer, or Mark Hopkins know, and we will create a Meetup event for your book, assuming your suggested title qualifies as a book on philosophy in our view, and assuming that we deem you to be qualified to host. Our criteria are somewhat vague, but let's just say that we are not interested in books on the supernatural. We are interested in books that you might find in a syllabus for a college philosophy course. We are also focused on finding hosts who have demonstrated ability to direct philosophical conversation. You can always email me at camkruger@gmail.com if you have questions and/or suggestions.

As always, it's essential that everyone who comes to the meeting reads the book in its entirety and brings something for the potluck.

Happy reading!

Karl will host our discussion of the short book, Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis by John Vervaeke, Christopher Mastropietro, and Filip Miscevic; and a paper, "Naturalizing relevance realization: why agency and cognition are fundamentally not computational" by Johannes Jaeger, Anna Riedl, Alex Djedovic, John Vervaeke, and Denis Walsh. Karl suggested both.

Karl writes:

"The problem of meaning often surfaces in or lurks below many issues and problems addressed by philosophy, linguistics, semiotics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence and cognitive science in general. As many of you know, I have frequently attempted to relate issues dealing with meaning during the courses of our Meetup discussions. My concerns have mainly dealt with philosophical problems in semantics, mental representation, and phenomenal intentionality of meanings. But perhaps a more common meaning of meaning includes the distantly related notions of purpose or relevance, as in “the meaning of my life.” If you are interested in thinking and philosophizing about the meaning of not just my life, but yours, too, then I propose the two readings nominated above.

"Cognitive Scientist John Vervaeke has been working on and arguing for his Relevance Realization theory for nearly 3 decades. With Zombies (2017), Vervaeke, et. al. provide a compelling case for the increasingly popular, cultural phenomenon of Zombies in Western film and other media as symbolic, and, perhaps, symptomatic, of the contemporary crisis of meaning. The crisis of meaning is then related to his Relevance Realization theory. This short book is intended for lay audiences.

"In his more recent 2024 paper "Naturalizing Relevance Realization," published by Frontiers in Psychology, Vervaeke, et. al., places Relevance Realization within the Embodied Cognition paradigm in the cognitive sciences, focusing on its incompatibility with the computational theory of mind, and algorithmic models of the mind, in general, but still grounded in and consistent with some Predictive Processing accounts of perception, cognition, and action. Some familiarity with these philosophical and cognitive science camps will be helpful for the readers’ understanding of this paper."

ZOMBIES IN WESTERN CULTURE – A Twenty-First Century Crisis
By John Vervaeke, Christopher Mastropietro, & Filip Miscevic
And Naturalizing Relevance Realization: why agency and cognition are fundamentally not computational
By Johannes Jaeger, Anna Riedl, Alex Djedovic, John Vervaeke, & Denis Walsh
LINKS: ZOMBIES (free pdf version), NATURALIZING RELEVANCE REALIZATION
Note: Zombies is a short book, <100 text pages, also available at Amazon, et. al. Naturalizing Relevance Realization is a 20-page paper, available via Google Scholar.

If you would like to host one of our events and you have a book in mind, please let me, Karl Kiefer, or Mark Hopkins know, and we will create a Meetup event for your book, assuming your suggested title qualifies as a book on philosophy in our view, and assuming that we deem you to be qualified to host. Our criteria are somewhat vague, but let's just say that we are not interested in books on the supernatural. We are interested in books that you might find in a syllabus for a college philosophy course. We are also focused on finding hosts who have demonstrated ability to direct philosophical conversation. You can always email me at camkruger@gmail.com if you have questions and/or suggestions.

As always, it's essential that everyone who comes to the meeting reads the book in its entirety and brings something for the potluck.

Happy reading!