NYC Philosophy and Psychology Readers Community

Join us for weekly discussions of Jacques Derrida's 1967 deconstruction of the speech/writing binary in western philosophy, Of Grammatology.

Required reading for this meeting: Introduction by Judith Butler and Translator's Preface by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Note:
This group is currently underway. I have closed it for RSVP for now. I may open it in the future if we need more attendees. I am managing the RSVP's off meetup for this event so the attendees here are not an accurate reflection of what we have, we currently have about 15 people, if there are dropouts or changes I can reopen for new people.

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Hi Folks,

Please join us for a slow and close reading of Arthur Schopenhauer’s magnum opus, The World as Will and Representation.

Schopenhauer is incredibly important as:

• One of the first major Western philosophers to deeply integrate Eastern ideas (after studying the Upanishads and Buddhist thought)
• One of the earliest Western philosophers to build a comprehensive atheistic worldview
• A major critic of Kantian philosophy, reshaping Kant’s “thing-in-itself” into his own concept of the Will
• An outspoken opponent of Hegel, his contemporary and rival professor at the University of Berlin
• The primary philosophical influence on Nietzsche, who regarded Schopenhauer as his great educator

Schopenhauer introduces the Will as the thing-in-itself — the inner reality underlying all appearances. His metaphysics explores how human desire drives suffering, and how we can transcend it through compassion, selflessness, and creative expression, especially through art.

### 📖 Apply to Join

This text is challenging but rewarding. To get the most out of it, you’ll need:

• Some background in Kantian philosophy (especially the principle of sufficient reason, the phenomenal / noumenal divide and Kant's "architectonic"); familiarity with Eastern thought is a plus
• The ability to closely read and interpret complex philosophical arguments
• The communication and social skills to express ideas clearly in discussion

You can apply to join by first RSVP'ing to this event, then filling out the Google Form survey linked on this event's location page — I’ll review responses personally.

### 📚 Reading & Participation

As we transition away from existentialism and back into philosophy of science, I wanted to enjoy a novel by Vladimir Nobokov. In Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, Richard Rorty uses Nobokov as an example of an author interested purely in the art of novel writing, as in contrast to George Orwell, which Rorty describes as the kind of writer who is interested in writing to make an impact on the society they find themselves in at the time. Rorty got me curious about Nabokov's writing and I picked this book for its whimsical and bizarre nature. Join me as we explore this book before diving back into more technical topics in the weeks to come.