The Toronto Philosophy Meetup

The Metaphysics of Morals is divided into two halves: the first concerns rights and the second regards virtues. This was one of the earliest works of practical philosophy that Kant envisioned; however, he put it off to write foundational works to support it, such as Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals and even the Critique of Practical Reason. If you find it more helpful to start ethics discussions closer to their practice, the Metaphysics of Morals may be a more useful starting point than the meta-ethical works we have covered up to now.

We'll be covering Preface and Introduction [to Doctrine of Virtue] (509-540; 31 pages) at this meetup.

Note: Meetings focus on developing a common language and friendship through studying Kant. The host will provide an interpretation of Kant; other interpretations will not be discussed until later in the meeting. Additional interpretations, topics, and questions can be addressed through the Jitsi chat feature.

No prior experience with Kant is necessary.

Reading Schedule (pages are from Cambridge's Practical Philosophy collection):

THE DOCTRINE OF RIGHT

Week 1:
Preface, Introduction, Introduction to the Doctrine of Right (365 - 397; 32 pages)

Week 2:
Private Right, Chapter I and II (401 - 443; 42 pages)

Week 3:
Chapter III, Public Right Section I (443 - 481; 38 pages)

Week 4:
Public Right Section II, III, and Appendix (482 - 506; 24 pages)

THE DOCTRINE OF VIRTUE

Week 5:
Preface and Introduction (509-540; 31 pages)

Week 6:
Part 1 Introduction and Book 1 on Perfect Duties (543-564; 21 pages)

Week 7:
Book 2 on Imperfect Duties (565-588; 23 pages)

Week 8:
Method of Ethics (591-603; 12 pages)

There are numerous editions (and free translations available online), but this collection contains all of Kant's Practical Philosophy in translation:

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Philosophy-Cambridge-Works-Immanuel/dp/0521654084/

PDF: https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/kant-practical-philosophy.pdf

During our first discussion several questions relating to mind-body dualism came up, which we had discussions on:

1. Discussion on 8/7/25-What (and where) is the mind? (We posited the mind is the largest possible markov (entropy limiting) blanket (e.g. the human, dog whatever biological entity we are discussing), although the mind involves multiple processes happening within the brain simultaneously, the brain organizes itself into a single consciousness because that is how organisms evolved to self organize and minimize wasted energy within the system (i.e. the brain and subsequently body). And the mind is not strictly within us but is instead the communication that takes place between organisms (e.g. humans with each other forming a society.)
2. Discussion on 8-14-Is there an innate potentiality within atoms to evolve into higher realms of existence (i.e. atoms that are not alive lead to living things, living things lead to mental things, so is there an innate pre-consciousness in atoms)? To start we haven't yet determined that consciousness itself is not an illusion (as it may be the case that it serves no objective purpose). Granted it exists, consciousness may exist throughout the universe in all matter and through having a brain we are able to perceive it like an antenna. Consciousness also may be a form of resonance not in any brain but between minds and non-biological things as well. Consciousness is a type of relational activity whereby one thing, such as a neuron, has to relate to another to generate it. For an analogy of the innate consciousness that could exist in an atom take the example of a human zygote which is a single cell, but contains the potentiality of a full person and their resulting consciousness. As stated above consciousness may be nothing more than a complex biological entities ability to self organize into a single control center, before this can happen matter had to self organize itself into life, which it did. Furthermore, atoms do seem to have an ability to organize themselves with protons, neutrons electrons in certain configurations etc. Along these lines it would appear that there is an innate preconsciousness (the potentiality from the ability to self organize) in atoms.
3. Discussion on 8-22 On the flip side, is there any kind of a supra consciousness (or other emergent state) created from the aggregation of individual minds? The functional purpose of an individual mind seems to be to manipulate its surrounding environment to continue its survival. When individual minds get together and get along in a society they have a tendency to become more alike. A married couples views on things and ways of thinking seems to slowly coalesce. This also is developed throughout society in common ideas and even definitions of words that define the parameters in which people think. For example in the political world standard parlance has taken seemingly infinite views and reduced them down to a couple main ones, democrat, republican or libertarian. This development of a common language and standardization of ideas puts huge swaths of society on the same page and allows them to know where they stand in regards to other swaths of society. Society endows things with an objective meaning (i.e. a bar of gold is equivalent to 5 cows for everyone). This objectivizing of the world gives the individual minds in society the consensus needed to organize one another. So the supra-consciousness created through society seems to be an organizing of the individual minds within it.
4. Discussion on 8-29-How does one engage in a mental process (i.e. how do you decide you are going to try to remember something) and do we have multiple consciousnesses (e.g. what is the entity that reminds you of that famous actors name, you were trying to remember earlier, randomly when you are eating dinner)? The mind may work by consensus where when enough of your neurons are firing along similar lines and at high enough wavelengths that pattern of thought gains attention. There also may be multiple consciousnesses (or mental states) in your mind that are performing different tasks simultaneously (e.g. you are reading trying to pay attention, but multiple images are passing through your mind trying to draw your attention). So for example you are trying to remember an actor's name and can't, then stop trying. Unbeknownst to you an area of your mind that is subconscious continues to work on the problem and when it does remember the name it will generate a high enough wavelength and get the consensus of enough other neurons so that they move the attention of the mind to that area and suddenly you become conscious of that area of the brain and remember the actor's name. Deciding to engage in a mental process may be similar where the brain needs a type of mental consensus to engage in a certain action, whether mental or physical. The so called collective consciousness may work in a similar way where enough consensus on, for example, what a symbol means causes the symbol to have that meaning. We also believed that labeling seems to be an important aspect of consciousness and in fact may be a fundamental aspect of it. The act of being conscious seems to involve almost constant labeling. Labeling both takes away from experience and adds to it. It takes away because by labeling something as, for example a parrot, you take yourself away from that actual parrot and to the theory of a parrot. This causes you to loose the uniqueness of this individual parrot. But also, labeling saves mental energy because we no longer have to individually analyze everything we see.

Based on the above, I do not believe Mind-Body dualism is correct. Looking at the evolution of matter into living things, living things into mental things, mental things into collectively organized things, I think the mind is intricately related to the body(brain) and not separate from it. Furthermore, I do not believe that mental states are of a character fundamentally different than physical ones because they grow out of the physical states and appear to be an inborn potentiality of the physical (i.e. matters ability to self organize).

In this next discussion/debate we will discuss the question of whether mind-body dualism is correct?

Overall, In this series we discuss great questions of philosophy. You could call what we are doing debate style or open forum, but participants are free to give their ideas and challenge others while discussing the topic of the week. Each week I will choose from one of hundreds of topics such as: are humans innately good or evil, what makes us human, did you exist before you were born, and does god (a supreme mind) exist. I think a Socratic method/critical analysis of questions where each assumption held on a particular topic is questioned to dig deeper is a good way to make progress.

Let us hear what you think.

(The Zoom link will be posted shortly before the event. I have installed a timer in Zoom, so a timer will start automatically when you start speaking, I am setting a 3 minute time limit on each speaker. Once a speaker talks anyone can follow up with a counter point, question, or continuing thought along the same line of thought (leave such comments to 1 minute). But do not begin a new train of thought unless you raise your hand. )

This critique group is kept private to preserve the privacy of critique submissions. Most don't RSVP on Meetup.

To join, please email Erik at tigurini@protonmail.com and include in your message: (1) A description of your current writing project(s), (2) Your goals for joining this writer's critique group, (3) And a brief history of yourself as a writer, including past projects, education, and related. Your message doesn't have to be anything fancy. We just wish to make sure that you're serious about observing and that your intentions/projects are a good fit for this critique group.

About:
As the title suggests, we critique writing that is speculative (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, surrealism, slipstream, etc.), philosophical (idea-driven, writing with a message, etc.), and experimental (unusual language, visual/musical aspects, transgressive, etc.). All writing submitted for critique should fit at least one of these categories. We are happy to include work in all formats (poetry, prose, playwriting, screenplay, libretto, graphic novel, and hybrid) and for any audiences (adults, YA, and kids).

Some Example Works:
Of course, the written works and authors that inspire us may vary, and widely. Nonetheless, here's a list of some written works and authors that have inspired us, and which we might use as an (incomplete) list of the kind of writing that could be submitted to this critique group.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Ice, Anna Kavan; Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick; The Waves, Virginia Woolf; The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin; The Street of Crocodiles, Bruno Shulz; Stories of Your Life, Ted Chiang; The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser; The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa; The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft; Don't Bite The Sun, Tanith Lee; Illuminations, Arthur Rimbaud; The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald; The Three Body Problem, Liu Cixin; Moby Dick, Herman Melville; Kindred, Octavia E Butler; The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood; The Divine Comedy, Dante; The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle; A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen; Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire; Blindsight, Peter Watts; The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Leguin; Sweat, Lynn Nottage; The Song of Maldoror, Comte de Lautremont; Solaris, Stanislaw Lem; Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy; Dune, Frank Herbert; Star Maker, Olaf Stapledon.

Critique Group Structure:

• Meets weekly Thursdays from 6:00pm-7:30pm PT / 9:00pm-10:30pm ET
• Submission length maximum: 20,000 words (many submissions are shorter).
• Back-to-back weekly submissions for novelists + long form writers are encouraged.
• Participants are expected to closely read the submission and arrive prepared to discuss it in depth for 1.5 hours.
• If, for whatever reason, a participant can't read the submission in time for our meeting and/or can't attend our meeting, that participant is urged to provide a written (or audio recorded) summary of feedback to the submitting writer through DM on our Discord.
• Active participation is required to ensure all members' best interests. A member can be removed from the group if found absent in critique sessions for more than 3 months. Should one wish to rejoin the group, please message me directly either in Discord or via email.

Community:
We're a serious yet fun group of writers with eclectic projects and tastes. We're always looking to meet new friends and grow our community, so we hope you'll consider observing a critique group - and if we're a good fit for one another, continuing to hang out with us Thursday evenings!

You can read our full syllabus under the category "Writer's Critique Groups." The rest of the writer's critique group channels are kept hidden to preserve the privacy of critique submissions, but will be opened up to you when your observation has been confirmed.

Commitments:
This critique group's structure expects a weekly attendance commitment, so it's only right for writers who are committed to writing and critiquing.