Sobre nosotros
Welcome to The Free Thinker Institute
[www.FreeThinkerInstitute.org](freethinkerinstitute.org)
Are you interested in a community that values critical thinking, transparency, and open-mindedness? The Free Thinker Institute (FTI) is a group of like-minded individuals who prioritize the following intentions:
- Devotion to using reason and intuition to be the best version of yourself, seek truth, and be fair
- Transparency & Open-Mindedness: Being transparent about who you are and what you believe to the extent that you trust someone, and having an open mind towards new ideas that help you achieve the first intention.
- Commitment to Critical Thinking, so we can better discern fact from fiction and wisdom from folly
- Attempt to Maximize Happiness While Minimizing Harm and empower others who do the same
- Eagerness to Give and Receive Love - Platonic as well as romantic
At FTI, members support each other, stay in touch, and enjoy learning from each other, while also valuing attributes such as sincerity, integrity, wisdom, and fairness. The FTI also values and respects diversity, making it a welcoming space for all opinions and backgrounds. If you're interested in being a part of a positive, growth-focused community, then consider joining the FTI.
In addition to our in-person meetings, you are also invited to join the FTI text chat discussions on Discord (https://discord.gg/fksQBjS).
If you want to speak or nominate a speaker, or have a topic you'd like us to discuss, email Garrett@FreeThinkerInstitute.com.
We'd love to see you in discord and at the next meetup - Join today!
Eventos próximos
288

Friendship and Love — Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
·En líneaEn líneaApril 5 - We will read chapter 1 of Book IX. Previous chapters were about (1) beliefs about friendship, (2) object of love, (3) three kinds of friendship, (4) the best kind, (5) state vs. activity of friendship, (6) friending varieties, (7) friendships of unequals, (8) loving vs. being loved, (9) friendships in social groups, (10) forms of government, (11) friendships and right & wrong in these forms, (12) friendship in families, and (13–14) complaints between friends. This next will be about friends with dissimilar aims/motives.
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Our main translation from here on will be by Adam Beresford (Penguin Classics, 2020), but we will occasionally dip into other older English translations to get more insights and commentaries.
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We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, book VIII–IX, which is about friendship, social relations, and love.
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The prerequisite to this book is our answering for ourselves these questions from the prior books, to which we will briefly review:
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1. What is a virtue of character {ēthikē aretē}?
2. How does one come to acquire any of it? (E.g. pride, ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, fairness, …)
3. From a first-person perspective in being virtuous, how does one feel and what does one see (differently, discursively) in a given situation of everyday living?
4. How does one formulate right desires?
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.3 asistentes
Short Meditation then Chat
·En líneaEn líneaWe do a short meditation via Buddhist Monk Professor B Alan Wallace or Sam Harris podcast, then casually discuss our experience (optional)
Excellent free resources
https://soundcloud.com/emotionalbalance/sets/alan-wallace-guided-practices
https://dynamic.wakingup.com/shareOpenAccess/SC3D92926?share_id=440D041D
https://beherenownetwork.com/joseph-goldstein-insight-hour-ep-216-satipatthana-sutta-series-pt-13-mindfulness-of-mind/
excellent resources here also - with weekly group lessons
https://member.coreyjackson.com.au/share/ZYZLarLoPH8Fu3Ak?utm_source=manual1 asistente
ORLANDO STOICS - VARIOUS TOPICS
·En líneaEn líneaPLEASE JOIN ORLANDO STOICS VIA LINK BELOW FOR FULL WEEKLY EVENT SCHEDULE
https://www.meetup.com/orlando-stoics/
Welcome to Orlando Stoics! We are a very active group, with over 3,800 members and five meetings a week. Some meetings are held online, while others are in-person. All classes are free.
What is Stoicism? It's an ancient Greek school of philosophy founded in Athens about 300 BC. The first teacher was Zeno of Citium. The school taught that virtue (the highest good) is based on knowledge, and that wise people live in harmony with nature. The school also taught tolerance and self-control. Famous Stoics were Seneca the Younger, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. We also study modern Stoics.
Why Stoicism? In our world of instant gratification, constant stimulation, and endless distractions, Stoicism offers a novel perspective on life. Interested in developing an unconquerable mind? Stoicism has the answers. We also link ideas to Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Existentialism, Minimalism, and other "lived philosophy" systems. We love in-depth discussions!
If you join our group, feel free to adjust the email and notification settings to suit your preferences. Since we have new meetings every week, those emails might be too much for your inbox. Feel free to turn them off (go to our meetup page, click "You're a Member", and then click group notifications). You can still check our meetup page for upcoming events whenever you want.
The goals of our group:
1. We read the ancient books, plus the modern books on Stoicism.
2. We discuss Stoicism in the media, pop culture, and arts & literature.
3. We compare recurring themes in Stoicism to history, religion, and psychology.There have always been people attracted to Stoicism. It was a significant influence on Shakespeare, JD Salinger, Tom Wolfe, and Nelson Mandela. It has also attracted political and military leaders, such as Frederick the Great, President Bill Clinton, and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who stated that he has read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations over 100 times.
We hope you will join us. The group is open to the public and has no subscription fee. Stoicism can help you cope with life's stresses, while retaining your ethics & character.
We hope to see you soon!
5 asistentes
Aristotle’s Dialectic — Topics I — Live-Reading
·En líneaEn líneaApril 7 - We are reading chapter 10 of Topics, Book I, at Bekker lines 104a3–104a37. The previous chapter discusses the ten categories of predications that any predicate may be said of a subject, and into which any predicable may be sorted. In chapter 10, we will learn what dialectical premises are.
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We are using the translation by Robin Smith: Topics Books I & VIII (Oxford University Press, 1997). We'll read page 9 and a bit of 10.
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Smith in his helpful "Introduction" forewarns us that because we don't know what we are ignorant of, we barbarians don't know yet what dialectic is or why we need it. So there will be learning pain involved as we bootstrap ourselves toward knowing and practicing what we will learn. The payoff will be tremendous and will be commensurate with personal effort.
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A new reading adventure beckons you and your willpower. Join us.
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Organon means "instrument," as in, instrument for thought and speech. The term was given by ancient commentators to a group of Aristotle's treatises comprising his logical works.Organon
|-- Categories ---- 2023.02.28
|-- On Interpretation ---- 2023.12.12
|-- Topics ---- 2025.10.21
|-- Sophistical Refutations
|-- Rhetoric*
|-- Prior Analytics
|-- Posterior Analytics(* Robin Smith, author of SEP's 2022 entry "Aristotle's Logic," argues that Rhetoric should be part of the Organon.)
Whenever we do any human thing, we can either do it well or do it poorly. With instruments, we can do things either better, faster, and more; or worse, slower, and less. That is, with instruments they either augment or diminish our doings.
Do thinking and speaking (and writing and listening) require instruments? Yes. We do need physical instruments like microphones, megaphones, pens, papers, computers. But we also need mental instruments: grammar, vocabulary words, evidence-gathering techniques, big-picture integration methods, persuasion strategies. Thinking while sitting meditatively all day in a lotus position doesn't require much instrumentation of any kind, but thinking and speaking well in the sense of project planning, problem-solving, negotiating, arguing, deliberating--that is, the active doings in the world (whether romantic, social, commercial, or political)--do require well-honed mental instruments. That's the Organon in a nutshell.
Are you an up-and-coming human being, a doer, go-getter, achiever, or at least you're choosing to become one? You need to wield the Organon.
Join us.
3 asistentes
Eventos pasados
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