About us
This group is for anyone interested in exploring literature, philosophy, and cinema through occasional film viewings and monthly reading discussions, hosted and curated by a local Philosophy professor, centered around classic and contemporary works of (primarily) Western Philosophy, Fiction, and Cinema. We will not only look at the traditional cast of existential characters (Sartre, de Beauvoir, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Camus, Kafka), but will also be very open to other work within the European philosophical tradition that is derivative of, influential to, or critical towards "existential" philosophy. Special consideration will also be given to works within the "phenomenological" tradition. Join us in this exciting intellectual endeavor! Get ready for fun, riveting, and thoughtful discussions about society, values, faith, spirituality, truth, experience, subjectivity, and existence (of course).
Upcoming events
4
Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Boheme, 307 Fairview St, Houston, TX, USFor August's meeting, we will continue our four-month exploration of Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
We will be meeting at bar Boheme (wine bar located in the heart of Montrose). We'll be seated inside, in the small room next to the main bar, near the front entrance (on the right when you walk in). Our discussion will focus on the Second Part of Zarathustra, sections 1-5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18-20, and 22, but any section from parts one or two will be fair game for our conversation.
Below is a link to the reading followed by a brief description of the work (Nietzsche's text begins on pg. 5 of the PDF, as the file begins with editor's notes by Walter Kaufmann, who is also the translator):
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR DOWNLOAD THE READING
Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his most famous and influential work. It describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor.
Nietzsche's utterance 'God is dead', his insistence that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms, and his doctrine of the Superman and the will to power were all later seized upon and unrecognizably twisted by, among others, Nazi intellectuals.
With blazing intensity and poetic brilliance, Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in religious pieties or meek submission to authority, but in an all-powerful life force: passionate, chaotic and free."
9 attendees
Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Boheme, 307 Fairview St, Houston, TX, USFor September, we will continue our four-month exploration of Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
We will be meeting at bar Boheme (wine bar located in the heart of Montrose). We'll be seated inside, in the small room next to the main bar, near the front entrance (on the right when you walk in). Our discussion will focus on the Third Part of Zarathustra, sections 1, 2, 6, 7, 9-13, 15, and 16, but any section from parts one through three will be fair game for our conversation.
Below is a link to the reading followed by a brief description of the work (Nietzsche's text begins on pg. 5 of the PDF, as the file begins with editor's notes by Walter Kaufmann, who is also the translator):
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR DOWNLOAD THE READING
"Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his most famous and influential work. It describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor.
Nietzsche's utterance 'God is dead', his insistence that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms, and his doctrine of the Superman and the will to power were all later seized upon and unrecognizably twisted by, among others, Nazi intellectuals.
With blazing intensity and poetic brilliance, Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in religious pieties or meek submission to authority, but in an all-powerful life force: passionate, chaotic and free."
2 attendees
Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Boheme, 307 Fairview St, Houston, TX, USFor October, we will conclude our four-month exploration of Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
We will be meeting at bar Boheme (wine bar located in the heart of Montrose). We'll be seated inside, in the small room next to the main bar, near the front entrance (on the right when you walk in). Our discussion will focus on the Fourth and Last Part of Zarathustra, but any section from parts one through three will be fair game for our conversation.
Below is a link to the reading followed by a brief description of the work (Nietzsche's text begins on pg. 7 of the PDF, as the file begins with editor's notes by Walter Kaufmann, who is also the translator):
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR DOWNLOAD THE READING
"Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his most famous and influential work. It describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor.
Nietzsche's utterance 'God is dead', his insistence that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms, and his doctrine of the Superman and the will to power were all later seized upon and unrecognizably twisted by, among others, Nazi intellectuals.
With blazing intensity and poetic brilliance, Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in religious pieties or meek submission to authority, but in an all-powerful life force: passionate, chaotic and free."
2 attendees
Heidegger "The Question Concerning Technology"
Boheme, 307 Fairview St, Houston, TX, USFor November, we will discuss Heidegger's seminal essay "The Question Concerning Technology" at bar Boheme (wine bar located in the heart of Montrose). We'll be seated inside, in the small room next to the main bar, near the front entrance (on the right when you walk in).
Below is a link to the reading, followed by a description of the work:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR DOWNLOAD THE READING
"Martin Heidegger's essay "The Question Concerning Technology" argues that the essence of technology is not technological itself, but a way of revealing the world, which he calls "enframing" (Gestell). This worldview reduces everything, including nature, to a "standing-reserve" (Bestand) of resources to be ordered and exploited, a process he terms "challenging-forth" (Herausfordern). The danger, for Heidegger, isn't technology itself, but that this enframing mindset blinds us to other ways of understanding, trapping us in a purely instrumental view of the world and ourselves, and preventing us from experiencing a more authentic truth.
The question concerning technology is a question raised on all sides and always with a sense of urgency. On it hinges nothing less than the survival of the human species and the planet earth. Yet the question is usually posed within a purely technical framework as one to be debated solely by technicians. Technological problems, we say, require technological solutions which no layman can fashion or fathom. Just as there are 'technical philosophical' questions which none but philosophers can answer, so there are 'technical technological' problems that the philosopher had best let alone. Heidegger suggests that purely technical modes of discussion and thought do not suit it. For the essence of technology is ultimately a way of revealing the totality of beings. As a way of revealing, it is pervasive and fundamental in our time, so much so that we cannot "opt for" technology or "opt out" of it. The advent of technology is something destined or sent our way long before the eighteenth century. One of Heidegger's most daring theses is that the essence of technology is prior to, and by no means a consequence of, the Scientific Revolution."
2 attendees
Past events
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