The Free Thinker Institute

PLEASE RSVP VIA ORLANDO STOICS LINK BELOW

https://www.meetup.com/orlando-stoics/

ORLANDO STOICS, "TRAVELS WITH EPICURUS"

DETAILS: This is our Friday night series starting on 11/28/2025. Join us as we read Daniel Klein’s book, “Travels with Epicurus.” We will accompany the then 73-year old author on his travels to the Greek island of Hydra where he seeks the answer to aging happily. His quest leads him to focus on the teachings and inspiring life of Epicurus. Along the way, the author also explores the wisdom of Stoicism, Bertrand Russell, Eric Erikson, Aristotle, William James, and others. Is Aristotelian old-age grumpiness the most personally honest way to go? Is Stoicism more about denying rather than transcending pain? Are the best years of our lives in our old age? Join us as we explore these questions and read one of NPR’s best books of 2012, a UK Sunday Times Bestseller, and a book the UK’s Daily Telegraph coined “wry, whimsical, amusing, and intelligent.”

SCHEDULE
11-28-2025 Prologue and Chap. 1
12-5-2025 Chap. 2
12-12-2025 Chap. 3
12-19-2025 Chap 4
12-26-2025 Chap. 5
1-2-2026 Chap. 6
1-9-2026 Chap 7 and Epilogue

READING MATERIALS: The book is available on Amazon and at other booksellers in audio, paperback, and Kindle. Reading in advance is optional. We will collect highlights from each part of the book in an outline for the meeting.

https://www.amazon.com/Travels-Epicurus-Journey-Island-Fulfilled/dp/0143126628

MEETING TIME (USA): Conversion tool for our international friends: www.worldtimebuddy.com

7:00PM Eastern
6:00PM Central
5:00PM Mountain
4:00PM Pacific

In general, Stoicism teaches us how to handle difficult people and events, how to avoid anger and worry, and to use moderation in life overall. We will discuss how Stoic practice can lead to a meaningful and fulfilling life.

Our group enjoys open-minded, respectful conversations on Stoicism and how it relates to science, culture, philosophy, history, other belief systems, and pop culture (books and movies). If we differ in our opinions, then "we agree to disagree". The long-term goal is to improve our minds via group discussions. Our group does NOT discuss religion or politics.

This event is free and open to the public.

4th Friday: Dec 26 7:00PM-10:00PM
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Due to past weather redirects, we will redirect to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

All are welcome!
NO ALCOHOL!
Donations Appreciated but Not Required
Donate Here via Ethical NYC to Support this Event
https://ethicalnyc.app.neoncrm.com/forms/54

Alternative Outdoor Event:
Bryant Park Winter Village
https://bryantpark.org/activities/bank-of-america-winter-village- at-bryant-park
Bryant Park between 5th & 6th Aves and 40th & 42nd Sts in Manhattan NY 10018
Q238+CP New York
Rules & Regulations – Bryant Park
https://bryantpark.org/the-park/rules-and-regulations
Bryant Park Corporation
1065 Avenue of the Americas Suite 2400
New York NY 10018 -0667
+1 (212) 768-4242
info@bryantpark.org
@bryantparknyc
City of New York, Department of Parks & Recreation
Arsenal Central Park
830 5th Ave
New York NY 10065-7095
+1 (212) 639-9675
https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/bryant-park
@nycparks
· Location is subject to change for weather. Check website calendars and Meetup pages for various groups for updates and changes.
· No alcohol permitted! Free admission. Food and skate rentals cost extra.
· Harry is the Point of Contact, reachable at +1 (929) 251-3570. Call, don’t text.
· Meet at the Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain, just east of 41st & 6th. Check Meetup pages for exact location. Stragglers and lost people call Harry.
· Alternative indoor location will be the Whole Foods at 41st & 6th.

Closest Transit:
7: 5 Av
B,D,F,M: 42 St-Bryant Park
N,Q,R,W,1,2,3,A,C,E: Times Sq-42nd St
4,5,6: Grand Central-42 St
M42: W 42 St/6 Av

Alternative Indoor Event:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 5th Ave
New York NY 10028-0113
+1 (212) 535-7710
https://www.metmuseum.org/

· Check website calendars and Meetup pages for various groups for updates and changes.
· Do not bring food or drinks!
· Admission is not free but amount is up to you for NY, NJ, and CT residents, $30 suggested. Members have free admission, free membership for idNYC cardholders.
· Harry is the Point of Contact, reachable at +1 (929) 251-3570.
· Enter at 5th Ave Entrance at 82nd St. Meet at northern benches near membership desk in the Great Hall just after entrance. Ask for Harry. Stragglers call Harry.

Closest Transit:
4,5,6: 86 St
M1,M2,M3: 5 Ave/E 80 St, Madison Ave/E 79 St
M4: 5 Ave/E 77 St, Madison Ave/E 77 St
0028,BxM2,BxM3,BxM4,BxM11: Madison Ave/ E 84 St
M79-SBS: E 79 St/Madison Av
M86-SBS: E 84 St/5 Av

Our friends at various groups are cross-posting this event. Some groups have after-parties.

Humanist Happy Hour
Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
http://bsec.org/calendar-3/
https://www.meetup.com/brooklyn-society-for-ethical-culture

Drinking Inquisitively
Center for Inquiry – NYC Branch
https://cfi-nyc.org/
https://www.meetup.com/cfinyc/

Humanist Happy Hour
The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism
https://citycongregation.org/events-calendar/
FTI: Thinkers Multi-group BYOB potluck

Free Thinkers Institute
https://www.freethinkerinstitute.org/events/
https://www.meetup.com/freethinkerinstitute/

Live DWA
Gotham Atheists
https://gothamatheists.org/
https://www.meetup.com/GothamAtheists/

Humanist Happy Hour
New York Society for Ethical Culture
https://ethical.nyc/events
https://www.meetup.com/ethicalnyc/

NYC Atheists In-Person Meeting
https://nycatheists.org/calendar/
https://www.meetup.com/nycatheists/

Cross-group Happy Hour at Ethical Culture
Secular Humanists Society of New York
https://www.shsny.org/events-calendar
https://www.meetup.com/shsny-org/

RULES for In-Person Meeting:

1. GROUP PROMOTION: Each group may bring flyers or posters advertising membership, donations, and meetings.
2. DRINKING: Bring your own booze should be limited to beer and wine, no hard liquors. Everyone should drink responsibly and don't get sloshed. Save the hard drinking for the after parties in outside bars.
3. RESPECT FOR DIFFERENCES: While there is overlap among the groups, not every group is the same and thinks the same. Respect each other's differences and different ideologies. Look for common ground not for things to hate. We're all friends here, treat each other as such.
4. ARGUMENTS: Listen to each other’s opinion completely in good faith. Ask questions about other's points instead of immediately dismissing. Approach taboo subjects--such as sex, religion, and politics--with strangers cautiously; back out if getting heated. Agree to disagree and walk away if necessary.
5. RESPECT FOR THE MEETING HOUSE: Use appropriate trash/recycling cans and clean up after yourselves. Leave the Meeting House better than you found it. Respect the neighborhood, don't act foolishly on the streets when entering and leaving or loitering.
6. NO ELECTIONEERING: Due to tax restrictions for many groups being §501(c)(3) tax-exempt, do not discuss, promote, denigrate, or leave/display/hand out materials for any candidate, campaign, party, or proposition on any upcoming election. No electioneering during the event. Other activities prohibited by tax-restrictions are also not allowed.
7. SELF-RECOGNITION: Try to speak from your own experiences and own your intentions and impacts. Recognize your own privileges and different backgrounds.
8. CONFIDENTIALITY: Meetings are private despite being open to the public. Recordings are prohibited. You may share what you learned, but not direct quotes and identities.
9. MEETING MODERATION: The organizers, hosts, co-hosts, moderators, and discussion leaders will use various methods available to ensure compliance with the rules and maintain decorum.

Attending any meeting or event implies agreement with the above rules.

## What we’re about

Another enjoyable free flowing discussion after the regular
Saturday Melbourne Existentialist Society Meeting. Please feel free to join the Melbourne Existentialst Society meeting from 2 pm AEST
https://www.meetup.com/existentialist-society/?eventOrigin=event_home_page
Life the Universe Street Philosophy commences at cessation of
The Melbourne Existentialist Society meeting.
Some of the many topics we have discussed previously,
some of which I could almost follow, are-
The Id, Super Ego and Ego
Where did the laws of physics come from?
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Does Truth exist independent of consciousness?
Hard problem of consciousness.
Conspiracy theories - is there a psychological profile of a habitual conspiracy Theorist.
Is it possible to have ojective Morality without a concept of God?
Definition of "Information"
How do we know how a particle behaves in an unobserved state if "unobserved" by definition means we don't blinking well see it?
Meaning of meaning in "what is the meaning of life?"
Definition of Language
Ship of Thesis - is the "thing" just a construct?
Tranendentalism
Determinism
Observer effect in quantum physics
--------------
Is there a why to human existence?
Definition of experience.
Method of applying reason.
What does it mean to be "your authentic self?"
Idealism v Realism - ABSOLUTE TRUTH - What does that mean ? does it exist ? Ontology, how equipped are we to fathom the nature of things? HARD PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS: WHERE DOES CONSCIOUSNESS ARISE?: DOES DNA TRANSLATE TO BEHAVIOUR?, IF SO HOW - definition of rationality - origins of "value" - precision of mathematics - concept of infinity.
Definition of Information
- where is the information in an un opened book, does it exist when unobserved?
Reason
- what is the definition of reason
does it exist in physical laws, i.e. if we can we say "the reason the rock fell is because of gravity"?, how is this different to "what is the reason she chose Pepsi max instead of Coke Zero?"
Validity of evolutionary psychology:
- what evidence is there for evolutionarily selected behaviour, given that we cannot observe the history of the emergence of neurological structures as we can observe evolutionarily selected anatomical changes?

PLEASE RSVP VIA THE ORLANDO STOICS LINK BELOW
https://www.meetup.com/orlando-stoics/

Every Sunday, a new lecture. Our meeting begins at 9:00 AM with informal conversation, followed by a focused dialogue at 9:15 AM, and an open Q&A discussion afterward.

This week, we continue to explore what intelligence is and where it resides. If intelligence does not live inside the mind, then what can count as intelligence at all? Must intelligence belong only to humans, or even to minds? Or can it exist at the level of objects, systems, and structures in the world?

We begin with Graham Harman, who argues that objects exist independently of how we think about them. For Harman, reality is not exhausted by human perception, interpretation, or use. Objects have their own existence and their own powers, whether or not anyone is aware of them. This challenges the idea that intelligence or meaning must depend on a human viewpoint. It opens the possibility that intelligence can be understood at the level of objects themselves, not just inside conscious minds.

We then turn to John Doyle, who approaches intelligence from an engineering perspective. Doyle argues that complex systems should be understood as informational structures shaped by constraints, tradeoffs, and control mechanisms. Intelligence, on this view, is not a mysterious inner property. It is something that emerges when systems reliably manage complexity, uncertainty, and risk. An intelligent system is one that maintains order and function under pressure. Intelligence becomes something that can be built, tested, and engineered.

Finally, we look at Hilary Putnam, who rejected the idea that understanding depends on the material substance of the mind. Putnam argued that what matters is function, not physical makeup. If a system performs the right kinds of operations, then it can count as understanding, regardless of whether it is made of neurons, silicon, or something else. Intelligence, on this view, is not tied to biology. It is tied to what a system does.

Together, these thinkers shift our focus away from inner mental meanings and toward object level reality. Intelligence becomes something real, structured, and functional. It exists in systems, architectures, and patterns of organization. It can be informational rather than psychological. And it can be engineered rather than merely observed.

This shift has major consequences for how we think about artificial intelligence. If intelligence is object level, informational, and functional, then the key questions change. What structures support intelligent behavior? What constraints shape reliable performance? And what does it mean to build systems that act intelligently in the world?

Join Plato’s Cave and the Orlando Stoics for a discussion on objects, systems, intelligence, and the philosophical foundations that connect ontology with engineering reality.

READING MATERIALS
Graham Harman
Graham Harman:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Harman
Object Oriented Ontology (overview):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_ontology
Tool Being:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool-Being

John Doyle
John C. Doyle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Doyle
Robust Control and Complexity:
https://www.cds.caltech.edu/~doyle/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Complexity and Robustness (overview):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robust_control

Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Putnam
Functionalism (philosophy of mind):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalism_(philosophy_of_mind)
The Meaning of “Meaning”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meaning_of_%22Meaning%22

TIMEZONES
For our members in other states:
6:00 AM — Pacific Time USA
7:00 AM — Mountain Time USA
8:00 AM — Central Time USA
9:00 AM — Eastern Time USA
For members in other countries, please convert time using:
https://www.worldtimebuddy.com

The meeting begins at 9:00 AM Eastern, with dialogue starting 9:15 AM sharp.