About us
***NOTICE: Recently, scammers have been dishonestly inviting book authors to present their work during sessions of our group, sending false messages using the names of our group organizers. This is usually followed up by a request for money. The History of Philosophy Book Club does not currently invite external speakers to our discussion sessions, nor do we charge money for anything the group does. Please disregard any such messages.***
In 2026, the History of Philosophy Book Club will continue to study both canonical Western texts as well as philosophy from other cultures. Since 2022 we have explored Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist, Arabic, and classical Chinese philosophy alongside the traditional Western canon. This is an opportunity for those who have read mostly within the Western tradition to learn and assess new and different ideas, and to see how they have influenced varied philosophical schools. The 2026 schedule can be found here.
NOTICE: If you would like to join the History of Philosophy Book Club, we're happy to have you! Please do take a few moments to give thoughtful answers to our registration questions -- expertise in philosophy is not required, but we'd sincerely like to know about you and your interests in philosophy! As our registration form notes, one-word or excessively brief answers to the questions, as well as snarky or scornful replies, will result in an automatic rejection. Additionally, because the group meets in person, membership is currently limited to the Washington, DC metro area. Thank you for your interest and consideration.
WHO WE ARE
Did you take a philosophy class in high school or college and wish you had taken more? Do you read philosophy texts independently but have no one to discuss them with? Then this group is for you.
Somewhat of a hybrid, it is a combination study group and book club. The backgrounds of our members vary: some have never taken a philosophy course and are essentially self-taught; others have doctorates in the field. Although the majority of writers have been European and American, we have read and are open to texts from other cultures, and starting in 2022 will be making an extra effort to study them. Representative philosophers have included Plato, Averroes, Confucius, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Sartre, Arendt, Rawls, Foucault, and Butler. We often read a single book by a single author, but if their output has been substantial we will consider an anthology or collection of shorter texts. At times we engage with debates between prominent philosophers, such as the Searle-Derrida debate about meaning and interpretation. We also sometimes discuss topics such as theories of metaphor or the philosophy of mathematics, or schools of philosophy such as pragmatism.
We started the group in 2010 with the classical period and finished in 2013 with twentieth century writers, then began the cycle in more depth in 2014 and wrapped up in December 2021, beginning the historical cycle again in January 2022.
Meetings are currently held at the West End Library in DC, located 2301 L St NW, Washington, DC 20037, near the Foggy Bottom-GWU metro station.
Tips in Preparing for Meetings
After you have finished the reading, ask yourself: (1) What are the philosopher’s principal ideas? (2) What arguments are used to support them, and are they strong or weak? (3) Who were the author’s major influences, and whom in turn did he/she influence? (4) What was the historical context in which the author wrote, and did this affect what was said? (5) Are the author’s works still relevant today and, if so, how?
To help in answering these questions, attendees are encouraged to consult the secondary resources posted in each announcement. Wikipedia, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy are especially useful.
Rules of Conduct at Meetings
Avoid monopolizing the conversation. If you've been speaking for several minutes, and sense others want to get in, relinquish the floor.
Stay on topic, and keep your remarks concise and to the point.
Challenging arguments and disputing facts are fine; personal attacks are not. Derogatory, prejudiced, or discriminatory remarks of any kind are grounds for ejection from the session and termination of membership.
If you have not read at least 50% of the recommended selections, consider skipping the meeting to allow other interested people to attend.
Those who violate the rules of conduct repeatedly will be dropped from the group at the discretion of the organizers.
Note:
To remain viable, groups depend on regular attendance. Toward this end, we ask that you only RSVP "Yes" if you know that you are likely to attend. If it turns out that you cannot make it to the meeting, we ask that you cancel your RSVP as soon as possible to make room for others.
Although everyone is welcome to use our resources, our targeted audience consists of people who live in the Maryland, DC, and Virginia area.
Upcoming events
1
Hutcheson's Aesthetics and Moral Philosophy
West End Neighborhood Library, 2301 L Street NW, Washington, DC, USFrancis Hutcheson (1694-1746) was a pivotal early figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, a movement which strongly embraced empiricism and concentrated on the study of human nature and the relationship of individuals and society. Born in Ireland to a line of Scottish Presbyterian ministers, Hutcheson was educated by dissenting Irish Presbyterians in Ulster before matriculating at the University of Glasgow, where he studied philosophy and theology. In 1719 he was licensed to preach in Ireland, but rather than adopting the more traditional views of his forefathers, he gravitated toward the tolerant and liberal “New Light” Presbyterianism. Instead of further pursuing the ministry for which he had trained, he put his efforts into founding a dissenting academy in Dublin—a successful venture that occupied him for the next ten years. While teaching in Dublin, he moved in intellectual circles, and it was there that he wrote the four early treatises—collected into two books, the Inquiry of 1725 and the Essay of 1728—that quickly established his reputation as a philosopher. On being appointed chair of moral philosophy at his alma mater, he left Ireland for Glasgow in 1729.
Contemporaries described Hutcheson as a popular and animated professor—the first at Glasgow to deliver lectures in English rather than exclusively in Latin. His most famous student was Adam Smith (enrolled 1737-40).
Hutcheson's influence on Scottish thinkers was considerable. With his emphasis on the primacy of feeling over reason in our moral perceptions, he inspired David Hume’s moral sentimentalism. His analysis of natural rights and property in the Inquiry (Treat. II Sect. VII) as well as in his later works directly influenced Smith. The Scottish school of common sense realism derived partly from Hutcheson's explication of moral sense theory. His influence also made its way to colonial America, where his works were included in college curricula beginning in the mid-1700s. John Adams and other signers of the Declaration of Independence are known to have read Hutcheson.
In the Inquiry, he takes up Locke’s epistemology of sense perception and broadens it into a theory of the “internal senses”—faculties of perception as powerful as the commonly designated five external senses. Elaborating Lord Shaftesbury’s notion of a “moral sense” and the earl's analogy between beauty and virtue, Hutcheson divided his Inquiry into a discussion of the sense of beauty and of the paramount moral sense—both being internal senses which operate without depending on mediation by the will or reason.
Like Shaftesbury and the philosopher Richard Cumberland, Hutcheson held a strong distaste for the Hobbesian worldview. In the vein of the former two, he promoted a vision of humans as naturally benevolent and innately interested in the welfare of others, maintaining that others’ good brings us no less pleasure than our own good.
Notably, he also sowed the seeds of utilitarian thought with his phrase “the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers” (Treat. II Sect. III).
Main Reading
The reading below is available at the Online Library of Liberty:- The Inquiry, comprising the first two of Hutcheson's four early treatises (we are reading the 1726, or 2nd edition, of the book): read the Preface and Treat. I: Sections I, II, III (Art. IV is optional), (V is optional), VI, VII, VIII; and Treat. II: Intro and Sect. I, II, III (Art. XI, XII until “Intention, foresight” optional), IV, V, VI, and especially VII.
- Hutcheson's lecture upon his appointment at Glasgow, “On the Natural Sociability of Mankind." The first 3 paragraphs, until footnote 10, are optional.
- The beginning of the fourth treatise Illustrations, Sect. I, and Sect. IV.
Note that the ebook page on OLL can take a few moments to load.
Secondary resources
IEP - Hutcheson
SEP - Hutcheson
Liberty Fund: Editor’s Intro to Inquiry.
SEP - Scottish 18th C. Philosophy
Wiki - Scottish Enlightenment
Hutcheson and private property
Routledge: 1, 2, 39 attendees
Past events
175
