About us
We're a community that practices and discusses philosophy, being free and open to all levels and backgrounds. We offer seminars, a variety of discussion formats, and the occasional lecture / guest speaker.
Many meetings will have fewer RSVPs than people who actually attend. This is because overtime people stop making use of Meetup.com and instead communicate with their groups via Discord, Slack, Zoom, E-mail, or similar You can think of the list of events hosted on this Meetup as advertisements for groups seeking new participants.
Our philosophy offerings are organized and facilitated by volunteers. If you have a philosophy offering - or an offering that compliments the study of philosophy, such as in literature, the sciences, and so on - that you'd like to advertise through this Meetup, please contact the organizer. We're grateful to those who want to enrich Portland with study and discussion!
Participants must speak, write, and act in a considerate, professional, and respectful manner, and be prepared for the meetings that they attend, having reviewed the materials to the degree necessary to participate. If you haven't reviewed the materials but still wish to attend an event, please consult the event facilitator regarding the best manner for you to be present.
We look forward to studying philosophy together!
Upcoming events
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Readings in the History of Science
·OnlineOnlineThe History of Science group will resume weekly meetings starting with our next one on May 14. In our last meeting on May 7 we took a look at cause in Newton's mechanical and optical work. Cause in the counterfactual sense drew a bit of fire.In our May 14 meeting we will continue the discussion of cause with an overview article by Stathis Psillos, 'A glimpse of the secret connexion: Harmonizing mechanisms with counterfactuals'. The article can be downloaded at http://users.uoa.gr/%7Epsillos/PapersI/66-Causation%20and%20Counterfactuals.pdf . Going forward the group will be focusing more on developments in 19th century mathematics.
Subsequent readings will include:
Jan Rychlewski, ‘The origins of Newton’s mechanics. mass, force, and gravity’
Sandro Caparrini and Craig Fraser, ‘Mechanics in the Eighteenth Century’
Helmut Pulte, ‘Jacobi’s Criticism of Lagrange: The Changing Role of Mathematics. If you need a copy of the Janiak or Ducheyne articles send a note to kacheolme@gmail.com with Janiak Ducheyne in the subject line.Note: after our May 21 meeting we will resume meeting weekly.
8 attendees
Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
·OnlineOnlineWe are considering this book by Nobel Laureate Gerard 't Hooft: The Cellular Automaton Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.
Dissatisfied with the uncomfortable gaps in the way conventional quantum mechanics meshes with the classical world, 't Hooft has revived the old hidden variable ideas, but now in a much more systematic way. Quantum mechanics is viewed as a tool rather than a theory.
The author gives examples of models that are classical in essence, but can be analyzed by the use of quantum techniques, and argues that even the Standard Model, together with gravitational interactions, might be viewed as a quantum mechanical approach to analyzing a system that could be classical at its core. He shows how this approach, even though it is based on hidden variables, can be plausibly reconciled with Bell's theorem, and how the usual objections voiced against the idea of ‘superdeterminism' can be overcome.This week, please we will finish with Chapter 9 & the Conclusion. We will also discuss the following 2 papers:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspa/article/482/2336/20250413/481461/On-computing-quantum-waves-exactly-from-classical
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31081-13 attendees
Past events
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