Philosophers & Gamblers

4.5•1919 ratings

San Jose, CA, US

3,062 members · Public group

What we’re about

P&G is more than just a group of people. It is a community. A community of philosophers, thinkers, book readers, paper readers, and folks that ask the foundational questions. What is the meaning of life? How do we know what we know? What makes us human? These are some of the questions that P&G members explore together through lively discussions and debates. But P&G is not only about intellectual pursuits. It is also a community of thoughtful people coming together to hike, and hangout. Whether it's enjoying the beauty of nature, sharing a meal, or playing games, P&G members bond over their common interests and values. P&G is a community where you can find friends who challenge you to grow and support you along the way.

Upcoming events

219

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Mon, Oct 20 · 7:00 PM PDT
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Online
Alex Bird: Dispositional conception & Ceteris Paribus Laws
Online
A live, text-driven seminar on major works in philosophy (mostly analytic). We read the paper together, slowly—stopping to clarify terms, reconstruct arguments, and stress-test claims. You can find the next week's reading here

WARNING

Browse the current and upcoming papers along with past Readings and meetings. Expect highly technical material, dense terminology, and high abstraction. It is full of philosophical jargon and complex technical terms. Your expectation should be to treat it as a graduate seminar in philosophy. We don't assume you have a degree in philosophy, but we do assume philosophical maturity, and/or a crazy level of passion for deductive reasoning. If you are into that sort of thing, be my guest. We will start reviewing of the paper, and start reading from page 8.

DETAILS

Think of properties—mass, charge, fragility—not as inert labels, but as packages of built-in powers. To have charge just is to repel or attract in certain ways. To be fragile just is to shatter when struck. If that’s true, then the laws of nature aren’t mysterious rules glued on top of the universe—they’re simply what follows from the natures of those properties.

So: fix the properties, and the laws come for free. If mass is essentially that which resists acceleration and generates gravitational attraction, then Newton’s laws aren’t contingent “cosmic habits,” they’re locked in by what mass is. That’s why Bird says laws are metaphysically necessary—they hold in all possible worlds where those properties exist.
12 attendees
Tue, Oct 21 · 3:45 PM PDT
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Online
FTI: The Impact of Oral Health on Systemic Health: A Vital Connection
Online
We will examine how periodontal disease, an infection of the gums, can, by spreading inflammation throughout the body, cause disease in the heart, lungs, brain and other organs, contribute to cancer, autoimmune disease and dementia.

Speaker: Michael Strassberg

Note: social time for our community 15 minutes before the presentation.

To get familiar with our past events, feel free to check out our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmixGB9GdrptyEWovEj80zg

After registering via zoom, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

We publish our event recordings on our Youtube channel to offer our help to anyone who would like to but can’t attend the meeting, so we need to give this clause. If you don’t want to be recorded, just remain on mute and keep your video off.

Here’s our legal notice: For valuable consideration received, by joining this event I hereby grant Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns, the irrevocable and unrestricted right to use and publish any and all Zoom recordings for trade, advertising and any other commercial purpose, and to alter the same without any restriction. I hereby release Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns from all claims and liability related to said video recordings.
9 attendees
Tue, Oct 21 · 7:30 PM PDT
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Online
Positive Psychology Salon
Online
Hosted by Juliette
tonight - Procrastination
Group Rules:

Please be sensitive, kind, and compassionate with other group members. We are a positive psychology group and intend for this meetup to be supportive of each others' well-being.

Please keep your responses to 2 minutes or less.

Please raise your hand and avoid interrupting other members.

Please reserve conversation unrelated to the meetup topic for after-meeting conversation.

I would like to invite all members to help us keep this meetup safe and comfortable for everyone. In order to accomplish this, if you feel any of the rules are not being followed please let Juliette or Anthony know by private message in the chat. Sometimes we might get too immersed in the conversation to notice potential issues and we appreciate your help in making sure we are all happy with the shape of our meetup.
Every week we meet to discuss a topic related to positive psychology and how to best achieve optimal well-being. Due to the risks of community transmission of COVID19 via pubic meetings, we will video conference using the Zoom app.
5 attendees
Wed, Oct 22 · 4:30 AM PDT
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Online
PLEASE READ FULL DESCRIPTION and RSVP INSTRUCTIONS BELOW
Online
# You cannot RSVP here. Please go to the PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE link below and RSVP there.

# https://www.meetup.com/philosophy-of-value-workshops/

Workshop # 26, Consciousness and Absence, Series 10, (S8,17)

This event begins 7.30 pm S'pore & WA time, 12.30 pm UK, 7.30 am NY.

# Are Hegel’s & Sartre’s concepts of Being & Nothingness just nascent insights?

YYou will need to view the relevant podcast below on YouTube before joining the meeting in order to participate in the discussion.
https://youtu.be/e8JF1G1y4pc

I know it's stupid, but please click 'like', as it promotes circulation.
Join this group at meetup.com/philosophy-of-value-workshops

The workshops include of a prior presentation of the topic by myself on YouTube. The meeting itself consists of a brief review of the topic followed by questions and discussion. The weekly topic is posted a week before the event, together with a suggested reading from my work The Pursuit of Value, available through Amazon Books or myself. Transcripts of the Youtube presentation are available by email.

THIS WEEK: The idea of non-being, nothingness or absence is discussed by such thinkers as Hegel and Sartre. Schopenhauer’s view that it is better not to exist seems to be its most extreme expression. Yet Hegel and Sartre view nothingness as an integral aspect of existence, yet with different interpretations — in cosmology and consciousness — respectively. If non-being or nothingness is an inescapable aspect of consciousness, what does this mean for human life? Can ‘nothingness’ be exploited as a means of resolving some of the fundamental problems of life like finitude and death? Reading: The Pursuit of Value, Ch.6, Scn. x.
3 attendees