What we’re about
The Austin Philosophy Discussion Group (APDG) offers many opportunities for discussions of philosophy and philosophical issues. No advance preparation or knowledge is required, unless stated in the meeting description. All our meetings are free of charge.
Click on "Meetups" just under the picture, above, to see details about upcoming meetups. The types of meetups that we have are:
- Weekly Lecture/Discussion groups, which offer free DVD lectures and discussions covering a wide range of philosophical topics.
- Special Events and Lectures covering topics of interest to our membership.
We are always open to new ideas, so come and share your thoughts at one of our meetings.
This group is a member of the Virtual Philosophy Network, a consortium of philosophy groups like ours in the U.S. and Canada. Now that Meetup events are virtual, we can discuss ideas with folks from all over the continent, and we have a broader range of topics to choose from. Go to https://sites.google.com/view/virtualphilosophynetwork to see all the Meetup groups in the network,
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Our web site also features lively discussions, within a culture that values civil discourse.
Here's what civil discourse is: Conversation intended to enhance understanding. It employs language of dispassionate objectivity. Civil discourse requires mutual respect of the participants. It neither diminishes the other's moral worth, nor questions their good judgment; it avoids hostility and direct antagonism. It requires an appreciation for the other participants' experiences.
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/594932535
Private message me over meetup to get the password.
The attendee limit is 10 to allow easier discussion.
Online Lecture About the History of India | Plus
"Over 5,000 years, India has been home to a rich tapestry of cultures, and the lands east of the Indus River have long been a hub for trade and cultural exchange. Today the subcontinent contains 20% of the world's population and is an economic powerhouse. Go inside this thrilling story with A History of India, a breathtaking survey of South Asia from its earliest societies through the challenges of the 21st century."
At each meeting, we watch / listen to a lecture together, and then discuss lecture together.
Typically, we cover one lecture per week. See the event’s title for what lecture is for that event.
Here is the full list of lectures for the course:
1 Earliest History of the Indian Subcontinent
2 Migration and the Adivasi
3 Indus Valley Civilization
4 Indo-European Vedic Culture
5 Caste: Varna and Jati
6 Epic Literature: Ramayana
7 Epic History: Mahabharata
8 Dharma in the Bhagavad Gita
9 The Origins and Rise of Jainism
10 The Origins and Rise of Buddhism
11 The Mauryan Empire
12 Ashoka's Imperial Buddhism
13 Deccani and Southern States
14 Northwest and North India
15 Brahmanic Synthesis
16 Indian Parsis, Jews, and Christians
17 Islam Comes to India
18 Indian Sultans
19 The Early Mughal Empire
20 The Reign of Emperor Akbar
21 Later Mughal Emperors
22 The Mughals and the Marathas
23 Competing European Empires
24 The British East India Company
25 The Issues and Events of 1857
26 The British Raj and Early Nationalism
27 India and Indians in the World
28 Mahatma Gandhi
29 Nationalists Ambedkar, Bose, and Jinnah
30 The Partition of 1947
31 West and East Pakistan
32 The New Pakistan
33 Independent Bangladesh
34 India under Nehru
35 Modernizing India
36 South Asia into the 21st Century
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Big Questions of Philosophy 34 What Are the Limits of Liberty?Link visible for attendees
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/594932535
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The meeting limit is 10 people, so the discussion is easier.Understanding Philosophy | Online Lectures About Philosophy | Wondrium
"There is no better way to study the big questions in philosophy than to compare how the world's greatest minds have analyzed these questions and reasoned out potential solutions. The final step is always deciding for yourself whether you find an explanation convincing."At each meeting, we watch or listen to a lecture together, have a short break, and then discuss lecture together.
Typically, we cover one lecture every other week. See the event’s title for what lecture is for that event.
Full lecture list for this course:
1 How Do We Do Philosophy?
2 Why Should We Trust Reason?
3 How Do We Reason Carefully?
4 How Do We Find the Best Explanation?
5 What Is Truth?
6 Is Knowledge Possible?
7 What Is the Best Way to Gain Knowledge?
8 Do We Know What Knowledge Is?
9 When Can We Trust Testimony?
10 Can Mystical Experience Justify Belief?
11 Is Faith Ever Rational?
12 Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
13 What Is God Like?
14 How Could God Allow Moral Evil?
15 Why Would God Cause Natural Evil?
16 Are Freedom and Foreknowledge Compatible?
17 Do Our Souls Make Us Free?
18 What Does It Mean to Be Free?
19 What Preserves Personal Identity?
20 Are Persons Mere Minds?
21 Are Persons Just Bodies?
22 Are You Really You?
23 How Does the Brain Produce the Mind?
24 What Do Minds Do, If Anything?
25 Could Machines Think?
26 Does God Define the Good?
27 Does Happiness Define the Good?
28 Does Reason Define the Good?
29 How Ought We to Live?
30 Why Bother Being Good?
31 Should Government Exist?
32 What Justifies a Government?
33 How Big Should Government Be?
34 What Are the Limits of Liberty?
35 What Makes a Society Fair or Just?
36 What Is the Meaning of Life? - Aristotle's On Interpretation - Live-Reading--European StyleLink visible for attendees
July 8 - We are returning to the fifth and sixth paragraphs of chapter 13 to rediscover an often-neglected distinction between possibility and necessity as analogous to the changeable and the unchangeable. The bookmark is set at Bekker line 22b29. George will present his findings.
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Aristotle grapples with competing notions of "possibility" {dunamis}--metaphysical possibility concerning a thing's capacity and ability versus epistemological possibility concerning whether the evidence justifies a predication. In this last part of the chapter, he addresses the metaphysical.
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On the nature of anything existent, it is necessarily what it is. What are possible to be or not to be for it depend on what it is already. Some existents have opposite possibilities; but some have only one-directional possibility. Fire, for example, is going to be hot; it cannot not be hot. So, fire has the one-directional possibility about being hot.
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What else? Join the meeting and discuss.
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----Organon means "instrument," as in, instrument for thought and speech. The term was given by ancient commentators to a group of Aristotle's treatises comprising his logical works.
Organon
|-- Categories ---- 2023.02.28
|-- On Interpretation ---- 2023.12.12
|-- Topics
|-- On Sophistical Refutations
|-- Rhetoric*
|-- Prior Analytics
|-- Posterior Analytics(* Robin Smith, author of SEP's 2022 entry "Aristotle's Logic," argues that Rhetoric should be part of the Organon.)
Whenever we do any human thing, we can either do it well or do it poorly. With instruments, we can do things either better, faster, and more; or worse, slower, and less. That is, with instruments they either augment or diminish our doings.
Do thinking and speaking (and writing and listening) require instruments? Yes. We do need physical instruments like microphones, megaphones, pens, papers, computers. But we also need mental instruments: grammar, vocabulary words, evidence-gathering techniques, big-picture integration methods, persuasion strategies. Thinking while sitting meditatively all day in a lotus position doesn't require much instrumentation of any kind, but thinking and speaking well in the sense of project planning, problem-solving, negotiating, arguing, deliberating--that is, the active doings in the world (whether romantic, social, commercial, or political)--do require well-honed mental instruments. That's the Organon in a nutshell.
Are you an up-and-coming human being, a doer, go-getter, achiever, or at least you're choosing to become one? You need to wield the Organon.
Join us.
- THE PLAN 9 BOOK CLUB FROM OUTER SPACE ...Nicomachean Ethics - AristotleAustin Recreation Center, Austin, TX
The Plan 9 Book Club from Outer Space has been in operation since 2016, studying the most important works in modern western Philosophy. To date, we’ve studied the major works of Hume, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and Sartre.
We are now beginning a study of Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle. We meet every Tuesday evening, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, to carry on in-depth discussions of the text. This is a discussion group, not a lecture class.
We hold our meetings IN-PERSON at the Austin Recreation Center, 1301 Shoal Creek Boulevard: https://www.google.com/maps/place/30%C2%B016'41.4%22N+97%C2%B044'56.3%22W/@30.2781667,-97.7511609,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d30.27816!4d-97.74897 .
Most Tuesdays, after discussing our book, several of us will continue the discussion over nachos and beer, down the street at The Tavern. The food and drink are optional, of course, but the conversation is always strong!
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As I mentioned, Plan 9 is a group that likes to do deep studies of our book choices. We discuss, in detail, the week's reading assignment--mastering the new concepts and fitting them into the author’s overall thesis. The goal is to gain an understanding of the author’s philosophy. Our discussion of each book always takes place over several meetings.
If this sort of work interests you, sign up here and join us. We have about a dozen regular members, and new people have come and gone over the years. Everyone is more than welcome to join in.
Cheers,
Leonard
