Philosophy Cafe Great Books

On April 19 the group will continue its in-person close reading of Hegel's 1807 Phenomenology of Spirit. We'll start at paragraph 653, continuing the examination of "Conscience" in the Morality section.

If you are new to Hegel or the Phenomenology of Spirit, we highly recommended that you begin with the "Introduction" to the Phenomenology -- these are sections 73-89 in the editions linked below.

We meet 4-6 pm on the third Sunday of every month at Cafe Express, Town & Country.

We always welcome new participants. The Phenomenology is available online:
https://dn721808.ca.archive.org/0/items/g-w-f-hegel-phenomenology-of-spirit-translated-by-a-v-miller-theoryreader_202304/g-w-f-hegel-phenomenology-of-spirit-translated-by-a-v-miller-theoryreader.pdf .

Our preferred approach is close reading -- a paragraph-by-paragraph attempt to work through the text together. We don't cover a lot of space each month, but we've found this suits us just fine.

We are amateurs at this, so all that's required to participate is a genuine interest. However, because we've done this (and other philosophy discussions) for years, and we are active, engaged readers. We are also aware of the difficulties Hegel presents for those unfamiliar with his work (as well as difficulties with his philosophy itself) so we aim to be encouraging and supportive to newcomers.

We're also a Great Books group, and although we don't follow their method exactly, all the time, ( http://www.houstongreatbooks.net/resources.html ), we try to stick to clarifying the text itself. Any questions or insights about the text are welcome; any outside material that takes the place of the text for the most part isn't. Since we all have some exposure to philosophy, and have our own ideas about philosophy, we ask that any such ideas that you want to introduce be directly relevant, and your own, in the sense that you aren't appealing to authority (Kant's, for example, or a religious text). Although we often bring in examples, and these are helpful, we try to limit examples to those that are directly relevant to the text. In other words, we try to follow the text, and any conclusions, questions, frames, etc., we might try to introduce should be drawn from or based on the text and what it says.

It should be a conversation, starting with genuine questions about what the text says , rather than a lecture by anyone about what he or she thinks, believes, or has concluded. We're interested in what the author thought and said.

Please join us for a discussion! If you have any questions, please contact Bill.

On May 3 we'll continue our discussion of Sophie Moeller's Kant's Tribunal of Reason, focusing on pages 145-169 (Chapters 8-9). Moeller has emphasized the significant question of the sources of normativity in chapter 8, and in chapter 9 she turns to systematicity in this context.

(When we conclude with Moeller's book, our plan is to take up Alva Noe's The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are.

We meet on the first Sunday of every month, from 3-5 pm, at Cafe Express Town & Country.

We always welcome new participants. Our preferred approach is close reading -- a paragraph-by-paragraph attempt to work through the text together. We don't cover a lot of space each month, but we've found this suits us just fine.

We are amateurs at this, so all that's required to participate is a genuine interest. We're also a Great Books group, and although we don't follow their method exactly, all the time, (http://www.houstongreatbooks.net/resources.html), we try to stick to clarifying the text itself. Any questions or insights about the text are welcome; any outside material that takes the place of the text for the most part isn't. Since we all have some exposure to philosophy, and have our own ideas about philosophy, we ask that any such ideas that you want to introduce be directly relevant, and your own, in the sense that you aren't appealing to authority (Kant's, for example, or a religious text). Although we often bring in examples, and these are helpful, we try to limit examples to those that are directly relevant to the text. In other words, we try to follow the text, and any conclusions we might try to introduce should be conclusions drawn from the text and what it says.

It should be a conversation, starting with genuine questions about what the text says , rather than a lecture by anyone about what he or she thinks, believes, or has concluded. We're interested in what the author thought and said.

Please join us for a discussion! If you have any questions, please contact Bill.

Note that our meeting time is now 3-5 pm.

The group will continue its in-person close reading of Hegel's 1807 Phenomenology of Spirit.

If you are new to Hegel or the Phenomenology of Spirit, we highly recommended that you begin with the "Introduction" to the Phenomenology -- these are sections 73-89 in the editions linked below.

We meet 4-6 pm on the third Sunday of every month at Cafe Express, Town & Country.

We always welcome new participants. The Phenomenology is available online:
https://dn721808.ca.archive.org/0/items/g-w-f-hegel-phenomenology-of-spirit-translated-by-a-v-miller-theoryreader_202304/g-w-f-hegel-phenomenology-of-spirit-translated-by-a-v-miller-theoryreader.pdf .

Our preferred approach is close reading -- a paragraph-by-paragraph attempt to work through the text together. We don't cover a lot of space each month, but we've found this suits us just fine.

We are amateurs at this, so all that's required to participate is a genuine interest. However, because we've done this (and other philosophy discussions) for years, and we are active, engaged readers. We are also aware of the difficulties Hegel presents for those unfamiliar with his work (as well as difficulties with his philosophy itself) so we aim to be encouraging and supportive to newcomers.

We're also a Great Books group, and although we don't follow their method exactly, all the time, ( http://www.houstongreatbooks.net/resources.html ), we try to stick to clarifying the text itself. Any questions or insights about the text are welcome; any outside material that takes the place of the text for the most part isn't. Since we all have some exposure to philosophy, and have our own ideas about philosophy, we ask that any such ideas that you want to introduce be directly relevant, and your own, in the sense that you aren't appealing to authority (Kant's, for example, or a religious text). Although we often bring in examples, and these are helpful, we try to limit examples to those that are directly relevant to the text. In other words, we try to follow the text, and any conclusions, questions, frames, etc., we might try to introduce should be drawn from or based on the text and what it says.

It should be a conversation, starting with genuine questions about what the text says , rather than a lecture by anyone about what he or she thinks, believes, or has concluded. We're interested in what the author thought and said.

Please join us for a discussion! If you have any questions, please contact Bill.

We will continue our exploration of Sophie Moeller's Kant's Tribunal of Reason.

We meet on the first Sunday of every month, from 3-5 pm, at Cafe Express Town & Country.

We always welcome new participants. Our preferred approach is close reading -- a paragraph-by-paragraph attempt to work through the text together. We don't cover a lot of space each month, but we've found this suits us just fine.

We are amateurs at this, so all that's required to participate is a genuine interest. We're also a Great Books group, and although we don't follow their method exactly, all the time, (http://www.houstongreatbooks.net/resources.html), we try to stick to clarifying the text itself. Any questions or insights about the text are welcome; any outside material that takes the place of the text for the most part isn't. Since we all have some exposure to philosophy, and have our own ideas about philosophy, we ask that any such ideas that you want to introduce be directly relevant, and your own, in the sense that you aren't appealing to authority (Kant's, for example, or a religious text). Although we often bring in examples, and these are helpful, we try to limit examples to those that are directly relevant to the text. In other words, we try to follow the text, and any conclusions we might try to introduce should be conclusions drawn from the text and what it says.

It should be a conversation, starting with genuine questions about what the text says , rather than a lecture by anyone about what he or she thinks, believes, or has concluded. We're interested in what the author thought and said.

Please join us for a discussion! If you have any questions, please contact Bill.

Note that our meeting time is now 3-5 pm.