- The Destiny of Western Faustian Culture: Oswald SpenglerLink visible for attendees
SEA OF FAITH IN AUSTRALIA (SoFiA) - Melbourne.
Some of us are participating in SoFiA's online event.
Mettalia Tanjaya will present the topic and lead the discussion.
"Oswald Spengler and the Destiny of Western Faustian Culture".Wikipedia's entry on Oswald Spengler
The ZOOM link will appear on this page for those who RSVP.
Meeting ID: 818 6903 0609 - - Passcode: 902271PLEASE NOTE: Due to Daylight Saving, this event now commences at 9pm Friday in Seattle. (Which is 2pm Saturday in Melbourne, Australia).
SoFiA promotes the open exploration of religion, spirituality and the search for meaning. They welcome ALL viewpoints, including Atheism.
Facebook: 'Sofiatalk' - Please join their ongoing discussions.
- Existentialism and psychoanalysis: Deleuze & Guattari on desiring machinesLink visible for attendees
We continue with selections from Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus on desiring machines and schizoanalysis (see below for schedule).
Please take the time to read and reflect on the text, as this is required to participate in the discussion. Find the PDF titled "Anti-Oedipus Capitalism and Schizophrenia" in the Google Drive folder linked at the bottom of this description 👇 (scroll all the way down for the link).
Upcoming readings:
Apr 13: Deleuze & Parnet's critique of psychoanalysis (pp. 77-103)
Apr 20: Deleuze & Parnet on regimes of signs (pp. 103-23)
Apr 27: Deleuze & Guattari on desiring machines (Preface & pp. 1-22)
May 4: Deleuze & Guattari on desiring machines (pp. 22-50)
May 11: Deleuze & Guattari on schizoanalysisSee this link for the full reading list: https://bit.ly/eksistence
Join the Facebook group for more resources and discussion:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/755460079505498
If you have attended previous meetings, please fill out a brief survey at this link: https://forms.gle/tEMJ4tw2yVgnTsQD6ABOUT THE TEXT
Next we take a deep dive into D&G’s notion of desiring machines. Beginning with the axiom of affirmative desire, “everything is production” (p. 4), the text traces the chain of desiring production through three complex syntheses: production, recording and consumption. The synthesis of production gives us simple desiring connections, such as the mouth-breast dyad, that are the basic building blocks of libidinal assemblages. The second synthesis enacts a recording of production upon the smooth surface of the body without organs. This synthesis introduces disjunctions between separate desiring machines, delineating the opposition between a broader machine of attraction (miraculating) and a repulsion-machine (paranoiac). The third synthesis of conjunction produces a celibate machine in which the previous two reach a kind of reconciliation. Whereas disjunction introduces a divine dimension (Numen) to the plane of immanence, conjunction produces the jouissance of Voluptas and with it a decentred subject of enjoyment.D&G’s text pursues a thoroughly anti-idealist mode of being and expression, which accounts in part for its difficulty. The result is an immanent, materialist logic of desire in which traditional distinctions of nature/culture, body/mind, animal/human are foreclosed in order to arrive “as close as possible to matter, to a burning, living center of matter” (p. 19). A fundamental thesis of the book is the non-dualism of desire and production, such that political economy (Marx) emerges as immediately libidinal in character (Freud). D&G conceive of desire as inherently affirmative, productive and creative, leading to their often-repeated attack on lack and castration. To anyone familiar with Hegel’s dialectic (thesis-antithesis-synthesis), D&G’s triad of syntheses will seem oddly familiar. Yet the Hegelian Aufhebung, with its double negation and resulting Absolute Idealism, remains the arch-enemy. Anti-Oedipus can be read as a thoroughly materialist writing of the movement of becoming, jettisoning negativity, lack and the Hegelian Absolute Idea in favour of particles, fluxes and intensities of desire assembling upon a plane of immanence -- a movement best exemplified by the figure of the roaming schizophrenic.
Some questions to consider:
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How does D&G’s attempt to combine Marx with psychoanalysis compare with other similar attempts, those of the Frankfurt School and Marcuse for example?
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What exactly is the production of recording in the 2nd synthesis? What is the body without organs on which it is performed? How to understand the Numen and the opposition between the miraculating and the paranoid machines?
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From the 3rd synthesis it is clear that D&G are developing a genealogy of the subject (as decentred, split, etc). How does their account of subjectivity differ from that of Kristeva? What about that of Lacan?
GROUP RULES & PROCESS
Everyone is welcome, but speaking priority will be given to people who have done the reading.- I suggest spending 1-2 hours per week reading and preparing for the discussion.
- Virtual meeting courtesy applies: let's not interrupt each other and keep mics muted when not speaking.
- Keep comments concise and on topic.
- We'll focus the discussion with key passages and discussion questions.
- Bring your questions, comments, favorite passages, criticisms, etc to the meeting.
All readings can be found in this Google folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VPRdvZYmUKBY3cSxD8xC8sTYtSEKBXDs
Art: Dispersed Objects with Brass Gong (1948) by Alexander Calder
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- Asian Philosophies | Confucius, The First TeacherLink visible for attendees
Our schedule for 2024 is every Saturday 2:00pm Pacific (5:00pm East)
Reading and discussing "A Short History of Chinese Philosophy" by Fung Yu-Lan (Feng Youlan 馮友蘭)
Amazon - https://a.co/d/2ENfKPL
Archive.org https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.260423
Please Read The Chapter 4 - Confucius, The First Teacher
There are 28 chapters in this book. Each chapter is an independent article about the Chinese Philosophy. We are going to discuss one chapter per meetup.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Spirit of Chinese Philosophy (2024-01-20)
- The Background of Chinese Philosophy (2024-02-24)
- The Origin of the Schools (2024-03-09)
- Confucius, The First Teacher (2024-04-27)
- Mo Tzu, The First Opponent of Confucius (2024-05-04)
- The First Phase of Taoism: Yang Chu (2024-05-11)
- The Idealistic Wing of Confucianism: Mencius (2024-05-18)
- The School of Names (2024-05-25)
- The Second Phase of Taoism: Lao Tzu
- The Third Phase of Taoism: Chung Tzu
- The Later Mohists
- The Yin-Yang School and Early Chinese Cosmology
- The Realistic Wing of Confucianism: Hsun Tzu
- Han Fei Tzu and The Legalist School
- Confucianist Metaphysics
- World Politics and World Philosophy
- Theorizer of the Han Empire: Tung Chung-Shu
- The Ascendancy of Confucianism and Revival of Taoism
- Neo-Taoism: The Rationalists
- Neo-Taoism: The Sentimentalists
- The Foundation of Chinese Buddhism
- Ch’anism (Zen Buddhism), The Philosophy of Silence
- Neo-Confucianism: The Cosmologists
- Neo-Confucianism: The Beginning of The Two Schools
- Neo-Confucianism: The School of Platonic Ideas
- Neo-Confucianism: The School of Universal Mind
- The Introduction of Western Philosophy
- Chinese Philosophy in the Modern World
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Playlist for A Short History of Chinese Philosophy
Please see our 2023 meetup recordings and reading materials :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14zML15Ea7IkWHWaqkQjEmmcbPsl6L1kV/view?usp=drive_link
Please see our 2024 meetup schedule, recordings and reading materials:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1moDzDM4xb--hDgw7zXC7Rrayq-GEwQYETyJKa4W9usU/edit?usp=share_link - Marathon Discussion JAM🍷Philosophy&Beyond,Int’l Friends,Insomniacs, SocialLink visible for attendees
https://www.meetup.com/mindshearts-without-borders/events/tdfdssydcfbqb/
- * CAMERA and MIC MANDATORY
- ** Advertising of your groups, channels, businesses and etc. is STRICTLY PROHIBITED!
- Zoom link posts 30-60 min. to the meeting.
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SOCIALIZE with INTELLIGENT FRIENDS from AROUND the GLOBE @ our MARATHON SATURDAYS!
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Discussions for 10-16 hours✨✨💥
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nonestop however, there would be no more new entrees after the first 8 hours. ( 5:00am EST)
If you crave stimulating conversations, discussions, debates, socializing with interesting international friends,
and/or ..
You feel lonely,
Are an insomniac,
join us!
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We will engage in some mental warm ups together; stimulating each other’s minds with questions, topics of interest, concerns and thoughts..
I would open BREAKOUT rooms to provide everyone with an enjoyable fulfilling evening!
Discussions will include a variety of topics presented by our members;💥💥
- Various branches of philosophy
- Politics
- psychology & Human behaviour
- metaphysics
- science , artificial Intelligence & etc.
- metaphorical philosophy & Poetry
- happy Room! Meet intelligent International friends,
And.. there’s always more.
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Come and go as you wish.
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Make new friends from around the globe or spend time with us;the regulars ;)
It is meant to lift our spirits and help us forget about all the serious issues we deal with during the week.
Please
Bring your light heart and sense of humour :)
We engage in life’s matters in productive comprehensive ways suitable for almost all curious.
Whether you enjoy the every day language of tackling life dilemmas OR analytical philosophyor maybe just need some company to engage in meaningful conversations, you may join and enter a breakout room with .. the other birds.. of a feather!
We cover everything from politics to spirituality, body to soul and.. all else.
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DONATIONS are critical to life of the group and appreciated ! Please inquire via message for e-transfer/PayPal info.
Thank you!
- Live-Reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics––American StyleLink visible for attendees
Let's try something new. We are going to live-read and discuss Aristotle's ~Nicomachean Ethics~. What is new and different about this project is that the translation, by Adam Beresford (2020), will be rendered in standard 'Murican English.
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From the translator's "Note" on the text:
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"This translation is conservative in interpretation and traditional in aim. It aims to translate the text as accurately as possible.
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"I translated every page from scratch, from a clean Greek text, rather than revising an existing translation. ... I wanted to avoid the scholars’ dialect that is traditionally used for translating Aristotle.
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"I reject the approach of Arthur Adkins, Elizabeth Anscombe, and others who followed Nietzsche in supposing that the main elements of modern thinking about right and wrong were unknown to the Greeks, or known to them only in some radically different form. My view of humanity and of our shared moral instincts is shaped by a newer paradigm. This is a post-Darwinian translation. (It is also more in line with the older, both Aristotelian and Christian view of human character.)
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"Having said that, I have no interest at all in modernizing Aristotle’s ideas. All the attitudes of this treatise remain fully Greek, very patriarchal, somewhat aristocratic, and firmly embedded in the fourth century BC. My choice of dialect (standard English) has no bearing on that whatsoever. (It is perfectly possible to express distinctively Greek and ancient attitudes in standard English.) ... I have also not simplified the text in any way. I have translated every iota, particle, preposition, noun, verb, adjective, phrase, clause, and sentence of the original. Every premise and every argument therefore remains – unfortunately – exactly as complex and annoyingly difficult as in any other version in whatever dialect.
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"Some scholars and students unwarily assume that the traditional dialect has a special connection with Greek and that using it brings readers closer to the original text; and that it makes the translation more accurate. In reality, it has no special tie to the Greek language, either in its main philosophical glossary or in its dozens of minor (and pointless) deviations from normal English. And in my view it certainly makes any translation much less accurate.
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"I will occasionally refer to the scholars’ dialect (‘Gringlish’) and its traditional glossary in the Notes."
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Here is our plan:
1. Review the readings from the prior session.
2. Read a segment of the translated text.
3. Discuss it analytically and interpretively.
4. Repeat again at #2 for a few more times.
5. Discuss the segments evaluatively.
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll soon find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.