About us
See upcoming readings on our Notion, and chat with us on our Discord
Welcome to the San Francisco Philosophy Reading Group! We are a group of amateur, interested philosophers who get together to read and discuss classic works of philosophy.
Our group will focus on a different reading every 2 weeks, and then meet up in person to discuss the reading in a friendly and casual setting. We welcome readers of all levels and philosophical inclinations, as long as you are willing to engage with the reading and discussion in a friendly, open manner.
We also have a Discord where we discuss Kant and other philosophical topics—join us anytime!
Upcoming events
1
Jean Baudrillard - Simulacra and Simulation
The Fold, 3359 26th St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA, San Francisco, CA, US"The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth — it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true."
Jean Baudrillard wrote Simulacra and Simulation in 1981, before the internet, before social media, before generative AI. His claim is not the familiar one that media distort reality, or that we are surrounded by fakes. It is stranger and more radical: that signs and images no longer refer to any reality at all. The map now precedes the territory. Copies circulate without originals. Disneyland exists, he argues, to convince us that the rest of America is real — when in fact the "real" America is already hyperreal.
For this session, we'll read the first essay of the book: "The Precession of Simulacra". You can find a copy of that essay here. The book is also available on Amazon or at the SF Public Library.
If you're feeling lost in French postmodernism, there is a Philosophize This episode on the book that might be helpful
43 attendees
Past events
44
