About us
The Chicago Philosophy Meetup is a community of groups created by and for people interested in engagements with philosophy and the history of such engagements. Our members have a wide variety of backgrounds besides philosophy, including literature, law, physics, theology, music, and more.
We host events suggested by individual members and coordinated by volunteer organizers and offer opportunities for discussion with others who share these interests. If you have an idea for a topic you'd like to discuss, especially if you are from an historically underrepresented group in academic philosophy, let us work with you to make it happen.
Whether you're new to philosophy and looking to get started, or have been doing philosophy for some time and want to dig a bit deeper, we invite you to check us out.
We have basic expectations for how we talk to each other, so:
DO...
Listen to others
Ask for clarification
Get to know people
Help other voices to be heard
Work towards understanding each other
Practice moving past your assumptions about others
DON'T...
Limit others’ performance of items on the DO list
The Chicago Philosophy Meetup opposes any force of exclusion, discrimination, and/or harassment present in its community. Such forces include, but are not limited to, racism, transphobia, misogyny, and antisemitism. The Chicago Philosophy Meetup seeks to be inclusive because only in this way can we fulfill the DOs list above. We are here to help! If you have concerns, questions about a meeting, or need assistance (e.g. accessibility), please contact either the organizers or the event host for the meeting directly.
"Philosophy is not a theory but an activity."
-- from "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus," Wittgenstein
Discourse cheers us to companionable
reflection. Such reflection neither
parades polemical opinions nor does it
tolerate complaisant agreement. The sail
of thinking keeps trimmed hard to the
wind of the matter.
-- from "On the Experience of Thinking," Heidegger
Check out our calendar
Upcoming events
98
Aristotle’s Dialectic — Topics I — Live-Reading
·OnlineOnlineMay 26 - We are reading chapter 12 of Topics, Book I, at Bekker lines 105a10–105a19. In this chapter we will find Aristotle's concept of induction--that is, what is this reasoning process and how is the articulation or argument to be involved in this process. We will also review On interpretation, § 7, on Aristotle's theory of propositions.
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We are using the translation by Robin Smith: Topics Books I & VIII (Oxford University Press, 1997). We will read half of page 11.
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Smith in his helpful "Introduction" forewarns us that because we don't know what we are ignorant of, we barbarians don't know yet what dialectic is or why we need it. So there will be learning pain involved as we bootstrap ourselves toward knowing and practicing what we will learn. The payoff will be tremendous and will be commensurate with personal effort.
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A new reading adventure beckons you and your willpower. Join us.
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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 ---- 2025.10.21
|-- 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.
2 attendees
Kant: Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (Week 1)
·OnlineOnlineNote: Meetings focus on developing a common language and fostering friendship through the study of Kant. The host will provide an interpretation of Kant; other interpretations will not be discussed until later in the meeting. Additional interpretations, topics, and questions can be addressed through the Jitsi chat feature.
In this session, we will be covering the Preface and Section 1: Transition from common rational to philosophic moral cognition
Online meeting link: https://meet.jit.si/CPM-Kant-Wednesdays
(links to text at bottom)
Schedule for Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals:
Week 1 (21):
Preface and Section 1: Transition from common rational to philosophic moral cognition
pp 43 - 60 (Practical Philosophy, Cambridge; 17 pages)
pp 4:387 - 4:405Week 2 (22):
Section 2: Transition from popular moral philosophy to metaphysics of morals
pp 61 - 93 (Practical Philosophy, Cambridge; **32 pages**)
pp 4:406 - 4:445Week 3 (23):
Section 3: Transition from metaphysics of morals to the critique of pure practical reason
pp 94 - 108 (Practical Philosophy, Cambridge; 14 pages)
pp 4:446 - 4:463PDF: https://annas-archive.gl/md5/9c47b527649eb9ebf0761b4bcd7f0654
PDF (Cambridge Practical Philosophy): https://annas-archive.gl/md5/cc039aba3af613584ddbbb620649318f
The reading group will continue with the Critique of Practical Reason and Metaphysics of Morals, so if you plan to continue with the group, I recommend getting the volume 'Practical Philosophy' in the Cambridge editions of Kant's work:
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Philosophy-Cambridge-Works-Immanuel/dp/0521654084/8 attendees
Kant FTΦ: Schiller's Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man (Live Reading)
·OnlineOnlineMeeting link: https://meet.jit.si/CPM-Kant-Wednesdays
We will be starting at Letter XIX, paragraph 1.
In Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment, we see vague suggestions on how aesthetic judgments contribute to culture. In Schiller's letters, we can see a more developed argument on how aesthetic education is required to promote the freedom of the individual as well as transition us between a state of nature and a state ruled by reason.
Hopefully, this reading provides an opportunity to compare Kant's interest in how aesthetic judgments (and moral judgments themselves) contribute to culture with Schiller and expand our interpretation of both.
I've linked the Penguin edition of the book here, but please feel free to use whatever edition you have or want.
PDF: https://annas-archive.org/md5/22dcd586440cfd2d7ada034ca119db79
PDF (with facing German): https://annas-archive.org/md5/005de78cf1a714cc2c155ce569f670cf
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Aesthetic-Education-Man-Friedrich-Schiller/dp/0141396962?sr=8-1
Note: Kant FTΦ (Friends Through Philosophy) is a group of individuals who have connected over reading Kant (and other philosophers).
This meeting will focus on the interests of regular attendees. We will frequently reference Kant and other philosophers. Discussions may involve shared notions that have developed over time. If you are not a regular attendee and feel lost in the conversation, it may be a byproduct of being newer to the meetings: don't hesitate to ask for clarification.
3 attendees
A Compressed Genealogy of Phenomenology — Part III
·OnlineOnlineA Compressed Genealogy of Phenomenology — Part III
The Phenomenology of Logic: Wittgenstein, Husserl, and the Experience of Necessity
We were supposed to leave Husserl this week and move on to Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty.
Naturally, we are not doing that.
Before leaving Husserl, we need one strange detour through Wittgenstein, because logic itself contains a phenomenological problem.
Anyone who has worked through a truth table, a derivation, or a quantified formula has experienced the thrill of infinite pervasion that comes with intensional poverty. Content and range are inversely proportional. Sometimes this is felt. When it is, the structures of logic become mystically appealing. This is why some people become logicians.
Look at “For all x.” It appears cheap and tiny—yet it ranges over an infinite field. A tautology barely says anything, yet nothing can touch it. A contradiction also has felt force—that of logical impossibility.
That is the problem for this session: what exactly is the experience of logical necessity?
[This is just a blurb! More later today …]
METHOD
- TBA [see above]
- As always, summaries, notes, event chatlogs, episode transcripts, timelines, tables, observations, and downloadable PDFs for all the episodes we cover can be found here: THORR (The High Ontology Reading Room)
ABOUT PROFESSOR TAUBENECK
Professor Taubeneck is professor of German and Philosophy at UBC, first translator of Hegel’s Encyclopedia into English, and SADHO CΦO. Most impressively, he has also been wrestling with the core texts of 20-cent. phenomenology and existentialism for over 30 years, and has worked and collaborated with Gadamer, Derrida, and Rorty.
View all of our coming episodes here.
6 attendees
Past events
4993
