What we’re about
This group is being rebooted! Here we facilitate casual, good-natured conversations on anything under the sun that's of interest to members, including social and political issues, current events, local culture, international culture, ideas, books, music, art, movies, television, hobbies, sports, and more.
Our members come from around the world like Torontonians themselves.
We meet in person and online!
We host conversations in different languages.
Anyone is welcomed to start a conversation here, big or small, light or more serious! Collaborations with other groups are also welcomed.
Why "Reboot"?
Many years ago this was a reading and conversation group (Read Out Loud Toronto) that was improperly converted to a real estate group by someone who took over. This was against Meetup rules.
Since that individual has left, I want to restore this group to something like its original purpose. If you have any further ideas for the group please send them my way or leave a comment below!
In the meantime check out the Toronto Philosophy Meetup, another group I've run since 2016 that's hosting daily events - https://www.meetup.com/The-Toronto-Philosophy-Meetup/
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Ishmael: A Study of the Symbolic Mode In Primitivism - James Baird (week 4)Link visible for attendees
This meetup is hosted by Wisdom and Woe. For more details and to sign up for this event, go to: https://www.meetup.com/wisdom-and-woe/events/299832189/
In Ishmael: A Study of the Symbolic Mode In Primitivism (1958), Professor James Baird describes the genesis of a new system of art, beginning around 1850, that he terms "authentic primitivism." He examines writers who helped craft the modern authentic primitivism movement, with emphasis on one central figure, Herman Melville.
According to Baird, the aesthetic austerity of Protestantism and the increasing secularization of Western civilization undermined the cultural authority of symbols created by Catholicism. "Primary art" emerged to supplant Christian symbolism, taking on a quasi-religious role by connecting humans to a transcendent being.Ron Harvey Pearce calls Ishmael "a study of the nature and destiny of the modern religious sensibility.... Its end is to demonstrate how imaginative writers, sensing the religious crisis in their (and our) culture, have turned to Polynesia and the Orient for a body of symbols which would serve to reintegrate the modern psyche and to give force and direction to its search for spiritual wholeness."
Dorothee Finkelstein writes that "James Baird's Ishmael is in a class by itself, not only because it is primarily concerned with Melville's psychological experience of Oceania but also because of its complex Jungian approach."
Schedule:
- Week 1: Chapters 1-2 (i.e., Part 1)
- Week 2: Chapters 3-4 (i.e., Part 2)
- Week 3: Chapters 5-7 (i.e., Part 3, first half)
- Week 4: Chapters 8-11 (i.e., Part 3, second half)
- Week 5: Chapters 12-15 (i.e., Parts 4 and 5)
Join Wisdom and Woe here: https://www.meetup.com/wisdom-and-woe
Wisdom and Woe is a philosophy and literature discussion group dedicated to exploring the world, work, life, and times of Herman Melville and the 19th century Romantic movement. The group is free and open to anybody with an interest in learning and growing by "diving deeper" into "time and eternity, things of this world and of the next, and books, and publishers, and all possible and impossible matters."
- Designing The Perfect Society – 1on1 philosophical & political discussion (COH)Link visible for attendees
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
To be the speaking participant you must RSVP via Calendly.
The link to my Calendly calendar is available in my Egora profile:
Egora-ILP.org/philosopher/Cezary_JurewiczAll others are welcome to join to listen, use the chat, use the breakout rooms, and comment at the end.
About Citizen Office Hours:
If the Citizen is to be the highest authority in democracy, should we not have office hours to make ourselves available and accountable to our fellow citizens? The answer is YES – yes, we should.Also, in a democracy, there is no power without responsibility. If the citizens do not accept the responsibility of being citizens, then we do not really have any power – the power we might think we have is illusory. Therefore, all responsible citizens should make themselves available at their own "Citizen Office Hours".
This event is a publication of my Citizen Office Hours. I am making myself available to discuss any of my or your ideas published in Egora. Please be already registered for Egora before our meeting and at least somewhat familiar with my Ideological Profile so we can have a proper and thorough discussion. If you share your Ideological Profile in the comments in advance, i will take some time to study it before our meeting (ideally, the audience will do so too).
