What we’re about
Welcome to the Toronto Philosophy Meetup! This is a community (online and in-person) for anyone interested in philosophy, including newcomers to the subject. We host discussions, talks, reading groups, pub nights, debates, and other events on an inclusive range of topics and perspectives in philosophy, drawing from an array of materials (e.g. philosophical writings, for the most part, but also movies, literature, history, science, art, podcasts, poetry, current events, ethnographies, and whatever else seems good.)
Anyone is welcomed to host philosophy-related events here. We also welcome speakers and collaborations with other groups.
Join us at an event soon for friendship, cooperative discourse, and mental exercise!
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Bluesky and join our new Discord.
Feel free to propose meetup topics (you can do this on the Message Boards), and please contact us if you would like to be a speaker or host an event.
(NOTE: Most of our events are currently online because of the pandemic.)
"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
See here for an extensive list of podcasts and resources on the internet about philosophy.
See here for the standards of conduct that our members are expected to abide by. Members should also familiarize themselves with Meetup's Terms of Service Agreement, especially the section on Usage and Content Policies.
See here for a list of other philosophy-related groups to check out in the Toronto area.
Please note that no advertising of external events, products, businesses, or organizations is allowed on this site without permission from the main organizer.
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Make a Donation
Since 2016, the Toronto Philosophy Meetup has been holding regular events that are free, open to the public, and help to foster community and a culture of philosophy in Toronto and beyond. To help us continue to do so into the future, please consider supporting us with a donation! Any amount is most welcome.
You can make a donation here.
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“No one knows the Heidegger-Dilthey connection better than Robert Scharff, and in this revolutionary new work he pushes the reset button on the origins of Being and Time. Through a meticulous reading of the earliest courses Scharff reveals how Heidegger’s grappling with Dilthey turned him into a phenomenologist of life and eventually of Dasein, in contrast to the transcendental consciousness of Husserl. Written with clarity and verve, this book leaves the “Seinology” of later commentaries in the dust and restores to Heidegger’s work the existential vitality that is its birthright.”
Welcome everyone to this meetup series presented by Scott and Philip.
Every second Friday we will get together to talk about this book:
- Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological: Interpreting Husserl through Dilthey, 1916-1925 (2019) by Robert C. Scharff — see link for further info about the book
Scroll to the bottom for the reading schedule and pdf 👇👇👇👇👇
The format will be Philip's usual "accelerated live read" format. What this means is that each participant will be expected to read roughly 10-15 pages before each session. Each participant will have the option of picking a few paragraphs they especially want to focus on. We will then do a live read on the paragraphs that the participants found most interesting when they did the assigned reading.
People who have not done the reading are welcome to attend this meetup. However if you want to TALK during the meetup it is essential that you do the reading. We mean it! It is essential that the direction of the conversation be influenced only by people who have actually done the reading. You may think you are so brilliant and wonderful that you can come up with great points even if you do not do the reading. You probably are brilliant and wonderful — no argument there. But you still have to do the reading if you want to talk in this meetup. REALLY.
Please note that this is a "raise hands" meetup and has a highly structured format, not an anarchy-based one. This is partly for philosophical reasons: We want to discourage a simple-minded rapid fire "gotcha!" approach to philosophy. But our highly structured format is also for disability related reasons that Philip can explain if required.
I expect that some of the participants in this meetup will also have been in the Sunday meetup when Jen, Scott and Philip presented this short book:
- Philosophy of Life: German Lebensphilosophie 1870-1920 by Frederick C. Beiser
If you have not read this book you might find it helpful to do so. But it is not required that you do so to be a part of this meetup on the Scharff book.
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THE READING SCHEDULE (pdf here)
- Sept 5th, Please read the Preface (up to the end of Roman numeral page xxvii)
- Sept 19th, Please read up to page 19
- Oct 3rd, Please read up to page 36
- After that, the readings will be posted...
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Here is the description for the back cover of the Scharff book:
In this first book-length study of the topic, Robert C. Scharff offers a detailed analysis of the young Heidegger's interpretation of Dilthey's hermeneutics of historical life and Husserl's transcendental phenomenology. He argues that it is Heidegger's prior reading of Dilthey that grounds his critical appropriation of Husserl's phenomenology. He shows that in Heidegger's early lecture courses, a "possible" phenomenology is presented as a genuine alternative with the modern philosophies of consciousness to which Husserl's "actual" phenomenology is still too closely tied. All of these philosophies tend to overestimate the degree to which we can achieve intellectual independence from our surroundings and inheritance. In response, Heidegger explains why becoming phenomenological is always a possibility; but being a phenomenologist is not.
Scharff concludes that this discussion of the young Heidegger, Husserl, and Dilthey leads to the question of our own current need for a phenomenological philosophy — that is, for a philosophy that avoids technique-happiness, that at least sometimes thinks with a self-awareness that takes no theoretical distance from life, and that speaks in a language that is "not yet" selectively representational.
Welcome! And enjoy!
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- From Socrates to Sartre EP25 ⟩ “Sartre I: My Existence is Absurd”Link visible for attendees
These, the best overview lectures of all time, provide a complete college course in philosophy. Beginners will get clarity and adepts will be revitalized.
Thelma Zeno Lavine’s From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest (1978) is the most riveting (her painstaking contortionist elocution), endearing (the eerie, theremin-laced Moog soundtrack, straight from the golden age of PBS), and confrontational (her radical politics and censorship-defying critiques) philosophy lecture series ever produced.
We Will Demystify Existentialism
Come, drink from the cup of this episode, and experience a synoptic big-tent “Thelmiracle” like no other. All the essences of Existentialism demystified, integrated, and glowing with power drawn from a single principle.
And all the clichés we invoke whenever we talk about Existentialism finally get their day in court:
- “Existence precedes essence” (Thelma’s version is brilliant and simple)
- “God is dead” (and what Nietzsche really meant)
- “The leap of faith” (and why Kierkegaard said we have to lose everything to make it)
- “The absurd” (not the stupid mood-board version)
- “Authenticity” (and its frenemy, bad faith)
- “Being-toward-death” (the metal concept-album version)
- Alienation (Hegelian, Marxist, existentialist—all clarified)
- Anxiety / anguish as the universal human condition
This is the End
Welcome to the first day of the end of your life, and the first episode in the final cycle of our journey—Roger Corman’s Sartre Cycle.
And yet … Sartre is never mentioned!
Strong, Yet Over-the-Counter
I feel bad for having used hyperbole in the past, but I had no choice—my nature forces me to be authentic. Just forget all my past emphases and know this: this is the most delightful and impactful exhibition of Existentialism of all time.
Never before have joy and understanding been so intimately interpenetrating. Thelma’s explanations are so good that anyone who listens really will get the core of Existentialism—why it matters, why it’s true, and why it’s vitally important to understand.
There are, in the end, only two real motives for philosophizing:
- Transformation: You want to know whether the rumors are true—that certain questions, arranged just so, can flip a switch and induce new belief, new perception, even new willing. Philosophy as liberation (from bad faith, alienation) and empowerment (for freedom, authenticity).
- Praise, Fame, and Gain : You want to prove that you can do something hard, something that shows you deserve to sit at the adult table of intellect.
Thelma is here, and she’s second to none:
She came to make real Motive Number One.Existentialism is the most popular undergrad philosophy course for a reason. It speaks to the horror and vertigo you actually are—anxious, thrown, absurd, alienated—and it consoles you by saying, “This is not a bug; this is the starting point. Now see here …”
This is why Thelma’s presentation hits so hard: she uses word magic to get you to feel the meaning of “existence precedes essence.” Feeling is where soul rubber hits existential road.
Feel, and then see: your life has no built-in script; this moment right now is your chance to write one.
If you’ve ever wondered whether philosophy can actually change how you experience being alive, this is the episode where you find out.
Some Amazing Riffs
What would take the average person three three-hour seminars to explain, Thelma covers in 27 minutes. If a meetup person tried to do this, it would take five weeks, would be opaque, and still be wrong.
She does this clarity-n-brevity combo that’s hard to believe. Usually the briefer something is, the more obscure; usually the clearer, the longer. Thelma does clear yet brief using a Judo I cannot fathom. Listen to this line —
“Kierkegaard counsels us to sink into despair so that we can make the leap of faith to God; Nietzsche counsels us to become gods, joyous, hard, independent supermen. And Nietzsche tells us why he rejects a philosophy of despair: He is afraid that it would destroy him. To Nietzsche philosophies are not merely intellectual games; philosophies have psychological effects, the power to enhance and strengthen your life, and even health, or to weaken and destroy you. And Nietzsche says that he created his philosophy of the strong, life-arming superman ‘out of my will to be in good health, out of my will to live … self-preservation forbade me to practice a philosophy of wretchedness and discouragement.’”
And then she does the impossible: she brings these currents alongside Marx, showing that Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche are all crisis-diagnosticians and prescribers of transformation tech. Each identifies a crisis in the human spirit — whether social, existential, or cultural — and prescribes a radical cure. Marx reads consciousness as shaped by material relations and calls for revolutionary praxis; Nietzsche reads it as deformed by slave morality and calls for a revaluation of all values; Kierkegaard reads it as sedated by Christendom and calls for the solitary leap into authentic faith. Different diagnoses, different therapies — but all aimed at breaking the spell of the present condition and remaking the self.
If you had to name the general attitude uniting the three? How about the Philosophy of Crisis and Cure—each turns philosophy into a therapy for the epochal sickness of the soul.
We can lay this out inside the Buddha’s four-fold disease/cure model —
- there is a sickness (modern despair, alienation, nihilism)
- it has a cause (metaphysical illusion, social estrangement, historical deformation)
- there is a possible cessation (faith, revaluation of values, revolution)
- there is a path to actualize it (leap of faith, creation of new values, praxis).
(Lo and behold, this is why “Buddhism and Existentialism” is one of the top comparative topics in academic publishing: scholars love pointing out how Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre form a Western mirror of Ch’an/Zen’s insistence on breaking ordinary mind and rediscovering authentic being. Incidentally, Landmark/EST markets itself as “Heidegger and Zen.”)
More Exciting than a Historical Reenactment
Thelma is really in her element this time. This is Existentialism delivered by an Existentialist: clear, personal, oozing with Sorge.
There are things in this world worse than ordinary physical pain. Chief among them is a life not worth living. Looks like Existentialism is Socrates 2.0, a reenactment of the elenchus but now aimed at modern times, with the angst of modernity standing in for Athens’ Peloponnesian War trauma. It is the same question, “How shall we live?”, but now intensified by the awareness that meaning itself is contingent, constructed, fragile, abyssal, empty.
You’ve Always Been an Existentialist, but You Didn’t Know It
And you still don’t know now, even though you think you do. Why? Because we’ve all been taught Existentialism the wrong way. Just as “thesis–antithesis–synthesis” ruins Hegel, so also “existence precedes essence” ruins Sartre when not taken rightly.
Existentialism is so true and so important that you can’t even criticize it, much less understand it, until you have already agreed with it. So to all the selves reading this—congratulations on finally coming home. Because in this episode you will meet someone for the very first time. Someone you’ve never met before.
Yourself.
But you’re not going to meet this familiar stranger in the ordinary way you meet people. No—you’re going to learn Thelma’s way: the way of transformative understanding that combines pleasure, depth, and clarity in a simplicity that doesn’t conceal.
How is Thelma’s psychedelic pedagogy, which culminates in authentic self-encounter, different from the ordinary boring way of teaching Existentialism? The difference is made clear by the founder of the Existentialist cult that successfully brainwashed me into working for them without pay for five years. Listen carefully to the wisdom in this leaked footage from an actual cult seminar here!
BTW, if you thought Thelma was skipping around when she went Hume → Hegel → Marx → Sartre—rejoice! Nothing has been left behind. In this jaw-dropping True Miracle of a lecture she weaves together Kierkegaard’s despair, Nietzsche’s death of God, Hume’s empiricism, Descartes’ rationalism, Parmenides’ eternal being, Romanticism, German Idealism, World War I, Marx’s theory of alienation, Hegel’s dialectic, Heidegger’s being-toward-death, Pascal’s finitude, and Sartre’s absurdity—everything necessary to prepare us for the full existential confrontation with nothingness, freedom, and authenticity.
She scoops from the bottom of the thick bucket of Western philosophy so we get the whole flavor of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century thought. Amazingly thorough—never boring. Behold what she delivers in 27 minutes:
I. Philosophers
- Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) — anxiety, despair, leap of faith, restoration of Christianity.
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) — death of God, Übermensch, life-affirmation.
- David Hume — empiricism, one of the blows to the belief in God.
- René Descartes — clear and distinct ideas, God as guarantor of truth.
- Parmenides — unchanging eternal being, used to clarify Nietzsche’s claim.
- Karl Marx — economic alienation, division of labor, social critique.
- G.W.F. Hegel — alienation, Absolute Spirit, Cunning of Reason, dialectic of history.
- Martin Heidegger — being-toward-death, authenticity, anxiety.
- Jean-Paul Sartre — death as absurdity, existence precedes essence, key existentialist themes.
- Blaise Pascal — finitude and fear of infinity, early forerunner of existentialist absurdity.
II. Historical Eras & Movements
- German Idealism (Kant, Hegel, post-Kantian developments).
- Romanticism — revolt against Enlightenment rationalism, focus on spirit and subjectivity.
- Enlightenment — its belief in progress, rationalism, and science as background foil.
- Modernity — crisis of meaning, loss of stable authorities, secularization.
- Industrial Revolution — mechanization and alienation of labor.
- Communist Revolution of 1917 — shattering of political stability.
- World War I — collapse of the myth of progress and European order.
- Great Depression (1920s–30s) — economic destabilization, failure of classical economics.
III. Intellectual Currents & Themes
- Empiricism — Hume’s assault on metaphysics and theology.
- Rationalism — criticized as “trap of essence.”
- Essentialism — opposed to existentialism’s priority of existence.
- Psychology / Psychologizing Philosophy — neurotic/psychotic states, subjective interiority.
- Alienation — individual from society, self from self, human from nature, lovers from each other.
- Absurdity & Nothingness — contingency of existence, existential void.
- Authenticity vs. Bad Faith — emerging from Kierkegaard/Heidegger/Sartre lineage.
Conclusion
Friends, life hurts. Many of us cry and say, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” To this Abraham says, “Child, I will send Thelma.”
The world is on fire, but Thelma is come. Lay your anxiety, your despair, your bad faith, and your love of joy and clarity—and your hope that philosophy might finally live up to its promise to touch you in a way that actually matters—at her lotus feet. Hand in hand, we will discover together why existence really is absurd, and why that’s the best news you’ll hear all week.
METHOD
Please watch the tiny 27-minute episode before the event. We will then replay a few short clips during the event for debate and discussion. A version with vastly improved audio can be found here:
Summaries, notes, event chatlogs, episode transcripts, timelines, tables, observations, and downloadable PDFs (seek the FSTS Book Vault) of the episodes we cover can be found here:
ABOUT PROFESSOR LAVINE
Dr. Lavine was professor of philosophy and psychology as Wells College, Brooklyn College, the University of Maryland (10 years), George Washington University (20), and George Mason University (13). She received the Outstanding Faculty Member award while at the University of Maryland and the Outstanding Professor award during her time at George Washington University.
She was not only a Dewey scholar, but a committed evangelist for American pragmatism.
View all of our coming episodes here.
- Hegel's Science of Logic (Chapter 1: Being)Link visible for attendees
At this meeting we'll be discussing Remark 1: The Opposition of Being and Nothing in Ordinary Thinking, which begins on page 83, and Remark 2: Defectiveness of the Expression 'Unity, Identity of Being and Nothing' which begins on page 90. Also, for those who are interested, we'll be talking about the first chapter (p. 1-39) of Robert Pippin's Hegel's Realm of Shadows at the end of the two hour meeting.
During the meetings we'll be using the Miller translation. The pdf of the Miller can be found here (link).
Hegel's Science of Logic (1812–1816) is a landmark in German idealism and a radical rethinking of logic as the living structure of reality itself. Rather than treating logic as a neutral tool or set of rules, Hegel presents it as the dynamic structure of reality and self-consciousness. He develops a system of dialectical reasoning in which concepts evolve through contradictions and their resolutions. In contrast to his early collaborator and philosophical rival Friedrich Schelling, who emphasized the role of intuition and nature in the Absolute, Hegel insists that pure thought — developed immanently from itself — is the true foundation of metaphysics. The work is divided into three major parts: Being, Essence, and Concept (or Notion), each tracing the development of increasingly complex categories of thought. For Hegel, logic is not abstract or static; it is the unfolding of the Absolute, the rational core of existence.
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This is a discussion group for Hegel's Science of Logic. We have read several of Friedrich Schelling's works, including Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (1809), Ages of the World (c. 1815), and the Historical-Critical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mythology (1845), Anyone with an interest in philosophy is free to join in the meetings.
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