The Toronto Philosophy Meetup

In this series we will discuss great questions of philosophy. You could call what we are doing debate style or open forum, but participants are free to give their ideas and challenge others while discussing the topic of the week. Each week I will choose from one of hundreds of topics such as: are humans innately good or evil, what makes us human, did you exist before you were born, and does god (a supreme mind) exist. I think a Socratic method/critical analysis of questions where each assumption held on a particular topic is questioned to dig deeper is a good way to make progress.

This time we will debate/discuss the question: Is mind body dualism correct?

Let us hear what you think.

(The Zoom link will be posted shortly before the event.)

"Much will be gained if we succeed in transforming your hysterical misery into common unhappiness."

Join CogSci’s Psychoanalysis Reading Group as we explore the case studies that laid the foundation for the Freudian revolution.
Each session dives into Freud’s Studies on Hysteria, the text that launched the Psychoanalytic movement. These early case studies not only shaped Freud’s thinking but sparked the emergence of psychoanalysis as a discipline.

Freud’s ideas have left a lasting mark on science, philosophy, and art. As part of a cognitive science community, we welcome interdisciplinary perspectives. No background in psychoanalysis is required—just a curious mind!

Note: This is a discussion group, not a therapeutic space. I’m not a licensed therapist—just a fellow enthusiast.

The book is in the public domain and available online or in print:
https://www.amazon.com/Studies-Hysteria-Penguin-Classics-Sigmund/dp/0142437492

This critique group is kept private to preserve the privacy of critique submissions. Most don't RSVP on Meetup.

To join, please email Erik at tigurini@protonmail.com and include in your message: (1) A description of your current writing project(s), (2) Your goals for joining this writer's critique group, (3) And a brief history of yourself as a writer, including past projects, education, and related. Your message doesn't have to be anything fancy. We just wish to make sure that you're serious about observing and that your intentions/projects are a good fit for this critique group.

About:
As the title suggests, we critique writing that is speculative (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, surrealism, slipstream, etc.), philosophical (idea-driven, writing with a message, etc.), and experimental (unusual language, visual/musical aspects, transgressive, etc.). All writing submitted for critique should fit at least one of these categories. We are happy to include work in all formats (poetry, prose, playwriting, screenplay, libretto, graphic novel, and hybrid) and for any audiences (adults, YA, and kids).

Some Example Works:
Of course, the written works and authors that inspire us may vary, and widely. Nonetheless, here's a list of some written works and authors that have inspired us, and which we might use as an (incomplete) list of the kind of writing that could be submitted to this critique group.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Ice, Anna Kavan; Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick; The Waves, Virginia Woolf; The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin; The Street of Crocodiles, Bruno Shulz; Stories of Your Life, Ted Chiang; The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser; The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa; The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft; Don't Bite The Sun, Tanith Lee; Illuminations, Arthur Rimbaud; The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald; The Three Body Problem, Liu Cixin; Moby Dick, Herman Melville; Kindred, Octavia E Butler; The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood; The Divine Comedy, Dante; The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle; A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen; Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire; Blindsight, Peter Watts; The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Leguin; Sweat, Lynn Nottage; The Song of Maldoror, Comte de Lautremont; Solaris, Stanislaw Lem; Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy; Dune, Frank Herbert; Star Maker, Olaf Stapledon.

Critique Group Structure:

• Meets weekly Thursdays from 6:00pm-7:30pm PT / 9:00pm-10:30pm ET
• Submission length maximum: 20,000 words (many submissions are shorter).
• Back-to-back weekly submissions for novelists + long form writers are encouraged.
• Participants are expected to closely read the submission and arrive prepared to discuss it in depth for 1.5 hours.
• If, for whatever reason, a participant can't read the submission in time for our meeting and/or can't attend our meeting, that participant is urged to provide a written (or audio recorded) summary of feedback to the submitting writer through DM on our Discord.
• Active participation is required to ensure all members' best interests. A member can be removed from the group if found absent in critique sessions for more than 3 months. Should one wish to rejoin the group, please message me directly either in Discord or via email.

Community:
We're a serious yet fun group of writers with eclectic projects and tastes. We're always looking to meet new friends and grow our community, so we hope you'll consider observing a critique group - and if we're a good fit for one another, continuing to hang out with us Thursday evenings!

You can read our full syllabus under the category "Writer's Critique Groups." The rest of the writer's critique group channels are kept hidden to preserve the privacy of critique submissions, but will be opened up to you when your observation has been confirmed.

Commitments:
This critique group's structure expects a weekly attendance commitment, so it's only right for writers who are committed to writing and critiquing.

At this meeting we will be discussing the Internal Organization of the System of Speculative Physics in the Introduction to the Outline, beginning with Section B, at the bottom of page 219, and then, if we have time, we'll look at a couple passages in the General Theory of the Chemical Process in Section IV of the Third Division.

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.

The edition we will be using can be found here: https://www.amazon.ca/First-Outline-System-Philosophy-Nature/dp/0791460045

PDF:
https://monoskop.org/images/1/17/Schelling_Friedrich_First_Outline_of_a_System_of_the_Philosophy_of_Nature.pdf

The introduction to Ideas Toward a Philosophy of Nature (1797) is good supplementary reading, and can be found here:
https://annas-archive.org/md5/40a5728d516263c265ba4f1cca939a4f

Please note that, for the foreseeable future, the meetings will be held at 11:30 PM ET (8:30 PM PT).

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About the text:

First Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature is F. W. J. Schelling's first systematic attempt to articulate a complete philosophy of nature. Appearing here in English for the first time, this is Schelling's vital document of the attempts of German Idealism and Romanticism to recover a deeper relationship between humanity and nature and to overcome the separation between mind and matter. Written in 1799 and building upon his earlier work, the text provides the most inclusive exposition of Schelling's philosophy of the natural world. He presents a startlingly contemporary model of an expanding and contracting universe; a unified theory of electricity, gravity magnetism, and chemical forces; and, perhaps most importantly, a conception of nature as a living and organic whole.