About us
"Those who can be made to believe absurdities can be made to commit atrocities."
- Voltaire
Come and join a friendly group of people in Fairfax, Virginia for monthly Sunday discussions of the ideas of the European Enlightenment, also known as the “Age of Voltaire.” These ideas include the following:
- A critical attitude toward religion
- A profound respect for reason and science as sources of knowledge
- The idea of individual rights and a free society
- The importance of freedom of speech for a free society
- Human happiness or flourishing as a moral standard
We’ll look at the writings of Voltaire and his contemporaries (such as Diderot, d’Alembert, and Paine), as well as much more recent writings that may fit into the Enlightenment tradition (including works by Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins).
Our first project was a set of discussions on Steven Pinker’s book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
The group host is Frederick Seiler, author of God Versus Nature: The Conflict Between Religion and Science in History.
Upcoming events
2
Explaining Postmodernism by Stephen Hicks, Chapter 1
Panera Bread, 8365 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA, USWhere did political correctness and "woke" come from? At least part of the answer lies in the modern development of Postmodernism.
This meeting will be the first of a series of discussions of the book Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, by Stephen Hicks. For the meeting, please read (or listen to) chapter 1.
This book can be found in audiobook format on YouTube, read by the author, entirely for free:
YOUTUBE LINK
The book is available in multiple formats on Amazon:
LINK
Tracing postmodernism from its roots in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant to their development in thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Richard Rorty, philosopher Stephen Hicks provides a provocative account of why postmodernism has been the most vigorous intellectual movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.Why do skeptical and relativistic arguments have such power in the contemporary intellectual world? Why do they have that power in the humanities but not in the sciences? Why has a significant portion of the political Left--the same Left that traditionally promoted reason, science, equality for all, and optimism--now switched to themes of anti-reason, anti-science, double standards, and cynicism?
Explaining Postmodernism is intellectual history with a polemical twist, providing fresh insights into the debates underlying the furor over political correctness, multiculturalism, and the future of liberal democracy.
7 attendeesExplaining Postmodernism, Chapter 2
Panera Bread, 8365 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA, USWhere did political correctness and "woke" come from? At least part of the answer lies in the modern development of Postmodernism.
This meeting will be the first of a series of discussions of the book Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, by Stephen Hicks. For the meeting, please read (or listen to) chapter 2.
This book can be found in audiobook format on YouTube, read by the author, entirely for free:
YOUTUBE LINK
The book is available in multiple formats on Amazon:
LINK
Tracing postmodernism from its roots in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant to their development in thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Richard Rorty, philosopher Stephen Hicks provides a provocative account of why postmodernism has been the most vigorous intellectual movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.Why do skeptical and relativistic arguments have such power in the contemporary intellectual world? Why do they have that power in the humanities but not in the sciences? Why has a significant portion of the political Left--the same Left that traditionally promoted reason, science, equality for all, and optimism--now switched to themes of anti-reason, anti-science, double standards, and cynicism?
Explaining Postmodernism is intellectual history with a polemical twist, providing fresh insights into the debates underlying the furor over political correctness, multiculturalism, and the future of liberal democracy.
5 attendees
Past events
39
