What we’re about
"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)
See all- "Effective Egoism" by Don Watkins, Cont'dPanera Bread, Vienna, VA
Let's continue our discussion of Effective Egoism: An Individualists Guide to Pride, Purpose, and the Pursuit of Happiness by Don Watkins. Inspired by Ayn Rand's philosophy, this philosophical self-help book is challenging, engaging, and full of ideas about happiness and how to achieve it. It costs only $5 for kindle or $10 for paperback.
LINK
Here is a video of Watkins talking about the book: LINKFor this meeting, try to read chapters 4 through 7.
I hope to see you there!
Fred
- The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen GreenblattPanera Bread, Vienna, VA
This is the first of two discussions on Stephen Greenblatt's Pulitzer-Prize-winning book The Swerve: How the World Became Modern.
In the winter of 1417, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties plucked a very old manuscript off a dusty shelf in a remote monastery, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. He was Poggio Bracciolini, the greatest book hunter of the Renaissance. His discovery, Lucretius’ ancient poem On the Nature of Things, had been almost entirely lost to history for more than a thousand years.
It was a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functions without the aid of gods, that religious fear is damaging to human life, that pleasure and virtue are not opposites but intertwined, and that matter is made up of very small material particles in eternal motion, randomly colliding and swerving in new directions. Its return to circulation changed the course of history. The poem’s vision would shape the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein, and—in the hands of Thomas Jefferson—leave its trace on the Declaration of Independence.
From the gardens of the ancient philosophers to the dark chambers of monastic scriptoria during the Middle Ages to the cynical, competitive court of a corrupt and dangerous pope, Greenblatt brings Poggio’s search and discovery to life in a way that deepens our understanding of the world we live in now.LINK
For this meeting, try to read chapters 1-7 (up to page 181).I hope to see you there!
Fred
