About us
Please see our meetup recordings
and blog
We will meet online to discuss "philosophies" through the history and around the world.
The main thing we ask for is the commitment to discuss in a rational and civil manner. Open to people across the political, philosophic and faith (or lack thereof) spectrum.
It does not matter if you are beginner or advanced philosophy or hobbyists -- our focus is good, critical thinking skills (or the desire to cultivate them) and a commitment to rational, civil conversation.
Please join us to :
1. Sharing your reading/experiences
2. Asking questions
3. Discussing
4. Learning new ideas
5. Comparing with different Philosophies
6. Making friends.
7. More ...
Upcoming events
9
![Nietzsche: The Gay Science [Session 83]](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/d/1/4/f/highres_522113583.jpeg)
Nietzsche: The Gay Science [Session 83]
·OnlineOnlineWhile the Walter Kaufmann translation is preferred, a link to the free Cambridge translation is here. For this Meetup, we will read aphorisms 331-342, and discuss them one at a time and get as far as we get, carrying forward any undiscussed aphorisms to the following week.
It’s 1882, and a friend has just given you a copy and recommendation of a book by a former professor of philology named Friedrich Nietzsche. Your friend says that he seems to be a philosopher of some sort, even though he doesn’t write like one, and in this book he argues, among a lot of other provocative things, that God Is dead!
This Is the beginner’s mind that this Meetup will take with this book. You may know his contemporaries and antecedents, but you’re here to share YOUR thoughts, not those of subsequent critics.
Recordings and AI summaries of previous sessions are available here.
Suggested texts: The Portable Neitzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann and The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann
Syllabus (titles are linked to free PDF’s, most of which require a free academia.edu account)
The Gay Science (academia.edu)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Beyond Good and Evil (academia.edu)*
On The Genealogy of Morals (academia.edu)*
The Case of Wagner*
Twilight of the Idols** (academia.edu)
The Antichrist**
Ecce Homo*
Nietzsche Contra Wagner**
*The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann
**Walter Kaufmann’s, The Portable Nietzsche2 attendeesNietzsche: The Gay Science [Session 83]
·OnlineOnlineWhile the Walter Kaufmann translation is preferred, a link to the free Cambridge translation is here. For this Meetup, we will read aphorisms 331-342, and discuss them one at a time and get as far as we get, carrying forward any undiscussed aphorisms to the following week.
It’s 1882, and a friend has just given you a copy and recommendation of a book by a former professor of philology named Friedrich Nietzsche. Your friend says that he seems to be a philosopher of some sort, even though he doesn’t write like one, and in this book he argues, among a lot of other provocative things, that God Is dead!
This Is the beginner’s mind that this Meetup will take with this book. You may know his contemporaries and antecedents, but you’re here to share YOUR thoughts, not those of subsequent critics.
Recordings and AI summaries of previous sessions are available here.
Suggested texts: The Portable Neitzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann and The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann
Syllabus (titles are linked to free PDF’s, most of which require a free academia.edu account)
The Gay Science (academia.edu)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Beyond Good and Evil (academia.edu)*
On The Genealogy of Morals (academia.edu)*
The Case of Wagner*
Twilight of the Idols** (academia.edu)
The Antichrist**
Ecce Homo*
Nietzsche Contra Wagner**
*The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann
**Walter Kaufmann’s, The Portable Nietzsche2 attendees
Homeric Epics, The Odyssey, June 28, 2026, 5th of 8 Mtgs, Please read Bks 1-6
·OnlineOnlineSession #5 of 8
Now our group moves to the first sequel in the western epic poetry tradition: The Odyssey.From Troy to Ithaca: What to Expect in Homer's Odyssey
If the Iliad is a war poem — driven by Achilles' rage, massed armies, and the grief of collective catastrophe — the Odyssey is its near-opposite: a homecoming story powered by cunning, survival, and the longing for family.The hero changes everything. Achilles burns with transparent, volcanic emotion; Odysseus thinks, disguises, and endures. Where the Iliad is linear and concentrated around Troy, the Odyssey is episodic and wide-ranging — Cyclopes, enchantresses, the land of the dead — and more varied in tone, accommodating folktale, comedy, and domestic warmth alongside genuine danger.
The gods shift dramatically between the two poems. In the Iliad, the Olympians are boisterous and intensely present — taking wounds, quarreling, fighting alongside mortals on the battlefield. In the Odyssey, they pull back into something more like a moral framework. Athena guides and protects Odysseus from behind a series of disguises, while Poseidon's wrath drives the entire plot. The divine feels less chaotic and more purposeful — concerned with justice and the proper restoration of order.
Women play a far larger role. Penelope matches her husband in intelligence and resolve, and figures like Circe, Calypso, and Nausicaa are among antiquity's most vivid female characters. The Iliad's world of women exists largely as what war destroys; the Odyssey makes the household itself the prize worth fighting for.
Most strikingly, the Odyssey quietly revises Iliadic values. When Odysseus visits the underworld, Achilles — who chose glory over long life — confesses he'd rather be a living slave than king among the dead.
Editions [available from your local library or online]:
Any English verse translation, but we recommend:
The Odyssey, Norton Critical Edition. Translated by Emily Wilson, W. W. Norton, 2020, ISBN: 9780393655063Online via Zoom
RSVP for the link.Schedule of Readings:
May 03, 2026 - Homer: The Iliad, Books 1-6
May 17, 2026 - Homer: The Iliad, Books 7-12
May 31, 2026 - Homer: The Iliad, Books 13-18
Jun 14, 2026 - Homer: The Iliad, Books 19-24
Jun 28, 2026 - Homer: The Odyssey, Books 1-6 [Topics]
July 12, 2026 - Homer: The Odyssey, Books 7-12
July 26, 2026 - Homer: The Odyssey, Books 13-18
Aug 09, 2026 - Homer: The Odyssey, Books 19-24Summary of previous sessions:
Coming soonFor 2026 [subject to change]:
Homer: Iliad/Odyssey
Norton: Epic of Gilgamesh
Virgil: Georgics/Aeneid
Ovid: Metamorphosis /Erotic Poems
Eliot: Four Quartets2 attendeesNietzsche: The Gay Science [Session 83]
·OnlineOnlineWhile the Walter Kaufmann translation is preferred, a link to the free Cambridge translation is here. For this Meetup, we will read aphorisms 331-342, and discuss them one at a time and get as far as we get, carrying forward any undiscussed aphorisms to the following week.
It’s 1882, and a friend has just given you a copy and recommendation of a book by a former professor of philology named Friedrich Nietzsche. Your friend says that he seems to be a philosopher of some sort, even though he doesn’t write like one, and in this book he argues, among a lot of other provocative things, that God Is dead!
This Is the beginner’s mind that this Meetup will take with this book. You may know his contemporaries and antecedents, but you’re here to share YOUR thoughts, not those of subsequent critics.
Recordings and AI summaries of previous sessions are available here.
Suggested texts: The Portable Neitzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann and The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann
Syllabus (titles are linked to free PDF’s, most of which require a free academia.edu account)
The Gay Science (academia.edu)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Beyond Good and Evil (academia.edu)*
On The Genealogy of Morals (academia.edu)*
The Case of Wagner*
Twilight of the Idols** (academia.edu)
The Antichrist**
Ecce Homo*
Nietzsche Contra Wagner**
*The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann
**Walter Kaufmann’s, The Portable Nietzsche2 attendees
Past events
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