What we’re about
What we’re about
Guelph (Faux) Philosophy Book Club (GFPBC) is a monthly club that meets in Guelph, ON at 10 am on the first Saturday of each month. Our current home is the Red Brick Café on Douglas Street downtown.
We are not exactly a philosophy club, and not exactly a book club. We do aim to create a space to share and socialize a range of ‘big’ questions and the underlying concepts. While philosophical texts are one source of discussion, we will take advantage of articles, YouTube talks, documentaries and movies that offer worthwhile insights, and can feed our “love of wisdom”.
Each month we will focus on a topic, perhaps through a prompting question, and utilize one or several related sources to feed a discussion. I will do my best to pick sources that are accessible, at no or low cost.
I am relaunching the Meetup as the new organizer and keenly interested in any suggestions, so feel free to share any recommendations, questions, or thoughts through a direct message. Our next meeting will be October 6th (this is a Sunday, changing from Saturday) at 10 am til noon at The Redbrick (Thanksgiving is the 14th this year). I will share our topic and the reference materials over the next week or 2.
I look forward to meeting and exploring some interesting philosophical questions with you all!
Upcoming events (1)
See all- Three (Faux) Philosophy Explorations - Short but SweetThe Common, Guelph, ON
Hello All,
I hope everyone enjoyed last Sunday’s meetup. I think the articles helped stimulate the various discussions we had. When I pick the readings, I am always a little nervous about how they might land. I hope everyone enjoyed the session as much as I did. Thanks to the group that participated.As facilitator I try to pay attention to the meeting conditions and one minor but emerging irritant is how popular the Red Brick seems be on Sundays, now that we are later in the fall. ***It is very likely that we will switch venues for the next meeting. I am thinking about the Common Café, near city hall, but I need to scope a few options. Stay tuned and make a mental note to double check location for December.***
Our next meeting will be December 15 at 10 am, location to be confirmed.
Without further fanfare, here are the selections.
- Epiphenomenal Qualia (1982) by Frank Jackson (https://www.sfu.ca/~jillmc/JacksonfromJStore.pdf ) - a highly regarded essay by some, as there are always conflicting views, providing a comprehensive view into the existence of qualia and its impact.
- FACING UP TO THE PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS (1995) by David J. Chalmers (https://personal.lse.ac.uk/ROBERT49/teaching/ph103/pdf/chalmers1995.pdf ) - a widely cited essay that introduces the ‘hard problem of consciousness’.
- Who Needs Miracles? On Nature and the Miraculous (2024), Econtalk podcast (https://www.econtalk.org/who-needs-miracles-on-nature-and-the-miraculous-with-alan-lightman/ ) – Econtalk is a longstanding podcast originally framed around viewing the world through an economic lens. It has evolved over its 18 year lifespan, and this episode wanders through various topics, even more far-reaching than usual. Notwithstanding this it picks up on some themes from this month’s meetup.
So, there it is. Hopefully this fits into your schedule.
