What we’re about
Hello everyone and happy autumn! I’m Tom and I am facilitating the former Waterloo Philosophy Book Club.
Depending on feedback from attendees, I will try some different approaches to how the meetup might be most enjoyable and attractive to participants who want to have an additional opportunity in their schedules to meet and discuss ‘big ideas’. To start, I want to keep things simple for the first meetups of the Kitchener/Waterloo (Faux) Philosophy Book Club, but still engaging. (You will need to come to our meetup to get the explanation as to why Faux…?)
We will therefore aim to explore readily accessible, thought-provoking articles, videos and podcasts that offer some combination of content, context, perspectives and further questions. While we want to use the designated items to focus the session, the discussions will be minimally facilitated and mostly unstructured.
Please note that there is a change of venue from the previous one. We will meet monthly on a Saturday morning at The Catalyst, 137 Glasgow St., specifically in the space around the Stockyards coffee shop that greets you at the primary entrance. It is a large facility however the front entrance is not too hard to spot in case you have not visited before.
So that’s the story for the moment. Happy to have any feedback or questions. Please share with anyone who you think might like to engage in a friendly exploration of ideas.
Upcoming events (1)
See all- Three (Faux) Philosophy Explorations - Short but SweetCatalyst 137, Kitchener, ON
Hello everyone.
I want to thank everyone who came out last Saturday for our first meeting of the season. The group seemed to enjoy the discussion and were good with the concept of some eclectic and relatively short readings paired with a video or perhaps podcast. In this spirit, here are the items I stumbled on for our next meeting planned for December 14th, 10 am at the Catalyst - ***Stockyards Cafe***
The first reading is a well-known essay by Thomas Nagel, “What is it like to be a bat?” available for download at https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Nagel_Bat.pdf. Nagel explores the limits of human understanding when it comes to the subjective experiences of other creatures, like bats. This piece delves into the philosophy of mind, emphasizing the importance of subjective experience, or "consciousness," and the idea that some aspects of reality may be inaccessible to human comprehension.
The second item is likely even better known, "On Bulls#^*t” by Harry Frankfurt, available for download at https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400826537/html. A witty and philosophical take on a very human phenomenon. His essay provides an amusing yet insightful analysis into why people engage in bulls#^*t and how it shapes communication and public discourse.
Finally, Meghan O’Glieblyn is a young(ish) American writer/essayist who focuses on topics such as religion, spirituality and technology. She brings a philosophical lens and an unconventional background to her writing. I found an entertaining lecture she did that I hope you will find engaging. You can find it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTXleWp5fUA.
There it is! Looking forward to our next meetup. Please share this with any friends who might like to partake.
