What we’re about
Welcome to the Toronto Philosophy Meetup! This is a community for anyone interested in philosophy, including newcomers to the subject. We host discussions, talks, reading groups, pub nights, debates, and other events on an inclusive range of topics and perspectives in philosophy, drawing from an array of materials (e.g. philosophical writings, for the most part, but also movies, literature, history, science, art, podcasts, current events, ethnographies, and whatever else seems good.)
Anyone is welcomed to host philosophy-related events here.
We also welcome speakers and collaborations with other groups.
Join us at an event soon for friendship, cooperative discourse, and mental exercise!
Feel free to propose meetup topics (you can do this on the Message Boards), and please contact us if you would like to be a speaker or host an event.
(NOTE: Most of our events are currently online because of the pandemic.)
"Philosophy is not a theory but an activity."
— from "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus", Wittgenstein
"Discourse cheers us to companionable
reflection. Such reflection neither
parades polemical opinions nor does it
tolerate complaisant agreement. The sail
of thinking keeps trimmed hard to the
wind of the matter."
— from "On the Experience of Thinking", Heidegger
See here for an extensive list of podcasts and resources on the internet about philosophy.
See here for the standards of conduct that our members are expected to abide by. Members should also familiarize themselves with Meetup's Terms of Service Agreement, especially the section on Usage and Content Policies.
See here for a list of other philosophy-related groups to check out in the Toronto area: https://4142298.xyz/The-Toronto-Philosophy-Meetup/pages/30522966/Other_Philosophy_Groups_in_the_Toronto_Area/
Please note that no advertising of external events, products, businesses, or organizations is allowed on this site without permission from the main Organizer.
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Make a Donation
Since 2016, the Toronto Philosophy Meetup has been holding regular events that are free, open to the public, and help to foster community and a culture of philosophy in Toronto and beyond. To help us continue to do so into the future, please consider supporting us with a donation! Any amount is most welcome.
You can make a donation here.
See here for more information and to meet our donors.
Supporters will be listed on our donors page unless they wish to remain anonymous. We thank them for their generosity!
If you would like to help out or support us in other ways (such as with any skills or expertise you may have), please contact us.
Note: You can also use the donation link to tip individual hosts. Let us know who you want to tip in the notes section. You can also contact hosts directly for ways to tip them.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian author regarded as a leading voice in contemporary African and postcolonial literature. Her works explore the complexities of the Nigerian and African experience, including dimensions of religion, culture, race, class, and gender, often interwoven with historical and political contexts. Her breakthrough second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), gained international acclaim for its depiction of the devastation caused by the Nigerian Civil War.
Adichie writes in English and Igbo, mixing both languages in her works, which have been translated into over thirty other languages. Citing Chinua Achebe and Buchi Emecheta as inspirations, her style juxtaposes Western and African influences, particularly the Igbo culture. Adichie has received numerous awards and accolades for her writing, including the Orange Prize for Fiction, the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
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This is a series of occasional meetups to discuss short stories by various authors. We started in the fall of 2023 and currently meet every other Sunday evening.
This time we will discuss "On Monday of Last Week" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a story about a Nigerian woman working as a nanny in the U.S. who becomes infatuated with her employer's wife. It's the fifth story in her 2009 collection The Thing Around Your Neck and originally published in Granta in 2007.
Please read the story in advance (25 pages) and bring your thoughts, queries, and favourite passages to share with us at the discussion. A pdf copy is available here.
Stories by Adichie we've previously discussed in this group:
🔥 BONUS: Adichie's 2009 TED talk “The danger of a single story” is the 14th most viewed TED Talk of all time with more than 50 million views. 🔥
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936) — Movie DiscussionLink visible for attendees
Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin’s last outing as the Little Tramp, puts the iconic character to work as a giddily inept factory worker who struggles to stay afloat in a world ruled by industry and automation, and who becomes smitten with a gorgeous gamine, lovingly played by Chaplin's future wife Paulette Goddard. With its barrage of unforgettable gags and sly commentary on class struggle during the Great Depression, Modern Times — though made almost a decade into the talkie era and containing moments of sound (even song!) — is a timeless showcase of Chaplin’s untouchable genius as a director of silent comedy.
"A slapstick skewering of industrialized America, Modern Times is as politically incisive as it is laugh-out-loud hilarious." (Rotten Tomatoes)
"Modern Times remains Chaplin's most sustained burlesque of authority." (Village Voice)
"In the swan song that is Modern Times, the Little Tramp displays the silliness, but also dignity, of the common man." (Detroit Free Press)
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Let's discuss the (mostly) silent film Modern Times (1936) written, directed, produced, edited, scored, and acted by Charlie Chaplin, recently voted the 78th greatest movie of all time in Sight & Sound's international survey of film critics and experts, and the 72nd greatest of all time in the related poll of filmmakers. The French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty named their influential journal, Les Temps modernes, after the movie. We also previously discussed Chaplin's satire of Hitler The Great Dictator (1940) and his most highly regarded film City Lights (1931) in this group.
Please watch the movie in advance and bring your thoughts, reactions, and queries to share with us at the meeting.
You can stream it here (check settings in the player to adjust quality) or rent it on various platforms online. (Try to watch the restored version!)
Check out other movie discussions in the group every Friday and occasionally other days.
- Kant 300: Religion Within the Bounds of Mere Reason, Part I (Live Reading)Link visible for attendees
We'll be starting from page 69 (German 6:18). As a break between Series One and Two in Kierkegaard's Works of Love, and to celebrate Kant's 300th anniversary, we will be reading Part I of Kant's Religion Within the Bounds of Mere Reason, which is titled, "Concerning the indwelling of the evil principle alongside the good or, Of the radical evil in human nature."
No familiarity with Kant (or Kierkegaard) is required, but one should expect comparisons between them as we read this text.
Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Religion-Rational-Theology-Cambridge-Immanuel/dp/0521799988
PDF: https://annas-archive.org/md5/06860d9900ece517d4b48d089153f833
On the Friday Meetings:
The Friday meetings started on January 1st, 2016 with an initial goal of reading through the first half of Kierkegaard's works. Due to continued interest, we have decided to return to previous works for review, study more background texts, and continue beyond the first half of Kierkegaard's writing.
Works read so far in the series:
- The Concept of Irony, With Continual Reference to Socrates (Kierkegaard)
- Notes of Schelling's Berlin Lectures (Kierkegaard)
- Either/Or (Victor Eremita, et al.)
- Two Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
- Fear and Trembling (Johannes de Silentio)
- Repetition (Constantin Constantius)
- Three Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
- Four Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
- Two Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
- Three Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
- Philosophical Fragments (Johannes Climacus)
- Johannes Climacus or De Omnibus Dubitandum Est (Johannes Climacus)
- Concept of Anxiety (Vigilius Haufniensis)
- Prefaces (Nicolaus Notabene)
- Writing Sampler (A.B.C.D.E.F. Godthaab)
- Four Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
- Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions (Kierkegaard)
- Stages on Life's Way (Hilarious Bookbinder)
- Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments (Johannes Climacus)
- The Sickness Unto Death (Anti-Climacus)
Works read for background:
- The First Love (Scribe)
- The Berlin Lectures (Schelling)
- Clavigo (Goethe)
- Faust Part I (Goethe)
- Antigone (Sophocles)
- Axioms (Lessing)
- The Little Mermaid (Anderson)
Works read inspired (at least in part) by Kierkegaard
- The Escape from God (Tillich)
- You Are Accepted (Tillich)
Some background on Soren Kierkegaard in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://iep.utm.edu/kierkega/
- Plato’s Euthyphro, on Holiness (Live Reading)Link visible for attendees
A fortuitous encounter between Socrates and Euthyphro in the portico of the Archon Basileus (King-Archon or Royal Magistrate) to whom both interlocutors are to present themselves, provides the dramatic setting of the dialogue. Socrates is to be subjected to an initial hearing, a public arraignment — not recorded in the dialogue or in any other platonic work — as part of the legal procedure initiated by the indictment that would eventually lead to his execution.
The dialogue introduces the famous "Euthyphro Dilemma", which questions whether something is good because the gods command it or if the gods command it because it is good. Euthyphro presents Socrates with four definitions of piety and each one of these turns to be inadequate. The dialogue explores themes of ethics, religion, and knowledge, reflecting Socrates’ midwife-like method of questioning and use of irony to expose ill-founded certainties and inconsistencies in reasoning.
Euthyphro along with The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo comprise the quartet of Plato’s works that are sometimes collectively called "The Trial and Death of Socrates". It is part of the first tetralogy of Platonic works and was composed in the late 390s or the early 380s BC. In the absence of ancient commentaries on Euthyphro periodic recourse will be taken to modern students of the work.
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This is a live reading of the Euthyphro. This Plato group meets on Saturdays and has previously read the Philebus, Gorgias, Critias, Laches, Timaeus, and other works, including texts for contextualisation such as Gorgias’ Praise of Helen. The reading is intended for well-informed generalists even though specialists are obviously welcome. It is our aspiration to read the Platonic corpus over a long period of time.
The host is Constantine Lerounis, a distinguished Greek philologist and poet, author of Four Access Points to Shakespeare’s Works (in Greek) and Former Advisor to the President of the Hellenic Republic. This session, November 2, is the introductory session for Euthyphro and hence an ideal opportunity to join the group without having to do any catching up.
The text can be found here.
- Genealogy of modern philosophy: Henry's views on community (Pathos-with)Link visible for attendees
We'll read Michel Henry's essay "Pathos-with" from his Material Phenomenology over two weeks. See below for some notes on the text. All texts are available in the Google folder linked at the very BOTTOM of this description - scroll down 👇
Please take the time to read and reflect on the reading prior to the meeting. Everyone is welcome to attend, but speaking priority will be given to people who have read the text.
Reading schedule:
Nov 23: Henry's critique of Husserl on the Other
Nov 30: Henry on community (Pathos-with)
Dec 7: Break
Dec 14: Deleuze's "Immanence: a Life"If you have attended past meetings, please fill out a brief feedback survey: https://forms.gle/tEMJ4tw2yVgnTsQD6
Join the Facebook group for more resources and discussion:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/755460079505498***
GROUP RULES
- Please spend 1-2 hours per week reading and preparing for the discussion.
- Keep your comments concise and relevant to the text.
- Please limit each comment to a maximum of 2-3 minutes. You're welcome to speak as many times as you wish.
- Virtual meeting courtesy: let's not interrupt each other and keep mics muted when not speaking.
- We'll focus the discussion with key passages and discussion questions. Be sure to bring your favorite passages, questions, comments, criticisms, etc.
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NOTES ON THE TEXT
Henry has rejected the theory of an intentionality-based community as found in Husserl and other phenomenologists. He now spells out his view of community as the shared affectivity of Pathos-with. Such a community has its origin in life itself and is therefore grounded in life’s auto-affection. As we know, life for Henry is immanent and absolute: it is a radical ‘here’ that knows no exteriority or transcendence and never goes outside of itself. And yet life is also subjectivity, experiencing itself in the first person (an I or ego) as an individuated ipseity. As immanent ipseity, life thus only ever experiences itself, even when it encounters its full experiential richness. This is only possible if life is in turn an auto-donation: it gives itself to itself in its full plenitude, and at the same time it is that which is given. Finally, this self-givenness of life (life as a gift to the living) implies its affectivity as pathos. Here Henry repeatedly emphasizes the receptive, material and felt relation of life to itself, in contrast to the intellectualism of Husserlian phenomenology.Turning to the question of community, Henry describes what is shared between self and other as a "subterranean layer" lying below cognitive intentionality and existential projection. This is a community of a shared life-pathos, a pathos-with, that is nevertheless a radically individuated life. Thus there is even an “abyss” separating the affects of the self from the affects of the other. In a way that must surely appear paradoxical from the standpoint of intentionality, the entirety of life is immanent to the singular individual: life is never more than the two feet on which it is standing. And yet life is shared between all individuals and is the common a priori basis for their community—indeed, not only of "rational beings" but of all beings capable of a suffering pathos. Accordingly, on the invisible level of primordial pathos-with, not even a distinction can be drawn between the self, the other, and the life that connects them. For distinction implies difference and negation, while life in its communal aspect is still pure fullness and immanence. This pathos-with is the fundamental intelligibility of that which connects all living beings—not as a biological nature or even a mode of activity, but as the original how of their givenness in, through and by life itself.
Although primordial life for Henry is prior to the world in every sense (cognitive or existential), the affective community in fact contains the world. Only, Henry explains, what is contained therein is neither the intentional world of scientific objectivity nor the existential existential world of pragmatic projection. Instead, this is the world in its primordial affective layer, the phenomenological materiality of the world of life into which living beings are thrown. This is the world of drive and desire, explored by psychoanalysis and what is later called ‘libidinal economy’. Relations where this pure materiality emerges are those of the mother-infant, hypnotist-hypnotized, analyst-patient, etc. The other in each case remains invisible from the standpoint of intentionality and can only be felt in the co-presence and consubstantiality of pathos-with.
Questions
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How could Henry claim that there is an “abyss” between my affects and those of the other, while also maintaining that at the level of life there is no primordial distinction between self, other and life itself?
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Henry claims that the real world does not fall outside of the affective community. And yet, isn't there a gaping abyss between life as he understands it and the world in any sense?
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By claiming that the individual and the community are consubstantial, Henry would hope to evade the extremes of individualism and collectivism. Is he successful, however, or does he have a bias in one direction or the other?
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Is there any reality of death for Henry at all (cf. Heidegger's being-towards-death or the Freudian death drive)? Or is death unreal, non-existent when seen from the perspective of absolute life (cf. "O death, where is thy sting?")
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All readings can be found in this Google folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VPRdvZYmUKBY3cSxD8xC8sTYtSEKBXDs
Art: Wassily Kandinsky — Improvisation 6 (African), 1909
