What we’re about
Philosophy is the way we organize our thinking and is the gauge of our values. Philosophy is the critical function of our consciousness and provides the means for us to adjudicate the content of our existence. Philosophy is the guidance navigation system and the high-altitude mapping of our mental and social environments. Philosophy renders the cognitive fat from our thinking, distills meaning from our lives, and tempers our moral and psychic steel.
We will read and discuss philosophy books and articles.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Acquiring Character Traits -- Aristotle's Nicomachean EthicsLink visible for attendees
August 31 - We are reading NE VII.6, which is about the problem of self-control in regard to emotions. Aristotle in this chapter 6 attempts to outline a description of how we react emotionally to things observed in the environment. Being short in temper, for example, is anger that listens to reason but mishears it. Aristotle likens it to a dog that starts barking when it hears the slightest noise before finding out if the noisemaker is a friend. How to re-calibrate our emotions to be more in tune with reason. That's partly the topic of self-control.
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My summary of chapter 5 on beastliness can be found here to help you catch up to us. https://mega.nz/file/nmAFlShI#8W230CZmaUZYfqzLma0qTYE9gxpLvV9vvz1pQDyN6tE Bring your own questions about the text if you are interested in joining this Sunday's meeting. We will begin reading at 1149a24.
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We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's ~Nicomachean Ethics~, book VII, which is about troubleshooting the virtues.
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The prerequisite to this book is our answering for ourselves these questions from the prior books, to which we will briefly review:
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1. What is a virtue of character {ēthikē aretē}?
2. How does one come to acquire it? (E.g. [Aristotle’s], ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, …)
3. From a first-person perspective in being virtuous, how does one feel and what does one see (differently, discursively) in a given situation of everyday living?
4. From a third-person perspective, how is the virtuous person (of a specific virtue) to be characterized?
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows. - Aristotle's On Interpretation - Live-Reading--European StyleLink visible for attendees
September 2 - We continue reading chapter 14, the last chapter of On Interpretation. It is roughly about knowing the knowable through belief. Up until now, Aristotle has been focusing on the relationship between the knowing and the things that are known. Now, in the final chapter, he turns his attention toward the relationship between the knowing and the beliefs we craft so as to lasso-grasp the things that are known. And the latter may involve deceit (and self-deception). The bookmark is set at Bekker line 23a27. George will read and interpret the fourth paragraph.
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The chapter review most relevant to the third paragraph is chapter 6. Here is my review of it. https://mega.nz/file/anJBwDZZ#MKELep93ey2WkvPXkMx42dbpPL5Exa0lAs1DnYLqGek
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Join the meeting, keep pen and notepad at the ready, and participate.
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Organon means "instrument," as in, instrument for thought and speech. The term was given by ancient commentators to a group of Aristotle's treatises comprising his logical works.Organon
|-- Categories ---- 2023.02.28
|-- On Interpretation ---- 2023.12.12
|-- Topics
|-- On Sophistical Refutations
|-- Rhetoric*
|-- Prior Analytics
|-- Posterior Analytics(* Robin Smith, author of SEP's 2022 entry "Aristotle's Logic," argues that Rhetoric should be part of the Organon.)
Whenever we do any human thing, we can either do it well or do it poorly. With instruments, we can do things either better, faster, and more; or worse, slower, and less. That is, with instruments they either augment or diminish our doings.
Do thinking and speaking (and writing and listening) require instruments? Yes. We do need physical instruments like microphones, megaphones, pens, papers, computers. But we also need mental instruments: grammar, vocabulary words, evidence-gathering techniques, big-picture integration methods, persuasion strategies. Thinking while sitting meditatively all day in a lotus position doesn't require much instrumentation of any kind, but thinking and speaking well in the sense of project planning, problem-solving, negotiating, arguing, deliberating--that is, the active doings in the world (whether romantic, social, commercial, or political)--do require well-honed mental instruments. That's the Organon in a nutshell.
Are you an up-and-coming human being, a doer, go-getter, achiever, or at least you're choosing to become one? You need to wield the Organon.
Join us.
- Acquiring Character Traits -- Aristotle's Nicomachean EthicsLink visible for attendees
We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's ~Nicomachean Ethics~, book VII, which is about troubleshooting the virtues.
.
The prerequisite to this book is our answering for ourselves these questions from the prior books, to which we will briefly review:
.
1. What is a virtue of character {ēthikē aretē}?
2. How does one come to acquire it? (E.g. [Aristotle’s], ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, …)
3. From a first-person perspective in being virtuous, how does one feel and what does one see (differently, discursively) in a given situation of everyday living?
4. From a third-person perspective, how is the virtuous person (of a specific virtue) to be characterized?
.
.
The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.
