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 and happy autumn! I’m Tom and I am facilitating the former Waterloo Philosophy Book Club.
I want to keep things simple for the first meetup of the Kitchener/Waterloo (Faux) Philosophy Book Club, but still very engaging. (You will need to come to our meetup to get the explanation as to why Faux…?)
We will therefore explore three readily accessible items that offer a lot all on their own, but also overlap and complement each other in ways that we can explore.
The first reading is the well-known convocation speech by David Foster Wallace, "This is Water", something of a guide to not drowning in the banality of adulthood. It can be downloaded/read at https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/ (which I recommend), or listened to at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCbGM4mqEVw.
The second item is "The Meaning of Life" by Richard Taylor, a short and cheerful reminder that it's all meaningless (unless you say otherwise). You can download at https://rintintin.colorado.edu/~vancecd/phil150/Taylor.pdf.
Finally, I stumbled across a charming documentary a while back, "Young Plato", a slightly off-beat examination of kids contemplating their existence while you question your own. While there maybe some free streaming sites, this one will cost you 4 bucks at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS8CzxozOYg.
Please note that there is a change of venue from the previous. We will meet at 10 am on Saturday, November 9th at The Catalyst, 137 Glasgow St., specifically 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.
