What we’re about
We're a community that practices and discusses philosophy, being free and open to all levels and backgrounds. We offer seminars, a variety of discussion formats, and the occasional lecture / guest speaker.
Many meetings will have fewer RSVPs than people who actually attend. This is because overtime people stop making use of Meetup.com and instead communicate with their groups via Discord, Slack, Zoom, E-mail, or similar You can think of the list of events hosted on this Meetup as advertisements for groups seeking new participants.
Our philosophy offerings are organized and facilitated by volunteers. If you have a philosophy offering - or an offering that compliments the study of philosophy, such as in literature, the sciences, and so on - that you'd like to advertise through this Meetup, please contact the organizer. We're grateful to those who want to enrich Portland with study and discussion!
Participants must speak, write, and act in a considerate, professional, and respectful manner, and be prepared for the meetings that they attend, having reviewed the materials to the degree necessary to participate. If you haven't reviewed the materials but still wish to attend an event, please consult the event facilitator regarding the best manner for you to be present.
We look forward to studying philosophy together!
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Bataille's Inner Experience: On ecstasy, fortune, laughter and loveLink visible for attendees
We continue with PART FOUR of Bataille's Inner Experience. We now look at several points of rupture that resist the totalizing movement of knowledge. We'll read the following sections:
from Inner Experience:
Ecstasy (p. 112)
Fortune (p. 128)
"Communication" (p. 93)from The Bataille Reader:
Laughter (p. 59)
Love (p. 94)You can find the Bataille text in the Google folder linked at the BOTTOM of this description (also the Zoom link) -- scroll all the way down 👇
Alongside the weekly discussions, we're reading Bataille's novel Blue of Noon (available in the Google Drive). We'll read it individually over several weeks, then dedicate a meeting to it (date TBA).
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.
Future topics:
- Bataille's aesthetics: the rift with Surrealism
- Blue of Noon
- Erotics and the 'logic' of transgression
- Bataille and/vs Deleuze
- Foucault's "A Preface to Transgression"
- Hegel, the negative and general economy
- Derrida's "From Restricted to General Economy"
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ABOUT THIS GROUP
This is a reading group of several texts of Georges Bataille with a focus on his philosophy of life. Bataille stands out as an eclectic, fascinating and controversial figure in the world of French letters. A contemporary of Sartre and Lacan, he combined ideas from diverse disciplines to create a unique position that he labeled 'base materialism' and which could equally be called 'ecstatic materialism'. Keeping outside the academic mainstream (he worked as a librarian), Bataille writes at the intersection of multiple disciplines including philosophy, psychoanalysis, sociology, mythology, and mystical theology. His works develop a libidinal economy, offer a critique of fascism and embrace marginal experiences in the style of the French poets. He is a formative precursor to the post-structuralist philosophers of the '60s -- and may well be more relevant in our time than ever.We'll start with Bataille's early writings on Nietzsche and make our way through his important concepts over a number of weeks. We'll aim to understand Bataille's thought on its own terms as well as to place him in the context of the German thinkers that preceded him and the French philosophers who followed his lead. In view of Bataille's early relationship with Surrealism, the referenced artworks will spotlight this movement.
Note: Bataille's texts, while philosophically important, discuss difficult themes such as mortality, the unconscious, eroticism, primeval social practices, etc. Keep this in mind as you approach him, especially if this is your first experience with French philosophy.
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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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A FEW NOTES ON THIS WEEK'S TEXT
TBA
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Join the Facebook group for more resources and discussion:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/755460079505498
If you have attended previous meetings, please fill out a brief survey at this link: https://forms.gle/tEMJ4tw2yVgnTsQD6All readings can be found in this Google folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VPRdvZYmUKBY3cSxD8xC8sTYtSEKBXDs
Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81251109319?pwd=R3hVQ2RqcVBvaHJwYnoxMFJ5OXJldz09Art: Yue Minjun,The Grassland Series Screenprint 4, 2008
- Acquiring Character Traits -- Aristotle's Nicomachean EthicsLink visible for attendees
June 15 - We are now ready to go through Aristotle's scenario of troubleshooting what we human beings call lacking self-control (despite our sincere intentions), which, in olden times, is called incontinence or weakness of will.
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Our bookmark is at NE VII.3, fourth part, 1147b6, on assessing the prior moment of losing self-control. Do read ahead if you are interested in joining this Sunday's meeting.
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When you are on a diet, and you feel hungry, it matters, according to Aristotle, whether you "see" this piece of cake either as fattening or as sweet. How are you supposed to "see" that? How should you "see" that?
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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, ambition, …)
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. - Plotinus - Ennead 5.8Link visible for attendees
We are doing a live readings of some of Plotinus' Enneads.
This meeting we will be continuing Ennead 5.8. We are on 5.8.7.
Here's the text: https://annas-archive.org/md5/e031996f00b79a2b9d96bc2597e89f2c
Thomas Taylor's translation will be our main text. He did not translate all of the Enneads, so we will fall back on Armstrong's translation as a secondary text. People are encouraged to read/refer to other translations as they like. - Designing The Perfect Society – 1on1 philosophical & political WORKSHOP (COH)Link visible for attendees
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
To be the speaking participant you must RSVP via Calendly.
The link to my Calendly calendar is available in my Egora profile:
Egora-ILP.org/philosopher/Cezary_JurewiczAll others are welcome to join to listen, use the chat, use the breakout rooms, and comment at the end.
About Citizen Office Hours:
If the Citizen is to be the highest authority in democracy, should we not have office hours to make ourselves available and accountable to our fellow citizens? The answer is YES – yes, we should.Also, in a democracy, there is no power without responsibility. If the citizens do not accept the responsibility of being citizens, then we do not really have any power – the power we might think we have is illusory. Therefore, all responsible citizens should make themselves available at their own "Citizen Office Hours".
This event is a publication of my Citizen Office Hours. I am making myself available to discuss any of my or your ideas published in Egora. Please be already registered for Egora before our meeting and at least somewhat familiar with my Ideological Profile so we can have a proper and thorough discussion. If you share your Ideological Profile in the comments in advance, i will take some time to study it before our meeting (ideally, the audience will do so too).
