What we’re about
Welcome to the Toronto Philosophy Meetup! This is a community (online and in-person) 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, poetry, 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!
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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.
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.
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On 26 August 1974, Michel Foucault completed work on Discipline and Punish, and on that very same day began writing the first volume of The History of Sexuality. A little under ten years later, on 25 June 1984, shortly after the second and third volumes were published, he was dead.
This decade is one of the most fascinating of his career. It begins with the initiation of the sexuality project, and ends with its enforced and premature closure. Yet in 1974 he had something very different in mind for The History of Sexuality than the way things were left in 1984. Foucault originally planned a thematically organised series of six volumes, but wrote little of what he promised and published none of them. Instead over the course of the next decade he took his work in very different directions, studying, lecturing and writing about historical periods stretching back to antiquity.
This book offers a detailed intellectual history of both the abandoned thematic project and the more properly historical version left incomplete at his death. It draws on all Foucault’s writings in this period, his courses at the Collège de France and lectures elsewhere, as well as material archived in France and California to provide a comprehensive overview and synthetic account of Foucault’s last decade.
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Hello everyone and welcome to this series on Foucault. Please note that there is a technology related issue that you should know about. Please be sure to read to the end of this blurb for details.
In this series, we will read the four volume biography of Foucault written by Stuart Elden. The first volume on the genesis of The History of Sexuality is called Foucault's Last Decade (2016, Polity Press).
Elden wrote the biography in reverse chronological order, so Volume One actually covers Foucault's later years. Please scroll down for the reading schedule and materials. 👇👇👇
When we are finished with Volume One, we will read something short by Foucault himself, starting with his essay "What Is Enlightenment"? Then we will move on to reading Volume Two of the biography and so on until we have finished all four volumes of the biography and read three short writings by Foucault himself.
The format will be my (Philip's) usual "accelerated live read" format. What this means is that each participant will be expected to read roughly 25-30 pages before each session. (This is a biography after all so it should not be too onerous to read that many pages). Each participant will have the option of picking a few paragraphs they especially want to focus on. We will then do a live read on the paragraphs that the participants found most interesting when they did the assigned reading. When you are choosing your passages, please try to lean in the direction of picking passages with philosophical content rather than mere historical interest. But I can be flexible about this.
People who have not done the reading are welcome to attend this meetup. However if you want to TALK during the meetup it is essential that you do the reading. I mean it! It is essential that the direction of the conversation be influenced only by people who have actually done the reading. You may think you are so brilliant and wonderful that you can come up with great points even if you do not do the reading. You probably are brilliant and wonderful — no argument there. But you still have to do the reading if you want to talk in this meetup. REALLY.
Please note that this is a "raise hands" meetup and has a highly structured format, not an anarchy-based one. This is partly for philosophical reasons: I want to discourage a simple-minded rapid fire "gotcha!" approach to philosophy. But our highly structured format is also for disability related reasons that I can explain if required.
THE READING SCHEDULE (pdf here)
The readings for the first 3 sessions are:
- Wednesday Sept 10th: Read up to page 26
- Wednesday Sept 17th: Read up to page 44
- Wednesday Sept 24th: Read up to page 81
- TBA...
It is a shame it has to come to this, but:
I am Canadian and like many Canadians my relationship with America has changed drastically in the last 10 months or so. In this meetup, no discussion of the current US political situation will be allowed. This is unfortunate, but that is how it must be. When talking about Foucault there will no doubt be a strong desire to talk about politics. No problem! It is a big old world and the political situations of literally every other country on planet earth (including their right wing populist movements) are fair game for discussion in this meetup. Just not that of the US. The political situation in the USA is now a topic for Canadians to think about in a very practical, strategic manner as we fight to prevent our democracy from being destroyed, and our land and resources stolen. The time may come when a Canadian like me can talk about this topic in an abstract philosophical way, but I suspect that time is at least 6 years away.
Now the technology point: Scott will be in the meetup for a few minutes at the start to set things up. But then he will leave. (He's not into Foucault! Unfathomable!) Someone in the meetup will have to volunteer to tell me who has their hand up and whose turn it is to speak. I am disabled in a way that makes it impossible for me to both manage the philosophy content and also monitor whose turn it is to speak. With any luck one or more regulars in the meetup will make it a habit to step up and volunteer each time.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Husserl’s Phenomenology by Dan Zahavi (Week 3: Transcendental Idealism)Link visible for attendees
"This book is a splendid introduction to Husserl's writings. Indeed, more than an introduction, it is a remarkably comprehensive overview not only of Husserl's major published works but also of his unpublished research manuscripts.... The book was a pleasure to read the first time, and it repays successive readings with new and ever deeper insights into Husserl's philosophical achievement." — Husserl Studies
Welcome everyone to this meetup that Tod and Philip will be co-hosting. This meetup will last for 6 weeks and we will be getting together every week. I (Philip) am drawing attention to this fact because all of the other meetups I do meet every second week.
We will be reading a short book about Husserl called:
- Husserl’s Phenomenology by Dan Zahavi (Stanford University Press 2002) — see link for further info about the book
Scroll to the bottom for the reading schedule and materials 👇👇👇👇👇
We picked this book for a few reasons:
- It is very clear on the important topic of the difference between Edmund Husserl's early version of Phenomenology (found in his book Logical Investigations) and Husserl's later version of Phenomenology (found in the books he wrote from Ideas One onwards). If you want to understand the history of Phenomenology, understanding this distinction is crucial. Even though Jean-Paul Sartre and Heidegger were radically different Philosophers, they nevertheless shared a strong preference for the original version of Phenomenology Husserl gave in Logical Investigations. Other thinkers preferred the strikingly different later version of Phenomenology first formulated in Ideas One. The ongoing debate over which version of Phenomenology is better is a VERY important theme in the history of Phenomenology.
- A while back I (along with Jen) gave a meetup on an introductory book on Phenomenology by Walter Hopp. During that meetup, some people compared Hopp's interpretation with that of Zahavi. I thought it would be intriguing to actually look at Zahavi since his name came up so frequently in that earlier meetup.
Here is some basic info about the meetup:
- This will be a 2 hour meetup, not a 3 hour meetup like I do on Sundays with Jen.
- The format will be my usual "accelerated live read". What this means is that each participant will be expected to read roughly 25-35 pages before each session. Each participant will have the option of picking a few paragraphs they especially want to focus on. We will then do a live read on the paragraphs that the participants found most interesting when they did the assigned reading.
People who have not done the reading are welcome to attend this meetup. However if you want to TALK during the meetup it is essential that you do the reading. We mean it! It is essential that the direction of the conversation be influenced only by people who have actually done the reading. You may think you are so brilliant and wonderful that you can come up with great points even if you do not do the reading. You probably are brilliant and wonderful – no argument there. But you still have to do the reading if you want to talk in this meetup. REALLY.
- Please note that this is a "raise hands" meetup and has a highly structured format, not an anarchy-based one. This is partly for philosophical reasons: We want to discourage a simple-minded rapid fire "gotcha!" approach to philosophy. But our highly structured format is also for disability related reasons that Philip can explain if required.
- This meetup will be highly accessible to people who are new to Husserl or new to Phenomenology. The Zahavi book is the only book you are required to read in order to speak in the meetup. However some people in the group might be sufficiently familiar with Husserl's texts that they might want to cite passages from Husserl himself. This is acceptable in the meetup. However to keep things manageable, I have picked three texts by Husserl and I am asking people who want to cite Husserl to limit themselves to citing only passages from these three texts:
– a) Logical Investigation Number Six (Found on pages 181-334 of "Logical Investigations Volume 2" translated by J.N. Findley.
– b) Ideas One (translated by Daniel O. Dahlstrom) - not the earlier translation.
– c) Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (translated by David Carr)
Here is the reading schedule for this meetup (pdf of book here):
- Sept 3rd, Please read up to page 13
- Sept 10th, Please read up to page 42
- Sept 17th, Please read up to page 68
- Sept 24th, Please read up to page 93
- Oct 1st, Please read up to page 120
- Oct 8th, Please read up to page 144 and we are done! (It is a short book)
- First Nations Data Sovereignty and A.I.Larkin Building, Room 200, Toronto, ON
There has been increasing awareness over the last few years of the issues surrounding the massive amounts of data being used to train artificial intelligence systems. However, one area that is still underappreciated is the impact of this data use on First Nations data sovereignty. First Nations data sovereignty is the right of First Nations as sovereign nations to make decisions on the ownership, control, collection, access, analysis, application, possession, and use of their own data. In this talk, I will introduce and describe First Nations data sovereignty and the OCAP principles (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession) that have been formulated to protect this right. I will also discuss how respecting the right to data sovereignty helps to protect First Nations from the harm that Al can cause when it uses First Nations data in ways that stigmatize and stereotype First Nations. I hope to show how understanding the distinctive right to data sovereignty of First Nations is key to respecting First Nations rights and to promoting the safe and ethical use of Al systems.
Benjamin Wald
https://benjaminwaldphilosophy.wordpress.com/curriculum-vitae/
Senior Research Analyst
Chiefs of OntarioAbout the Speaker:
My philosophical research focused on moral theory and philosophy of action, with a particular interest in the intersection between the two, and the application of these studies to issues in the ethics of AI and machine learning. I finished my PhD in 2017 under the supervision of Sergio Tenenbaum, with Philip Clark and Andrew Sepielli as readers. In my dissertation, I offer a new defence of the guise of the good view. The guise of the good view holds that all practical mental states, such as desire and intention, involve the agent taking the content of that state to be good. I show how this theory can be developed so as to avoid common objections, and argue for it by appeal to its theoretical fruitfulness, showing how the view can solve problems in normative ethics, metaethics, philosophy of action, and the theory of practical reasoning. You can find more details about my project in my dissertation abstract here.
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This is a talk with audience Q&A presented by the University of Toronto's Centre for Ethics that is free to attend and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided at the event. Sometimes we look for each other after the talk for further discussion about the topic.
The talk will also be streamed online with live chat here [to be posted]
About the Centre for Ethics (http://ethics.utoronto.ca):
The Centre for Ethics is an interdisciplinary centre aimed at advancing research and teaching in the field of ethics, broadly defined. The Centre seeks to bring together the theoretical and practical knowledge of diverse scholars, students, public servants and social leaders in order to increase understanding of the ethical dimensions of individual, social, and political life.
In pursuit of its interdisciplinary mission, the Centre fosters lines of inquiry such as (1) foundations of ethics, which encompasses the history of ethics and core concepts in the philosophical study of ethics; (2) ethics in action, which relates theory to practice in key domains of social life, including bioethics, business ethics, and ethics in the public sphere; and (3) ethics in translation, which draws upon the rich multiculturalism of the City of Toronto and addresses the ethics of multicultural societies, ethical discourse across religious and cultural boundaries, and the ethics of international society.
The Ethics of A.I. Lab at the Centre For Ethics recently appeared on a list of 10 organizations leading the way in ethical A.I.: https://ocean.sagepub.com/blog/10-organizations-leading-the-way-in-ethical-ai
- Nietzsche: The Gay Science [Session 55]Link visible for attendees
While the Walter Kaufmann translation is preferred, a link to the free Cambridge translation is here. For this Meetup, we will read aphorisms 209-220, and discuss them one at a time and get as far as we get, carrying forward any undiscussed aphorisms to the following week.
It’s 1882, and a friend has just given you a copy and recommendation of a book by a former professor of philology named Friedrich Nietzsche. Your friend says that he seems to be a philosopher of some sort, even though he doesn’t write like one, and in this book he argues, among a lot of other provocative things, that God Is dead!
This Is the beginner’s mind that this Meetup will take with this book. You may know his contemporaries and antecedents, but you’re here to share YOUR thoughts, not those of subsequent critics.
Recordings and AI summaries of previous sessions are available here.
Suggested texts: The Portable Neitzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann and The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, edited by Walter KaufmannSyllabus (titles are linked to free PDF’s, most of which require a free academia.edu account)
The Gay Science (academia.edu)
Beyond Good and Evil (academia.edu)*
On The Genealogy of Morals (academia.edu)*
The Case of Wagner*
Twilight of the Idols** (academia.edu)
The Antichrist**
Ecce Homo*
Nietzsche Contra Wagner***The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, edited by Walter Kaufmann
**Walter Kaufmann’s, The Portable Nietzsche
![Nietzsche: The Gay Science [Session 55] cover photo](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/b/e/b/a/event_521988826.webp "Nietzsche: The Gay Science [Session 55]")
