About us
We're a community fostering friendship and insights by engaging in thoughtful discussions on significant concepts discovered from reading books and intellectual consumption.
Upcoming events
34
Homer’s Iliad: A Slow Reading and Panel Discussion
·OnlineOnlineHi Folks,
Please join to watch our panelists discuss Homer's Iliad. Note, there is no way to participate or interact in this, it is a live view-only webinar where you can watch pre-selected panelists discuss the reading.
### 📖 About Homer's Iliad
Composed nearly three thousand years ago, the Iliad remains astonishingly relevant. Through the story of Achilles and the Trojan War, Homer explores enduring questions about anger, honor, friendship, mortality, leadership, suffering, and the search for meaning in the face of death.
The poem is incredibly important as:
- The starting point of the Western literary tradition and the most influential epic ever written
- A timeless meditation on glory, suffering, mortality, and what it means to live a meaningful human life
- A source of inspiration for countless writers and thinkers, from the tragedians of ancient Greece to modern philosophers and novelists
Although the poem is set during the Trojan War, it is not primarily about battles. Rather, it is a study of human character under extreme circumstances. Homer examines how individuals respond to loss, ambition, loyalty, grief, and fate. The result is a work that continues to speak powerfully across cultures and centuries.
### 📖 About The Panelists
Panelists were selected via an application process before the start of this reading series. Selection was based on their academic background, articulation skills and willingness to commit to the reading. If you want to join the panel mid-way you can still apply here:
https://forms.gle/cX6Ct1Txnkg3hSzy5It will take me a week or so to reach out to you and meet you to see if you are a good fit for the Panel. If you do join, you'll need to catch up on the reading and commit to joining each week.
### 📖 Participation
This event will combine a slow reading of the text with a recurring panel discussion.
Each week for 24 weeks, participants will read approximately one book of the Iliad (roughly 20–30 pages). During the meeting, the panel of readers will discuss the assigned text.
Audience members can observe via Zoom Webinar. Audience members cannot interact or participate other than viewing the webinar.### 📚 Reading Schedule
Panelists will read the text slowly and carefully, approximately one book per week, over roughly six months. This isn't a live reading, the panelists will need to read in advance. Panelists will spend about an hour per week completing the reading in advance of each discussion.
I will be using Robert Fagles’ translation of the Iliad (Penguin Classics), with Bernard Knox’s introduction and notes. You can read any translation you like, it may be fun to have differing versions. A reading schedule is here.### 📬 Contact
Have questions or feedback? Feel free to send me a Meetup message.
Kind Regards,
Ryan19 attendees
Articulating Reasons by Robert Brandom Week 1
Pier 57, 25 11th Avenue, New York, NY, USCan you know what a word means without knowing what it refers to? Articulating Reasons is an introduction to Inferentialism, a view in philosophy of language holding that words get their meaning not from what they point to in the world, but from the role they play in reasoning, i.e. what follows from a claim, and what it commits you to. Championed by Robert Brandom and others as an alternative to the traditional referential view, inferentialism offers a genuinely different picture of how language works. We'll draw out connections to logic, epistemology, and metaphysics along the way, exploring the broader consequences of taking inference, rather than reference, as fundamental.
Participants should read the entire reading before attending this in person meeting. We will read pages 1-55 for the first week. I will be reading from this version here.
For questions please send me a message or post to meetup.
Best,
Brian
22 attendees
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Pier 57, 25 11th Avenue, New York, NY, USOedipus Rex, written by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, is a timeless classic of tragedy and one of the most well-known works of Western literature. It tells the story of Oedipus, King of Thebes, who unknowingly murders his father and marries his mother, fulfilling a prophecy that he had desperately attempted to avoid. The story is one of fate and its unavoidable power, as Oedipus’s life is predetermined despite his efforts to change it.
Join us to discuss this classic play!
Required Reading
Whole play (about 90 pages)*We will be reading all 3 plays in the Thebian Trilogy by Sophocles, however each play can be be read and understood without reading the others.
Week 1 Saturday 10/3 @12:30pm -Oedipus Rex
Week 2 Saturday 10/10 @12:30pm -Oedipus at Colonus
Week 3 Saturday 10/17 @12:30pm -AntigoneI will be using the paperback available here
free pdf download here . Click the first slow download option. (If you don't want pdf, just search the format you would like. Mobi for kindle or epub for other devices)Rules for Our Group
1. Be Courteous
Respectful disagreement is totally acceptable; Condescension is not.
2. Be Concise
Keep comments brief, on topic, and allow space for others to join in.
3. Do the Reading
If you have not done the reading for the week you are welcome to attend and listen to the discussion, but out of respect for those who have read, you will not be permitted to participate in the discussion.Finally, Please update your RSVP if you are no longer able to attend the event.
- inaccurate RSVPs make it difficult for coordinators to plan successful events
- inaccurate RSVPs prevent waitlisted individuals from attending
*Multiple no shows may result in losing RSVP privileges for future events.
For more info and FAQ on the group click here.
Can't wait to discuss these ideas with all of you!
-Zach18 attendees
Byung-Chul Han: Psychopolitics (week 2)
Maiden Lane Public Atrium, 180 Maiden Ln, New York, NY 10038, USA, New York, NY, USJoin us for a two-part discussion of Byung-Chul Han's 2017 Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power.
How do capitalism and Big Data exploit our productive psychic forces? Why do we all feel depressed and anxious so much of the time? Why are we doing this to ourselves and is there anything we do about it? Han draws on philosophers from Hegel to Deleuze to address these questions.
Required reading for this meeting: Ch. 9–13 (pg. 41–87)
Here's a link to a PDF. You’ll want to have read the first half of the book too, even if you weren’t at the previous session!
We'll be meeting at the 180 Maiden Lane Public Atrium on the ground floor of the building downtown.
13 attendees
Past events
1019
