Minnesota Independent Scholars Forum

Philosophy Study Group
2022-08-10 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | via Zoom
For this meeting we are going to begin a discussion about distributive justice. First, we’ll do an overview. Both the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy have articles on distributive justice. You can read either one or both of them for our next meeting. After that, we’ll decide together what direction we want to go. We want to be just here and not distribute disreputably.

Futures Study Group
2022-07-20 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
As mentioned previously, there was interest in hydroponics of raising commercial plants in houses. A related area that has not been touched on is the raising of fish commercially. The area has seen some convergence in a combined system. This area of “boots on the ground” has been minimally mentioned with the rise of alt proteins.
The MN Aquaculture Association is one of the organizers of the August meeting to be in Staples in August of this year. Clarence Bischoff, the president and founder of MNAA and the developer of an aquaponics site in Redwing will present

Philosophy Study Group
2022-07-13 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We plan to conclude our discussion of A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century by Christian Delacampagne.
Early in my study of philosophy I was told that if you really want to understand a philosopher, you need to understand who or what he or she is responding to. Delacampagne provides this in spades, sometimes to the detriment of the philosophers he is covering. But he gives you a great feeling for the disputes that were going on at the time. And when you reach the end of the book you should have a good sense of what was happening in Western philosophy during the twentieth century, though not necessarily of the details of the philosophies themselves – certainly not in a book this short. The MISF Philosophy Study Group can also give you a good sense of something: that of what other people think about the things that we are reading about. Perhaps we can even knock a little sense into your own views.

History Study Group
2022-07-06 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We are still gaining daylight these days – which means you can enjoy our next book almost anywhere: The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science by Seb Falk.
Soaring Gothic cathedrals, violent crusades, the Black Death: these are the dramatic forces that shaped the medieval era. But the so-called Dark Ages also gave us the first universities, eyeglasses, and mechanical clocks, proving that the Middle Ages were home to a vibrant scientific culture.
Our core group is looking forward to the book and we always welcome new perspectives. Please join us, it is sure to be an enlightening session!

Minnesota in World War II
2022-06-25 10:00 - 10:30 | Robert H. Rohlf Room at Ridgedale Library, Ridgedale MN
What was the reality of war for a state so far from Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan? Learn the stories of ordinary people who went to far flung battlefields or struggled with rationing to provide the tools of war to those in the combat zone. Was Minnesota’s story unique? What was the Greatest Generation of the Gopher State like?
Can veterans and those left behind tell us about how we can deal with disruption and global challenges? Did they have something special which we don’t or can we take assurance that what people like us did before we can do again? Journey back to another time and learn from the experiences of those who fought and waited 80 years ago.
Colonel Don Patton is Executive Director of the Harold Deutsch World War II Roundtable which hosts presentations by leading writers about World War II at the Minnesota Historical Society. The Roundtable has an active student outreach program, includes the voices of World War II veterans in its programs, and organizes annual tours to the battlefields of the war. Colonel Patton is an army veteran who served thirty years including 13 years in command positions with two battalion commands. He graduated from Texas A&M as a Distinguished Military Graduate and received an MBA from the University of Minnesota where he studied under Harold Deutsch a renowned professor of history especially that of World War II. Patton has received the Meritorious Service Medal five times, the Minnesota Superior Civilian Service Award by the Adjunct General of Minnesota and was recognized in 2016 as one of 25 outstanding Minnesota Veterans by the Minnesota Humanities Center for Leadership and Community Contributions.

Philosophy Study Group
2022-06-08 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We will continue reading A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century by Christian Delacampagne. For the 8th we will discuss chapters 2 and 3, in which the author covers the development of Western philosophy during the rise of Hitler and the Second World War. Interestingly, this seems to have influenced some philosophers.

Ginny Hanson Poetry Day: The Poetry of Donna Issac
2022-05-28 10:00 - 11:30 | via Zoom
Donna Isaac will read from each of her publications as well as new poems she is working on.
Teacher and Poet, Donna Isaac holds English degrees from James Madison University and the University of MN, and her MFA from Hamline University. Her published works include three chapbooks: Tommy (Red Dragonfly Press); Holy Comforter (Red Bird Chapbooks), Persistence of Vision (Finishing Line Press); and a poetry collection, Footfalls (Pocahontas Press).
She helped found the performance chapter of the League of MN Poets, Cracked Walnut, and serves on the Board of Directors. She co-hosts a reading series, Literary Bridges, featured by Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul. More information can be found at donnaisaacpoet.com

Philosophy Study Group
2022-05-11 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We will begin reading A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century (2001) by Christian Delacampagne. The paperback version retails for around $28 ($23 on Amazon), but there are used books available for less. There is no ebook edition for this title. For the 11th we will read through Part I.
What is unique about this book is that it self-consciously considers the political influences at play in the development of the philosophical positions taken by twentieth century philosophers, claiming that “[p]hilosophy is essentially a political activity.” Whether you agree with that or not after finishing the book is, of course, an open question. Maybe we’ll vote on it.

History Study Group
2022-05-04 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
Our next book is: The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy. We are taking on the 2021 revised edition that is evidently quite popular as it is a little challenging to track down (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Harvard Bookstore are the only options with stock today).
Ukraine has long been the gateway between East and West. From the Romans and Ottomans to the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, it seems history truly does repeat. Award winning author of multiple titles and current Mykhailo S. Hrushevs’kyi Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard, Ploky provides a great deal of context to better understand the current situation with Russia, and much more.
For this session we are going to read the first 3 Parts: On the Pontic Frontier, East Meets West, and Between the Empires, chapters 1-17 (ending on page 199).

This Was 2020
2022-04-23 10:00 - 12:00 | via Zoom
What role can the public library play in publishing community voices and creating communitas? The year 2020 was especially difficult for Minnesotans as we weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd’s murder amidst a highly volatile political climate.
Librarians at Ramsey County Library wanted to help connect our community members with each other and us during lockdowns, and this book project became a way to focus some conversations around our shared experiences.
The book as a published object also serves as documentation of community voices, offering our future selves and generations to reflect on some of the most challenging moments of recent times. This presentation offers the story of this book project and the various goals of collecting and connecting community voices.
Paul Lai is a librarian and coordinator of public programs for adults at Ramsey County Library in Shoreview. Previously, he has worked as an editor and web designer for an online university’s writing center, as a faculty member in English at the University of St. Thomas, and in assorted library positions at Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis College, and the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota.
Read the book for free online:

Web version: https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/thiswas2020/
PDF version: https://library.biblioboard.com/content/1c2cba60-332f-485a-a9d7-c6dea438a6d1

Philosophy Study Group
2022-04-11 19:00 - 2022-04-21 21:00 | via Zoom
Note that April 11 is not the second Wednesday of the month, the time we have been meeting recently. We will finish discussing the book, Philosophy in the Flesh: the Embodied Mind & Its Challenge to Western Thought, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.
This is a long book and we hope that you have been able to read as much of it as possible. If you find that you are unable to read the whole thing, feel free to explore what interests you the most and browse the other areas for useful tidbits.
We do have a couple of suggestions, however. One person who has already read the book suggests that you read the last chapter (Chapter 25) first. And you should also have read all of Part I, since this is the foundation of the authors’ arguments. Also try to read as much of Part II as you can, since this fills in and gives many examples of what the authors are driving at. Part III takes aim at particular philosophers and philosophical schools. Most reviewers have found this the weakest part of the book, with the exception of the chapter on Noam Chomsky and cognitive linguistics. This is not a great surprise, since the authors come from the language side of cognitive research, and Lakoff, a former student of Chomsky, has been debating this topic with Chomsky for a long time. We hope to do a bit of debating ourselves: if not about cognitive linguistics itself, then about some of the other topics alluded to in this book, such as causality, cognition in general, theories of mind, time, ontology, psychology, classical philosophy, epistemology, experimental philosophy, morality, metaphysics, space, linguistics in general, early modern philosophy, objective reality, analytic philosophy, religion, science, and yesterday’s weather.

History Study Group
2022-04-06 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We will be concluding the book, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong. In Part III, Armstrong covers the modern era, from the Reformation and the voyages of discovery to the religious conflicts of today.
If you haven’t had the time to read the whole book, I have some encouraging news. Not only is Armstrong a good writer and religious historian, but this is one of those books that, if you haven’t read the earlier parts, you could still read Part III and comfortably participate in a discussion about it. Of course, we would prefer you read the whole book, but would be happy to see you, regardless. And there’s no tests, either.

Reducing Social, Economic and Ecological Stress with the Genuine Progress Indicator
2022-03-26 10:00 - 11:30 | via Zoom
The dominate economic signal on Earth, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is inaccurate and dangerous in relation to our overall well-being and sustainability on Earth, while the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) would signal a long-term healthy path.
Ken Pentel will show the differences between these two measurements in relation to:
Our primary economic signal
Ecocide
Social, economic and environmental conditions
Human migration patterns
Legislative policy
For 36 years Ken Pentel has been a grassroots organizer and candidate for public office in Minnesota. In 1986 Ken started working with Greenpeace and then in 1996 he transitioned to become an all-purpose organizer with the Green Party of Minnesota. He was endorsed as the Green Party of Minnesota candidate for Governor in 1998, 2002, and 2006. In 2008 Ken left the Green Party to start the nonpartisan Ecology Democracy Network. After bicycling over 6,000 miles in Minnesota doing outreach and education, the mandates of the Network took shape. In May of 2010, along with Erin Wallace (now Erin Smith) as his Lieutenant Governor, Ken was endorsed to run for Governor of Minnesota on the Ecology Democracy Party ticket. As of January 2022 Ken continues to develop the projects of the Ecology Democracy Network.

Futures Study Group
2022-03-16 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
A volume that provides a broad overview of the coming webinars.
A very good set of studies that deal with anticipation and futures is the series RethinkX (https://www.rethinkx.com/).
Many of the series are available as a free download. The one that serves as a general intro for the March 16th meetup and beyond is Tubb, Catherine, and Tony Seba, Rethinking Food and Agriculture 2020-2030 (https://www.rethinkx.com/food-and-agriculture) It provides a good insight to how one thinks about the future around one subject area
The report on energy is a wraparound of the previous webinars as is the one on “implications” focusing on climate change with some ideas on how to reduce the impact.

Philosophy Study Group
2022-03-09 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We will continue with the book, Philosophy in the Flesh: the Embodied Mind & Its Challenge to Western Thought, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. This is a long book and the group has decided that they do not want to spend more than one or two additional sessions on it. So, for our March meeting we will tackle Part II, and for April, if we still want to discuss the book, we’ll do Parts III and IV.
First, however, it’s important to finish reading Part I, since this covers the arguments that the authors use as their basic critique in the rest of the book. Then you can start on Part II. Unfortunately, Part II is about 200 pages long, and this is far more than we expect you to tackle for one session. (Note that, as far as philosophical texts go, this is not difficult reading – just long.) So instead, we encourage you to choose what you find most interesting or important in Part II and read that. Or you can graze, picking up interesting items that you can use as you move through the section. One thing this book has demonstrated so far is that it is capable of generating a lot of discussion. And that’s probably the one thing that philosophers are consistently really good at.

History Study Group
2022-03-02 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We will continue discussing our book, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong, by reading Part II. This is a book of warfare and conflict followed by reactions by some of empathy and harmony. It’s an Olympics of ruthlessness, brutality, compassion, and sacrifice by the best of the best kings, emperors, prophets, and religious leaders.
Sliding rocks on ice? Slipping around on snow on pieces of wood? Dancing with metal blades on your feet? Read this and you won’t even have to turn on the television.

Rent Control in Minneapolis and St. Paul: Program features and potential impacts
2022-02-26 10:00 - 12:00 | via Zoom
Rent control comes in many varieties in the U.S. In this talk, Prof. Edward Goetz of the University of Minnesota describes the range of different approaches that have been used by cities across the country and summarizes what the research says about their impacts. Goetz will then take a look at the Minneapolis and St. Paul initiatives and how they might affect the local housing market in each city.
Edward G. Goetz is professor of urban planning at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota. His expertise is in housing and community development policy, especially as they relate to issues of race and class. He is the lead author of a report to the City Council of Minneapolis on Rent Stabilization, the author of five books and numerous articles on affordable housing policy and planning. His most recent book is The One Way Street of Integration: Fair Housing and the Pursuit of Racial Justice in American Cities, published by Cornell University Press.

Philosophy Study Group
2022-02-09 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We will begin a discussion of the book, Philosophy in the Flesh: the Embodied Mind & Its Challenge to Western Thought (1999), by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.
For the 9th we have a little different reading assignment: Read as much as you can of Part I, but at least the first four chapters. This is a big book and we’d like to get through as much as we can before people start wanting to go on to something different.
The book can be purchased for $7, including shipping, from Abe Books.The authors, both cognitive linguists, examine recent research on cognition and claim that many of the major conclusions of classical philosophers are based on assumptions that are wrong, which probably include some of our own. But here’s an assumption you can bank on: If you attend our meetings, you will be able to engage in stimulating conversations. You can’t assume, however, that we have all the answers. But we do have some of them. And I assume that some of those might even be right.

History Study Group
2022-02-02 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We will start a new book: Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence (2015) by Karen Armstrong. A new paperback of the book is around $17 and an ebook is $14. For the 2nd we will read Part I.
Armstrong has won numerous awards for her books and is regarded as one of today’s best authors on religion. This book examines the traditions of the major world religions and how they may or may not have contributed to the many occurrences of warfare and other violence that has erupted over the millennia. It is not a spoiler to say that she comes down on the side of religion. So in order to keep things balanced, we are looking for people who come down on the side of violence. But even if you don’t favor violence, we would love to have you attend.

Historic Layers: Russian Alaska
2022-01-22 11:00 - 12:00 | via Zoom
Are Asia and America connected? This geographic question occupied Russian explorers, entrepreneurs, and tsars in the 17th century. The answer led them to probe the American coast, trade for furs, and map the land. Alaska remained part of the Russian empire until it was sold to the U.S. Learn about this unique history as it shapes Alaskan culture to this day.
Carol Veldman Rudie is coordinator of outreach education at the Museum of Russian Art. She has been lead docent there since 2005 and developed its docent training programs. Her special interest involves forming and educating groups to tour Russia. Her Ph.D. work at the U of MN includes a minor in Art History.

Philosophy Study Group
2022-01-12 19:00 - 2022-02-12 21:00 | via Zoom
We will finish discussing David Hume’s classic, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. In the second half of the book Hume talks about free will and critiques miracles, among other topics. These things are still quite controversial and often ruffle feathers even 300 years later. And we intend to do just that. At least we will if we so choose.

History Study Group
2022-01-05 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We will finish our discussion of History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History by Dana Lindaman and Kyle Ward. You may also be concerned with how historians around the world will portray the MISF History Study Group. Just to be sure it’s sufficiently acclamatory, you need to show up prepared to participate in our usual thoughtful and articulate discussions.

Philosophy Study Group
2021-12-08 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We are tackling one of the classics for this meeting: David Hume and his An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Published in 1748, it has profoundly influenced epistemological studies to this day. For the eighth, we’ll discuss the first half, through Section VII.
Since it is a classic and no longer in copyright, it can be downloaded for free from the internet from several sites, both in print and as an audio book. This includes Project Gutenberg, where it is available in several formats. If you do wish to purchase your own copy, you can find it for anywhere from a few dollars to almost fifty, depending on how much extra commentary you would like. Or you can wait until our meeting and we’ll commentary you until you can’t stand it anymore.

History Study Group
2021-12-01 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
There has been much talk recently of “political bubbles,” where people reinforce their own biases by talking only with those who agree with them, increasing the polarization we already have in this country. But there is another kind of bubble that is usually ignored: one that starts with what we are taught in school and reaches into the very stories we tell about ourselves as Americans.
Our next book will address this kind of bubble. It is History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History (2006) by Dana Lindaman and Kyle Ward. A new paperback version of this book is about $20 and an ebook runs $11 – $15. For the first meeting we will read Parts I – IV. The promotional materials for this book use words like “hilarious” and “sobering.” That’s us

Racial Paradox of the Twin Cities
2021-11-20 10:00 - 11:30 | via Zoom
Why has our famously liberal political culture been at the same time so brutally hard on minorities? Looking at wealth gaps, incarceration, life expectancy etc. we vie with Mississippi, How to explain how the land of Humphry, Mondale, Wellstone, Gene McCarthy has turned out to treat dark skinned people the way it has?
Answers date back to pre-Civil war days and have much to do with Swedes, Germans and Irish immigrants as well as Indian removal and the “great migration” of Black people from the South.
James Brewer Stewart is a Professor of History Emeritus at Macalester College, author of books on abolitionists, slavery, and racism, and Founder of Historians Against Slavery.

Philosophy Study Group
2021-11-10 19:00 | via Zoom
We will conclude our discussion of the book Beauty: A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton. In the last half of this book, the author examines what is sometimes termed “serious art.” This is quite fitting for us, since our meetings always involve what is sometimes termed “serious perlustration,” sometimes with dialectic excurses.

History Study Group
2021-11-03 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We are going to conclude our discussion of the book, In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos, by journalist Richard Lloyd Parry. This is a book about the struggles of a third world country of hundreds of ethnic groups and languages spread over thousands of islands in an area on the globe of more than three million square miles, trying to transition from a harsh dictatorship to a representative democracy.
In one corner of that vast country is East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, and it was here that the fear and violence the author talks about reached their peak. This is not a pleasant story for those of us in our comfortable homes and our well-established republic, but it happened and we should not look away. But we will have the pleasant faces of the History Study Group for you to look at on the 3rd, and that is more than reasonable compensation.

Copyright and Sherlock Holmes
2021-10-23 10:00 - 12:00 | via Zoom
How long does copyright protection for fictional characters last? Why are people still suing about Sherlock Holmes whose last appearance in an Arthur Conan Doyle story was in 1927. What is in the public domain and free to all and what can land you in court? Join us for an excursion into the wonderful world of intellectual property and the laws that seek to protect and control it.
Nancy Sims is the Copyright Program Librarian at the University of Minnesota and a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School.

Philosophy Study Group
2021-10-13 00:00 | via Zoom
For this meeting we are going to have a discussion about aesthetics. We will be using the book Beauty: A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton. One can find a new paperback version of this starting at around $12 and an ebook starting around $7. For the first meeting we will read the first four chapters.
There are a couple of things that you should be aware of before embarking on this. First, you do not need to be beautiful in order to attend this meeting. We put in this rule to make sure that someone shows up. Secondly, coming to the meeting will not make you beautiful. Sorry.

History Study Group
2021-10-06 19:00 - 21:00 | via Zoom
We will begin the book In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos (2005) by Richard Lloyd Parry. A new paperback can be found for as little as $10, and an ebook is $8 – $11. For this meeting we will read the first two chapters, up to page 175.
The author says that this is a book about violence and fear. Do not let this put you off, however. You will find a safe haven in the caring arms of the MISF History Study Group.
