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…

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.

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…

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 will discuss a paper by Nancy Fraser, “Social Movements vs. Disciplinary Bureaucracies: The Discourses of Social Needs” (1987) Center for Humanistic Studies Occasional Papers, Number 8, 3-37. For a copy of the paper, click here. Also, we are, actively looking for a good location to start in-person meetings again. If you know of a centrally located…

We will begin reading The Human Condition (1958) by Hannah Arendt. You can find a new paperback of this book for around $22 or an ebook for about $15. Since this is also one of Arendt's more popular and influential books there should be some used copies around. For the 9th we will read through Parts I…

We will continue our discussion of The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt by reading Parts III and IV. This is not a difficult book to read, but the arguments can be complex and even confusing. That, however, is no problem for us. We're as complex and confused as any group out there. Come and help us unravel…

We will finish up our discussion of Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition, covering Parts V and VI, in which she discusses action and the modern age, drawing her final conclusions concerning where we are now and the human condition as she perceives it. Have you come to different conclusions or have another interpretation of the…

For this meeting, rather than a book or other reading, we are going to assign a topic. The topic is Punishment. Both this meeting and our one in March will be in conjunction with the monthly general meeting of the Minnesota Independent Scholars Forum on March 25 in which one of our members will present…

We will read and discuss the Little Book of Restorative Justice (2015) by Howard Zehr. This is an inexpensive (less than $10), short book that we will cover in a single session. It is in conjunction with the following program on March 25, in which Jean Greenwood, one of our members, will give a presentation on restorative…

We will begin a discussion of the book When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth (2004) by Elizabeth Wayland Barber and Paul T. Barber. For the 12th we'll read the first ten chapters. This is a book about how myth operates in preliterate societies by taking advantage of aspects of the human mind…

  We will conclude talking about myth and the mind as presented in the book When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth by Elizabeth Wayland Barber and Paul T. Barber. By reading this book and participating in our discussion, you will feel the spirit of Socrates spread over you and begin to…

First, please note that this time is different than our usual second Wednesday of the month schedule. For this session, we will begin the book, The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from our Eyes (2019) by Donald Hoffman. This book is available in paperback for less than $20 new and can be had…

We will discuss chapters five through seven from the book, The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from our Eyes, by Donald Hoffman. Just to be safe, we will do this virtually.  

We will conclude our reading of The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from our Eyes by Donald Hoffman. People have reacted very differently to the thesis that Hoffman presents in this book. Some think that he has opened an insight into reality that will revolutionize our study of physics and other areas of…

We are going to start reading a new book: Corruptible (2021) by Brian Klass. This book is about power and why those who abuse it so often have it. Does power really corrupt? Or is it that corrupt people seek power? Or is it because of badly designed systems? Whatever the conclusions are, this is the book that…

We will complete our discussion of the book Corruptible by Brian Klass. Note that this group will be meeting on the third Wednesday of the month rather than our usual second Wednesday. If this is not convenient for you, there's a possibility that it could be changed if offered enough Benjamins.  

We will be beginning a new book, Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life (2019) by Edith Hall. For the 15th we'll read through chapter 2. While we don't usually like telling people how to live their lives, we figured that it's about time to get a little more aggressive in what this group can accomplish.…

We will discuss chapters 3 – 6 of Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall. Please note that while Aristotle's philosophy has helped many people, neither the MISF Philosophy Study Group nor the Minnesota Independent Scholars Forum guarantees that any positive change will occur from attending these meetings. Furthermore, we absolutely…

We will conclude our discussion of Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall. After having read this book, it won't matter if you've been adhering to the Ten Commandments, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Five Pillars, or the Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues, or have just been working to improve…

On Valentine's Day we will be starting a new book, Thought: A Very Short Introduction (2013) by Tim Bayne, a part of the Very Short Introduction series from Oxford University Press. This book costs about $13 in paperback and $7 as an ebook. We will read the first three chapters for our next meeting. And a…

  We will finish discussing the book Thought: A Very Short Introduction by Tim Bayne. A short introductory book on a broad topic can lead to some interesting disagreements with what the author covers and how he goes about it. Added to this is the fact that, at this point, we know very little about thought or…

Note that this is the third Wednesday of the month, not the second Wednesday, our usual meeting day. We are starting a new book, An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing by Louis Groarke, part of the McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas.

For this meeting we will discuss the topic of “Power and Discourse” by reading three short and very accessible articles which can be found online. Powercube         https://www.powercube.net/analyse-power/  Okay, this is not really an article, but it serves the purpose of a good introduction to non-coercive power. Go down to the bottom of…

We will continue our discussion of the book, An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing by Louis Groarke, by reading chapter 3. In this chapter, the author, having finished his survey and critique of concepts of induction falling between Aristotle and contemporary philosophy, starts to dig deeper into what Aristotle regarded as inductive reasoning. We are hoping that reading this will induce you to reason seriously about coming to our meeting so that we can induct you into our membership. Deductively, it's a no-brainer.

The MISF Philosophy Study Group plans to have its next meeting on Wednesday, June 12, at 7:00 pm via Zoom. We will be continuing our discussion of the book An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing by Louis Groarke, by reading chapters 4 and 5. Who thought induction could be so complicated? And so much…

For this meeting we will discuss chapters 6 and 7 of the book, An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing, by Louis Groarke. For those who might need a little persuading to attend, I have put together a notable argument:

All books about Aristotle are delightful. This is a book about Aristotle. Therefore, this book is delightful.

The next meeting of the MISF Philosophy Study Group is on Wednesday, August 14, at 7:00 pm via Zoom. We will conclude our discussion of the book, An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing, by Louis Groarke with the attendance of the author, himself.

Our book for this meeting is What Would Nietzsche Do?: Philosophical Solutions to Everyday Problems (2017) by Marcus Weeks. A paperback version of the book lists for $20 but can be had from Amazon for $14.60; used copies are for sale by Half Price Books for $8, and an e-book is $4. This book is 180 pages…

At our last meeting we discussed the book, What Would Nietzsche Do?: Philosophical Solutions to Everyday Problems, by Marcus Weeks. This book took various problems that people may encounter in everyday life and offered solutions to them that some well-known philosophers would have presumably given. Since that book covered just about every major aspect of philosophy,…

The MISF Philosophy Study Group meets next on Wednesday, November 13, at 7:00 pm via Zoom. For this meeting we will discuss Friedrich Nietzsche's classic, On the Genealogy of Morals, first published in 1887. As a classic, this book is readily available in many different formats and translations. What has come to be considered the standard…

We will continue our reading of On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche by discussing his Second Treatise, “'Guilt,' 'Bad Conscious,' and Related Matters.” If you wish to remain guilt-free with a clean conscious (assuming you have one now (ha, ha)), you should show up for this meeting. Watch out for those related matters, though.  …

Note that this meeting is the first Monday of the month, rather than our usual second Wednesday. We will finish our discussion of On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche by reading the third treatise, “What do ascetic ideals mean?” In this treatise Nietzsche wraps up his arguments with further critiques wherever he finds shortcomings and,…

We will be beginning a new book, The Philosophy of Freedom, by Rudolf Steiner. Originally published in 1894, this book has been translated many times and has been very influential in some quarters. A new paperback can cost from $7 to $22 and an ebook from $2 to $10, depending on the translation. If you…

We will finish discussing Simone de Beauvoir's attempt to build an ethical system for existentialist philosophy, The Ethics of Ambiguity. Not a few people didn't think it was possible. Did she succeed? This is for you to decide, and we're very interested in what you think. We're even more interested in how this might fit…