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Welcome to the Philosophy Forum
The Philosophy Forum is a discussion group for members of the LGBT community. Over the course of more than a decade, we have discussed works from the canon of Western philosophy, texts of Asian philosophy, post-structuralist and contemporary philosophy, and non-philosophic texts — including literary texts — from the perspective of philosophy.
Our next meeting will take place in Manhattan on January 21. For more info., go to the contact page.
Past meetings have focused on the following topics:
2009
Oct. 10: Karl Marx, “Critique of Feuerbach”; Theodor Adorno, “On Lyric Poetry & Society”
Oct. 24: David Hume, ”An Abstract of ‘A Treatise of Human Nature” and “Why Cause is Always Necessary”
Nov. 14: Martin Heidegger, “On the Essence of Truth”
Nov. 28: John Joughin, “Shakespeare’s Genius: ‘Hamlet,’ Adaptation & the Work of Following”; Marjorie Garber, “Shakespeare & Modern Culture”
Dec. 12: Christoph Menke, “Ability & Faith: On the Possibility of Justice”
2010
Jan. 23: Dorothy Dinnerstein, “The Mermaid & the Minotaur”
Feb. 13: Erik Erikson, “Gandhi’s Truth”
Feb. 27: Jurgen Habermas on religion in the public sphere
March 13: Noam Chomsky, “Linguistics & Brain Science”
March 27: Benedict de Spinoza
April 10: Hannah Arendt on “Truth & Politics”
April 24: Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”
May 8: Henry David Thoreau, “Life without Principle”
May 22: Martha Nussbaum, “A Right to Marry? Same-Sex Marriage & Constitutional Law”
June 12: Plotinus, “Enneads” (excerpts)
Sept. 11: Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “Phenomenology of Perception”
Sept. 25: Jane Flax, “Thinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis, Feminism & Postmodernism in the contemporary West” (excerpts)
Oct. 9: Plato, “Phaedrus”
Oct. 23: Eckhardt Tolle & Byron Katie
Nov. 13: Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” (excerpts)
Nov. 27: Michel Foucault, “Politics” & “The Eye of Power”
Dec. 11: Michel Foucault, “Governmentality”; Monique Devaux, “Feminism & Empowerment: A Critical Reading of Foucault”
2011
Jan. 9: Albert Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus”
Jan. 22: Soren Kierkegaard, “The Sickness Unto Death”
Feb. 12: Bertell Ollman, “What is Political Science? What Should It Be?”
Feb. 27: Larry M. Bartels, “What’s the Matter with What’s the Matter With Kansas?”; Thomas Frank, “Class is Dismissed”
March 12: Leslie Fiedler, “Cross the Border — Close the Gap”
March 26: George Lakoff
April 9: Laozi, Tao Te Ching
April 23: Zhuangzi, Seven Inner Chapters; Mark Berkson, “Language: The Guest of Reality — Zhuangzi and Derrida on Language, Reality, and Skillfulness,” from “Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi,” edited by Paul Kjellberg & Philip J. Ivanhoe
May 14: Martha Nussbaum: “Introduction: Form & Content, Philosophy & Literature” (from “Love’s Knowledge”)
May 28: Dennis Wrong, “Power: Its Forms, Bases , and Uses”; Lewis Mumford, “The Pentagon of Power”
June 11: Immanuel Kant
September 24: Ayn Rand
October 8: Madison, Hamilton & Jay: The Federalist Papers
November 12: A Course in Miracles
November 26: Montaigne, “That We Should Not Judge of Our Happinesse Until After Our Death”