The Toronto Philosophy Meetup

At this meeting we'll continue discussing Chapter 2: Determinate Being, p. 109. We should have read up to C: Infinity, p,137. We have still to talk about many things leading up to the Infinity section.
At the end of the meeting we'll be talking about Stephen Houlgate's On Being: Quality and the Birth of Quantity in Hegel's 'Science of Logic' , Vol. 1. We'll look at Part Two, Chapter 6: Quality, pages 135 to 156, in which Houlgate discusses being, nothing, and becoming. It is available here (link).
Also, Bill has posted on Discord, Chapter 1 from Nahum Brown's Hegel on Possibility, called "Hegel on Totality: From Being to Nothing," where Brown not only introduces his "Dialectical Totality" interpretation of the opening, but surveys and categorizes some other approaches. Bill has also added an outline of the chapter.
Another good essay, by Dieter Henrich, entitled Beginning and Method of (the) Logic, is available here.
During the meetings we'll be using the Miller translation. The pdf of the Miller can be found here (link).

Hegel's Science of Logic (1812–1816) is a landmark in German idealism and a radical rethinking of logic as the living structure of reality itself. Rather than treating logic as a neutral tool or set of rules, Hegel presents it as the dynamic structure of reality and self-consciousness. He develops a system of dialectical reasoning in which concepts evolve through contradictions and their resolutions. In contrast to his early collaborator and philosophical rival Friedrich Schelling, who emphasized the role of intuition and nature in the Absolute, Hegel insists that pure thought — developed immanently from itself — is the true foundation of metaphysics. The work is divided into three major parts: Being, Essence, and Concept (or Notion), each tracing the development of increasingly complex categories of thought. For Hegel, logic is not abstract or static; it is the unfolding of the Absolute, the rational core of existence.

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This is a discussion group for Hegel's Science of Logic. We have read several of Friedrich Schelling's works, including Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (1809), Ages of the World (c. 1815), and the Historical-Critical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mythology (1845), Anyone with an interest in philosophy is free to join in the meetings.

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Before beginning another reading of Kierkegaard's Either/Or, we'll be reading a few plays together. These plays are all featured in Either/Or, and so they should help prepare us for encountering them, and will also provide a palate cleanser between works of Kierkegaard.

During the meetings, we'll decide on roles and read the plays. We will take breaks to discuss, likely between scenes or acts. Also, we'll have as many meetings as needed to finish the plays.

We'll begin reading at this meetup from Scene II here.

Video of a production of Faust I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaogjXLdPow

Here are the plays we'll read together before beginning Either/Or:

• Sophocles - Antigone
• Scribe - The First Love
• Goethe - Faust

Additional works you could look at before we begin Either/Or:

• Goethe - Clavigo
• Mozart/Ponte - Don Giovanni
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQBmLHSXQdg
• Mozart/Schikaneder - The Magic Flute
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om_qtZ-Hm7k
• Mozart/Ponte - The Marriage of Figaro
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ik-PzAXsQ

On the Friday Meetings:

The Friday meetings began on January 1, 2016, with an initial goal of reading through the first half of Søren Kierkegaard's works. Due to continued interest, we have decided to return to previous works for review, study more background texts, and continue beyond the first half of Kierkegaard's writing.

Works read so far in the series:

• The Concept of Irony, With Continual Reference to Socrates (Kierkegaard)
• Notes of Schelling's Berlin Lectures (Kierkegaard)
• Either/Or (Victor Eremita, et al.)
• Two Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
• Fear and Trembling (Johannes de Silentio)
• Repetition (Constantin Constantius)
• Three Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
• Four Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
• Two Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
• Three Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
• Philosophical Fragments (Johannes Climacus)
• Johannes Climacus or De Omnibus Dubitandum Est (Johannes Climacus)
• Concept of Anxiety (Vigilius Haufniensis)
• Prefaces (Nicolaus Notabene)
• Writing Sampler (A.B.C.D.E.F. Godthaab)
• Four Upbuilding Discourses (Kierkegaard)
• Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions (Kierkegaard)
• Stages on Life's Way (Hilarious Bookbinder)
• Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments (Johannes Climacus)
• The Sickness Unto Death (Anti-Climacus)
• Works of Love

Works read for background:

• The First Love (Scribe)
• The Berlin Lectures (Schelling)
• Clavigo (Goethe)
• Faust Part I (Goethe)
• Antigone (Sophocles)
• Axioms (Lessing)
• The Little Mermaid (Anderson)

Works read inspired (at least in part) by Kierkegaard

• The Escape from God (Tillich)
• You Are Accepted (Tillich)

Some background on Soren Kierkegaard in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://iep.utm.edu/kierkega/

The Symposium is a heavily fictionalised account of a convivial gathering supposedly taking place sometime around 416 BC and given by the young poet Agathon to celebrate his recent victory in a poetic contest. The guest roster reads like a who is who of late 5th century Athenian society. Symposium’s influence has defied the confines of philosophical discourse throughout the history of thought. It consists of series of speeches on Love (Eros) and offers an exploration of its variety from its most mundane to its most divine forms.

Love, however, is no mere code-name for the attraction between human beings but rather a primordial cosmic force that manifests itself in that attraction. Hence the use of myth is utterly justified in this context. Performativity plays an unusually substantial role in the unfolding of the dialogue. For a Platonic dialogue, there are many light-hearted moments that occasionally culminate in peaks of intensity.

Reference will be made to Xenophon’s Symposium, Ficino's Commentary on the Symposium as well variety of modern works such as Leo Strauss's seminal work bearing the same title.

This is a relatively early work by Plato probably composed, according to what the indications you can find in the work between 385 and 378 BC and thus belonging to his late early or early middle period.

The Symposium, along with the Republic and Timaeus is a major influence on the development of European thought.

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This is a live reading of Plato's Symposium. No previous knowledge of the Platonic corpus is required but a general understanding of the questions of philosophy in general and of ancient philosophy in particular is to some extent desirable but not presupposed. This Plato group meets on Saturdays and has previously read the Phaedo, the Apology, Philebus, Gorgias, Critias, Laches, Timaeus, Euthyphro, Crito and other works, including ancient commentaries and texts for contextualisation such as Gorgias’ Praise of Helen. The reading is intended for well-informed generalists even though specialists are obviously welcome. It is our aspiration to read the Platonic corpus over a long period of time.

The host is Constantine Lerounis, a distinguished Greek philologist and poet, author of Four Access Points to Shakespeare’s Works (in Greek) and Former Advisor to the President of the Hellenic Republic. November 8 is the introductory session for the Symposium and hence an ideal opportunity to join the group without having to do any catching up.

The translation we are using is by Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff and can be found here.