The Toronto Philosophy Meetup

Over several weeks we will engage with the thought of Immanuel Kant and the Marquis de Sade, culminating with a reading of Jacques Lacan's seminal essay "Kant with Sade".

The dark side of the European Enlightenment is an enduring topic in critical philosophy. The intellectual encounter of Kant with Sade offers us a particularly intense variation on this theme: Kant the rigorous philosopher of the moral law on one side -- Sade the ultimate antinomian and libertarian on the other. In 1807 Hegel argued that the empty abstraction of Kantian duty led directly to the Reign of Terror spearheaded by Robespierre and the Jacobins. Hegel saw that the absolute freedom glorified by the Enlightenment was an abstract universal devoid of living particularity - a force of pure negativity operating in the human subject. Therefore, any attempt to actualize it was bound to produce the caput mortum and lifeless cadaver left behind by the French guillotine.

Should we read Sade's work as the consummate expression of this sinister conspiracy between absolute duty and death? Can we, following Lacan, regard his Philosophy in the Bedroom as a properly philosophical site, akin to the schools of ancient Greece? Paradoxically, Sade saw himself as a radical naturalist and a slayer of superstitious taboos, ultimately championing the vitality of human reason. If we do take Sade seriously as a philosopher, what does his extreme thought tell us about modernity, the (non-)position of the subject and the destiny of our times? While perennial, these questions have renewed significance in our current cultural and geopolitical climate.

Note: Sade's work is notoriously provocative. For this group, we will avoid his graphic portrayals and focus on the philosophical outlines of his radical naturalism and its consequences. Our aim will be to put this perspective in a mature philosophical dialogue with thinkers such as Kant, Hegel, Lacan and the Ancients. As with all texts of this nature, readers' discretion is strongly advised.

We will begin with a reading from Kant's Groundwork, proceed with several sections from Sade, then return to Kant and work our way up to Lacan's essay encompassing both thinkers. Depending on group interest, we may bring other voices into the conversation along the way, such as Hegel, Ancient materialists (Aristippus, Lucretius, Epicurus), contemporary psychoanalysts, French readers of Sade, etc.
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READING SCHEDULE
As the reading schedule may evolve, please use the link below for the most up-to-date version:
https://sites.google.com/view/existentialism-and-its-critics/

You can find all texts in the Google folder linked at the VERY BOTTOM of this description. The Google Meet link is also posted there.

👇 scroll all the way down for the links 👇

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ABOUT THIS READING GROUP
This is a comprehensive reading group focusing on 20th century French philosophy. Our current project was stimulated by our recent reading of George Bataille's Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Other writers we have discussed include Sartre, de Beauvoir, Foucault, Barthes, Derrida, Deleuze, Kristeva, etc.
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GROUP RULES

• Please spend 1-2 hours per week reading and preparing for the discussion.
• Keep your comments concise and relevant to the text.
• Please limit each comment to a maximum of 2-3 minutes. You're welcome to speak as many times as you wish.
• Virtual meeting courtesy applies: let's not interrupt each other and keep mics muted when not speaking.
• We'll focus the discussion with key passages and discussion questions. Be sure to bring your favorite passages, questions, comments, criticisms, etc.

This will mostly be a discussion around major recent and ongoing events in international relations, while applying as much IR concepts and frameworks as possible.

Tentative Topics:

• Venezuela
• Iran
• Greenland / NATO
• Middle East Peace Deal
• Ukraine / Russia
• Cuba
• Tariffs, US-China trade war, and geopolitical competition
• Multipolarity
• Nuclear weapons proliferation
• A.I. race and chips
• Sudan
• Taiwan
• South China Sea
• North Korea
• .....

Links from event on Venezuela:

Over the last few years, we have done a close reading of Plato's Republic and the Laws. Now we turn to the Statesman.

This week we will begin reading at 259d (last week we began at 257a, the start of the dialogue).

The dramatic action is as follows: we pick up after the Eleatic Stranger has finished the discussion that takes place in the dialogue titled the Sophist (which we read several years ago). The discussion turns to the figure of the Statesman, and while the interlocutor in the Sophist was Theaetetus (who resembled Socrates), a youth named Socrates takes on the role of interlocutor (Socrates himself is present).

No particular edition is required, but we can discuss what we want to use during the meeting. Because of this, sharing some editions that are generally available digitally in the comments may be helpful. I'll also try to keep the Greek text handy (probably through a Loeb edition, but anyone can look at Perseus as well).

If you want to familiarize yourself with the text in advance, here are some different editions:

Welcome everyone to the next meetup that Jen and Philip will be hosting. This time around we will be doing this book:

- Aristotle, the Desire to Understand (1988) by Jonathan Lear

I realize that when I have done Aristotle meetups in the past they have tended to get a bit too difficult. This time around I am determined to present Aristotle in a clear and helpful way (hence the title of the meetup). We will steer away from interpretive quagmires and antiquarian debates. Instead, the emphasis will be on getting a grasp on Aristotle's philosophy as a whole and also on relating Aristotle to questions that matter to philosophers now, in 2026. In my opinion the Lear book is the very best book out there for someone who wants to "feel in their bones" what Aristotle is all about.

It is impossible to really understand Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Pragmatism, Ordinary Language Philosophy and most of the other innovative branches of 20th and 21st century philosophy without a deep appreciation of Aristotle. And that is what this meetup aims to give you, an intuitive "gut level" appreciation for Aristotle's philosophy.

This will be a three hour meetup. For the first 2 hours the emphasis will be on the Lear book. For the third and final hour we will open things up and we can discuss questions about how Aristotle relates to contemporary issues in philosophy. So much of 20th and 21st century philosophy was an attempt to escape the assumptions of Platonism. So it just makes sense to read the first philosopher who both engaged deeply with Platonism and also tried to escape Platonism.

The format will be our usual "accelerated live read" format. What this means is that each participant will be expected to read roughly 15-20
pages from the Lear book before each session. Each participant will have the option of picking a few paragraphs they especially want to focus on. We will then do a live read on the paragraphs that the participants found most interesting when they did the assigned reading.

People who have not done the reading are welcome to attend this meetup. However if you want to TALK during the meetup it is essential that you do the reading. We mean it! It is essential that the direction of the conversation be influenced only by people who have actually done the reading. You may think you are so brilliant and wonderful that you can come up with great points even if you do not do the reading. You probably are brilliant and wonderful — no argument there. But you still have to do the reading if you want to talk in this meetup. REALLY.

Please note that this is a "raise hands" meetup and has a highly structured format, not an anarchy-based one. This is mostly for philosophical reasons: I want to discourage a simple-minded rapid fire "gotcha!" approach to philosophy.

Here is the reading schedule for the first three sessions:

July 12: Lear, up to page 14

July 26: Lear, up to page 36

August 9: Lear, up to page 54

After that the readings will be posted.