About us
Welcome to the Toronto Philosophy Meetup! This is a community (online and in-person) for anyone interested in philosophy, including newcomers to the subject. We host discussions, talks, reading groups, pub nights, debates, and other events on an inclusive range of topics and perspectives in philosophy, drawing from an array of materials (e.g. philosophical writings, for the most part, but also movies, literature, history, science, art, podcasts, poetry, current events, ethnographies, and whatever else seems good.)
Anyone is welcome to host philosophy-related events here. We also welcome speakers and collaborations with other groups.
Join us at an event soon for friendship, cooperative discourse, and mental exercise!
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Bluesky and join our new Discord for discussion and to stay in touch with other members.
(🚨🚨🚨 WARNING: FRADULENT EMAILS are circulating that IMPERSONATE organizers of this group and eventually ask you for money or personal information if you engage. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED SUCH AN EMAIL OR IF YOU ARE UNCERTAIN about any message claiming to represent this group, PLEASE REPORT IT by contacting the main organizer Darren directly through Meetup's messaging system or email us at philosophyto [at] gmail [dot] com. Be vigilant for scams in general, which are everywhere these days and easier than ever to generate because of A.I. 🚨🚨🚨)
Feel free to propose meetup topics (you can do this on the Message Boards), and please contact us if you would like to be a speaker or host an event.
(Note: Most of our events have moved online because of the pandemic.)
"Philosophy is not a theory but an activity."
— from "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus", Wittgenstein
"Discourse cheers us to companionable
reflection. Such reflection neither
parades polemical opinions nor does it
tolerate complaisant agreement. The sail
of thinking keeps trimmed hard to the
wind of the matter."
— from "On the Experience of Thinking", Heidegger
See here for an extensive list of podcasts and resources on the internet about philosophy.
See here for the standards of conduct that our members are expected to abide by. Members should also familiarize themselves with Meetup's Terms of Service Agreement, especially the section on Usage and Content Policies.
See here for a list of other philosophy-related groups to check out in the Toronto area.
Please note that no advertising of external events, products, businesses, or organizations is allowed on this site without permission from the main organizer.
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Make a Donation
Since 2016, the Toronto Philosophy Meetup has been holding regular events that are free, open to the public, and help to foster community and a culture of philosophy in Toronto and beyond. To help us continue to do so into the future, please consider supporting us with a donation! Any amount is most welcome.
You can make a donation here.
See here for more information and to meet our donors.
Supporters will be listed on our donors page unless they wish to remain anonymous. We thank them for their generosity!
If you would like to help out or support us in other ways (such as with any skills or expertise you may have), please contact us.
Note: You can also use the donation link to tip individual hosts. Let us know who you want to tip in the notes section. You can also contact hosts directly for ways to tip them.
Featured event
![Personally Interpreting Nietzsche's “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” [Session 9 of 48]](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/b/6/2/b/highres_535966635.jpeg)
Personally Interpreting Nietzsche's “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” [Session 9 of 48]
Please read ALL of the following unless you are already familiar with what we are doing! Reading/Questions for discussion appear below
The conceit of this Meetup, and what I expect attendees to participate in, is that it’s 1885, and the last part of what Friedrich Nietzsche thought was his “greatest gift” to humanity has just been published. A friend has given you a complete copy, and you are reading this book for the first time. You are familiar only with his previous works. This conceit means that you are coming to this book with a “beginner’s mind,” and trying to understand it for the very first time.
What I am looking for in this series of 48 one hour sessions are your personal interpretations of what Nietzsche has to say in this [in]famous book. No interpretations made by his commentators after 1885 will be permitted. His original readers used their own minds, and you will use yours.
In order that we are literally on the same page, the only version that will be allowed is the Adrian del Caro translation published by Cambridge University in 2006, available as a free PDF here. Download it and save it somewhere for reading on a digital device. If you insist on a physical copy, try libraries, Amazon, Bookfinders, Bookshop, or a local used bookstore (if there are any left) .
Session 9-Zarathustra's Prologue [4] + On The Preachers of Death + On War and Warriors
Who are the "preachers of death"?
What kind of war is Zarathustra describing?
Why is Zarathustra the best enemy?
Upcoming events
583
First, a House, a Wife, and a Cow — Aristotle’s Politics
·OnlineOnlineNov. 1 – We will read Politics I.3 and maybe 4. Quoting Hesiod, Aristotle says that a young man begins adulthood qua citizen by founding a household, starting with a house, then a wife, then a cow. (Some translations may conflate wife and cow, but let's not quibble.) What things else constitute a household? That's chapter 3 and maybe chapter 4.
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In the second half of I.2, we finally learned that the human being is naturally meant to live in the city—that is, man is a city-living being. Properly understood, that is a profound fact.
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We are live-reading Aristotle's Politics, the treatise on the practical governance of the city-state for the sake of enabling and promoting its citizens individually to flourish.
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The prerequisite to this treatise is a familiarity with Aristotelian ethics—whether that be Nicomachean ethics, Eudemian Ethics, or Magna Moralia.
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.9 attendees
Egora Academy: writing, publishing, presenting, and implementing your philosophy
·OnlineOnlineAbout Egora Academy:
This event is a continuing series of workshops based around using the Egora networking platform to write, publish, present, improve, and implement your political, economic, social, and existential philosophy. During this event the participants will have the opportunity to present one or more of their ideas previously written and published in Egora. Then we will analyze each idea for its merits and flaws, and against other ideas, possibly leading to the development of new and better ideas. If an idea succeeds in gaining support from enough other philosophers in Egora, it might ultimately become implemented through the world's governing structures (besides Egora being a philosophical learning tool, Egora is also the political organizing platform of the International Logic Party).I most highly recommend that before your first event you take some time to learn about Egora, register for it, and begin developing your Ideological Profile in Egora with at least a few different ideas (original or copied). If you do not have an Ideological Profile in Egora, then this event will mostly be preparation for the next event.
This is my Ideological Profile:
http://egora-ilp.org/philosopher/Cezary_Jurewicz
Everyone is invited to examine it to prepare themself regarding my positions on different issues.Levels of participation:
My preference is to do 1-on-1 events in front of an audience because this allows the two participants to thoroughly develop their positions on very complex topics. This is also to the benefit of the audience because each audience member is encouraged to come back to be the speaking participant next time (everyone is also encouraged to host their own events, and i would love to come to listen). For this reason, you can RSVP to be the main participant for this event through my Calendly, which is available in my Ideological Profile in Egora.If no one RSVPs as the main participant, we will just have a group session.
2 attendees
Reparations Revisited: Should the UK pay back for the Slave Trade?
·OnlineOnlineKing Charles began his tour of the Caribbean at the end of October by acknowledging the “great suffering of the past” in the face of renewed calls for slavery reparations. The Prime Minister Andy Burnham later said he was “open” to the possibility of a formal apology on behalf of the UK for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, which he described as a “brutal and barbaric”, though he ruled out the possibility of any financial reparations.
So, given that the UK profited economically from the transatlantic slave trade, in which Africans were trafficked to the Americas as slave labour, should it compensate the countries whose people and economies suffered as a result? Does collective responsibility make sense in the context of a multicultural, multi-ethic contemporary Britain? Or should individuals whose ancestors profited directly from the slave trade be the ones held financially responsible for the sins of the past? And can even the most generous reparations ever right the wrongs of slavery?
About the Speaker:
The Revd Dr Michael Banner is Dean of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was previously Professor of Public Policy and Ethics in the Life Sciences at the University of Edinburgh; Fellow and Director of Studies in Philosophy and Theology, Peterhouse, Cambridge; and Professor of Moral and Social Theology, King’s College, London. He is the author of many books, including Britain’s Slavery Debt: Reparations Now! (Oxford University Press, 2024), Christian Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems (CUP, 1999), and Christian Ethics: A Brief History (Blackwells, 2009). He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day on the Today programme.
The Moderator:
Alexis Papazoglou is Managing Editor of the LSE British Politics and Policy blog. He was previously senior editor for the Institute of Arts and Ideas, and a philosophy lecturer at Cambridge and Royal Holloway. His research interests lie broadly in the post-Kantian tradition, including Hegel, Nietzsche, as well as Husserl and Heidegger. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, The New Republic, WIRED, The Independent, The Conversation, The New European, as well as Greek publications, including Kathimerini.
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This is an online conversation and audience Q&A presented by the UK-based journal The Philosopher. It is open to the public and held on Zoom. The event is free to attend but the Zoom registration page has, by default, an optional donation amount that you can change to $0 (or whatever you wish). Donations go to The Philosopher magazine to cover our costs and expand the scope of our series.
Please send feedback or comments about our events directly to thephilosopher1923@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!
About The Philosopher (https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/):
The Philosopher is the longest-running public philosophy journal in the UK (founded in 1923). It is published by The Philosophical Society of England (http://www.philsoceng.uk/), a registered charity founded ten years earlier than the journal in 1913, and still running regular groups, workshops, and conferences around the UK. Our managing directors are Andrés Saenz de Sicilia and Tara Needham, and they are supported by our managing editors and editorial board. For a full overview of our team, see here. We currently publish two print issues per year, as well as a “third publication” (generally an edited collection).
The journal aims to represent contemporary philosophy in all its many and constantly evolving forms, both within academia and beyond. Contributors over the years have ranged from John Dewey and G.K. Chesterton to contemporary thinkers like Christine Korsgaard, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Elizabeth Anderson, Martin Hägglund, Cary Wolfe, Avital Ronell, and Adam Kotsko.
10 attendees
Past events
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