We've got a lot of good Not School groupsgoing that dig into pretty thorny texts, but I notice that for January, our purposefully introductory "What Is
Philosophy?" group didn't continue. In December, the group read Descartes's Meditations, and in November, Plato's "Apology," Russell's Problems of Philosophy and Locke's "Of Enthusiasm." All of these are readings that are accessible to those that have never read any philosophy, which may well the majority of our audience.
While in other groups, there's generally at least one person who's already kind of familiar and knowledgeable about the material who feels up to being "group leader" (which merely means you set the reading schedule and organize any meet-ups on Skype or Google Plus), the intro group is problematic, in that its members are all newbies, who don't therefore feel confident about putting themselves out there as group leader.
So, I wanted to put a call out to those readers who may have a bit of time to burn to choose a reading or two (with feedback from those interested in being members), oversee a forum conversation, and record a meet-up. If you have some philosophy chops and some teaching experience (or something comparable) and wouldn't mind semi-volunteering for this task, I'll set you up with some free Not School tuition and think of other ways to gloat over you. I will remind you that teaching is the best way to remind yourself of the material, and that everyone thinks teachers are so great and wants to hug them. Do you not want hugs? To put your hat in the ring, email me something about your qualifications and interests: mark@partiallyexaminedlife.com. Thanks!
-Mark Linsenmayer
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