Summer has arrived, and in case you can't decide whether to take Kant's Critique of Pure Reason or Franz Kafka's The Trial to the beach with you, let me help: take them both and be prepared for Not School in June. Thinking of taking summer classes? Think better of it. That's expensive, and for a measly $5 a month you can gorge yourself on philosophy right here at The Partially Examined Life. Don't know about PEL Not School? It only takes a few minutes to read all about it.
There are a couple of new groups this month, as well as some existing ones continuing. First up though, there are two proposed groups that have attracted interest but still need one more member each to get off the ground: one to read Robert Solomon's The Passions: Emotions and the Meaning of Life, and the other, Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish. Their original proposer has also posted a long list of other potential group topics in the Citizens Forum for like minded Citizens to browse through.
There's a new group that will be taking a look at Mathematical Fictionalism, and will be reading Hartry Field's Science Without Numbers: A Defense of Nominalism with a live discussion to follow. Another new group on Media Theory and philosophy will be reading an as yet unspecified text by Friedrich Kittler.
The group discussing Kant's Critique of Pure Reason will be continuing with that book, and we're not so far in that new people couldn't catch up fairly easily (if anything is easy when it comes to Kant). A live discussion is intended for some point in June. Come join us as we try to cope with this world of appearances.
The Philosophy and Theater Group will also be continuing, and will be reading Antigone by Sophocles for a live discussion at the end of the month. This one will be prep for an upcoming PEL episode on Sophocles. Also, the word from Mark is that at least some of the No Exit cast will be reuniting soon to do a recording of this play. This group's discussions are always enjoyable, and the group itself probably requires the least commitment in terms of your time. High work/reward payoff here.
Finally, the trusty old Philosophy and Fiction group will be reading Franz Kafka's The Trial, and possibly The Penal Colony as well. There will be the usual live discussion over Skype, probably at the end of the month. New members are welcome, so join up any time this month if you want to get in on it.
- Daniel Cole
[…] June has already begun, and we thought that the fabulous Introductory Philosophy Readings Not School group might be on hiatus, we're happy to […]