Welcome to the Philosophy Forum

The Philosophy Forum is a discussion group for members of the LGBT community.  Over the course of more than a decade, we have discussed works from the canon of Western philosophy, texts of Asian philosophy, post-structuralist and contemporary philosophy, and non-philosophic texts — including literary texts — from the perspective of philosophy.

We meet the second and fourth Saturday of every month from 3-5 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center (208 W. 13th St.) in Manhattan.

The readings for upcoming meetings of the Philosophy Forum are as follows:

Sept. 11: Merleau-Ponty, “Phenomenology of Perception”

Sept. 25: Jane Flax, “Thinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis, Feminism & Postmodernism in the contemporary West” (excerpts)

Oct. 9: Plato, “Phaedrus”

Oct. 23: Eckhardt Tolle & Byron Katie

For a copy of these readings, go to the contact page.

Past meetings have focused on the following topics:

2009

Oct. 10:  Karl Marx, “Critique of Feuerbach”; Theodor Adorno, “On Lyric Poetry & Society”

Oct. 24:  David Hume,  “An Abstract of ‘A Treatise of Human Nature” and “Why Cause is Always Necessary”

Nov. 14:  Martin Heidegger, “On the Essence of Truth”

Nov. 28:  John Joughin, “Shakespeare’s Genius: ‘Hamlet,’ Adaptation & the Work of Following”; Marjorie Garber, “Shakespeare & Modern Culture”

Dec. 12:  Christoph Menke, “Ability & Faith: On the Possibility of Justice”

2010

Jan. 23:  Dorothy Dinnerstein, “The Mermaid & the Minotaur”

Feb. 13: Erik Erikson, “Gandhi’s Truth”

Feb. 27: Habermas on religion in the public sphere

March 13: Chomsky, “Linguistics &  Brain Science”

March 27: Spinoza

April 10: Arendt on “Truth & Politics”

April 24: Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”

May 8: Thoreau, “Life without Principle”

May 22: Nussbaum, “A Right to Marry? Same-Sex Marriage & Constitutional Law”

June 12: Plotinus, “Enneads” (excerpts)