What we’re about
In 2024, the History of Philosophy Book Club will continue to study both canonical Western texts as well as philosophy from other cultures. In 2022 we explored Hinduism, Buddhism, and classical Chinese philosophy alongside the thinkers of Greek antiquity, and in 2023 we read notable medieval Arabic, Persian, and Central Asian philosophers. In 2024 we'll explore middle-period Chinese Confucianism and Daoism as well as Zen Buddhism. This is an opportunity for those who have read mostly within the Western canon to learn and assess new and different ideas, and to see how they have influenced varied philosophical traditions. The 2024 schedule can be found here.
NOTICE: If you would like to join the History of Philosophy Book Club, we're happy to have you! Please do take a few moments to give thoughtful answers to our registration questions -- expertise in philosophy is not required, but we'd sincerely like to know about you and your interests in philosophy! As our registration form notes, one-word or excessively brief answers to the questions, as well as snarky or scornful replies, will result in an automatic rejection. Additionally, because the group meets in person, membership is currently limited to the Washington, DC metro area. Thank you for your interest and consideration.
WHO WE ARE
Did you take a philosophy class in high school or college and wish you had taken more? Do you read philosophy texts independently but have no one to discuss them with? Then this group is for you.
Somewhat of a hybrid, it is a combination study group and book club. The backgrounds of our members vary: some have never taken a philosophy course and are essentially self-taught; others have doctorates in the field. Although the majority of writers have been European and American, we have read and are open to texts from other cultures, and starting in 2022 will be making an extra effort to study them. Representative philosophers have included Plato, Averroes, Confucius, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Sartre, Arendt, Rawls, Foucault, and Butler. We often read a single book by a single author, but if their output has been substantial we will consider an anthology or collection of shorter texts. At times we engage with debates between prominent philosophers, such as the Searle-Derrida debate about meaning and interpretation. We also sometimes discuss topics such as theories of metaphor or the philosophy of mathematics, or schools of philosophy such as pragmatism.
We started the group in 2010 with the classical period and finished in 2013 with twentieth century writers, then began the cycle in more depth in 2014 and wrapped up in December 2021, beginning the historical cycle again in January 2022.
Meetings are currently held at the West End Library in DC, located 2301 L St NW, Washington, DC 20037, near the Foggy Bottom-GWU metro station.
Tips in Preparing for Meetings
After you have finished the reading, ask yourself: (1) What are the philosopher’s principal ideas? (2) What arguments are used to support them, and are they strong or weak? (3) Who were the author’s major influences, and whom in turn did he/she influence? (4) What was the historical context in which the author wrote, and did this affect what was said? (5) Are the author’s works still relevant today and, if so, how?
To help in answering these questions, attendees are encouraged to consult the secondary resources posted in each announcement. Wikipedia, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy are especially useful.
Rules of Conduct at Meetings
Avoid monopolizing the conversation. If you've been speaking for several minutes, and sense others want to get in, relinquish the floor.
Stay on topic, and keep your remarks concise and to the point.
Challenging arguments and disputing facts are fine; personal attacks are not. Derogatory, prejudiced, or discriminatory remarks of any kind are grounds for ejection from the session and termination of membership.
If you have not read at least 50% of the recommended selections, consider skipping the meeting to allow other interested people to attend.
Those who violate the rules of conduct repeatedly will be dropped from the group at the discretion of the organizers.
Note:
To remain viable, groups depend on regular attendance. Toward this end, we ask that you only RSVP "Yes" if you know that you are likely to attend. If it turns out that you cannot make it to the meeting, we ask that you cancel your RSVP as soon as possible to make room for others.
Although everyone is welcome to use our resources, our targeted audience consists of people who live in the Maryland, DC, and Virginia area.
Upcoming events (1)
See all- John of Salisbury, Christine de Pizan, and the Metaphor of the “Body Politic”West End Neighborhood Library, Washington, DC
The idea that a polity is like a human body is ancient, but became the master metaphor for politics in the European Middle Ages. The medieval “body politic” placed the king at the head of the body, commanding it; his spies are the eyes and ears, and his spokesman the mouth; knights are the hands and arms that bear sword and shield; scribes and bureaucrats are the stomach and other organs that disperse nourishment; and the lowly peasants are the legs and feet, whose labors support the political body. The metaphor emphasizes two key concepts, interdependence and hierarchy, which helped justify the feudal class system. Moreover, the body politic actually fueled conflict, as kings and popes warred over who should rule: the monarch as the head or the clergy as the heart or soul. The body politic remained dominant through the Renaissance and early modernity, famously appearing in both Hobbes and Rousseau. Organic political metaphors are still influential today.
The body politic first appeared in the sixth-century BCE “Fable of the Belly” of Aesop, later used in 494 BCE by a Roman senator, Menenius Agrippa, to negotiate an end to a plebian revolt. He likened the classes of Rome to parts of the body, saying the plebians were the hands and arms and the senate the stomach, so the arms must feed the belly or the city as a whole would perish. Throughout antiquity, a plethora of organic metaphors organized political thought. For example, Plato compared virtue to health, advocating a moderate diet for the body and, correspondingly, a diet of philosophy rather than sophistry for the psyche. In his Republic, justice means all parts of his ideal polity in are balance, like the bodily humors in a healthy body.
English philosopher, diplomat, and bishop John of Salisbury (late 1110s-1180) established the medieval paradigm of the body politic in his Policraticus (1159), the first important work of political theory of the Middle Ages. Since John was involved in the disputes between king Henry II and archbishop of Canterbury Thomas á Becket, the body politic was already implicated in papal/prince conflicts.
In the Policraticus, John argues the prince should govern in the interests of the entire political body and should punish corrupt officials who enrich themselves at the expense of the whole. He excoriates tyrants who indulge their vices and despoil the political body, and even arrives at an early theoretical justification for tyrannicide. The Policraticus is an example of the medieval genre of “mirrors for princes,” handbooks of practical and moral instruction about governing written for young aristocrats. Lessons were by “exempla,” tales of admirable princes from history and legend worthy of imitation. Medieval texts also relied heavily on arguments from authority, citing ancient thinkers and statesmen such as Aristotle (“The Philosopher”) or Cicero ( “Tully”). Indeed, John appears to have invented a letter from Plutarch to the revered Roman emperor Trajan to give his own arguments weight.
The first French woman of letters, Christine de Pizan (c. 1364-c. 1430), furnished another prime example of the body politic. Born in Venice, Christine was the daughter of a court physician and astrologer of Charles V of France, and her father and husband encouraged her education. After being widowed at age twenty-five, she turned to writing to make a living.
Among her works was The Book of the Body Politic (1406), another mirror for princes. Each of its three sections deals with the proper behavior of one of society’s classes – royalty, nobility, and commoners – which each correspond to part of the body politic. Christine uses the metaphor in traditional ways, emphasizing unity over conflict while at the same time justifying established hierarchies; her political body is also masculine, based on the model of the war-fighting male, despite the fact she was a woman writer who in other works attended to women’s concerns. The prince, as the head of the political body, is sovereign and in command of the body. She says, “in order to govern the body of the public polity well, it is necessary for the head to be healthy, that is virtuous. Because if it is ill, the whole body will feel it. Therefore we begin by speaking of medicine for the head, that is, for kings and princes…” Throughout, Christine discusses the nobles as the hard-working class, undoubtedly reflecting class prejudice.
Our reading for this month is Christine de Pizan’s Book of the Body Politic (entire, including the editor’s excellent introduction) and the following sections of John of Salisbury’s Policraticus:
Bk III chs 1-5
Bk IV chs 1-5, 7-13
Bk V prologue, chs 1-3, 6-11
Bk VI prologue, chs 1, 2, 8, 9, 20-22, 24-26, 29
Bk VII chs 12, 17-18, 20-22.
