Episteme
Episteme is a philosophy bookclub which thematically pairs a text from the western canon with a major work from a non-western canon (such as Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Islamic or African).
The word episteme originally referred to the highest form of knowledge in ancient Greece - it is the root of the word epistemology which is the study of knowledge itself. Foucalt used word episteme to refer to the building blocks of what is conceivable - a level up from worldview, paradigm, sacred canopy or meta-narratives.
What we are trying to do here is 2 mains things:
Read the western canon so we understand the genealogy of our own knowledge in order to metaphorically "step outside of the cave" (Plato's allegory of the cave).
Pair western canonical texts with a non-western canonical text in order to promote appreciation of other non-western worldviews (this tension will also be the basis of our intellectual discussions).
The reading list is 52 western books and 52 non-western books as listed below and it repeats each year. Two books per week is maybe 300-500 pages or more - this is a very high tempo of reading and discussions that we will work our way through.
Because it's a very challenging tempo we consider reading the whole book(s) is laudable but not required to be a member or attend the discussion.
Instead of reading the two books in their entitreity you may also consider:
- Reading just one of the books
- Skimming the books
- Talking to AI about the books and the topic in general
- Reading the wikipedia pages
- Bringing your own ideas about the weekly theme
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Week 1 — Humanity's first reckonings with mortality and the nature of being
- The Pre-Socratics
- The Epic of Gilgamesh
Week 2 — Mystical metaphysics of the One / ultimate reality
- The Enneads — Plotinus
- The Upanishads
Week 3 — Living in harmony with a cosmic order (Logos vs. Tao)
- Meditations — Marcus Aurelius
- Tao Te Ching — Laozi
Week 4 — Skepticism, relativism, the fluid and unfixed self
- Essays — Montaigne
- Zhuangzi
Week 5 — The limits of reason and the nature of phenomena
- Critique of Pure Reason — Kant
- Mulamadhyamakakarika — Nagarjuna
Week 6 — Inner discipline as freedom from suffering and fortune
- The Consolation of Philosophy — Boethius
- The Yoga Sutras — Patanjali
Week 7 — Reconciling Aristotelian reason with revealed faith
- Summa Theologiae — Aquinas
- The Incoherence of the Incoherence — Averroes
Week 8 — Self-overcoming, non-attachment, aesthetics of discipline
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra — Nietzsche
- Zen and Japanese Culture — Suzuki
Week 9 — Rival cosmologies: materialist atoms vs. mythic creation
- On the Nature of Things — Lucretius
- Popol Vuh
Week 10 — Law, community, and the ideal city under God
- The City of God — Augustine
- The Talmud (selections)
Week 11 — The soul's submission and turn toward God
- Confessions — Augustine
- The Quran
Week 12 — Exemplary conduct and the cultivation of practical virtue
- Nicomachean Ethics — Aristotle
- Hadith (selections)
Week 13 — Distrust of inherited certainty; calls for a new method
- Novum Organum — Bacon
- The Incoherence of the Philosophers — Al-Ghazali
Week 14 — Critique and renewal of religious practice
- In Praise of Folly — Erasmus
- The Revival of the Religious Sciences — Al-Ghazali
Week 15 — Spinoza's rationalism grows directly from Maimonides
- Ethics — Spinoza
- The Guide for the Perplexed — Maimonides
Week 16 — Founding myths and the legitimacy of political power
- Discourses on Livy — Machiavelli
- The Kebra Nagast
Week 17 — Virtue, hierarchy, and the well-ordered state
- Politics — Aristotle
- The Analects — Confucius
Week 18 — The weighing, and the cessation, of suffering
- Utilitarianism — Mill
- The Dhammapada
Week 19 — Innate human goodness as the ground of legitimate rule
- Two Treatises of Government — Locke
- Mencius
Week 20 — Strong central authority to contain a dangerous human nature
- Leviathan — Hobbes
- Han Feizi
Week 21 — Duty performed for its own sake, without attachment to outcome
- Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals — Kant
- The Bhagavad Gita
Week 22 — Comparative sociology of civilizations and their cycles
- Democracy in America — Tocqueville
- The Muqaddimah — Ibn Khaldun
Week 23 — Autonomy and the liberation of the individual mind
- On Liberty — Mill
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed — Freire
Week 24 — Individual contract vs. communal, relational personhood
- The Social Contract — Rousseau
- Ubuntu Philosophy
Week 25 — Revolutionary class politics and anti-colonial liberation
- The Communist Manifesto — Marx & Engels
- Consciencism — Nkrumah
Week 26 — Strategic treatises on securing and structuring power
- The Federalist Papers
- The Art of War — Sun Tzu
Week 27 — Comparative treatises on statecraft and law
- The Spirit of the Laws — Montesquieu
- Arthashastra — Kautilya
Week 28 — Violence, power, and the colonized/disciplined body
- Discipline and Punish — Foucault
- The Wretched of the Earth — Fanon
Week 29 — Ideology, power, and the construction of "the Other"
- The Origins of Totalitarianism — Arendt
- Orientalism — Said
Week 30 — First-person testimony against racial oppression
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- I Write What I Like — Biko
Week 31 — The righteous ruler and the ideal moral order
- The Republic — Plato
- The Ramayana
Week 32 — A sprawling dialectic of duty and consciousness through conflict
- The Phenomenology of Spirit — Hegel
- The Mahabharata (selections)
Week 33 — Passion and desire as the ground of human nature
- A Treatise of Human Nature — Hume
- Kama Sutra — Vatsyayana
Week 34 — Ascent toward a higher, universal truth
- The Symposium — Plato
- The Lotus Sutra
Week 35 — Facing death, or awakening, with equanimity
- Apology, Crito & Phaedo — Plato
- The Platform Sutra — Huineng
Week 36 — Human agency within a changing cosmic order
- On the Dignity of Man — Pico della Mirandola
- I Ching
Week 37 — How the mind is formed: blank slate vs. nature needing cultivation
- An Essay Concerning Human Understanding — Locke
- Xunzi
Week 38 — Concern for the worst-off vs. impartial universal love
- A Theory of Justice — Rawls
- Mozi
Week 39 — Women's inner lives and status, critiqued and reclaimed
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman — Wollstonecraft
- The Tale of Genji — Murasaki Shikibu
Week 40 — Disciplined codes of vocation, duty, and self-denial
- The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism — Weber
- Hagakure — Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Week 41 — Epic defenses of tradition, kingship, and inherited order
- Reflections on the Revolution in France — Burke
- The Shahnameh — Ferdowsi
Week 42 — Desire, mortality, and the hidden self
- The Interpretation of Dreams — Freud
- Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Week 43 — The solitary inward journey toward certain truth
- Meditations on First Philosophy — Descartes
- The Masnavi — Rumi
Week 44 — The long educative journey toward true selfhood
- Émile — Rousseau
- The Conference of the Birds — Attar
Week 45 — Short, foundational texts of religious ethics and conduct
- On the Freedom of a Christian & 95 Theses — Luther
- Pirkei Avot
Week 46 — A people and culture under colonial and racial pressure
- The Souls of Black Folk — Du Bois
- Things Fall Apart — Achebe
Week 47 — Defending traditional communal ethics against modern rupture
- After Virtue — MacIntyre
- Facing Mount Kenya — Jomo Kenyatta
Week 48 — The economics and the cultural legacy of empire
- The Wealth of Nations — Adam Smith
- Decolonising the Mind — Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Week 49 — Structures of alienation — economic and psychological
- Capital, Vol. 1 — Marx
- Black Skin, White Masks — Fanon
Week 50 — The promise of universal rights against the reality of conquest
- Rights of Man — Paine
- The Broken Spears — León-Portilla
Week 51 — Opposing arguments on markets, the state, and exploitation
- The Road to Serfdom — Hayek
- Open Veins of Latin America — Galeano
Week 52 — Systems — biological, social — that shape outcomes unseen
- The Origin of Species — Darwin
- Manufacturing Consent — Chomsky & Herman
Want this bulleted version added to the Notion page as well?
