HPL Great Books Reading and Discussion Group: Meditations on First Philosophy

Friday, November 22, 2013

Meditations on First Philosophy

Title page from the 1641 Paris Edition of the Meditations of René Descartes. The Latin reads, "Meditations on First Philosophy, in which the Existence of God and the Immortality of the Soul Will Be Demonstrated."

When Descartes talks of "First Philosophy," he really means "Metaphysics."

Next Meeting

Our next meeting takes place on Monday, January 27th 2025 at 7 pm at the Main Library Meeting Room or via Zoom. The selection is the the dramatic tragedy "Hekabe" by Euripides (480-406 B.C.E.), which can be found in Great Conversations 5. The anthology can be purchased at the Main Library front desk at 338 Main Street, Huntington, N.Y. at the subsidized price of $10 (thanks to a generous donation from the Friends of the Huntington Public Library). The 2025 February meeting will be on Monday, February 24th, when the selection will be three poems by John Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," and "Ode on Melancholy."

About Shared Inquiry

Also known as the "Socratic Method," the Shared Inquiry discussion technique championed by the Great Books Foundation is a nonauthoritarian approach to book discussion that values life experience as a important element of learning. Discussion leaders ask questions and do not give opinions.

Five rules of Shared Inquiry are:

1. Concentrate on the selection.
2. Address the question at hand.
3. Speak up (but one person at a time, please!)
4. Listen carefully.
5. Discuss the author's ideas, not the author's life and times.