Stoicon-X Milwaukee - Videos and Pictures from the Event

On Saturday, October 12 - during International Stoic Week - we held a Stoicon-X event for the Midwest here in Milwaukee.  The day began with a short welcome and an overview about Stoic philosophy and the modern Stoic movement.  Then we had our three featured speakers - Kevin Vost, Dan Hayes, and Daniel Collette - giving a set of talks ranging over a wide variety of topics related to Stoic philosophy and practice.  

Daniel's talk was interrupted by a fire alarm that cut about 30 minutes out of our scheduled time, but we got back on track by shortening the catered lunch, and then resuming Daniel's talk.  After that, five audience members gave short 3-5 minute "lightning round" talks.  We finished the event with a workshop - "The Stoic Heart" - on Stoicism and partnered relationships, given by my wife Andi and myself. 

We got together for a shot of all five of us at the end of the conference

We also got good video footage of all of the talks from Stoicon-X, with the exception of the lightning round talks.  For those who couldn't make it to the event, and would like to get to see and hear what participants did, here they are:

• Greg Sadler - Welcome to the Conference, What is Ancient Stoicism + Modern Stoicism
• Kevin Vost's Presentation with Q&A - 40 Years On The Porch: What Ancient Stoicism Taught a Modern Psychologist
• Dan Hayes' Presentation with Q&A - Metta Meditations and Universal Love
• Daniel Collette's Presentation with Q&A - Cartesian Stoicism: Stoicism for the Modern Age
• Andi Sciacca and Greg Sadler's Workshop -The Stoic Heart- Applying Stoicism in Personal Relationships

I'd like once again to thank our patron (who wishes to remain anonymous) for generously underwriting this event, and allowing us to offer it to participants for free.

Session 35 in Worlds of Speculative Fiction - Lewis Carroll

I haven't been posting regularly about this ongoing monthly talk series - Worlds of Speculative Fiction - but I intend to remedy that going forward.  We're now well into year 4 of the series, and I decided to start this one off with some sessions focused on some of the early major contributors to the genres that fall into that broad designation of "speculative fiction" - authors who influenced the other, later writers we have been discussing these last three years.

In January, we kicked off the new year with Edgar Allan Poe.  February was G.K. Chesterton.  March was supposed to be Mary Shelley, but unfortunately, I had to cancel due to illness (we'll hopefully reschedule for later this year).

Lewis Carroll - or, to use his real name, Charles Lutwidge Dogdson - was the fourth in that set, and we held that session a few weeks back.  I'd enjoyed his works on logic back when I was an undergraduate, and had read his Alice and nonsense poetry books to my daughter when she was young.  I decided that the works we'd focus on would be Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, and The Hunting of the Snark.  That would allow us to discuss one of the key themes of the series - worldbuilding - as well as getting into some of the philosophical themes raised and played with by Carroll.

Here is the videorecording from the session:

If you're in the Greater Milwaukee area, and looking for a lively, philosophically-informed conversation about speculative fiction, stop on in.  All the sessions are hosted at the Brookfield Public Library, and you can find the events on my Facebook page.  

We also have a free online class site (which I'll be updating once the semester is finished), which you can enroll in, if you'd like to see all of the other session videos and access other curated resources on the authors and their works.

The thinkers we have scheduled right now for the rest of the year include: Tanith Lee, Piers Anthony, Gordon Dickson, August Derleth, Karl Edward Wagner, Aldous Huxley, Bram Stoker, and R. Scott Bakker

Philosophers In The Midst of History #13 - Epictetus, Slavery, Stoicism, and the Roman Empire

Three years ago, I started delivering a new quarterly series of lectures here in the Milwaukee area, hosted at the Frank Weyenberg Library.  The series is called "Philosophers In The Midst of History".  Each year, I provide a lecture and discussion on an ancient philosopher in February, a medieval philosopher in May, an early modern philosopher in August, and a 19th or 20th century philosopher in November.

In each of the sessions, I lead the participants into some of the key ideas of the philosopher, place him or her within the larger historical context that informs his or her works, and discuss the philosopher's influence and legacy on history.  In the case of the latest thinker who we covered last month, the great Stoic philosopher, Epictetus, this means setting him within the framework of the Roman Empire and the classical culture of the Greco-Roman world.

It involves discussing his birth into slavery, being brought to the court of Nero by his owner - the freedman and secretary to the emperor, Epaphroditus - and having the opportunity to study with the Stoic teacher, Musonius Rufus.  It also means talking about Epictetus' own career as a teacher of Stoic philosophy, first in Rome, and then after being banished with the other philosophers from that city, relocating to Nicopolis.  There, he quite likely met a later Emperor, Hadrian (one of the few good ones), and taught countless students.  One of these was the historian Arrian, who recorded some of Epictetus teachings and conversations in his Discourses and condensed them in the Enchiridion.

Here is the videorecording of session 13.

If you'd like to see any of the other twelve sessions - covering Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine of Hippo, Boethius, Anselm of Canterbury, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus, and Hannah Arendt - here's a page with links to videos of all of them.

The sessions coming up later this year will focus on Thomas Aquinas, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Simone de Beauvoir.

Local Talk Tomorrow - Epictetus, Slavery, Stoicism, and the Roman Empire

If you're in the greater Milwaukee area, and you'd like to learn more about a great Stoic philosopher, I'll be giving a talk for the general public at the Frank Weyenberg Library, "Epictetus, Slavery, Stoicism, and the Roman Empire" - 6:00 PM, Tuesday, February 5.  Here's the Facebook event page.

This talk kicks off the fourth year for the Philosophers in the Midst of History series, an invited series of quarterly talks hosted by the Frank Weyenberg.  Each year, I give one talk on an ancient philosopher, one on a medieval, one on an early modern, and a last one on a late modern philosopher.  We focus not only on the thinker and his or her works and thought, but also on their historical context, influences, and legacy.

We videorecord these sessions, so if you'd like to see any of the other twelve, on thinkers from Plato to Hannah Arendt, click here.

If you haven't already read him, and you're looking for reading suggestions on Epictetus, what you want to get your hands on is his Discourses.

New Milwaukee Chapter of SOPHIA - And Our First Event!

Milwaukee now has a local chapter of SOPHIA!  This is a national organization devoted to bringing philosophy out of the academy and back into the public sphere.

For those of you in the area, we'd love for you to join us at our first event for the general public - Where Do Justice and Kindness Meet?

We will be meeting in the Community Room of the Milwaukee Public Library - Central Branch.  The event begins at 1:30 PM, and runs until about 4:00 PM on Saturday, March 17.  To sign up for this event, to learn more, or to join our local SOPHIA chapter, go to our Meetup page.