This one stretched to a discussion of Art, particularly Bada Shanren (1626-1705 CE), then we wandered into a discussion of teleology, religion, and progress in society. For some background on Wang and the tradition of Neo-Confucianism that he was at once a part and a critic of, click here. 
Enjoy!

Excerpt from Two Ages: A Literary Review 1846
It is a review of Thomasine Christine Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd's 1845 novel, Two Ages
Enjoy!

We broke this week's content up into two episodes. In this first part we mostly wrestle with Spinoza's logic and the question of a naturally determined reality vs. a pre-determined one. 
Stay tuned for Part 2! 

In the "Depressingly Prophetic" file, just behind Forster's The Machine Stops, lies this week's essay, E Unibus Plurum, by David Foster Wallace. 

We enjoyed the conversation, and promise zero irony, and only minimal cynicism. 

Enjoy!

This week we discuss Appiah's In My Father's House chapters 1-5, and assorted other works by and about Appiah. 

The theme for this week (and next) is Feminism, and we read several brilliant works, including:

Luce Irigaray - When Our Lips Speak Together

Julia Kristeva - Powers of Horror
(Chapter One - Approaching Abjection)

and discussed several more:

Delouze and Guattari - A Thousand Plateaus
Irigaray - The Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger

Enjoy!

This week we dig into the first 7 chapters of the classic proto-Daoist text, the Zhuangzi, named for Master Zhuang, or Zhuang Zhou. We worked primarily from Brook Ziporyn's excellent translation. Some other texts mentioned, and also worth reading are listed below, linked to their publisher's sites. Buy them! But not from Amazon.
Victor Mair's Wandering on the Way
Victor Mair, ed, Experimental Essays on Zhuangzi
Livia Kohn's Zhuangzi Text and Context
Geling Shang's Liberation as Affirmation - the Religiosity of Zhuangzi and Nietzsche