Blog Posts by Subject: Philosophy

Last month, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library hosted the fifth in a monthly series of Very Short Introduction Discussions. February's topic was “City Planning.” If you couldn’t make it to the live discussion, here are some questions to consider while reading.

On November 23, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library hosted the third in a monthly series of Very Short Introduction Discussions. November’s topic was “Knowledge.” If you couldn’t make it to the live discussion, here are some questions to consider while reading.

Join us for a virtual book discussion of Plato's 'Republic' on Tuesday, June 23rd.

Have you heard of "Death Cafes"? They might sound scary or dark to the uninitiated, but there's a reason they're a growing worldwide phenomenon. At Mid-Manhattan Library, we have been hosting such discussions for almost two years now—here are ten reasons to attend:

Philosophy, as it is practiced today, is abstract, theoretical, and detached from life. In the Greco-Roman world, it was something quite different. Philosophy was a way of life.

Robert G. O’Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University recites this letter about faith composed by Harlem Renaissance poet and novelist, Langston Hughes, to Jamaican born Harlem preacher E. Ethelred Brown.

Philosophical writings on mortality and the fear of death.

If you'd like to understand why more wild animals are venturing into urban environments; to discover how the great impressionist Monet ate; to examine the Polaroid-Kodak patent war; to celebrate the music and poetry of Leonard Cohen; to learn how to beat fatigue; to explore the economic consequences of climate change; to relive a harrowing but heroic moment in Armenian history; to argue against suicide; or learn how to cope with the narcissists in your life, please join us this month!

In honor of Jean-Paul Sartre, we present a quiz with a touch of the ridiculous.

For further reading on themes found in The Stranger, try these titles.

Come to Jefferson Market this fall to attend one of our courses.

Philosophical inquiry at the movies… a looming retirement crisis… familiar New York landmarks seen from unexpected angles… the birth of NYC’s power system… the language hoax… the hidden history of the mob in NYC… Tomorrow-Land, the 1964-1965 World’s Fair… the great Boston - New York subway race… the Kitty Genovese murder… the inventor of electric traction… the hospice movement… the makers of modern Manhattan…

Gangsters and true crime, New York City history, financial literacy, MacArthur, FDR, Khrushchev, Lindsay, Main Street, U.S.A., travel, learning and self-discovery, climate change, foreign policy, the collective afterlife, and great pizza are among the wide-ranging topics coming up at our Author @ the Library talks in July 2014! We hope you’ll join us for insightful discussions with the authors of these 

The Jefferson Market Library is pleased to offer the following free courses for the spring semester, 2014.

The Jefferson Market Library continues to offer multi-session courses in subjects taught by college professors — just like you'd take in an adult continuing education program at a university. Recently we offered a free six-session Introduction to Western Philosophy course. Here's what two participants in that course, Carlos and Shaan, had to say:

Carlos

What did you think of the philosophy course?

It was great to get an overview, to look at all these different philosophers — it 

Terence Kemp McKenna, by Entropath, Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes naked Sometimes mad Now the scholar Now the fool Thus they appear on earth: The free men. — Hindu verse from Avadhoota Gita

Terence McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000), America's most beloved psychonaut, bard, ethnobotanist, folk hero, and freewheeling philosopher, rose to fame in the early 1990s with the publication of several influential 

Thomas Paine was born 275 years ago on January 29. He died in 1809 at 59 Grove Street in New York City, where a plaque marks his passing.

Paine’s writings, especially Common Sense, helped the American cause in the Revolution, and John Adams credited him with a crucial role in the winning of that war.

Paine was not shy in 

Ancient Egypt has long held a fascination for the West. The idea of Egypt was transmitted to Roman culture through Greek accounts, and after Late Antiquity, existed in the European imagination as an exotic and ancient location in the Bible's Old Testament account of the 6th century BCE Israelite diaspora.

The Western Mystery Tradition had its earliest beginnings in the cult of Isis, which reached Rome in the 

First published on February 1st, 1963, The New York Review of Books has been hailed to be one of the world's leading intellectual literary magazines. Known for its sharp and critical insights, commentaries and book reviews on culture, literature and current affairs, The NYRB has had much success in gaining attention from and written contributions by eminent scholars, intellectuals and writers such as Margaret Atwood,