About us
Philosophers and Gamblers is a philosophy reading group for people who want to engage seriously with academic philosophy.
Our main weekly event is a Monday reading seminar where we work through philosophical papers slowly and carefully. We often spend multiple weeks on a single paper, reading passage by passage, reconstructing arguments, clarifying concepts, and debating what the author is actually claiming. The point is not to rush through material or collect impressive titles. The point is to understand the argument deeply enough that we can explain it, challenge it, and think with it.
Topics may include ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, epistemology, social philosophy, philosophy of science, and other areas where serious arguments are being made. We keep a shared archive of past readings, so the group has continuity rather than just floating from topic to topic. You can see our past readings here: https://app.notion.com/p/Philosophy-Meetings-2332a602b2fc804f9be6e50c13d7d3a8?source=copy_link
This is not a casual opinion circle or a motivational discussion group. It is a place for people who enjoy reading difficult texts, asking precise questions, and staying with an argument until it finally starts to give up its secrets.
Some events in the group may be hosted by other organizers and may follow different formats, including online discussions. The Monday seminar is the core reading event: slow, focused, text-based, and argument-driven.
Upcoming events
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SDIS: Do We Really Need Political Parties?
·OnlineOnlineOur speaker, Christopher Baylor, PhD, previews his talk: “Democrats and Republicans disagree about a great deal, but they tend to agree on one thing: The other party is a major part of what is wrong with American politics. What if the problem goes deeper than either party?
“I ask whether political parties are really as necessary to democracy as other political scientists say. Political parties provide informational shortcuts for voters and mobilize turnout, but doing so at the cost of undermining political checks and balances as well as encouraging a form of motivated reasoning toward the in-group and against the out-group. What would we gain, and what might we lose, if parties as such played a much smaller role in American political life?”
This lecture is sponsored by the San Diego Independent Scholars. The location is at the North University Community Library, 8820 Judicial Drive, San Diego, CA 92122. Attendance is free to the public. The lecture will be Zoomcast.
Speaker's Bio: Christopher Baylor is a political scientist and author of The Case Against Political Parties (2026, Palgrave Macmillan) and First to the Party: The Group Origins of Political Transformation (2018, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press). His research focuses on American political parties, interest groups, and political reform. His writings have been published by Studies in American Political Development, Political Science Quarterly, the Washington Post, and Fortune. He received his doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles and received his master’s degree from Brown University. He was also a Congressional Fellow in Washington, D.C., where he worked in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has taught at Wellesley College, the College of the Holy Cross, and currently as a lecturer at UCLA.
6 attendees
Aristotle’s Politics
·OnlineOnlineOct. 25 – We will resume Politics I.2. In the first two paragraphs, Aristotle distinguishes the woman from the slave, saying that they are not the same for civilized people, but they are the same for barbaric people. The household naturally arises from a combination of the man-and-woman partnership and the master-and-slave association. In this household, children presumably are treated as non-masters.
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How fascinating! Let us read on.
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We are live-reading Aristotle's Politics, the treatise on the practical governance of the city-state for the sake of enabling and promoting its citizens individually to flourish.
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The prerequisite to this treatise is a familiarity with Aristotelian ethics—whether that be Nicomachean ethics, Eudemian Ethics, or Magna Moralia.
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.8 attendees
Short Meditation then Chat
·OnlineOnlineWe do a short meditation via Buddhist Monk Professor B Alan Wallace or Sam Harris podcast, then casually discuss our experience (optional)
Excellent free resources
https://soundcloud.com/emotionalbalance/sets/alan-wallace-guided-practices
https://dynamic.wakingup.com/shareOpenAccess/SC3D92926?share_id=440D041D
https://beherenownetwork.com/joseph-goldstein-insight-hour-ep-216-satipatthana-sutta-series-pt-13-mindfulness-of-mind/
excellent resources here also - with weekly group lessons
https://member.coreyjackson.com.au/share/ZYZLarLoPH8Fu3Ak?utm_source=manual2 attendees
Live Philosophy Paper Reading: Advanced Philosophy (Online)
·OnlineOnlineA live, text-driven seminar on major works in philosophy (mostly analytic). We read the paper together, slowly—stopping to clarify terms, reconstruct arguments, and stress-test claims. If we don’t finish, we pick it up next week. We will move carefully through the paper sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph, working as a group to extract as much meaning as possible from the text. Our goal is to reconstruct the paper main argument with precision: what each claim means, how each paragraph functions, what assumptions are doing the hidden labor, and how the paper fits into broader debates. You can see this week 's reading here: upcoming papers along with past Readings and meetings.
WARNING
Browse the current and upcoming papers along with past Readings and meetings. Expect highly technical material, dense terminology, and high abstraction. It is full of philosophical jargon and complex technical terms. Your expectation should be to treat it as a graduate seminar in philosophy. We don't assume you have a degree in philosophy, but we do assume philosophical maturity, and/or a crazy level of passion for deductive reasoning. If you are into that sort of thing, be my guest. We will start reviewing at the very beginning to get folks up to speed.
Who this is for:
- People seeking serious engagement in philosophy at the highest level.
- Self-taught learners and enthusiasts who are comfortable with formal arguments and unfamiliar jargon—willing to ask questions and learn in public.
How it works:
- 5–20 min framing: context, review, reframe key questions, and the paper’s thesis.
- Live read-through: we move paragraph by paragraph; volunteers read aloud.
- Pause & parse: define terms, formalize arguments, map the structure.
- Objections & alternatives: compare with rival views; surface open problems.
- Carry-over: unfinished sections roll to the next meeting.
What to bring / prep:
- Skim the abstract and introduction beforehand (if possible).
- Bring one clarification question and one critique or counterexample.
- No slides, no grandstanding—just the text and your best reasoning.
House rules:
- Be precise; cite the text.
- Steelman, before you critique.
- Respectful disagreement is required; ad hominems are not.
Logistics:
- Online only. Zoom link sent on RSVP.
14 attendees
Past events
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