The Philosophical Reading Group (PRG) is dedicated to reading major texts of the philosophical tradition. In a friendly, collaborative, and nonauthoritarian setting, participants read approximately fifteen to thirty pages per week in an effort to understand the nuances of the philosophical text’s arguments, its logic and structure, as well as its limitations. The PRG is committed to reading philosophy, which means taking seriously the materiality, the textuality, of its expression. It is concerned with the rhetoric of philosophy as much as with its stated ideas. In many ways, the PRG serves as an excellent introduction not only to philosophy, but to the exigencies of reading.
Historically, the PRG has read works from the major thinkers of the continental tradition, but it is open to all areas of philosophy. The PRG privileges, however, works of sufficient complexity and density as to warrant and reward patient reading and sustained conversation. At the end of each semester, participants in the PRG decide what the group will read in the following semester or year. Occasionally, the PRG organizers seminars and lectures devoted to the work or works read during that semester.
For more information about the PRG and its schedule, contact David E Johnson (dj@buffalo.edu)