Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Network

Greetings all! Looking forward to the Kant reading tomorrow. I originally uploaded the full text, but given the difficulty navigating Kant normally (and the special difficulty in the Cambridge edition which includes both A and B editions of the text) I updated the pdf to include only the material we will be reading.

This fall, the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group explores the conditions of possibility, in TRANSCENDENTAL. From Kant’s forms of time and space, through Husserl’s transcendental Ego, to Deleuze’s plane of immanence, and beyond.

Up Next: 09/22 – Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Pure Reason, Introduction Part 1+2, Transcendental Aesthetic, and Transcendental Deduction, Sections 16-18.

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

Please bring a copy (digital or paper) copy of the reading with you to the meeting.

Location: Yinz Coffee in Bloomfield (Liberty Ave), most Tuesday evenings 7:00-8:30pm.

SCHEDULE:

• 09/15 – Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditations 1+2
• 09/22 – Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Pure Reason, Introduction Part 1+2, Transcendental Aesthetic, and Transcendental Deduction, Sections 16-18.
• 09/29 – Fichte, J. G. Foundations of the Entire Science of Knowledge, Part 1.
• 10/06 – Hegel, G.W.F. Phenomenology of Spirit, “Absolute Spirit.”
• 10/13 – Natorp, Paul. “Kant and the Marburg School”
• 10/20 – Husserl, Edmund. Basic Problems of Phenomenology, Chapter 2.
• 10/27 – Heidegger, Martin. Phenomenological Interpretation of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Section 25.
• 11/03 – Jaspers, Karl. “The Encompassing.”
• 11/10 – Sartre, Jean-Paul. The Transcendence of the Ego.
• 11/17 – Levinas, Emmanuel. The I and the Totality.
• 12/01 – Deleuze, Gilles. Kant’s Critical Philosophy, Introduction + Chapter 1; Immanence a Life.
• 12/08 – Henry, Michel. The Critique of the Subject.
• 12/15 – Rorty, Richard. “Is Derrida a Transcendental Philosopher?”
• 01/05 – Irigaray, Luce. Speculum of the Other Woman, Part III.
• 01/12 – Marion, Jean-Luc. Reduction and Givenness, Chapter 3.
• 01/19 – Meillassoux, Quentin. After Finitude, Chapter 1.
• 01/26 – Malabou, Catherine. Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality, Chapter 13.
• 02/02 – Meagher, Thomas. “The Decolonial Reduction and the Transcendental-Phenomenological Reduction.”
• 02/09 – Heinämaa, Sara. “Architectonics of a Method: On the Relations Between Husserlian Phenomenology and Its Feminist and Critical Successors.”

This fall, the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group explores the conditions of possibility, in TRANSCENDENTAL. From Kant’s forms of time and space, through Husserl’s transcendental Ego, to Deleuze’s plane of immanence, and beyond.

Up Next: 09/22 – Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Pure Reason, Introduction Part 1+2, Transcendental Aesthetic, and Transcendental Deduction, Sections 16-18.

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

Please bring a copy (digital or paper) copy of the reading with you to the meeting.

Location: Yinz Coffee in Bloomfield (Liberty Ave), most Tuesday evenings 7:00-8:30pm.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

• 09/15 – Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditations 1+2
• 09/22 – Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Pure Reason, Introduction Part 1+2, Transcendental Aesthetic, and Transcendental Deduction, Sections 16-18.
• 09/29 – Fichte, J. G. Foundations of the Entire Science of Knowledge, Part 1.
• 10/06 – Hegel, G.W.F. Phenomenology of Spirit, “Absolute Spirit.”
• 10/13 – Natorp, Paul. “Kant and the Marburg School”
• 10/20 – Husserl, Edmund. Basic Problems of Phenomenology, Chapter 2.
• 10/27 – Heidegger, Martin. Phenomenological Interpretation of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Section 25.
• 11/03 – Jaspers, Karl. “The Encompassing.”
• 11/10 – Sartre, Jean-Paul. The Transcendence of the Ego.
• 11/17 – Levinas, Emmanuel. The I and the Totality.
• 12/01 – Deleuze, Gilles. Kant’s Critical Philosophy, Introduction + Chapter 1; Immanence a Life.
• 12/08 – Henry, Michel. The Critique of the Subject.
• 12/15 – Rorty, Richard. “Is Derrida a Transcendental Philosopher?”
• 01/05 – Irigaray, Luce. Speculum of the Other Woman, Part III.
• 01/12 – Marion, Jean-Luc. Reduction and Givenness, Chapter 3.
• 01/19 – Meillassoux, Quentin. After Finitude, Chapter 1.
• 01/26 – Malabou, Catherine. Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality, Chapter 13.
• 02/02 – Meagher, Thomas. “The Decolonial Reduction and the Transcendental-Phenomenological Reduction.”
• 02/09 – Heinämaa, Sara. “Architectonics of a Method: On the Relations Between Husserlian Phenomenology and Its Feminist and Critical Successors.”

This fall, the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group explores the conditions of possibility, in TRANSCENDENTAL. From Kant’s forms of time and space, through Husserl’s transcendental Ego, to Deleuze’s plane of immanence, and beyond.

Up Next: 09/15 – Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditations 1+2

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

Please bring a copy (digital or paper) copy of the reading with you to the meeting.

Location: Yinz Coffee in Bloomfield (Liberty Ave), most Tuesday evenings 7:00-8:30pm.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

• 09/15 – Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditations 1+2
• 09/22 – Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Pure Reason, Introduction Part 1+2, Transcendental Aesthetic, and Transcendental Deduction, Sections 16-18.
• 09/29 – Fichte, J. G. Foundations of the Entire Science of Knowledge, Part 1.
• 10/06 – Hegel, G.W.F. Phenomenology of Spirit, “Absolute Spirit.”
• 10/13 – Natorp, Paul. “Kant and the Marburg School”
• 10/20 – Husserl, Edmund. Basic Problems of Phenomenology, Chapter 2.
• 10/27 – Heidegger, Martin. Phenomenological Interpretation of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Section 25.
• 11/03 – Jaspers, Karl. “The Encompassing.”
• 11/10 – Sartre, Jean-Paul. The Transcendence of the Ego.
• 11/17 – Levinas, Emmanuel. The I and the Totality.
• 12/01 – Deleuze, Gilles. Kant’s Critical Philosophy, Introduction + Chapter 1; Immanence a Life.
• 12/08 – Henry, Michel. The Critique of the Subject.
• 12/15 – Rorty, Richard. “Is Derrida a Transcendental Philosopher?”
• 01/05 – Irigaray, Luce. Speculum of the Other Woman, Part III.
• 01/12 – Marion, Jean-Luc. Reduction and Givenness, Chapter 3.
• 01/19 – Meillassoux, Quentin. After Finitude, Chapter 1.
• 01/26 – Malabou, Catherine. Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality, Chapter 13.
• 02/02 – Meagher, Thomas. “The Decolonial Reduction and the Transcendental-Phenomenological Reduction.”
• 02/09 – Heinämaa, Sara. “Architectonics of a Method: On the Relations Between Husserlian Phenomenology and Its Feminist and Critical Successors.”

The PCPN weekly reading group is back September 15th, 2026 with TRANSCENDENTAL—a look at the intersection of continental philosophy and transcendental philosophy. From Kant’s forms of time and space, through Husserl’s transcendental Ego, to Deleuze’s plane of immanence, and beyond.

The group will continue to meet at Yinz Coffee, 4525 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15224, most Tuesdays. But, due to timing conflicts, the timing will be shifted to 7:00-8:30pm. Participants are still invited to join us at 6:30pm for informal hang time, in lieu of our mid-group break.

The full schedule will be released soon. In the meantime, the first reading: Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditations 1+2 is available now.

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

Please bring a copy (digital or paper) copy of the reading with you to the meeting.

The Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group is pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And this summer, we plan on finding out what that is.

Up Next: 05/26 – Simmel – Fashion

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

Please bring a copy (digital or paper) copy of the reading with you to the meeting.

Location: Yinz Coffee in Bloomfield (Liberty Ave), most Tuesday evenings 6:30-8:30pm.

SCHEDULE:

• 05/26 – Simmel – Fashion
• 06/02 – De Beauvoir – “Social Life” in The Second Sex
• 06/09 – Barthes – “Forward” AND “Written Clothing” from The Fashion System
• 06/16 – Benjamin – “Convolute B” from The Arcades Project
• 06/23 – Butler – Gender Trouble (pgs. 163-180)
• 06/30 – Entwistle – “Addressing the Body” from Fashion Theory: A Reader
• 07/07 – Baudrillard – “The Ideological Genesis of Needs/Fetishism and Ideology” AND “Fashion, or the Enchanting Spectacle of the Code” from Fashion Theory: A Reader
• 07/14 – Manning – Dress Becomes Body: Fashioning the Force of Form

This Spring, the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group will tackle the feedback loops, self-reference, and nomadic turns of cybernetics.

Up Next: May 12 – Lovink, Geert. (2019). “On Recursivity and Contingency: Interview with Yuk Hui.”

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

Please bring a copy (digital or paper) copy of the reading with you to the meeting.

Location: Yinz Coffee in Bloomfield (Liberty Ave), most Tuesday evenings 6:30-8:30pm.

SCHEDULE:

• Feb. 3 – Tausk, Victor. (1919). “On the origin of the ‘influencing machine’ in schizophrenia.”
• Feb 10 – Wiener, Norbert. (1950). “What is Cybernetics” in The Human Use of Human Beings;  and Rosenblueth, Arturo, Norbert Wiener, and Julian Bigelow. (1943). “Behavior, Purpose and Teleology”
• Feb. 17 – Shannon, Claude. (1948). “A mathematical theory of communication”; and McCulloch, Warren, and Walter Pitts, “A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity.”
• Feb. 24 – Canguilhem, Georges. (1947). “Machine and organism.”
• Mar. 3 – Simondon, Gilbert. (1953). “Epistemology of Cybernetics.”
• Mar. 10 – Hayles, Katherine. (1999). How We Became Posthuman. Chapter 3.
• Mar 17 – Lilly, John C. (1968). Programming and metaprogramming in the human biocomputer (excerpt).
• Mar. 24 – Maturana & Varela. (1970). The Tree of Knowledge (excerpt).
• Mar. 31 – Brown, George Spencer. (1969) Laws of Form (excerpt); and Dible, Randy. (2025), “Ontopoiesis, Autopoiesis, and a Calculus Intended for Self-Reference”
• Apr. 7 – Bateson, Gregory. (1972). “Form, Substance, and Difference” in Steps to an Ecology of Mind.
• Apr. 14 – Deleuze, Gilles. (1980) A Thousand Plateaus (excerpt); and Pickering, Andrew. (2009). “Cybernetics as a nomad science.”
• Apr. 21 – Wynter, Sylvia. (1984). “The Ceremony Must Be Found: After Humanism”; and optional Vizcaíno, Rafael. (2022). “Sylvia Wynter’s New Science of the Word and the Autopoetics of the Flesh.” 
• Apr. 28 – von Foerster, Heinz. (2003). Understanding Understanding (excerpts).
• May 5 – Carstens, Delphi. (2009). “Introduction to Hypersition: An Interview.”; and CCRU. (2015). “Part 2: The Cthulhu Club” in Writings 1997-2003.
• May 12 – Lovink, Geert. (2019). “On Recursivity and Contingency: Interview with Yuk Hui.”

This Spring, the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group will tackle the feedback loops, self-reference, and nomadic turns of cybernetics.

Up Next: May 5 – Carstens, Delphi. (2009). “Introduction to Hypersition: An Interview.”; and CCRU. (2015). “Part 2: The Cthulhu Club” in Writings 1997-2003.

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

Please bring a copy (digital or paper) copy of the reading with you to the meeting.

Location: Yinz Coffee in Bloomfield (Liberty Ave), most Tuesday evenings 6:30-8:30pm.

SCHEDULE:

• Feb. 3 – Tausk, Victor. (1919). “On the origin of the ‘influencing machine’ in schizophrenia.”
• Feb 10 – Wiener, Norbert. (1950). “What is Cybernetics” in The Human Use of Human Beings;  and Rosenblueth, Arturo, Norbert Wiener, and Julian Bigelow. (1943). “Behavior, Purpose and Teleology”
• Feb. 17 – Shannon, Claude. (1948). “A mathematical theory of communication”; and McCulloch, Warren, and Walter Pitts, “A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity.”
• Feb. 24 – Canguilhem, Georges. (1947). “Machine and organism.”
• Mar. 3 – Simondon, Gilbert. (1953). “Epistemology of Cybernetics.”
• Mar. 10 – Hayles, Katherine. (1999). How We Became Posthuman. Chapter 3.
• Mar 17 – Lilly, John C. (1968). Programming and metaprogramming in the human biocomputer (excerpt).
• Mar. 24 – Maturana & Varela. (1970). The Tree of Knowledge (excerpt).
• Mar. 31 – Brown, George Spencer. (1969) Laws of Form (excerpt); and Dible, Randy. (2025), “Ontopoiesis, Autopoiesis, and a Calculus Intended for Self-Reference”
• Apr. 7 – Bateson, Gregory. (1972). “Form, Substance, and Difference” in Steps to an Ecology of Mind.
• Apr. 14 – Deleuze, Gilles. (1980) A Thousand Plateaus (excerpt); and Pickering, Andrew. (2009). “Cybernetics as a nomad science.”
• Apr. 21 – Wynter, Sylvia. (1984). “The Ceremony Must Be Found: After Humanism”; and optional Vizcaíno, Rafael. (2022). “Sylvia Wynter’s New Science of the Word and the Autopoetics of the Flesh.” 
• Apr. 28 – von Foerster, Heinz. (2003). Understanding Understanding (excerpts).
• May 5 – Carstens, Delphi. (2009). “Introduction to Hypersition: An Interview.”; and CCRU. (2015). “Part 2: The Cthulhu Club” in Writings 1997-2003.
• May 12 – Lovink, Geert. (2019). “On Recursivity and Contingency: Interview with Yuk Hui.”

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

This Spring, the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group will tackle the feedback loops, self-reference, and nomadic turns of cybernetics.

Up Next: Apr. 28 – von Foerster, Heinz. (2003). Understanding Understanding (excerpts).

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

Please bring a copy (digital or paper) copy of the reading with you to the meeting.

Location: Yinz Coffee in Bloomfield (Liberty Ave), most Tuesday evenings 6:30-8:30pm.

SCHEDULE:

• Feb. 3 – Tausk, Victor. (1919). “On the origin of the ‘influencing machine’ in schizophrenia.”
• Feb 10 – Wiener, Norbert. (1950). “What is Cybernetics” in The Human Use of Human Beings;  and Rosenblueth, Arturo, Norbert Wiener, and Julian Bigelow. (1943). “Behavior, Purpose and Teleology”
• Feb. 17 – Shannon, Claude. (1948). “A mathematical theory of communication”; and McCulloch, Warren, and Walter Pitts, “A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity.”
• Feb. 24 – Canguilhem, Georges. (1947). “Machine and organism.”
• Mar. 3 – Simondon, Gilbert. (1953). “Epistemology of Cybernetics.”
• Mar. 10 – Hayles, Katherine. (1999). How We Became Posthuman. Chapter 3.
• Mar 17 – Lilly, John C. (1968). Programming and metaprogramming in the human biocomputer (excerpt).
• Mar. 24 – Maturana & Varela. (1970). The Tree of Knowledge (excerpt).
• Mar. 31 – Brown, George Spencer. (1969) Laws of Form (excerpt); and Dible, Randy. (2025), “Ontopoiesis, Autopoiesis, and a Calculus Intended for Self-Reference”
• Apr. 7 – Bateson, Gregory. (1972). “Form, Substance, and Difference” in Steps to an Ecology of Mind.
• Apr. 14 – Deleuze, Gilles. (1980) A Thousand Plateaus (excerpt); and Pickering, Andrew. (2009). “Cybernetics as a nomad science.”
• Apr. 21 – Wynter, Sylvia. (1984). “The Ceremony Must Be Found: After Humanism”; and optional Vizcaíno, Rafael. (2022). “Sylvia Wynter’s New Science of the Word and the Autopoetics of the Flesh.” 
• Apr. 28 – von Foerster, Heinz. (2003). Understanding Understanding (excerpts).
• May 5 – Carstens, Delphi. (2009). “Introduction to Hypersition: An Interview.”; and CCRU. (2015). “Part 2: The Cthulhu Club” in Writings 1997-2003.
• May 12 – Lovink, Geert. (2019). “On Recursivity and Contingency: Interview with Yuk Hui.”

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: On Ethics and the Self in Indigenous Mexico

Professor Louis Sass
The Silverman Phenomenology Center
Friday, May 1 at 5:00 pm

Abstract: The religious syncretism of Mesoamerica involves more than a juxtaposing of pre-Hispanic deities with Christian saints. On a more profound level, there is a coexistence or merger of overall viewpoints, mood-visions, or ontological frameworks. I will consider several ways in which ethical visions common in Mexico may differ from the official as well as the everyday ethics of the “modern West”: especially regarding notions of evil and fatalism and ways of tolerating conflict and ambiguity. Affinities with existentialism and implications for selfhood are discussed. The talk is grounded in ethnographic research conducted with indigenous healers in Michoacan, Mexico. 

Professor Sass is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP), at Rutgers University. He has published extensively on schizophrenia, phenomenological psychopathology, psychoanalysis, and hermeneutics. He is the author of Madness and Modernism and The Paradoxes of Delusion, works that have transformed the field of phenomenological psychopathology and contemporary approaches to schizophrenia.

This Spring, the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group will tackle the feedback loops, self-reference, and nomadic turns of cybernetics.

Up Next: Apr. 21 – Wynter, Sylvia. (1984). “The Ceremony Must Be Found: After Humanism”; and optional Vizcaíno, Rafael. (2022). “Sylvia Wynter’s New Science of the Word and the Autopoetics of the Flesh.” 

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE

Please bring a copy (digital or paper) copy of the reading with you to the meeting.

Location: Yinz Coffee in Bloomfield (Liberty Ave), most Tuesday evenings 6:30-8:30pm.

SCHEDULE:

• Feb. 3 – Tausk, Victor. (1919). “On the origin of the ‘influencing machine’ in schizophrenia.”
• Feb 10 – Wiener, Norbert. (1950). “What is Cybernetics” in The Human Use of Human Beings;  and Rosenblueth, Arturo, Norbert Wiener, and Julian Bigelow. (1943). “Behavior, Purpose and Teleology”
• Feb. 17 – Shannon, Claude. (1948). “A mathematical theory of communication”; and McCulloch, Warren, and Walter Pitts, “A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity.”
• Feb. 24 – Canguilhem, Georges. (1947). “Machine and organism.”
• Mar. 3 – Simondon, Gilbert. (1953). “Epistemology of Cybernetics.”
• Mar. 10 – Hayles, Katherine. (1999). How We Became Posthuman. Chapter 3.
• Mar 17 – Lilly, John C. (1968). Programming and metaprogramming in the human biocomputer (excerpt).
• Mar. 24 – Maturana & Varela. (1970). The Tree of Knowledge (excerpt).
• Mar. 31 – Brown, George Spencer. (1969) Laws of Form (excerpt); and Dible, Randy. (2025), “Ontopoiesis, Autopoiesis, and a Calculus Intended for Self-Reference”
• Apr. 7 – Bateson, Gregory. (1972). “Form, Substance, and Difference” in Steps to an Ecology of Mind.
• Apr. 14 – Deleuze, Gilles. (1980) A Thousand Plateaus (excerpt); and Pickering, Andrew. (2009). “Cybernetics as a nomad science.”
• Apr. 21 – Wynter, Sylvia. (1984). “The Ceremony Must Be Found: After Humanism”; and optional Vizcaíno, Rafael. (2022). “Sylvia Wynter’s New Science of the Word and the Autopoetics of the Flesh.” 
• Apr. 28 – von Foerster, Heinz. (2003). Understanding Understanding (excerpts).
• May 5 – Carstens, Delphi. (2009). “Introduction to Hypersition: An Interview.”; and CCRU. (2015). “Part 2: The Cthulhu Club” in Writings 1997-2003.
• May 12 – Lovink, Geert. (2019). “On Recursivity and Contingency: Interview with Yuk Hui.”

Pdfs of the readings can be found: HERE