Reading Group Kit

Read Philosophy Together

Philosophy began as conversation. A reading group gives you a reason to finish the reading, other readers who notice what you missed, and someone to argue with. Here is everything you need to start one with this curriculum.

Start a Group

1.
Find Your People
Three to eight is ideal: friends, coworkers, neighbors, a library or bookstore group, or an online community. With fewer than three, one missed week stalls the group. With more than eight, the quieter people stop talking. Invite a couple more people than you need, since not everyone can come every time.
2.
Choose What to Read
Pick something with a clear end: one section of the curriculum, a single course, or one of the sample paths. Six to ten sessions is a good first commitment. You can always keep going.
3.
Set a Rhythm
Weekly or every other week, about ninety minutes, at the same time each meeting. Meet in person (a library room, a café, someone's kitchen) or on any free video call. If you meet in person, choose a place everyone can reach: step-free, near transit, and quiet enough to hear each other.
4.
Agree on the Basics
Everyone does the reading or listening before each session. Keep one shared document for notes and questions, and one shared folder for the readings. Choose one person to send reminders and keep the contact list, and ask before sharing anyone's email or phone number. Decide now what happens when someone misses a week, so nobody has to decide later.

The First Session

1.Introductions: each person says what brought them to philosophy and what they hope to get out of the group. (The first question of the Statement of Intent works well here.)
2.Agree on the schedule, the reading, and the ground rules below.
3.Practice together: read a short passage aloud and spend twenty minutes working through it, so the first real session isn't the first time you have read together.
4.Choose the first facilitator and confirm the first reading.

Ground Rules

Read these aloud at the first session and agree to them together. Read them again whenever someone new joins.

Read the text, not just about it.: Summaries and lectures help, but the discussion is about what the author actually wrote.
Point to the page.: When you make a claim about the text, find the passage. It keeps the conversation honest.
Ask before you argue.: Make sure you understand a position before you take it apart.
Say when you're lost.: Not understanding is the normal condition of reading philosophy. Saying so helps everyone.
Make room.: Notice who hasn't spoken. The facilitator's job is to invite them in.
Disagree with ideas, not people.: The best groups argue hard and stay friends.

How to Prepare

Assign less than you think. With a dense primary text, twenty to forty pages a session is plenty. With Kant or Hegel, ten may be.

Read it twice.: Once quickly for the shape of the whole, then slowly for the argument.
Mark the margins.: Use the code below instead of a highlighter. Highlighting everything marks nothing.
Bring one question and one passage.: A question you can't answer yourself, and a passage you want the group to read closely, with its page number. Post both in the shared document the day before.
Look things up, but not first.: An encyclopedia entry, from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy or the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, can give you the context. Read it after your first pass, not instead of it.

A Margin Code

T: Thesis: what the author sets out to show
P: Premise: a reason given for it
C: Conclusion: what follows from the premises
DF: Definition: a term used in a technical sense
OBJ: Objection: one the author raises or answers
R: Reply: the author's answer to an objection
?: Lost here: bring it to the group

Running a Session

A ninety-minute template. Adjust the times, but keep the order.

0:00Check-In10 minOne sentence each: what struck you, and what confused you.
0:10Summary15 minOne person restates the main argument in their own words. Everyone else corrects and fills in.
0:25Close Reading30 minTake two or three passages the group chose in advance. Read each aloud and work through it line by line.
0:55Open Discussion25 minIs the author right? What would change if they were? Where does the argument break?
1:20Wrap-Up10 minGo around once for a last thought or question from each person. Write down the questions you're carrying forward, set the next date, and confirm the next reading and facilitator.

Watching Lectures Together

Much of the curriculum is lectures and courses, not books. There are two ways to handle them. Either way, pair the lecture with the primary text where you can: the lecture explains, but the discussion is about what the author wrote.

Watch Before

Everyone watches on their own before the session and takes notes as they would on a reading. Bring a timestamp instead of a page number. Best for full lectures.

Watch Together

Watch a twenty- to thirty-minute segment at the start of the session, pausing whenever someone raises a hand, and spend the rest of the time in discussion. Best for short segments, or when not everyone had time to prepare.

Rotating Roles

Rotate these each session so no one person carries the group.

Facilitator

Keeps time, chooses the passages for close reading, and brings three questions.

Summarizer

Prepares a two-minute summary of the reading's main argument.

Note-Keeper

Adds the session's key passages, questions, and disagreements to the shared document.

Questions That Work Every Time

When the conversation stalls, ask these in order. The first three follow the C.I.A. method (Content, Intentions, Assumptions).

Content: What is the author claiming? Which terms carry the argument, and how are they defined?
Intentions: What problem is the author trying to solve? Who are they arguing against?
Assumptions: What does the argument take for granted? Would you grant it?
Evaluation: Is it right? If it is, what changes in how we think or live?

The Facilitator's Toolkit

The facilitator's job is to ask, not to teach. You don't need to understand the text better than anyone else. You need to be curious about it.

Open with a real question.: Ask something you can't answer yourself, with more than one reasonable answer in the text. "What does Beauvoir mean by 'one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman'?" opens a discussion. "When was it published?" closes one.
Ask more than you tell.: Hold back your own reading until others have offered theirs. When someone speaks, let the group respond before you do.
Let silence work.: Hard ideas take time. Count to ten before you rescue a quiet room.

Follow-Up Questions

—Can you say more about that?
—Where in the text do you see that? Can you read it to us?
—What do you mean by ___?
—So you're saying ___. Is that right?
—Does anyone read that passage differently?
—How does that fit with what ___ said earlier?
—If that's right, how do we explain this other passage?

Quick Fixes

One person does most of the talking: Say: "No one speaks twice until everyone has spoken once." If it keeps happening, have a friendly word after the session, not during it.
Nobody is talking: Wait longer than feels comfortable. Then go around the circle with a small question: "Which sentence stopped you?" Or have everyone write for two minutes, then share.
The conversation has drifted: Say: "Let's park that and come back to it at the end." Write it in the shared document so it isn't lost.
Everyone agrees too quickly: Ask: "What would the author's strongest critic say?" Quick agreement usually means the group hasn't reached the hard part yet.
Someone uses jargon: Ask them to say it in plain words. Usually everyone else was wondering too.
Two people are locked in debate: After a couple of rounds each, bring in someone new: "What do others make of this?"
Someone hasn't done the reading: They're still welcome. Ask them to listen first, then respond to a passage read aloud.

Print the facilitator's card

When a Passage Won't Open

When the whole group is stuck, try a method borrowed from havruta, the traditional Jewish practice of studying a text in pairs.

1.Split into pairs.
2.Read the passage aloud, one sentence at a time.
3.After each sentence, restate it in your own plain words. Your partner corrects you.
4.Mark the sentence where you lose the thread, and name the word that's doing the most work.
5.After ten minutes, come back together and compare restatements.

When two pairs disagree about what a sentence says, that is often where the real discussion starts.

Meeting Online

Keep It Shorter

Sixty to seventy-five minutes. Attention drops faster on a screen, so trim open discussion first.

Check the Time Limit

Free plans often cut group calls short: Zoom's after forty minutes, Google Meet's after an hour. Jitsi Meet is free with no time limit.

Call on People by Name

A video call has none of the small signals people use to take turns. Calling on people isn't rude. It prevents two people talking at once, followed by an awkward silence.

Agree on Signals

Raise a hand for a new point, a finger for a reply to the current point, and type a question mark in the chat for "I'm lost." Take the lost first.

Leave Room for Phones

Most video services let people dial in by phone. Send the dial-in number along with the link.

Hybrid Meetings

With some people in a room and others on a screen, give one person in the room the job of looking after the remote members: bringing them in, repeating what they missed, and watching the chat. Start each round with someone remote.

Keeping the Group Going

Most groups that fold do so because they lose momentum, not because anyone falls out.

Set the next date before anyone leaves.: A group that leaves with the next meeting on the calendar survives a bad week. A group that doesn't quietly stops.
Send a reminder.: A few days before, with the reading, the time, the place or link, and the facilitator.
Follow up.: After someone's first session, ask how it went. When someone misses two in a row, tell them they were missed and when the next session is. Never make anyone feel guilty for falling behind.
Keep a record.: List what you've read, with dates, in the shared document, along with ideas for what to read next.
Keep inviting people.: Groups lose people to moves, new jobs, and new babies. Invite one or two new people every few months, and read the ground rules again when they join.
Check in every three months.: Ask openly: Is this still what we want? Does the time still work? What should we change?

Ending Well

A group doesn't have to last forever. When you finish a section, or decide to stop, end on purpose.

Hold a Closing Session

Go around once: what idea will you keep, and what are you still arguing with?

Write Something Short

Each person writes a page responding to one text and shares it with the group. It's good practice for the capstone essay.

Celebrate

Mark what you finished together. Then decide: go on to the next section, take a break, or part as friends.

Ready for more than a page? See the capstone.

When to Bring in a Mentor

Groups run themselves. But a mentor can help at a few key moments:

—At the start, to open a difficult text and tell you what to watch for.
—In the middle, when the group is stuck on a passage or an argument.
—At the end, to close a section with a discussion, or to respond to members' essays.

Group mentoring Browse the curriculum