Book club
A year of reading, discussing, studying the limits of knowledge and non-knowledge, and a year of traveling into uncertainty. Philosophy, without guarantees.
To learn to better see the limits of knowledge and unknowing: to stay with open questions and uncertainty, make responsible decisions without guarantees, so as to keep revising our beliefs, so as to better navigate chaos, anxiety and doubt.
12 months · book club & practical seminars
Why is acknowledging ignorance the beginning of wisdom? We start at the beginning — with classical Greek and Indian philosophy — to understand why acknowledging one's own ignorance counts as the beginning of wisdom. In Plato's Apology and the Meno, Socrates shows that seeking is better than knowing, and that no one is born with complete knowledge. The Kalama Sutta gives a practical criterion instead: do not trust authority, tradition, or logic for logic's sake — test by results. But can we really see the fruits, especially the distant ones? And how does an honest 'I don't know' differ from indifference to truth?
Is it possible to live without final answers? We let go of attachment to beliefs through the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi, where true knowing is not what can be fully named. Zhuangzi shows that action without forcing is not passivity but a precise response to a living situation, and that fixity itself is often illusory. We will explore whether a meaningful life can be built around what cannot be named, and where the line runs between trusting the flow and avoiding responsibility.
Why does attachment to views become a source of suffering? We read the Upanishads and the Aṭṭhakavagga to see why attachment to views becomes a source of suffering. The teaching of neti-neti and the refusal of extreme positions train us out of our own frame, while the Aṭṭhakavagga teaches us to live with open questions without grasping at essence. We will ask whether a belief can be held without building an identity around it, and what can guide us when no view is declared final.
How can we leave a question open and continue living? We encounter Pyrrhonian scepticism through Sextus Empiricus and the practice of epoché — suspension of judgment. We will test whether opposing arguments are truly equal, and whether tranquility can be sought without making comfort a criterion of truth. The central question: how can we leave a question open without collapsing into scepticism and still act responsibly?
How can we make decisions when the outcome is unknown? We turn to the Stoics — Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius — to learn how to act when the outcome is uncertain. The division between what is and is not up to us separates our action from attachment to results, and the awareness of constant change makes choice more careful. We will ask how to evaluate a decision — by its outcome or by the quality of reasoning and intention, and how to stay flexible under duty.
Can not knowing be a way of approaching truth? We read the Mystical Theology and The Cloud of Unknowing to find in not-knowing not a defect but a path toward truth. The apophatic tradition deliberately sets aside definitions to make room for what words cannot convey, and learns to love through the unknowable. We will ask how mystery differs from an untestable claim and what it means to live beside a question without a promised answer.
Where does reason end? We turn to Meister Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa and their idea of learned ignorance: knowing our own limits as a positive achievement. The more we know, the clearer it becomes that the whole picture eludes us and that reason itself has bounds where it passes into faith. We will ask how detachment fits with projects and responsibility, and how to speak of ultimate questions without presenting metaphors as proofs.
How can we trust experience while recognizing its limits? We read Montaigne and Hume to understand how to trust experience while recognizing its limits, and why the variety of customs shakes our confidence in what seems self-evident. We will see how habit differs from rational proof and why philosophical doubt weakens when we return to ordinary life. The central question: what degree of confidence is enough for action while leaving room for revision?
What can we know in principle? We turn to Kant's Prolegomena to ask what we can know in principle and where our cognition reaches its limits. The boundary of knowledge may be a boundary of how we perceive reality, not of reality itself, and recognizing that boundary guards against dogmatism. We will ask which questions remain meaningful without an answer, and how this helps decisions under real uncertainty.
How can we live when the evidence is insufficient? We read Kierkegaard and James to see how to live when evidence is insufficient and the choice is unavoidable. Some decisions become decisions precisely because they cannot be fully justified in advance, and the will to believe can be morally defensible. We will ask how faith differs from self-deception, the cost of waiting for certainty, and which ethical line must not be crossed even for a leap.
What if the world is under no obligation to have an objective meaning? We read Nietzsche and Camus to face a world under no obligation to have an objective meaning. The destruction of higher values does not make life meaningless — it becomes meaningful through our choice and action, and rebellion can be the start of freedom. We will ask what remains 'if God does not exist,' and how to revolt and live 'despite that,' without dissolving into despair.
What can we do when the whole picture of the world collapses, and with it our usual ideas of good, success, and meaning? Jonathan Lear explores situations where the old world disappears irreversibly and shows why hope sometimes has to be directed not at a known future, but at the good we are still not able even to imagine. Then Richard Sennett offers a surprising answer: the ability to live in such uncertainty is born not from possessing the right theory, but from the practice of attentive engagement with reality. Skill becomes not a way to avoid uncertainty, but a way to live within it with dignity.