The next book we are going to read is A Revolution of the Mind by
Jonathan Israel.


We will be meeting to discuss this at 7pm, usual venue (Candid Arts Cafe)
on the 18th January.

Over the last decade Israel has produced a massive three volume history of the Enlightenment which has been met with much acclaim and controversy. Broadly Israel makes the case that there was not one Enlightenment but two - a radical Enlightenment (atheist, advancing the cause of freedom of expression, democracy, separation of church and state etc) and a moderate Enlightenment (reformist, deist, relatively uncritical of existing powers etc). Israel's work focuses on tracing this distinction and defends the former, radical Enlightenment, against both
the moderate Enlightenment and its more contemporary critics (post-modernists etc). A Revolution of the Mind is a shorter work, written between the second and third volumes of Israels broader history. Produced for a general audience it summarises his main arguments.

Thursday 24th November: Ill Fares The Land by Tony Judt

One off move to a Thursday evening will be the last Itchy Chin Club for 2011. We'll start up again in January 2012. Meeting will be at The Candid Arts Trust cafe as usual.

26th of October: Robert M Wallace: Hegel's Philosophy of Reality, Freedom and God

The next book will be Hegel's Philosophy of Reality, Freedom and God concentrating on the Introduction, chapters 1 & 2 and the conclusion, and skimming through chapter 5.

September 21st: Why Marx Was Right

We'll be reading Eagleton's Why Marx Was Right. Should make for a spirited discussion.

17th August: Civilisations and it's Disconents

For the next meeting we're reading Freud's Civilisations and it's Disconents and Explaining Violence in South Africa: Some psychoanalytic considerations.

Habermas: A Very Short Introduction

Next book is Habermas: A Very Short Introduction on 20th July at Candid Arts Trust Cafe in Angel.

Just to keep the blog up to date other recent books have included Sennet's The Corrosion Of Character and The Great Stagflation.

Next meeting: Wikileaks, 16th of March

Thanks to everyone who put some effort into Judith Butler and participated in what turned out to be quite a spirited discussion.

For the next meeting we decided we'd like to do something a bit different and thought wikileaks would make an interesting topic.

The plan was to find a few articles around the issues of wikileaks as a current phenomena, arguments around transparency and power (one of Assange's arguments is that the more power a group wields the more transparent it needs to be) and effects the leaks are having, particularly in places like Tunisia and Egypt.

So far Zizek and Piliger have been put forward, and they'll be a some other reading selected too.