[Live-Read] Anxiety: A Philosophical History by Bettina Bergo

About this event

As of Oct 18, 2026, we are temporarily changing to a WEEKLY live-read format for the next few weeks until further notice. The description below will be updated shortly. "Anxiety looms large in historical works of philosophy and psychology. It is an affect, philosopher Bettina Bergo argues, subtler and more persistent than our emotions, and points toward the intersection of embodiment and cognition. While scholars who focus on the work of luminaries as Freud, Levinas, or Kant often study this theme in individual works, they seldom draw out the deep and significant connections between various approaches to anxiety. This volume provides a sweeping study of the uncanny career of anxiety in 19th and 20th century European thought. Anxiety threads itself through European intellectual life, beginning in receptions of Kant's transcendental philosophy and running into Levinas' phenomenology; it is a core theme in Schelling, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche... This volume opens new windows onto philosophers who have never yet been put into dialogue, providing a rigorous intellectual history as it connects themes across two centuries, and unearths the deep roots of our own present-day "age of anxiety." \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* Welcome everyone to the next meetup series that Jen and Philip are presenting! Scroll down 👇👇👇👇👇 to see the regularly updated reading schedule and copies of reading materials. This time around we will be presenting the book: • Anxiety: A Philosophical History (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/anxiety-9780197539712?cc=ca&lang=en&) (Oxford University Press 2020) by Bettina Bergo (See link for further info about the book from the publisher) • PAUSED 2026-03-08: Currently, the secondary text for the 3rd hour of discussion is Andrew Bowie's Schelling and Modern European Philosophy: An Introduction (https://www.amazon.com/Schelling-Modern-European-Philosophy-Introduction-ebook/dp/B08JD17TBZ/ref=sr_1_1?) • We have finished discussing The Philosophy of Life: German Lebensphilosophie 1870-1920 (https://academic.oup.com/book/45855) (2023) by Frederick C. Beiser. This is a 3 hour meetup. For the first 2 hours we will stick very closely to the Bergo book. For THE FINAL HOUR we will be introducing a new way of doing things called "Filling in the Background". Bergo covers several philosophers. During the final hour we will read works by or about whatever philosopher she happens to be focusing on. For example, Bergo starts with Kant and so for the first few sessions we will study Kant in an introductory way during the "Filling in the Background" final hour. When Bergo moves on to Schelling we will study some Schelling in the "Filling in the Background" final hour, and so on. \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* A comment on what this meetup is and what it is not: Bergo is looking at several European philosophers starting with Kant and is exploring the concept of Anxiety as a concept within philosophy. Obviously this will have some bearing on how anxiety as a word and as a concept functions within contemporary medicalized discourses. But in this meetup we will stick very closely to the philosophical aspects of the concept of anxiety. The occasional personal anecdote might be helpful, but only if it is given for the specific purpose of illuminating our understanding of Kant, Schelling, Schopenhauer and the other philosophers Bergo is writing about. In a nutshell, this is not a support group about anxiety related mental health issues. But hopefully it will be of interest to everyone, including those who are exploring the more medicalized versions of the concept of anxiety. Jen and Philip wish nothing but the very best to anyone suffering from a medical version of anxiety; but this meetup is about the philosophy version of this concept. \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* Even people who have not done the reading are welcome to a