It’s a Wednesday night on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and roughly 75 people, sitting in groups of about four or five each, are engaged in zealous discussion in the library of a new private members’ club. “Do you believe in objective truth?” a young man asks.
We’re at the New York Philosophy Club, a free weekly event that attracts hundreds of New Yorkers to ponder life’s greatest questions. The discussions last about an hour and a half, structured in three rounds of 30 minutes. In bars, restaurants, and event spaces all over the city, guests talk about wealth, suffering, power, and purpose. (On an average night, the crowd size hovers at about 150, but one night in November drew 400.) On entering, you receive a sheet of paper guiding the conversation, as well as a name tag—first names only. Then, you’re ready to philosophize.
The New York Philosophy Club was founded by three young men, Jawaun Brown (30), Cole Whetstone (29), and Ren Yu (21), who want to “restore meaning and human connection through the shared pursuit of wisdom.” The emphasis here is on the word “shared.” “We could all be at home reading books by ourselves,” says Brown, “but what’s the fun in that? Where’s the community?”
Nobody can say exactly when the New York Philosophy Club was founded, and each co-founder has a slightly different story for how it all began for them. Whetstone (who studied classics at Harvard and ancient philosophy at Oxford) and Yu (who briefly studied philosophy in college before switching to finance) had both been hosting their own small philosophical gatherings at their apartments in the spring of 2024. When the two met one night, they instantly connected and decided to combine their groups. Brown, who describes his political science degree as being very theory-heavy, joined the pair the following January, and the club really began to take shape. They now have over two dozen volunteers and an ever-growing list of interested participants.
“I really wish I had a community like this earlier in my life,” Yu says, “that just accepted me as I was and allowed me to explore ideas.”
“It feels like an intellectual home,” Brown adds. On any given night, they will jump to topics like love and death with perfect strangers. “I’ve had many conversations where we’ve had extremely deep connections with each other,” Yu says.
Photo: Noëlle de Leeuw
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