Simplicius, one of the very last of the pagan Platonic philosophers, wrote a major commentary on the Handbook of Epictetus – a fascinating study of how a Platonist can build upon a Stoic guide to life, giving the original Handbook a much deeper and spiritual reworking. Where the stoic Epictetus is content to treat the human being as a more or less temporal and material creature (albeit an intelligent one, exercising a degree of freewill, and its material being the most refined possible – pneuma), Simplicius considers us as essentially immaterial, our connection and experience of the body being but a part of a wider, deeper life.
We will read several extracts of this remarkable work, and we may like to consider whether the difference in psychology between the two authors has any practical implications. Given that Stoicism (or at least a modern revision of it) is gaining a following at present, such a question may be worthwhile.
These evenings include short talks and/or readings from Platonic writings – but we hope they will be genuinely interactive, with all participants invited to contribute to our collaborative search for truth. No previous experience of formal philosophy is required.
Admission is free, but we do encourage those who are able to donate £5 in order to cover our costs, either as cash on the day or donating through this website
Most of these evenings are self-contained and every effort is made to make them accessible to the newcomer, while allowing the great profundity of the Platonic tradition to step forward and speak to us at whatever level our present understanding sits. Some of these sessions are coupled together, in order to give us the space to examine more fully particular texts and themes, but even here we will ensure that if those attending have missed the first of the two sessions a recap of what has gone before will help all participants to pick up the main threads of the theme.
We will be drawing from a paper, which we’ll make available as a PDF download a few days before the event.
The Trust has run similar activities for some 18 years, and in our experience they allow the most profound questions concerning human life, the nature of reality, and our interactions, to be explored at once both seriously and with good cheer. Our aim is to provide a forum for honest and straight-forward enquiry, but which is unafraid to explore inward-moving paths too often neglected by modern schools of thought.
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