This is a course designed to give a broad view of Platonism and to bring to light some of the more neglected aspects of the tradition. Our particular aim is to lay before participants the possibilities of Platonic philosophy as a spiritual path, exploring the insights of the ancient tradition while avoiding a dogmatic approach. The course is run over four Sunday afternoons, where the study/discussion will be underpinned by study papers and some background papers. We will use zoom for the study sessions and our space on Slack to share thoughts and materials. All times are UK.
| Session 1 May 3rd | Introduction
|
What is philosophy? Why philosophy? The Platonic tradition
|
| Session 2 – May 10th | Metaphysics 1
|
The One or the Good, the Gods of the Platonic tradition, Being
|
| Session 3 – May 17th | Metaphysics 2
|
The intelligible and the visible, eternal ideas and temporal manifestation |
| Session 4 – May 24th | Soul 1
|
Self-motivity & immortality, reason & freewill, the path of the soul |
| Session 5 – May 31st | Soul 2
|
The soul’s powers, activities, and faculties
|
| Session 6 – June 7th | Dialectic | Dialectical questions: division, definition, demonstration and analysis |
| Session 7 – June 14th | Eros | The Symposium and Diotima’s path of love
|
| Session 8 – June 21st | Virtue | Four primary virtues – and the direction of the soul’s activities
|
| Session 9 – July 5th | Myth | Plato’s use of philosophical and poetical myth
|
| Session 10 – July 12th | Philosophy as initiation
|
The mysteries, theurgy. And a look back at the whole course. |
We try to keep the numbers low and ask you to commit to attending all the sessions if possible.
For more information on the course, please go to the dedicated page here. This course is free but donations are welcome. We also offer some of our student edition paperbacks at a discount- you will receive more information on registration. We encourage you to read these to get a feel for both the tradition and our approach to it. Registration is via google form here. The registration form also has information on how to join Slack.
Any questions, please use the education contact email address in the footer to get in touch.