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UID:21@prometheustrust.co.uk
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240916T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240916T200000
DTSTAMP:20240907T172957Z
URL:https://prometheustrust.co.uk/events/topic-tbc-open-session-in-london-
 2/
SUMMARY:The Phaedo - the Mysteries of Life and Death: exploring Platonic ph
 ilosophy
DESCRIPTION:What is Platonic philosophy? It can be argued that this philoso
 phy has been profoundly misunderstood for many centuries\, and that modern
 ism has sought to reduce the philosophy of the Platonic tradition to a dry
  and logical puzzle with no great insights into the deepest questions of l
 ife and death. Thus the soul – the very point of focus for Plato and the
  men and women who trod the same path as him – has been exiled from her 
 own place of light\, swept away by our mechanistic and materialist culture
 \, like Cinderella to sit among the ashes.\n\nBut Plato embraced not only 
 rational thinking but also mythic and initiatory experiences – so that w
 e are encouraged to treat philosophy as a deep and living practice. He wro
 te\, “a thing of this kind cannot be expressed by words like other disci
 plines\, but by long familiarity\, and living in conjunction with the thin
 g itself\, a light as it were leaping from a fire will on a sudden be enki
 ndled in the soul\, and there itself nourish itself.”\n\nPlatonic philos
 ophy is the West’s deep-rooted counterpart to those of the East where en
 lightenment is sought through intelligent thought\, deep compassion and a 
 life-time of constant aspiration.\n\nWe’ll look at this long-neglected p
 ath\, using one of Plato’s best known dialogues\, the Phaedo\, to expl
 ore these matters – drawing upon the myths of Theseus and the Minotaur\;
  the Orphic mystery cult’s understanding the Dionysus story\; touching o
 n the Platonic tradition’s teachings concerning the immortality of the s
 oul\, her virtues\, and the power of ideas\; and finally coming to rest in
  the culmination of the dialogue’s drama as Socrates drinks the Hemlock\
 , thus embodying Plato’s vision of the hero soul passing serenely acro
 ss the boundaries of life and death.\nThese evenings include short talks a
 nd/or readings from Platonic writings – but we hope they will be genuine
 ly interactive\, with all participants invited to contribute to our collab
 orative search for truth. No previous experience of formal philosophy is r
 equired.\n\nAdmission 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 dona
 ting through this website\n\nMost of these evenings are self-contained and
  every effort is made to make them accessible to the newcomer\, while allo
 wing the great profundity of the Platonic tradition to step forward and sp
 eak 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 thread
 s of the theme.\n\nPlease download the PDF with the extracts we'll be look
 ing at here.\n\nThe Trust has run similar activities for some 18 years\, a
 nd in our experience they allow the most profound questions concerning hum
 an 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 f
 or honest and straight-forward enquiry\, but which is unafraid to explore 
 inward-moving paths too often neglected by modern schools of thought.\n\nC
 lick on the London tag under Event type to be taken to all upcoming activi
 ties in London.
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://prometheustrust.co.uk/wp-content/uploads
 /2024/02/PT_AncientLibraryAlexandria_Corvin.jpg
CATEGORIES:Open session
LOCATION:London - Cecil Sharp House\, 2 Regent's Park Rd \, London\, NW1 7A
 Y\, United Kingdom
GEO:51.538155;-0.149307
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=2 Regent's Park Rd \, Londo
 n\, NW1 7AY\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=London - Cecil Sha
 rp House:geo:51.538155,-0.149307
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