Courses

COVID NOTICE 1 OCT UPDATE: TWILIGHT TERM CLASSES ONLINE-ONLY DUE TO THE EXTEND MELBOURNE LOCKDOWN.

See what past-students have said about the courses

READING PLATO: AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

Curious about philosophy? Let Plato teach you.

Join us reading and discussing the famous dialogues where Socrates stands accused of corrupting the youth of Athens.

  • Six weekly small-group online sessions suitable for beginners
  • Read a set passage before the evening talk and discussion
  • All readings from The Last Days of Socrates
    (available for purchase)
Course OUtline

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This class will run again in February 2022. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.

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ANCIENT GREEK LANGUAGE & THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS

This course provides both a beginner’s introduction to the Ancient Greek language and a discussion of philosophy prior to Plato, including the key fragments of Thales, Heraclitus and Parmenides that have profoundly influenced our tradition. By gaining some understanding of the original Greek words and sentences of these first philosophers we come closer to the original meaning of philosophy.

course Outline

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BOOKINGS NOW OPEN FOR TWILIGHT TERM
ONLINE-ONLY WITH ZOOM
from Tuesday, 26 October, 2021, 6:30 – 8pm.

Booked out

NEW MONDAY CLASS NOW OPEN FOR BOOKINGS
from Monday, 25 October, 2021, 6:30 – 8pm.

book OUT

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PLATONISM & CHRISTIANITY

Discover just how much Plato and Platonism shaped Christian doctrine

  • Six weekly small-group online sessions suitable for beginners
  • Some knowledge of Plato and/or Christianity recommended but not essential
Course outline

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BOOKINGS NOW OPEN FOR SPRING TERM
ONLINE-ONLY WITH ZOOM
from Monday, 23 August, 2021, 6:30 – 8pm.

Booked out

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TIMAEUS, CRITIAS, MENO & ION

Timaeus is one of Plato’s later dialogues packed with interest at a variety of levels. On the surface is an account of the creation of our psycho-physical world by a demi-God. There are lots of cryptic mathematical references to deciphered, including a first account of the Platonic solids and Plato’s advance on the Pythagorean theory of musical harmony. The narrative continues with the short and unfinished dialogue Critias, the singular source of the Atlantis myth. When Meno asks whether virtue can be taught, Socrates answers via the famous demonstration of learning-as-recollection where the slave-boy doubles the square. We finish with enthusiastic rhapsody in Socrates’ interview with the performance-poet, Ion.

Course Outline

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BOOKINGS NOW OPEN FOR SPRING TERM
ONLINE-ONLY WITH ZOOM
from Tuesday, 24 August, 2021, 6:30 – 8pm.

BOOKED OUT

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THEAETETUS: ON KNOWLEDGE

What is it to know? …to know things? …to know ideas? Theaetetus is a lively and deceptively casual critical survey of the complete spectrum of answers to these questions.

  • Six weekly small-group online sessions for continuing students
  • Not for beginners: take Reading Plato first.
Course Outline

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This class will likely ran again in 2022. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.

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THE SOPHIST: ANSWERING PARMENIDES

If anywhere Plato presents his mature philosophical view, it is surely in the Sophist. Watch how the epistemological conundrums of Theaetetus resolve into a fully rounded philosophy.

Course outline

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This class will likely ran again in 2022. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.

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PLATO’S REPUBLIC

Find out why this is one of the most famous and influential books in the Western tradition.
Also discover some of its esoteric secrets.

  • Six weekly small-group sessions for continuing students
  • All readings from The Republic (available for purchase)
  • Not for beginners: take Reading Plato first
Course OUtline

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This class will likely ran again in 2022. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.

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PLATONIC LOVE

Love, sex, booze, rhetoric and winged chariots: reading the Symposium and Phaedrus

COURSE oUTLINE

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This class will likely ran again in 2022. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.

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PLATONIC ESOTERIC GEOMETRY

  • Six weekly small-group sessions
  • Compass, rule, paper and all other materials provided
  • Not for beginners: take Reading Plato first
Course OUtline

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This class will ran again in Spring 2021. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.

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