COVID NOTICE FOR SPRING 2021: ALL CLASSES WILL CONTINUE ONLINE-ONLY WITH THE EXCEPTION OF Reading Plato. THIS CLASS WILL BE CONDUCTED AT THE GREEK COMMUNITY, LEVEL 2, 168 LONSDALE STREET, MELBOURNE (WITH ONLINE OPTION).
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)
_________________
BOOKINGS NOW OPEN FOR SPRING TERM
BACK IN THE LONSDALE STREET CLASSROOMS (+ ONLINE)
from Wednesday, 25 August, 2021, 6:30 – 8pm.
_________________
_________________
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
____________________
BOOKINGS NOW OPEN FOR SPRING TERM
ONLINE-ONLY WITH ZOOM
from Monday, 23 August, 2021, 6:30 – 8pm.
_________________
_________________
TIMAEUS AND CRITIAS
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. Timaean cosmology would go on to powerfully influenced the medieval world view, including the notion of a world soul. Fantastic and bizarre as its astronomy may appear, Timaeus remains one of the earliest surviving texts promoting nature’s conformity to mathematical principles – the very foundation of modern physical science. 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. Our reading finishes with the short and unfinished dialogue Critias, the singular source of the Atlantis myth.
[Course outline to appear shortly | Recommended Translation (Penguin) (also Oxford)]
_________________
BOOKINGS NOW OPEN FOR SPRING TERM
ONLINE-ONLY WITH ZOOM
from Tuesday, 24 August, 2021, 6:30 – 8pm.
____________________
____________________
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.
_________________
This class will likely ran again in 2022. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.
_________________
_________________
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.
- Six weekly small-group online sessions for continuing students
- Not for beginners: first take Reading Plato and then Theaetetus and/or Plato’s Republic.
______________
This class will likely ran again in 2022. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.
______________
______________
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
______________
This class will likely ran again in 2022. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.
______________
______________
PLATONIC LOVE
Love, sex, booze, rhetoric and winged chariots: reading the Symposium and Phaedrus
- Six weekly small-group sessions for continuing students
- All readings from Symposium and Phaedrus
- Not for beginners: take Reading Plato first
____________________
This class will likely ran again in 2022. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.
____________________
____________________
PLATONIC ESOTERIC GEOMETRY
- Six weekly small-group sessions
- Compass, rule, paper and all other materials provided
- Not for beginners: take Reading Plato first
____________________
This class will ran again in Spring 2021. Watch this space for details or subscribe to our blog.
____________________