Most courses consist of 6 small-group evening classes in a central Melbourne classroom. They can also be attended online or reviewed in recording. The cost is usually $180/$90, or less if you become a member. If you can’t pay, then contact us to arrange free enrolment.
Reading Plato is the foundation course introducing the Platonic approach to philosophy. The other courses suitable for beginners are Gorgias and Ancient Greek Language Part 1. See what past-students said about these courses.
Intermediate course: Platonic Love, Platonism & Christianity, Geometry, Learning Greek with Plato, Plato’s Republic, Timaeus/Critias/Philebus and Plotinus.
Advanced Courses: Theaetetus and continuing to Sophist.
________________
______________
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
_________________
BOOKINGS NOW OPEN for Winter 2025
Starting Monday 7 July in Carlton (+Online)
_________________
________________
STUDY TOUR OF EGYPT
A small group history tour emphasising the Pharaohs but with special interest in the history of Platonism.
BOOKING DEADLINE EXTENDED to 17 April.
for the tour starting 15 October 2025
This Tour is a one-off with no plans to repeat it in the future.
________________
________________
ALAN WATTS EAST AND WEST
_________________
BOOKINGS NOW OPEN for Autumn 2025
Starting Wednesday 30 April in Carlton (+Online)
_________________
_______________
PLATONIC ESOTERIC GEOMETRY
Get in touch with the universal form of experience through geometric drawing.
- Hands-on small-group sessions
- Compass, rule, paper and all other materials provided
- Part 1 for geometry beginners
_________________
BOOKINGS NOW OPEN for Part 2, Autumn 2025
6.30 to 8.30 pm from Thursday 1 May in Carlton
_________________
_________________
GORGIAS: PERSUASION, POWER & PASSION
Curious about philosophy? Let Plato teach you.
Beginners in philosophy are welcome to join in reading and discussing this famous dialogue (Gorgias) where Socrates debates whether it is better to pursue a political life or the life of a philosopher.
- Suitable for beginners and continuing students
- Six weekly small-group sessions
- Read a set passage before the evening talk and discussion.
_________________
This course is likely to run again in 2026. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
_________________
_______________
LEARNING GREEK WITH PLATO
This course teaches the Ancient Greek language by studying the Attic dialect used by Plato in his dialogues the Meno.
- This course is for Ancient Greek language beginners.
- Now taught separately at the Independent School of Philosophy.
___________________
This course is now taught separately at the ISP. The 2025 summer intensive starting Monday 20 January.
_________________
_________________
Other course not currently taking bookings
________________
READING PLATO: AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Join us reading and discussing the famous dialogues where Socrates stands accused of corrupting the youth of Athens.
- Suitable for beginners and continuing students
- Six weekly small-group sessions
- Read a set passage before the evening talk and discussion
- All readings from The Last Days of Socrates
(available for purchase)
_______________
This course is likely to run again late in 2025. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
_________________
_________________
ARISTOTLE’S METAPHYSICS
Read and discuss the first three books of Aristotle’s Metaphysics
The Metaphysics of Aristotle is one of the most influential texts of the European tradition. Aristotle opens with a summary and critical analysis of the philosophical schools that preceded him, including Plato. Aristotle then moves towards presenting all the key aspect of his own view, so that by the end of Book III we have gained the best overall introduction to Aristotle found anywhere in his own word.
______________________
This course is not currently scheduled to run in 2025. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
_______________________
_________________
ANCIENT GREEK LANGUAGE & THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS | Part I and Part II
This two-part 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.
- Taught by Martin Black in collaboration with the Independent School of Philosophy
- Each part of this course consists of six weekly small-group sessions
- No knowledge of Greek language or alphabet is required for Part I.
- Philosophy beginners are recommended to take Reading Plato first.
_________________
This course is not currently scheduled to run in 2025. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
________________
_______________
PLATO’S MYTHS
This is a new course where we read and discuss some of the most famous myths found in Plato’s dialogues.
- Six weekly small-group sessions
- Suitable for beginners and continuing students
_______________
This course is likely to run again in Winter 2025. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
_______________
_________________
PLATONISM & CHRISTIANITY
Discover just how much Plato and Platonism shaped Christian doctrine
- Six weekly small-group sessions suitable for beginners
- Some knowledge of Plato and/or Christianity recommended, but not essential.
_________________
_________________
This course is likely to run again in November 2025. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
________________
_________________
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.
This course extends across two 6-week terms so that we can read together the entire 10 books of the Republic.
Part 1 | The Just Society
- Six weekly small-group sessions for continuing students
- All readings from The Republic (available for purchase)
- Not for beginners: take Reading Plato first (or at the same time)
______________
Part 2 | The Essence of Reality
- Six weekly small-group sessions for continuing students
- All readings from The Republic (available for purchase)
- Not for beginners: take Reading Plato first
- Part 2 does not require completion of Part 1
_______________
This two-part course will run again in 2026. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
________________
_________________
TIMAEUS, CRITIAS & PHILEBUS
Timaeus is one of Plato’s later dialogues packed with interest at a variety of levels. It was most influencial for its account of the creation of our psycho-physical world by a demi-God. Packed into this story 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. Philebus addresses the question of the good life and its relation to desire, pleasure, the life of science and our natural aspiration to the highest good.
_________________
This course will likely run again in 2026. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
_________________
_________________
READING PLOTINUS: AN INTRODUCTION TO NEO-PLATONISM
For many centuries after Plato there was a thriving Platonic tradition of which only textual fragments remain. But then from the 3rd century AD there emerged what is now called neo-Platonism. This involved expressions of a universial philosophy by sometimes encompassing Aristotelian and Stoic insights into a Platonic frame. One neo-Platonists most influential in the subsequent tradition of European mysticism was Plotinus. In this course we read from the Enneads, a surviving compilation of his writings made by a student, Porphyry.
- Six weekly small-group sessions for continuing students
- Not recommended for beginners: take Reading Plato first (or at the same time)
- All readings from The Enneads (recommend edition)
_________________
This course is not currently scheduled to run in 2025. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
_________________
_________________
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 advanced course is not currently scheduled to run in 2025 and will only be run again subject to demand. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
_________________
_________________
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 course will following the Theaetetus course and subject to demand. Contact us to register your interest or subscribe to the blog for updates.
______________
______________