Last call for June: More Socratic Seminars: read Plato's dialogues with me

I'm arranging days and times now: last chance to join us for June-July.

My seminars on the early dialogues continue, and the current series concludes next week. 

Plato's dialogues are literary and philosophical masterpieces, exposing the limitations of common sense and setting out the philosophical attitudes and methods which have set the tone of the discipline from Plato's day to the present. I started these seminars during the lockdown, but the possibility of teaching anyone interested, and without regard to distance, suggests that they may have longer to run.

The premise of the series is that pretty well anyone with the necessary time (not very much is needed) and interest can engage profitably with the short early dialogues. Doing so is sufficient preparation, for those who want to, to continue with some of the slightly more complex and longer ones.

Just now I have been leading two seminars: one on four short early dialogues, and one on two longer ones: Protagoras and Gorgias.

With a view to starting in the week of 14th June, I am offering

Series 1: for those new to this.

1: Euthyphro (on piety), Ion (on poetic inspiration), Lysis (on friendship), and Laches (on courage).

Series 3: for returning students.

3: Hippias Major (on beauty), Meno (on virtue), Euthydemus (on the eristic method), and Clitophon, Theages, & Alcibiades (different takes on the Socratic method, attributed to Plato).

Plus Series 5: for returning students who have done both beginners' and intermediate seminars.

5: Phaedo (on the afterlife); Phaedrus (on the nature of the soul): each divided into two parts.

So far I've continued to have enough students to justify two seminars running in parallel. We'll see if numbers stretch to three at once.

It has been a fascinating project for me, re-reading these dialogues often after many years, and discussing them with mostly mature students from all over the world. And the students clearly get a lot out of it, with many of them returning from one series to another.

I'm game to carry on, if you are! More information here.

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