Philosophy Dec/Jan

Online philosophy class for all ages and abilities from everywhere - with home educated children in mind.  Classes are an hour long, held on Zoom. Each session explores a different theme and there are new themes every month. Participants grow in their competence and confidence as thinkers and speakers, and enjoy connecting to one another, with opportunities for deep thinking and disagreement about juicy, debatable questions.

You can book a block of four sessions for £25 (for February onwards), or individual taster sessions for £7 each. There are lots of different time slots, with separate classes for 9-12s and for teens. For participants aged 6-8, try Philosophy Explorers, our interactive philosophical story-telling adventure.

Week 1 - Give Wisely

There are 165,000 different charities in the UK alone. With so many worthy causes clamouring for support,  how should someone decide which is worthiest? Should you follow your emotions, or should kindness be a matter of hard-headed calculation? We'll explore the ideas of "effective altruism" a philosophy and movement that seeks to encourage more people to give more, better.

Week 2 - Have You Got a Friend in Me?

"You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family." Philosophers have often seen friendship as an ideal sort of relationship, sometimes placing it above romantic and family love. But what types of friendship are there? Can thieves be friends? Can a king be friends with his court jester? Can you be Someone's friend if Someone is no friend of yours? And when is it OK to "unfriend" someone, online or in reality?

Week 3 - Hot Property 

Buying, selling and owning stuff is an everyday part of life. But if you go back far enough in history, how did anyone come to own anything in the first place - or to own the first place to be owned? Is it finders keepers? What if other people have already found everything? Do other animals own things? We'll explore the contentious topic of property, or what can and should be owned, so that you can reach your own conclusions about ownership.

Week 4 - New Year's Irresolutions

It's the time of year when millions of people resolve that this will be the year they get fit, spend more (or less!) time with their families, or learn Joobrinese. But like so many of our best intentions, many of these never happen. This session explores weakness of will - the Greeks had a word for it, "akrasia". Why don't we always do as we should, when we could and wish we would? Or is each of us a "we" of our own, with different versions of ourselves competing to see who's the boss of me?

Week 5 - Seeing Eye to I

"The camera never lies" goes the saying. But does the camera need to, when our eyes are so good at fibbing themselves? We'll explore some illusions of sound and vision that open up the uncanny gap between what we think is reality and what our own minds are creating, and look at the philosophical implications for our knowledge of the world beyond our own brains.

Different times are available for different age groups.

Times shown are GMT.