school of philosophy croydon

FREE Taster Morning Sat 16th Sept 2023

Discover the Spirit of Freedom:

Practical Wisdom for the modern world
in Croydon

Morning Timetable

Croydon Free Taster Saturday Morning

Practical Philosophy

from both East & West

Delve into the depths of Eastern and Western Philosophy in a collaborative environment.

This Free Saturday Taster Morning gives you a taste of Practical Philosophy and how to apply it in everyday life. This is designed to help you discover profound answers to life’s most significant questions and give you a deeper insight and taste of how our Practical Philosophy and Economics with Justice courses work.

Location & Map
  • Saturday 16th Sept (9am-1pm) FREE
Register on Eventbrite
Morning Timetable

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the Croydon Taster morning, you will have 

  • a deeper understanding of yourself and the world around you.
  • You will learn to approach life’s challenges with newfound calm and clarity, bringing about a more harmonious, purposeful, and joy-filled life.

This taster morning promises not just intellectual stimulation, but a transformative morning that can lead towards personal growth, insight, well-being, and a richer, more satisfying life experience.

Location & Map
  • Saturday 16th Sept (9am-1pm) FREE
Register on Eventbrite
Morning Timetable

The morning timetable...

Join us for our free morning of talks and activities designed to introduce you to the liberating power of Philosophy.

There will be practical sessions throughout the morning:

  • 09.00 Doors open
  • 09.30 Welcome address – can philosophy help us find inner peace so we can meet the challenges of life with confidence?
  • 10.00 Connecting with Nature – what Nature can teach us about wellbeing
  • 10.30 Economic Freedom & Justice – How can we all enjoy prosperity in a fair and just society?
  • 11.00 Poetry and Freedom – enjoy some of the finest poetry from Shakespeare, Brooke, Rumi and others
  • 11.30 Art/Drawing – discover a new way of ‘Seeing’
  • 12.00 Stillness and Meditation – bring a new perspective into life

The Philosophy Café will be open all morning for refreshments, inspiring conversation and the chance to visit our bookshop.

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"...helped me..."

"The knowledge and experience that I have gained from the philosophy classes has helped me to discover more about myself and better prepare for dealing with life's daily surprises and challenges."

“...I am benefiting greatly ..."

“...I am benefiting greatly from the content and the practical nature of it. Thank you, it is enriching my life.”

"Absolutely loving the course!! …Really changing how I think about things and life in general."
"Lovely people with a strong sense of why learning is valuable at any stage in life."
"I started off with the Introduction to Practical Philosophy during the first lockdown and can honestly say it was a lifesaver."
"Have thoroughly enjoyed the introductory course and the daily awareness exercise practice. "
Athene House Croydon Courses Philosophy and Economics
Athene House Croydon Courses Philosophy and Economics
Athene House Croydon Courses Philosophy and Economics

Date & time

  • Saturday 16th Sept (9am-1pm) FREE
  • Get a taste of Practical Philosophy
  • Athene House, 13 Addiscombe Grove, Croydon, CR0 5LR
  • Cost: Free
Register on Eventbrite
Location & Map
Morning Timetable

Find Us on the Map

Athene House Croydon Courses Philosophy and Economics
Athene House Croydon Courses Philosophy and Economics
Athene House Croydon Courses Philosophy and Economics
Location & Map

Croydon in-person course location

Athene House, 13 Addiscombe Grove, Croydon, CR0 5LR

Any questions or concerns email us: philosophyselondon@fses.org

What’s covered in the 10-week course (click below):

Themes included in the course

These opening sessions consider how philosophy can help us enjoy richer, less stressful lives.

What is practical philosophy?

‘What would a wise person do here?’

Philosophy means the love of wisdom. Our course is intended to show how philosophy can help us enjoy richer, less stressful and more useful lives. This opening two sessions consider these aims, and introduces simple exercises in mindfulness and the application of wisdom you can practise in daily life.

You can download or listen to the Awareness Exercise, introduced in week one here. To download, right-click, choose ‘Save link as…’ and save the MP3 wherever you want.

You can also download a PDF of the Awareness Exercise

Who or what am I?

What is my potential?

Who am I, really? My body? My emotions? My strongly held beliefs? My soul? Possibly all of these? Possibly none?

Such questions have preoccupied philosophers down the ages. We look at practical ways to explore who we really are and how to tap our true potential.

What is our state of awareness?

Why does it fluctuate during the day?

Often the most notable quality of wise people is their alertness to the subtleties of a situation. They are awake, perceptive and curious.

We look at deeper levels of awareness, and consider how we may become more awake to ourselves, our surroundings, and the events we meet.

Living in the now, mindfulness.

What is the potential of the present moment?

We review our own experience of attention through a model featuring attention centred, captured, open and scattered, and how these each relate to the past, present and future.

We examine the extraordinary brightness and freedom naturally available in the present moment. A straightforward practice is introduced.

 

Plato’s views on justice.

What does it mean to live justly?

According to Plato, justice and injustice do not start ‘out there’. They begin within us. For justice to prevail, Plato suggests that we must learn to avoid being ‘tyrannised’ by our passions and fears to the extent they overrule our reason.

We discuss the practicality of Plato’s ideas on justice in our daily lives.

The Vedic model of three fundamental energies.

Sometimes we seem not to have enough energy, or the wrong kind. A wise person can act consistently despite these varying conditions.

We consider how to recognise differing energies, how to gain and conserve them and how to use them wisely.

What is reason? How can it enrich our lives? We look at guidelines for Socratic dialogue and how to use them. Developing reason in decision-making and action are also discussed, with practical applications. Obstacles to reason are considered. Everyone has the faculty of reason and we can all use it and develop it. 

What is beauty?

Is there such a thing as absolute beauty?

Beauty has the capacity to open the heart and bring delight. In this session we discuss our direct experience of beauty in its different form: of the sensory world, of thought, of feelings, of the inner nature, and of conduct.

We consider Plato’s idea of there being ultimately one beauty – beauty absolute – ‘not knowing birth or death, growth or decay’.

 

Looking for the common thread in life.

What is the effect of finding unity?

When we look around, we see enormous diversity in nature. The wise person looks for the unifying factor: that which allows all this apparent diversity to be seen as part of a single whole.

Seen in this way, life then has the best chance of being led freshly and openly.

 

What is truth?

How does the desire for truth show itself?

Practical philosophy is about discovering the truth of things – not theoretically, but in our own experience.

In this final session we look back and ask ourselves how our search for truth has fared as the term has progressed. We discuss what has been discovered and how, in our own way, we may continue to develop it in our daily lives.

FREE Course Prospectus: A breakdown of our 10 week courses

Download our Free Prospectus and get 12 transformational quotes also. Just let us know where to send it to below…

TRANSFORMATIONAL

Many of our students tell us how life transformational our courses are.
  • ONLY £35

So as a way of giving back and making our transformational ‘Introductory 10-week course’ affordable for as many people as possible, we are allowing you to enrol for this ‘FULL 10-week Introductory Course’ for…

…only £35, nothing more to pay!

(The equivalent of £3.50 per week).

Please note: This offer gives you a risk-free opportunity to experience our transformational courses first-hand. NOTE: Due to this low introductory pricing these introductory courses do tend to get fully enrolled in advance.

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