Practical Wisdom for the modern world
Or for online courses register at www.practicalphilosophy.com
Has our experience of being human really changed since antiquity?
09.30 – 12.30pm Saturday 27th September 2025.
Practical Wisdom for the mordern world.
Ann Garry, French Horn, Gillian Thompson, Piano Donations to help cover costs on PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/CroydonFees?locale_x=en++GB Please register your attendance using the email below by Wednesday 18 June. 13 Addiscombe Grove, East Croydon, CRO 5LR. Tel. 020 8688 2634https://selondon.schoolofphilosophy.orgphilosophySELondon@fses.org A BRANCH OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY AND ECONOMIC SCIENCE REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBERS 313115
An in-person talk on the Sanskrit language by Warwick Jessup at Athene House in Croydon. If you are not in our area an online link to this talk is available on application.
An upcoming event will be posted soon… Please email to find out more email: philosophyselondon@fses.org A BRANCH OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SCHOOL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 313115
Practical Wisdom for the modern world Enrol now at: www.selondon.schoolofphilosophy.org Or for online courses register at www.practicalphilosophy.com
The School of Philosophy SE London invite you to an online meditation evening on the theme of Unity.
A tutor presents philosophical ideas, and leads a discussion based on what arises in the group. Being practical rather than academic, the emphasis is on personal knowledge and experience. Students are encouraged neither to accept nor reject the ideas put forward, but to test them in practice for themselves, in the light of their own experience.
Local face-to-face evening courses available in Central London W1U 3AJ.
Following all Health & Safety guidelines for your complete peace of mind.
Courses in practical wisdom for everyday living. Meet with like minded individuals.
“Absolutely loving the course!! …Really changing how I think about things and life in general.”
“...I am benefiting greatly from the content and the practical nature of it. Thank you, it is enriching my life.”
“The daily awareness exercises … have changed my thinking and I feel more relaxed about situations in the media and other aspects of my daily life.”
"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."
The course is practical in the sense that it is designed to be of direct use in our everyday lives. The intention is to stimulate enquiry and through this expand the way we look at the world and ourselves.
Online or by calling 0208 688 2634.
If you register online, you will receive a confirmation email with your day of attendance. If you register by any means other than online, you will receive a receipt confirming your registration.
Yes, we have a local Croydon venue where you can attend the course face-to-face. We also have other venues across the UK.
No, all you need is an open and enquiring mind. The course is intended for everyone, regardless of education, occupation, race, political or religious belief.
Face-to-face meetings will be held safely following all Health & Safety guidelines for your complete peace of mind.
Yes, we offer an online version of the course via Zoom. To find out more visit: https://courses.schoolofphilosophy.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.
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(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.
