We're a new reading group (as of Autumn 2018). Our first session will be on September 17th.
Initially we plan to read medium-length Platonic dialogues (so not the Republic or the Laws). Our first dialogue will be the Phaedo - the one in which Socrates and his friends discuss the immortality of the soul, and which ends with Socrates drinking the hemlock.
Although some of us are long-term readers of Plato, others are more or less beginners. Those with an academic background in philosophy are very welcome, but we're not particularly academic ourselves, and we're reading Plato because he raises the kind of questions which all human beings should, perhaps, be asking themselves: What kind of creature am I? What kind of life is the good life? How do I relate to the rest of humankind, to nature, to the world?
The idea is that we'll read relatively slowly through the chosen dialogue and give ourselves time to discuss the ideas. We be meeting in the committee room of Cecil Sharp House (2, Regents Park Road, London NW1 7AY) every other Monday, from 6pm to 7.15. We ask for donations to help pay the cost of the room.
We're part of the Prometheus Trust (a registered charity) and we run study sessions on various philosophical themes, on the same evenings starting at 7.30 - they're open sessions, and you're welcome to stay on and join in (or not) should you wish.
Do get in touch and get further details from education@prometheustrust.co.uk