Have you ever found yourself thinking: ‘Where has the common sense gone? Or had an intuition that something is not quite right with the world, but can’t put your finger on why? Or been challenged to explain your faith but are at a loss to explain what you think and why you think it?
You are not alone.
For decades, there has been a lack in an area of education which used to answer this need –the area called Philosophy.
Not just for cigar smoking students, Philosophy (from the Greek meaning ‘the love of wisdom’) is a highly practical ancient skill which is not so much about learning new information, but a way of knowing what to do with the information given to us.
Philosophy is a habit and training of mind which helps to link complex subjects together and make overall sense of the world. In a time when our faith, our beliefs and our structures are being daily challenged, Philosophy helps keep a sense of sanity, understanding, and also gives us the skills to articulate our beliefs to an unbelieving world.
Anima Education has put together a 10-hour seminar which offers a practical, hands-on approach to Philosophy. It will introduce some of Philosophy’s major thinkers (Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Lock, Nietzsche, Sartre and others) as well as cover key philosophical ideas. It will focus especially the idea of ‘truth’, and whether it can be known, we will see how different philosophies have tried to answer this fraught question. It will be run on a Monday night starting 10th May from 7-9pm at Mary Glowrey House in Melbourne over five weeks and costs $95.
The course has been created by former journalist, Natasha Marsh who currently lectures in philosophy, theology and ethics at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, and teaches Core Curriculum at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. In 2018, she completed a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family. From journalism to teaching, her passion is to teach the beauty and reasonableness of the Catholic faith.
This seminar is not just about asking ‘what’s wrong with the world’ – but will give you the skills to articulate your thoughts in a world that has lost the art of thinking.
The basic outline of the course is as follows:
Week 1: An Introduction to Philosophy
– Welcome – relaunch of Anima Education
– What is philosophy?
– The ‘Big questions
– A timeline of Philosophy
Week 2: The Ancient Greeks
– What is truth?
– Plato and Aristotle
Week 3: The Middle Ages
– The Age of Christendom
– How the average Medieval saw the world
– The ‘Medieval Synthesis’
– Boethius, St Thomas Aquinas.
Week 4: The Modern World
– What is Modernity?
– Descartes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau
Week 5: Post-Modernity
– What is Post-Modernism?
– Nietzsche, Sartre.
– Where are we now?
If you would like to read more about how this course came about you can read Anna Krohn’s article in the Catholic Weekly here. (Used with permission)
Click the banner below to go to the TryBooking page to register!
