Philosophy and Ideas Studies

At the London Literary Salon we offer a special blend of great literature, great ideas and great conversation. We also know that our weekly studies are sometimes hard to fit in among the demands of everyday life. If you’re looking to add more meaningful conversation into your life, without another 100 pages a week to read—our Spontaneous Philosophy Study has the answer!

Each month we meet—with no prep necessary—for an on-the-spot close reading of a short passage from the great authors that we read elsewhere in the Salon. This study might also be called Short Works, Big Ideas. We read concise and provocative passages from the likes of Plato, Kant, Marx, Mill, Dewey, James, Confucius, Kafka and lots more.

To add to the fun, the author and reading each month are a surprise: everyone will be seeing the text for the first time, with all the excitement of encountering the ideas fresh together. Together we work our way through one to four pages each time, mostly from the giants of philosophy, but with the occasional short story, poem, or even a fairy tale tossed in—you won’t know until you show up. The emphasis is on close reading and a shared inquiry to build understand of new ideas.

Meetings are on the third or fourth Tuesday of the month, 6:00pm to 8:30pm, at the lovely Rudolf Steiner House just below Regent’s Park.

Registration is £15, which covers our room charge and a bit for the facilitator. After you RSVP, all you’ll need to do is show up and be ready to think! Seats are limited, so be sure to RSVP by registering via Paypal below. If you prefer, you can send an email to facilitator Mark Cwik, as well.

Spontaneous Philosophy is a low-advance-commitment way to practice some intellectual self-care, with a bit of hard thinking and a lot of good discussion.

SALON DETAILS

• Facilitated by Mark Cwik
• Tuesday evenings 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
• Ongoing monthly study, next meeting 29 October
  
• Meetings in Rudolf Steiner House, Marylebone — 35 Park Road, London, NW1 6XT
• £15 per month, registration via Paypal below
  

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TO REGISTER for the Spontaneous Philosophy study, please use the secure Paypal payment button below to pay £15.

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 If you have any questions about this study, please email facilitator Mark Cwik.

Great Ideas, Great Books is our ongoing, monthly Salon where you will encounter the core texts and core ideas in the western intellectual tradition. Each month, we read a key work by authors such as Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Dante, Shakespeare, Machiavelli, Milton, Marx, Austen and Eliot. Through these works, you will wrestle with the basic and enduring questions of what it means to be human: What is right and wrong? How do we come to know things? What do we owe to our families, our society, ourselves? What is happiness? What is a good life? What is a good society? We will talk about justice, morality, beauty, love, honor, death, government, society, goodness, community.

To encourage careful reading, and to fit our discussions into busy lives, we keep each month’s selection to a manageable length. For longer works, we read the book over two or more months, or we read substantial selections that present an author’s most important ideas.

During our discussions, we examine a reading from many different angles, puzzling over difficult passages, exploring the intricacies of a plot line, the layers of meaning in a poetic phrase, the subtleties of an argument or the implications of a thesis. We examine the ideas an author has set out, and consider them seriously.  We also step back from the details to see whether what an author has to say makes sense and is relevant to us or not.

You don’t need any specialized knowledge or background in classic literature to join Great Ideas, Great Books. It is our expectation that most participants will be reading many of the authors for the first time. All you really need is a willingness to read carefully, listen thoughtfully and entertain new and sometimes-challenging ideas.

In our first year since starting in September 2018, Great Ideas, Great Books has dwelt in the ancient Greek world, with Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Sophocles, Plato and Aristotle. As the program progresses, we will move to later works including those from the Roman world, from the Judeo-Christian scriptural tradition, the middle ages and enlightenment, up to modern thought. Great Ideas is structured as a  long-term project, with the flexibility to direct our focus to differing topics and time periods according to the interests of the group.

Our readings so far:

September 2018—Homer, The Iliad, Books 1 – 12

October 2018—Homer, The Iliad, Books 13 – 24

November 2018—Herodotus, The Persian Wars, selection

December 2018—Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, selection

January 2019—Plato, Meno

February 2019—Sophocles, Oedipus Rex

March 2019— Sophocles, Antigone

April 2019—Aristotle, Poetics

May 2019—Plato, Apology, Crito, Phaedo

June 2019—Euripides, Medea

17 September 2019—The Epic of Gilgamesh

22 October 2019—Plato, Republic, Books 1 – 5

19 November 2019—Plato, Republic, Books 6 – 10

 

The Great Ideas group currently has two seats available. Registration for Great Ideas, Great Books is in six-month subscriptions. The £25 per month registration includes introductory notes that set the context for each reading, and questions to help focus your reading and prompt your thinking about key aspects of the text.

SALON DETAILS

• Facilitated by Mark Cwik
• Tuesday evenings 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
• Ongoing monthly study
• Meetings at The Mug House, London Bridge  SE1 2PF
• October/November recommended edition: Republic by Plato, translated by G. M. A. Grube, revised by C. D. C. Reeve; Hackett Publishing Co, Inc (1992); ISBN-13: 9780872201361
• £25 per month, registration in six-month subscriptions
  

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TO REGISTER for the study, please use the secure Paypal payment button below to pay £150. Opening notes will be sent shortly after registration.

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ABOUT THE FACILITATOR: Mark Cwik has been organizing and leading great books discussion groups for adults for over twenty years in Chicago, Toronto and London.  He was trained as a discussion facilitator while at the Great Books Foundation in Chicago and has been a passionate advocate for great books education since attending St. John’s College, Santa Fe and the University of Chicago Basic Program in Liberal Education.

“I’ve been coming to Mark’s discussion groups for about 15 years . . . Mark is amazing in his ability to keep the group functioning smoothly. He asks questions that get to the heart of the piece and he keeps the group focused on those questions. You don’t feel that he’s trying to steer us to any conclusion; he’s in it with us to figure out what the author is saying. He makes everyone feel welcome and their opinions are respectfully heard. He’s always prepared and totally dedicated to advancing our understanding of the great books.” — Chicago group participants.

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If you have any questions about this study, please contact us.