Wisdom

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

Laozi

Philosophical inquiry is essential to forming a well-rounded view of the world and it happens not through reading the words of others or submitting AI generated essays to college classes but through thinking for yourself.

To facilitate this inquiry, we’ll have weekly readings from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations and the Dao de Jing of Laozi, with group discussion of questions ranging from ethics to metaphysics. What does it mean to live a good life? Why is there something rather than nothing? The act of answering questions such as these is the goal of philosophy, not the answer itself.

Our philosophical exploration will draw extensively from the western tradition, classical Platonism, Stoicism, and Neoplatonism, as well as the eastern traditions of Daoism and Confucianism, with some inescapable Buddhist philosophy on the nature of mind.

A note on religion - while both Stoicism and Daoism have been practiced as strictly religious traditions, we’ll focus on the philosophical sides. None of our practices are religious in any way, and students are encouraged to keep up with existing religious practices.