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Introduction to Philosophy:
Plato’s Apology

Dates: Oct 24 | Oct 31 | Nov 7 | Nov 14 | Nov 21
Time: Tuesdays, 6:30–7:45 PM ET
Cost: $200

An unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. With these defiant words spoken at his trial, Socrates summed up how he thought it best to live one’s life and why he would rather die than give up philosophizing. But what exactly is an examined life? And are there really no other ways of life that we would consider worthy? In this five-session course, students will be introduced to the activity of philosophy and why the citizens of Athens decided to kill Socrates for engaging in it. Through close reading and thoughtful discussion, we will probe a range of questions about wisdom, politics, and human happiness in order to consider for ourselves whether Socrates was right about how to live a properly human life or whether we, too, would have voted to put him to death.

Dr. Aaron Tugendhaft

Aaron Tugendhaft studied history and philosophy at the University of Chicago, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Sorbonne. Since receiving his doctorate in ancient Near Eastern Studies from New York University in 2012, he has taught broadly within the humanities on four continents and has become a staunch advocate of traditional liberal education as a corrective to premature professionalization, academic hyperspecialization, and political polarization. His most recent book, The Idols of ISIS: From Assyria to the Internet (University of Chicago Press, 2020), is a philosophical meditation on an Islamic State video of iconoclasm that explores the political power of images and the significance of their destruction. In fall 2021, he joined the history department and became a director of interdisciplinary programs at the Ramaz School in New York City.

 

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Courses in our special learning campaign are open to anyone in the community who registers at no cost. The Q&A will be reserved for current high-school students.

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