The Platonic Life - three lectures in Bristol

Tim Addey and Guy Wyndham-Jones

Western Tutorial College, Albion House, 12A Broad Street, Bristol BS1 2HL

12th, 19th and 26th March 2013 7.30pm

 12th March: “The Philosopher in the World” lecture by Tim Addey

That philosophy provided an intelligent basis for the arrangement of human life from the cradle to the grave was taken as fundamental by the philosophers of the ancient world. No individual or society could be truly happy if wisdom was not cultivated and embraced as the primary means for making the many choices which life in the world entails. In Platonic philosophy the intrinsic excellence of the human self was to be developed by the “political virtues” - political in the sense that the polis or city represented the organized life where human beings came together to share their various tasks, resources and insights. Our relationships with each other and with the natural word are at their best when the excellences of political virtues are unfolded. This is the first sphere in which the human being as a thinking and acting creature must reflect upon the nature of reality, and his or her place in it. Time and again, Socrates asks what is the good life? What is justice? What are we to do? These questions are ignored at our peril, and today, perhaps more than ever, we can see the dreadful consequences of thoughtless actions as our effects work their way into every corner of the world.  The lecture will look at some of the important truths affirmed by Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Plotinus and others of the philosophic tradition: but these will be taken as starting points for our own exploration - for the essence of Platonism is that each of us must examine our lives for ourselves because, as Socrates famously said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.”

Tim Addey is the chairman of the Prometheus Trust and one of its tutors. He is the author of several introductory books on the Platonic Tradition.

19th March:“The Philosopher in the Soul” lecture by Guy Wyndham-Jones

The journey which begins with a consideration of how we should act in the world, continues with a deeper examination of the self. We may begin to see that the same great principles which have shaped the whole world, have a place within the soul - for we can really only contact the various truths and beauties in the world if we too share some common principle: we might affirm that what the world is, we are but in microcosm. But until we can see ourselves clearly, and without the accretions which we may mistakenly take for our real selves, the exact nature of our inner principles will surely remain veiled. Following the cultivation of the political virtues, the Platonic tradition bids us cultivate the cathartic virtues - those purifying excellences which enable us to reclaim “the ruined empire of the soul”.

Guy Wyndham-Jones was a founding trustee of the Prometheus Trust and is head of education for the Trust. He is the author of Release Thyself - Three Philosophic Dialogues, as well as a contributor of essays to the Trust’s Students’ Edition Series of paperbacks.

26th March: “The Philosopher Amongst the Stars” lecture by Tim Addey

The origins of western philosophy are shrouded by the clouding of history and the fractures it has brought to the tradition: but what can be stated with a degree of certainty is that the earliest recorded philosophers such as Pythagoras and his followers, Parmenides, Socrates and Plato, is that they considered the ultimate aim of their philosophical studies and practices to be the restoration of the human soul to its divine likeness.  Philosophy is not only the pursuit of truth, but the simultaneous pursuit of beauty: and as Diotima told Socrates, “Perceive you not, that in beholding the beautiful with that eye, with which alone it is possible to behold it, thus, and thus only, could a man ever attain to generate, not the images or semblances of virtue, as not having his intimate commerce with an image or a semblance; but virtue true, real, and substantial, from the converse and embraces of that which is real and true. Thus begetting true virtue, and bringing her up till she is grown mature, he would become a favourite of the Gods; and at length would be, if any man ever be, himself one of the immortals.” The restoration of the soul’s divine likeness enlarges its powers, and enables it to join completely the empire of the Good: its work upon the earth and upon itself is thus consummated and transformed. This third movement is especially the province of what the Platonists called the theoretical virtues - using the word theory in its original Greek sense, as being a contemplation. 

Tim Addey is the chairman of the Prometheus Trust and one of its tutors. He is the author of several introductory books on the Platonic Tradition.

Entrance fee: £2 (£1 students) payable at the door: this includes tea and coffee. For a map showing the college’ location click here