Courses Summer Term 2026
Monday 20th April to Thursday 10th July
(Please note that Mondays 4/5 and 25/5 are Bank Holidays)
2025-26 Courses will be taking place online and we have grouped them per term. Please contact the tutor for further details as to how exactly their courses will operate. Registration fees will standardly be £135 unless otherwise stated (some shorter courses will be offered at lower fees). Tutors also have the discretion to offer a concessionary reduction of £20. In other respects, the details given at enrolment apply.
MON 1-3pm: 10 weeks starting 20th April:
The Problematic Self: Identity, Embodiment, Sex and Sincerity
Jane O’Grady
‘I am not who I am’ – what Iago confesses is true of all of us. This course will look at ‘the self’ and its construction in the life of the individual and in the history of Western philosophy. It will consider anthropologists’ anthropologist’s accounts of geographically varying views of self, the mind/body problem – how in one way I can only be my body and in another way I can’t possibly only be my body – at the notion of sincerity, the social self, and the fraught issue of transgenderism. See course outline for more information.
Cost: £135 (10 weeks)
Email: janeogrady101[at]gmail.com
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MON 7 – 9pm: 8 weeks starting 11th May:
Philosophy of Science
Is there such a thing as the ‘scientific method’ which can be stated in a formula? How, in practice, do scientists evaluate rival theories? Does science give us a true ‘picture’ of reality, or are scientific theories merely tools for making ever more accurate predictions? What is the relationship between science and technology? Does scientific knowledge inevitably lead to the domination of nature, or can science help us to live in harmony with nature? We will study the classic theories of the philosophy of science: Inductivism and Falsificationism, and explore Lakatosian research programmes and Kuhnian paradigms, before examining the recent findings of the sociology of knowledge.
Cost: £100 (8 weeks)
Email:keith[at]londonschoolofphilosophy.org
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TUE 11am -1pm: 10 weeks starting 21st April:
Michel de Montaigne
Anja Steinbauer
Philosophising is great, however, reading philosophy can be torturous. How can we write about ideas in an engaging and witty way, avoiding unnecessary technical vocabulary and formality? Michel de Montaigne found the answer: essayistic philosophy. Rather than abstract systems and scholastic theory, he placed human beings, observed from a subjective human perspective, at the centre of his interests.
Cost: £135 (10 weeks)
Email:anja[at]philosophynow.org
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TUE 1.30 – 3pm: 10 weeks starting 21st April:
20th C Political and Social Philosophy Reading Group
Anja Steinbauer
Cost: Free (10 weeks)
Email:anja[at]philosophynow.org
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TUE 6 – 8pm: 10 weeks starting 21st April:
History of Western Philosophy part 3
This course gives a chronological survey of some the great Western philosophers who have formulated, and tried to solve, enduring puzzles – what reality is, who we are, how we should live. Part 3 runs from Schopenhauer to Sartre. See course outline 3 for more information.
Cost: £135 (10 weeks)
Email: janeogrady101[at]gmail.com
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THUR 11am -1pm: 10 weeks starting 23rd April:
Buddhist Philosophy
Anja Steinbauer
As the world grows smaller we ought to look beyond the boundaries of our own intellectual traditions for a better understanding not only of our neighbours but of ourselves. This course is an introduction to fundamental Buddhist ideas and their philosophical foundations and implications. We will discuss Buddhist metaphysics and ethics, their origins in the teachings of the Buddha and their contribution to philosophical discussions in ancient and medieval India and beyond.
Cost: £135 (10 weeks)
Email:anja[at]philosophynow.org
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THUR 1:30 -3pm: 10 weeks starting 23rd April:
Kant Reading Group
Anja Steinbauer
Cost: Free (10 weeks)
Email:anja[at]philosophynow.org