Upcoming Online Events
The Agora Foundation is a nonsectarian 501(c)3 non-profit endeavor, providing great books seminars and other educational opportunities to those who are busy with careers, families, and daily responsibilities yet are seeking to further their education. The goal of these offerings is to provide an understanding of the ideas that shape civilizations and to promote civil discourse on complicated subjects. The Agora Foundation has facilitated over 1,000 great books seminars and teacher trainings, covering a wide variety of topics including literature, philosophy, political science, theology, history, art, psychology, and more, featuring ancient and modern texts from around the world. In addition to seminars, since 2014 Agora has produced 35 panels, gatherings, and video interviews, promoting civil discourse on controversial and complicated subjects. Hundreds of these events can be freely viewed and listened to on this website.
Generously funded by The Ahmanson Foundation, Southern California Edison, The Shanbrom Family Foundation, the Ventura County Community Foundation, the WRG Foundation, the Constance Eaton and William Hart Fund, the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club of Ojai, CIty of Ojai, and private donations, the Teachers for Lifelong Learning Program provides training to high school teachers in this engaging approach to learning, and The Ojai Chautauqua provides panels promoting civil discourse on controversial and complicated subjects.
Upcoming Regular Events
Onsite Free Community
Seminar Series
Eastern Classics
Tuesday, October 1
12:00-1:00PM PDT
Like the west, the east has its own tradition of influential texts that address the perennial questions of human kind. Centering around the bodies of work from China, Japan, and India, this series will focus on the texts of Taoism, Confucius, Buddhism, and Hinduism. We invite you to join us and attendees can feel free to join intermittently.
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October 1 Reading:
Tao Te Ching - Chapter 16
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Schedule:
12:00 - 1:00PM
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Location:
111 East Ojai Avenue in Ojai, California
Online Seminar Series
Epistemology of Berkeley
Thursday, October 3
12:30-2:00PM PDT
What can we say we know with certainty? What does it mean to say that we know something? How does knowledge differ from belief? George Berkeley (1685 – 1753) was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was immaterialism. This series continues a broader series on epistemology. Please join us even if this will be your first seminar in the series.
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October 3 Reading:
Principles of Human Knowledge -
Sections 1-48, pages 23-41
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Schedule:
12:30 - 2:00PM
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Tutor:
Carol Seferi
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Location:
Online Seminar Series
Transcendentalism
Monday, October 7
5:30-7:00PM PDT
ranscendentalism was a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the early 19th century in the northeastern United States. We invite you to join us for monthly Monday evening sessions (generally taking place the first Monday evening of each month), exploring the early, middle, and late thinking of the approach.
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October 7 Reading:
Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Schedule:
5:30 - 7:00PM
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Tutors:
Roxana Zirakzedeh and Andy Gilman
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Location:
Agora Foundation Interview with the Ojai Historic Preservation Commission - Part II
September 2024
WE SINCERELY APOLOGIZE FOR THE AMBIENT SOUND - Turning on captions is highly recommended. Hopefully you will find that the content is worth the distraction. At the end of May, 2024, Andy Gilman of the Agora Foundation interviewed Craig Walker, Gina McHatton, and Brian Aikens of the Ojai Historic Preservation Commission. The interview is split into two parts, this video being the second. The conversation ranges from Communications, State Codes, Ojai History, Striving for Balance, and Preservation as Adaptive Reuse. - Click here.
An Introduction to The Agora Foundation. What is liberal education?
An Introduction to The Agora Foundation's Ojai Chautauqua Panels.