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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.
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, 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
The Descent of Man applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details the theory of sexual selection, a form of biological adaptation distinct from, yet interconnected with, natural selection.
May 27 Reading:
Chapter Two - On the Manner of Development of Man from some Lower Form - pages 43-85
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
Online Format:
Register to receive the link
The book strives to understand the causes and the mechanics of Nazism and Stalinism as the major totalitarian political movements of the 20th century
May 28 Reading:
Antisemitism - Chapter Four
(pages 89-120)
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
Online Format:
Register to receive the link
Online Seminar Series
New Science
by Giambattista Vico
Tuesday, May 30
12:00-1:30PM PDT
New Science takes a blended philosophical and philological approach to identify predictable patterns in the development of human history, and finds that the ancients saw the world in a fundamentally different way than modern man.
May 30 Reading:
Section 2 (pages 95-118)
Schedule:
12:00-1:30PM PDT
Tutor:
Barry Rabe
Online Format:
Register to receive the link
Leslie Rule - Ojai City Council Member - On the Housing Issue in Ojai
April 14, 2023
The purpose of The Agora Foundation's Ojai Chautauqua panels is to engage Ventura County in civil discourse about controversial and highly passionate subjects. In 2023, The Ojai Chautauqua will produce a series of panels addressing the issues Ojai is facing, including water, tourism, housing, education, agriculture, environmentalism, and more. Ojai City Council Members and other civic leaders will be interviewed over the course of the year.
Summary of the April 14 video:
- Big Picture of the Housing Issue in Ojai
- Senior-Headed households as a large percentage
- The difficulty of finding housing in Ojai, especially for renters
- The community interest in low-income housing, and the NIMBY syndrome
- The State’s imperative to municipalities on low-income housing
- SB-35 and the take away impediments to housing
- What is Smart Growth?
- What is Builder’s Remedy, and the Housing Element ?
- Ojai Traffic and the effect of more housing.
- How does housing fit into the big picture of Ojai’s future?
- Discussion of the new projects - Becker Group Proposal and Cabrillo Vista
- How are the ADUs and the 30-day minimum rental restrictions working?
- We need high-functioning governance right now, and it seems we do not have that at the City Council level. What can we do to fix this?
Society is changing. Sustaining a civil conversation, a deep inquiry, and a train of thought are becoming rare talents. To meet this challenge, the Agora Foundation creates and fosters dynamic learning communities, centered on exploring the great texts and ideas that civilization has produced. Through rigor, inquiry, goodwill, and open dialogue, participants grow to become informed, inspired, and influential contributors within their communities. Understanding the foundations and developments of human society offers an insight into current events that is beyond reactive or reductive... it’s reasoned.
Interview Participants:
Leslie Rule - Ojai City Council Member
Tom Krause - Board President of the Agora Foundation
Andy Gilman - Executive Director of the Agora Foundation
UPDATED 10/4/22 - View the September 28, 2022
Ojai City Council Candidate Forum
View the November 14, 2020 Online Special Music Event
From Lugubrious to Luminous: Words about Music
(and where they take us!)
View the May 28, 2020 Ojai Chautauqua Panel - The Future of Education After COVID-19.
An Introduction to The Agora Foundation. What is liberal education?
An Introduction to The Agora Foundation's Ojai Chautauqua Panels.