Coming Online Events
One-day onsite seminar tuition is $125 per person. Any contribution above $125 is classified as a tax-deductible donation. Special events have differing tuition. Scholarships are available for teachers and students. Or, become a subscriber in the Community of Lifelong Learners for $40 per month for unlimited attendance at on-site and online events, or $25 per month for only online events.
Please inquire via email here.
Online Seminar Series
Greek Intensive - Section One: Gods and Epics
>> Cohort Two - Tuesday Evenings - October 27, 2020-February 25, 2021
>> Cohort One - Thursday Evenings - October 29, 2020-February 23, 2021
Isocrates, the Greek rhetorician, once remarked that what makes one an Athenian is not the blood that runs through one’s veins, but the ideas in one’s mind. How can we access this ancient world, with some aspects so foreign and others so familiar, and discover foundations that changed the trajectory of civilization. This series is developed in four sections: 1) Gods and Epics, 2) Tragedy and Comedy, 3) Philosophy, 4) History. Attendees will gain a deep understanding of Greek life through some of its greatest authors, and will be better able to see the profound influence the Greeks have had on the entirety of the west and the world.
All reading materials (in English translation) will be supplied and sessions will be facilitated by tutors experienced is shared inquiry and the Socratic method. Groups will be limited to 12 participants and no prior knowledge is required. The Four-Month Weekly Series is $600 and is not included in the recurring subscription package. Payment options are available.
Online Seminar
Free Community Seminar Series
Eastern Classics
Next session Thursday, October 29, 2020
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.
The October 29 reading is:
Bhagavad Gita - Chapters Sixteen and Seventeen
Click here to access the readings.
Schedule:
12:00 - 1:00PM PDT
Location:
Online. Click here.
Meeting ID: 837 3973 4746
Online Seminar Series
Seneca Part II - On the Shortness of Life
Saturday, October 31, 2020
“But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present,
and fear the future.”
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Kevin Walker
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar
Series On Marcel Proust - Swann's Way - Part VI -
Swann in Love, pp. 328-396
Sunday, November 1, 2020
“In his younger days a man dreams of possessing the heart of the woman whom he loves; later, the feeling that he possesses the heart of a woman may be enough to make him fall in love with her.”
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
Patricia Locke
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar
Free Community Seminar Series
The Foundations of Our Republic, Take II
Monday, November 2, 2020
What are the fundamental principles of our Republic? Are these principles based on a view of objective reality/nature, or simply the "consent of the governed"? Depending on how one addresses the previous question: Are these principles changeable, and if so on what grounds? How should one read the founding documents? What authority does the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary branches have? What are rights? Are they based on nature or consent? Are they inalienable?
The November 2 readings are -
James Madison - Memorial and Remonstrance
Against Religious Assessments &
Thomas Jefferson - The Virginia Statute
for Religious Freedom
Click the icons to download.
Schedule:
5:30 - 6:30PM PST
Readings:
Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, selected Federalist Papers, selected Anti-Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution, selections from Democracy in American, Dred Scott Decision and Dissenting View (edited), selected Lincoln speeches, Lincoln Douglass Debates (edited), Plessy v. Ferguson and Dissenting View (edited), Brown v. Board of Education, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Proposed Equal Rights Amendment, UN Declaration of Human Rights
Meeting ID: 858 8227 3261
Online Seminar Series
Love - Part IV - King Lear by William Shakespeare
Saturday, November 7, 2020
Othello said about himself that he “loved not wisely but too well.” It seems that one can love things too much, but can one really love someone too much? Does the answer to that question depend on what is meant by love? Perhaps more fundamentally: are there different kinds of love? This series will devote itself to a discussion of the mystery and majesty of love.
Schedule:
10:00AM-12:00PM PST (Please note earlier time)
Readings in the Series:
Plato, Symposium
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Bk. 8 and 9 edited)
Aquinas, Selections
Shakespeare, King Lear
Dostoevsky, A Gentle Creature
Ibsen, A Doll’s House
Sigrid Unset, Gunnar’s Daughter
Flannery O’Connor, The Lame Shall Enter First
C.S. Lewis, Four Loves
Tutor:
Paul O'Reilly
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Thucydides - The Peloponnesian War - Book Six
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Is there an art to writing and reading history? Is a detached view of historical events desirable, or even possible? What does this conflict (431-404 BC) in particular have to teach us. This series will cover all eight books over time, with one two-hour online seminar per book.
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
David Appleby
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar
From Lugubrious to Luminous: Words about Music
(and where they take us!)
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Writing about music or any sensual experience always presents the formidable challenge of translating our thoughts and feelings into words. Music criticism, for example, can be the domain of the specialist, using technical vocabulary and providing precision descriptions. Or such writing can be its own art form that can lead the reader to listening with fresh ears.
In this seminar we will consider a broad selection of vivid writing about music by critics and historians.
In addition to the assigned reading before the seminar, participants are invited to bring in some of their favorite passages of writing about music. Participants will be invited to listen to recordings in advance of the seminar and to put that experience in their own words. The seminar is open to all “adventurous listeners,” regardless of musical background or training.
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
Lance Brunner
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The Wisdom of Humor - Part I
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Many of truth is spoken in jest.
November 15th Reading:
Clouds by Aristophanes
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Readings in the Series:
Clouds by Aristophanes
A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare
On Lying by Twain and Wilde
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Carroll
A Modest Proposal by Swift
Speech on Slavery by Douglass
Selected TED Talks by Emily Levine
Tutor:
Karl Haigler
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Anguish and the Absurd - Part V
Diary of a Madman and The Nose by Nikolai Gogol
Saturday, November 21, 2020
This series will explore the troubling world of the absurd through the writings of Kafka, Gogol, Camus, Sartre, Borges, Beckett, and others.
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutors:
Paul Herder and Andy Gilman
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Film Seminar
Rashomon directed by Akira Kurosawa
Saturday, December 5, 2020
Released in 1950, Rashomon was the first Japanese film to receive a significant international reception, winning several awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951, and an Academy Honorary Award at the 24th Academy Awards in 1952, and is considered one of the greatest films ever made. The Rashomon effect is named after the film.
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
Peter Rainer
Film:
Please watch the film prior to the
seminar. Rashomon is available on
Criterion, HBOMax, Kanopy, AppleTV,
and in parts on YouTube.
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar
Series On Marcel Proust - Swann's Way - Part VII -
Swann in Love, pp. 397 to the end
Sunday, December 6, 2020
“People don't know when they are happy. They're never so unhappy as they think they are.”
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
Patricia Locke
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Thucydides - The Peloponnesian War - Book Seven
Saturday, December 12, 2020
Is there an art to writing and reading history? Is a detached view of historical events desirable, or even possible? What does this conflict (431-404 BC) in particular have to teach us. This series will cover all eight books over time, with one two-hour online seminar per book.
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
David Appleby
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar
Series on Shakespeare's Henriad Tetralogy
Saturday, December 19, 2020
"Though I did wish him dead, I hate the murd’rer, love him murdered."
December 19 Reading:
Richard II
Readings in the Series:
Richard II
Henry IV, Part One
Henry IV, Part Two
Henry V
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutors:
Eric Stull and Andy Gilman
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.