Coming Online and Onsite Events
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. Subscribers are responsible for ordering their own books. One-day ONSITE seminar tuition is $125 per person for non-subscribers. Special events have differing tuition. Scholarships are available for teachers and students. Please inquire via email here.
Online Weekly Intensives
Online Seminar Series - NOW MEETING
Tolstoy & Dostoyevsky: Two Short Novels
Hadji Murad and The Eternal Husband
Thursday Evenings - November 5 - December 17, 2026​​
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In each of these two gems of the storyteller’s art, one of the world’s most celebrated writers of Big Novels gives us a narrator who find himself in the grip of a powerful memory that fires his imagination. In Tolstoy’s Hadji Murad, a man trying to pluck a beautiful thistle flower finds that the plant fights him at every point of his attempt: his resulting reflection on human destruction and the unwillingness of the plant to submit to his rough persuasion occasions his recollection of the tribal chief from the Caucasus who had refused to submit to the Russians. Harold Bloom called this little work, published after Tolstoy’s death, his own “personal touchstone for the sublime of prose fiction." In Dostoyevsky’s The Eternal Husband, a man is tormented by a past that unexpectedly comes crowding to the forefront of his consciousness with alarmingly vivid clarity, only to find his present confronting him with the widower whose wife had been his lover. Virginia Woolf expected the reader of this work to be “filled with a giddy rapture.” Reading these two short novels together may furnish occasion for fruitful insight about memory and imagination.
Online seminars in this series will take place on Thursday evenings, 5:30-7:00PM Pacific Time. Attendees will be mailed the texts. Sessions will be facilitated by Eric Stull and Jordan Hoffman. Groups will be limited to 16 participants and no prior knowledge is required. Teachers will be offered 1 CEU credit for participating. This six-week series is $550. Community of Lifelong Learner subscribers receive a discount of $50 through a refund. Payment options are available.
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Online Seminar Series - NOW MEETING
Introduction to Buddhism: Theravada and Mahayana Traditions
Wednesday Evenings - September 9 to December 16, 2026​
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Buddhism originated in 5th-century BCE in Northeast India, founded by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) who taught the path to the liberation from suffering and the ultimate goal of reaching Nirvana, a state of freedom, peace, and the extinguishing of greed, hatred, and delusion. As a non-theistic tradition emphasizing ethics and mindfulness, it grew from a local movement into a major religion that spread across Central, East, and Southeast Asia. The religion evolved into diverse traditions — notably the Theravada and Mahayana practices — while shaping art, philosophy, and society, eventually evolving into a global presence with roughly 500 million followers today.
We will explore these two traditions through a selection of readings from two texts: In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon, and The Lotus Sutra. The online series will take place over 14 Wednesday evenings, 5:30-7:00PM Pacific time. Participants will be mailed the texts and no prior knowledge is required. The series tuition is $800. Comunity of Lifelong Learning subscribers receive a $100 discount through a refund. Payment options are available and teachers receive 2 CEU credits upon request
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Free Community Series
Free Onsite Community Seminar Series
The Foundations of Our Republic
Monday, November 16, 2026
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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"? 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? Please join us as we carefully explore these political works through weekly Monday lunchtime meetings. No experience necessary and all are welcome. ​
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November 16 reading:
The Articles of Confederation, continued
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Schedule
12:00 - 1:00PM PDT
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Location:
Kent Hall Conference Room at Ojai's City Hall
111 West Santa Ana Street - Ojai, California
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Readings in the series:
1) Declaration of Independence
2) Articles of Confederation
3) Selected Federalists Papers ( Madison, Hamilton, and Jay)
1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 51, 52, 62, 68, 69, 70, 78, 85
4) Selected Anti-Federalist Papers (Brutus 1, Cato II)
5) The US Constitution and Amendments - 10 sessions
6) Selections from Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
Volume One - 6 sessions
7) The Declaration of Sentiments by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
8) Dred Scott Decision and Dissenting View (edited)
9) Speeches from Abraham Lincoln
Lyceum, Temperance, Mexican War, House Divided, Cooper Union
10) Selected Lincoln Douglas Debates
11) Lincoln First Inaugural
12) Lincoln Second Inaugural and Gettysburg Address
13) WEB Du Bois - The Souls of Black Folks - 4 sessions
14) Plessy v. Ferguson and Dissenting View (edited),
15) Brown v. Board of Education
16) Martin Luther King Jr. - Letter from Birmingham Jail
17) Roe v. Wade Decision and Dissenting View (edited)
18) Proposed Equal Rights Amendment
19) UN Declaration of Human Rights
20) Selected current Supreme Court cases (edited)
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Upcoming Regular Events
Online Seminar Series
Immanuel Kant: Perpetual Peace and Other Essays
Saturday, November 14, 2026
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The Agora Foundation invites participants to join a six-part seminar series centered on Immanuel Kant: Perpetual Peace and Other Essays, a landmark collection of writings by a philosopher of whom Karl Jaspers said: “Kant’s work is unique in the history of philosophy. Since Plato no one has created such a revolution in Western thought.”
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Through guided reading and thoughtful discussion, the series will explore Kant’s enduring reflections on peace, justice, human freedom, moral responsibility, and the possibilities of international cooperation in a divided world. Written in a time of political upheaval yet remarkably relevant today, Kant’s essays challenge readers to consider how reason, ethics, and civic institutions can shape a more just and peaceful society. Each seminar will provide an opportunity not only to engage deeply with the text itself, but also to examine its continuing significance for contemporary public life, global conflict, democratic governance, and human dignity.
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Beginning in September and taking place about one month apart, these seminars are designed for both newcomers and experienced readers of philosophy, and will foster open dialogue, critical inquiry, and shared reflection in the spirit of the Agora Foundation’s commitment to lifelong learning and civil conversation.
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Series Dates (all taking place 12:00-2:00PM Pacific):
Saturday, September 12, 2026 - What Is Enlightenment?
Saturday, October 10, 2026 - Idea for Universal History
Saturday, November 14, 2026 - On the Proverb: Theory and Practice
Saturday, December 12, 2026 - Perpetual Peace
Saturday, January 9, 2027 - Speculative Beginning of Human History
Saturday, February 13, 2027 - The End of All Things
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November 14 Reading:
On the Proverb: Theory and Practice (pages 65-99), from
Perpetual Peace and Other Essays - Revised Edition by Immanuel Kant
Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. - February 2026
ISBN 978-1647922474
(all readings in this series are included in this volume)
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Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
Karl Haigler
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Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Monday Night Poetry
Next Session - Monday, November 16, 2026
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Join us as we explore, through close reading, what makes a poem. Each online session will focus on a single poem or two shorter ones. We'll examine how language becomes art, taking note of everything from forms and sound patterns to imagery and word order, discovering how poets transform ordinary language into “machines made out of words” that resonate on emotional, sensory and imaginative levels.
No preparation is required— we’ll read aloud and discover the poems together. Each of the seminars is self-contained, so join for any or all that interest you. Whether you're new to poetry or a seasoned reader, these gatherings will deepen your ability to see how poems work their particular magic, revealing the craft behind moments of beauty, surprise and insight.
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Visit the Monday Night Poetry page for more information and to access upcoming poems.
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November 16 Reading:
Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning
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Schedule:
5:00-6:00PM PST
Tutor:
Carol Seferi
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Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
Saturday, November 21, 2026
First published in 1962, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions fundamentally reshaped the history and philosophy of science by challenging the long-held belief that scientific progress is a steady, cumulative accumulation of truth. He introduced the concept of a paradigm—a universally recognized framework of theories and methods that guides everyday "normal" science. When anomalies arise that cannot be explained within the current framework, a crisis ensues, eventually leading to a radical paradigm shift where the old system is replaced by a completely new one. This work profoundly impacted modern culture and as well as social sciences and humanities. By highlighting how emotional, psychological, and sociological factors influence scientific breakthroughs, the book revolutionized not just science, but how society as a whole understands human knowledge. We invite you to join us as we read this foundational text, portions at a time about one month apart, eventually reading the entire book over five online sessions.
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November 21 Reading:
Anomaly and the Emergence of Scientific Discoveries, Crisis and the Emergence of Scientific Theories, The Response to Crisis (pages 52-91
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
University of Chicago Press (April 2012)
ISBN 978-0226458120
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Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
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Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Wednesday, November 25, 2026
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Let us leave theories there and return to here's hear.
Having done the longest day in literature with Ulysses (1922), Joyce set himself an even greater challenge for his next book - the night. "A nocturnal state... That is what I want to convey: what goes on in a dream, during a dream." Published in 1939, the book would take Joyce two decades to complete.
A story with no real beginning or end, the work has come to assume a preeminent place in English literature. Anthony Burgess has lauded Finnegans Wake as "a great comic vision, one of the few books of the world that can make us laugh aloud on nearly every page". Harold Bloom has called it Joyce's masterpiece, and, in The Western Canon (1994), wrote that "if aesthetic merit were ever again to center the canon, Finnegans Wake would be as close as our chaos could come to the heights of Shakespeare and Dante".
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Join us as we read this text a few pages at a time, every other Wednesday afternoon. Click here to visit the Finnegans Wake Online Seminar page, with links to media and the Discussion Forum.
November 25 ​Reading:
Book Three - Chapter Three of Finnegans Wake by Joyce (page 542, Line 14), Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (December 1999). ISBN 9780141181264.
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Schedule:
12:30-2:00PM PST
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Tutor:
Barry Rabe
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Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer, continued
Thursday, December 3, 2026
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) in The World as Will and Representation argues that reality has two distinct sides. The "world as representation" is the phenomenal world of our experience, a mental construct shaped by space, time, and causality. Objects appear separate and distinct, but, according to the author, this multiplicity is ultimately an illusion. Beneath this illusion lies the "world as will," the true, unified essence of everything. Schopenhauer defines this Will as a blind, irrational, and ceaseless striving that drives all of nature. Because this fundamental drive can never be fully satisfied, he concludes that the universe is locked in perpetual suffering, which we can only temporarily escape through art or asceticism. His work paves the way for later existential and psychological philosophies.
Join us as we meet generally every other Thursday, 12:00-1:30PM Pacific time. This series continues a broader series on epistemology. All are welcome. Please join us even if this will be your first seminar in the series. Visit the Epistemology page for full information.
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Series Dates (all taking place 12:00-1:30PM Pacific):
The World as Will and Representation, Volume 1, Second Book
The World as Will. First Aspect
November 12 - Sections 17-22, pp. 95-112
November 26 (Thanksgiving, no meeting)
December 3 - Sections 23-25, pp. 112-130
December 17 - Sections 26-27, pp. 130-146 (through the carryover paragraph that ends near the bottom of p. 146)
December 31 - (New Year’s Eve, no meeting)
January 7 - remainder of Section 27 - Section 29, pp. 146-165
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December 3 Reading:
The World as Will and Representation, Volume 1, Second Book
Sections 23-25, pp. 112-130
Dover Edition - E.F.J. Payne translation
ISBN: 978-0486217611
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Schedule:
12:00-1:30PM PST
Tutor:
Carol Seferi
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Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Saturday, December 5, 2026
Braiding Sweetgrass is a profound exploration of human connection to the natural world. As a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Kimmerer blends Indigenous ecological philosophy with Western scientific knowledge, revealing how plants and animals are our oldest teachers, possessing their own gifts and languages. The book advocates for a shift away from a consumerist, commodity-based culture toward a "gift economy" rooted in gratitude and reciprocity. Through lyrical essays, the author outlines the "Honorable Harvest"—a set of ethical guidelines for taking from the earth responsibly, which requires asking permission, taking only what is needed, and giving back in return. We invite you to join us as we read this text, portions at a time about one month apart, eventually reading the entire book.
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December 5 Reading:
An Offering, Asters and Goldenrod, Learning the Grammar of Animacy - (pages 33 - 59)
Braiding Sweetgrass
Milkweed Editions (August 2015)
ISBN 978-1571313560
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Schedule:
12:00-1:30PM PST
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
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Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Shakespeare: How Many Plays are Left? Seven Comedies, One Tragedy
Saturday, December 19, 2026
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Since the end of 2020, Agora has held seminars on 31 of Shakespeare’s plays: all of the histories, all but one of the tragedies, just over half of the comedies. What remain are these eight: seven comedies and a tragedy, among them some of his greatest plays. Here are liberal learning put to the use of sonneteering for love (in Love’s Labor’s Lost), a play whose title asserts a proverbial truth (All’s Well that Ends Well), a profoundly disturbing comedy on lust, law, and justice (Measure for Measure), two resurrections by art (in The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest), in Twelfth Night the confusions of love and identity caused by disaster and change of place (and the intoxication of music and speech), and finally, perhaps (with profuse apology to Falstaff) his two greatest characters, Rosalind and Hamlet (in the final two of the series, As You Like It and Hamlet). Each play in the series will take place roughly once a month apart.
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December 19 Reading:​
All’s Well that Ends Well
Pelican, Arden – or any standard edition with line numbers
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Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
Eric Stull
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Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The Periodic Table: A Memoir by Primo Levi
Saturday, January 16, 2027
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Published in 1975, The Periodic Table by Primo Levi is a collection of 21 autobiographical stories, each named after and inspired by a chemical element. Levi recounts episodes from his life, including his experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust, to explore themes of identity, memory, and the human condition. The book interweaves his passion for science and his professional life with his personal history, showing how chemistry provided a lens through which to understand and survive experiences. In 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named it the best science book ever written. We invite you to join us as we read and discuss portions of the text in online seminars about one month apart, eventually completing the entire book.
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january 16 Reading:
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
Uranium, Silver, Vanadium, Carbon (pages 191-233)
Schocken - ISBN 978-0805210415
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Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
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Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday
Saturday, January 30, 2027
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"There is not a law under which any part of this universe is governed which does not come into play and is not touched upon during the time a candle burns." Michael Faraday’s The Chemical History of a Candle, written in 1861, is based on his famous six-lecture series, uses the simple, everyday burning of a candle to introduce fundamental scientific principles such as combustion, capillary action, and respiration. Faraday explains that a candle flame is a complex, oxygen-driven chemical reaction that produces water and carbon dioxide, while also demonstrating the role of carbon particles in producing light and the convective forces that shape the flame. We invite you to participate in discussing these six lectures, taking place about one month apart.
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January 30 Reading:
Lecture Four - Hydrogen in the Candle - Burns into Water - The Other Part of Water - Oxygen
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Schedule:
12:00-1:30PM PST
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
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Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Mahatma Gandhi - The Essential Writings
Saturday, February 6, 2027
Gandhi (1869–1948) was a profound and original thinker as well as one of most influential figures in the twentieth century. A religious and social reformer, he became a crucial leader in the Indian nationalist movement, made famous for his advocacy of non-violent civil resistance. His many writings describe challenges he faced, his religious views, his political will, and the evolution of his ideas. We invite you to join us as we read this text, portions at a time about one month apart, eventually reading the entire book over seven online sessions.
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February 6 Reading:
III. Transforming Societies - (pages 67-132)
The Essential Writings (Oxford World's Classics)
Oxford University Press (May 2008)
ISBN 978-0192807205​
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Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PST
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
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Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.