Early Greek Thinkers
Anaximander,  Empedocles, Heraclitus, and Parmenides

In this seminar course we will consider the most important passages from the so-called “Pre-Socratics”.

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To escape the label, we will here refer to this period as Early Greek Thinking.
It is here that the origin of thinking still awaits us. 

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We do not read these texts as documents of the past, but as witnesses to what is, has been, and can be. 

Harkening back to the origin may well allow us to open a pathway, humbly, into this our time and beyond its fictional restrictions. The way home is long and it can only begin at the beginning.
For Master Eckhart’s guiding word still holds true for European man and the One True Philosophy:
“Why do you go out? To return home.”

 

 

The seminar focuses on four of the most pivotal thinkers of the time:

Anaximander, the oldest fragment of thought
Empedocles, on love and strife
Heraclitus, The Dark Thinker
Parmenides, the original response to being

The seminar is focused on the primary sources. We read closely some of the most important fragments and/or text passages of these thinkers. We also consider the original Greek texts. 

Recommended reading:
Aristotle, “Metapyhsics Book 1”
John Burnet, “Early Greek Philosophy”

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Seminar dates 2021: 

Saturdays, 6th February, 13th February, 20th February, 27th February.

6 - 8pm GMT 

We meet over Zoom. All seminars are recorded and uploaded to a private group on the Halkyon Academy Forum accessible only to course participants. 

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The course will be open for enrolment again in 2022.