Looking for Wisdom

In our final class, we're looking back at the last six weeks, and looking forward to ask about the future of work.

We spend a lot of our life not just working, but also playing. But what is play? In this class, we'll look at the serious business of play, and why it matters.

Is idleness a bad thing? Or does taking idleness more seriously offer us new possibilities for human liberation?

In the last class, we explored the idea that work might just be the thing that saves us. But what if the reverse is true?

Work, according to Thomas Carlyle, is a purifying fire that saves us from all vices. But is Carlyle right? And is work really a path to virtue?

The philosopher Hannah Arendt provides an incisive account of work, labour and action. This week, we see how Arendt can help us think better about work.

Season three of our Looking for Wisdom course, where we're looking at the philosophy of work. This week: hunters and gatherers, Mencius, Aristotle and slavery.

Is philosophy the love of wisdom? Or is it, as some philosophers have suggested, the wisdom of love? And what do love and wisdom have to do with each other anyway?

What does it mean to say "I love you"? And how do these three little words change our sense of ourselves, our commitments, and our future?

Does love lift us up where we belong? Or is it a kind of madness? In this week's class, we plunge into Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus to find out.

In this week's class, we are getting philosophical about desire, and asking questions about the philosophy of sex. Happy reading!

What are the limits of human love? Can we love everyone? Or should we only focus on those closest to us? And what happens when our personal loves and commitments come into contact with impersonal questions of justice?