Start Date
30 September, 2025
There will be 10 weekly meetings on Tuesday, 6 - 7.30pm, starting from 30 September.
Overview
This course comprises a weekly 1.5 hour live online meeting (via Zoom) and online learning materials for you to engage with before and after each live session.
Humans like to ask questions, something evidenced by the persistence of Philosophy throughout time and cultures. From the Pre-Socratics to the present day, philosophers have asked whether there are divine beings, whether morality exists, whether we really can know anything, and whether life does have meaning (whatever meaning means). In this course, we will explore how both the questions asked and answers given have persisted or changed through time. We will engage with the titans of the Ancient Greek era, to Immanuel Kant’s self-professed ‘revolutions’ in thought, all the way through to the future of Philosophy. Presupposing no prior knowledge of philosophy and instead only requiring an inquisitive mind, let’s examine together whether Philosophers really do make progress, and what that progress might look like.
Syllabus
1. the Presocratics
2. Socrates
3. Plato
4. Aristotle
5. Religion and Morality in the Middle Ages
6. Politics and Knowledge in (Early) Modern Philosophy
7. Kant: Revolution(s) in Thought
8. Experience, Existentialism and the Quest for Meaning
9. Logic, Analysis, and Argument
10. Philosophy Now, Philosophy Next
Please note that the ‘last date available to book’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier.
In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure enrol as soon as possible. Registrations will not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm.
Course Lecturer: Dr Guen Taietti & Dr Harry Drummond
Guendalina D.M. Taietti is an Italian Classicist based in Greece. Her research focusses on the Greek Reception of Alexander the Great from antiquity to the present day, Macedonian History, and the study of Human-Animal relationships in Antiquity. Guen completed her PhD in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Liverpool in 2017 and taught Classics both at school and University level in Italy, Greece, the UK, and China. In 2021 she joined the Continuing Education Department of the University of Liverpool as a Classics Tutor, and since April 2025 she is the Beatriu de Pinós Postdoctoral Researcher in Ancient History at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Alongside her research, Guen is extremely enthusiastic about making Classics accessible to the wider public, travelling, and learning new languages and cultures. In her free time, she is an amateur long-distance runner and an advocate for animal rights and the environment.
Harry completed his PhD in Philosophy at Liverpool in 2024. His research aims to address questions about art and morality using the tools of contemporary philosophy of mind, psychology, and neuroscience. His published work includes work at these intersections, including on political art, the aesthetics of food, dancing and watching films together, the value of art, and AI aesthetic experiences. For Continuing Education, Harry has delivered a variety of courses in Philosophy, from introductions looking at key questions, concepts, and debates, all the way to how it can help us address social, environmental, technological, and medical crises.
Courses fees: Full fee £155/Concession £80
Back to: Continuing Education