Philosophy for All is an association open to everyone interested in philosophy. We are an independent non-profit organisation active since 1998.

September 2026
Don't miss the following upcoming events, offline and online.

TUESDAY September 8, London
7:30 PM to 9:00 PM UK
offline + online, free

Location: Cafe, St. Hilda's East Community Centre, 18 Club Row, London E2 7EY. The nearest station (just a few minutes walk) is Shoreditch High Street (Overground).

We'll offer complimentary light refreshments during the event.

Online broadcast link here

Pre-explore via RationalGrid.ai here

Join Philosophy For All’s Alexandra Konoplyanik and Anja Steinbauer in conversation with Tom Berman, founder of RationalGrid, for a philosophical discussion about AI and its impact on how we think.

Much of the current anxiety around AI concerns cognitive dependency: if we increasingly turn to machines for answers, explanations and arguments, do we risk losing the ability - or even the inclination - to think things through for ourselves?

But is this an inevitable consequence of AI itself, or does it depend on how we use it, and how our AI tools are designed? Is AI a cognitive threat, or an opportunity?

We’ll explore questions including:

• Does outsourcing some cognitive work necessarily mean outsourcing our thinking?
• When does AI support thinking, and when does it replace it?
• Is the danger inherent in AI, or in the habits we develop when using it?
• Does the design of an AI tool shape the kind of thinking we do with it?
• Can AI help us notice assumptions, objections and possibilities that we might otherwise miss?
• What is the difference between receiving a good answer and actually understanding something?
• Could AI make us more intellectually passive, but also, if used differently, more questioning and reflective?
• What would an AI genuinely designed for better thinking look like?

Taking the risks of AI-assisted thinking seriously without assuming the verdict in advance, we’ll ask whether technologies such as general-purpose chatbots and tools specifically designed for exploration and critical thinking might affect our minds in importantly different ways.

And ultimately: does AI think for us, or can it help us think better for ourselves?

Kant's Cave's events have been very popular recently. Please, arrive early to ensure you have a seat, they are allocated on 'first come, first served' basis. Financial members can request to reserve a seat (please, e-mail us and arrive by 19:30 on the day). 

This event is supported by The Royal Institute of Philosophy's Local Partners Programme

Monday September 14
7:30 PM to 8:30 PM UK
online, free

Zoom link becomes available once you sign up.

Join Anja Steinbauer for a short presentation, followed by friendly but serious discussion.

Pre-explore via RationalGrid.ai here

Wednesday September 16, London
6:30 PM to 9:00 PM UK
offline, free

Location: Hall, St. Hilda's East Community Centre, 18 Club Row, London E2 7EY. The nearest station (just a few minutes walk) is Shoreditch High Street (Overground).

We'll offer complimentary light refreshments during the event.

This year’s films revolve around the theme of “choice”.

This month: Our next screening explores the theme of choice through Werner Herzog’s haunting 1979 adaptation of Woyzeck. At the centre of the film is a man whose life is shaped by poverty, military discipline, social hierarchy and the demands of those with more power than he has. But how much do circumstances limit responsibility? Can someone be said to choose freely when their options are radically constrained? And where should we draw the line between influence, coercion and genuine agency? Join us to watch this stark, unsettling classic and discuss freedom, responsibility, obedience and the limits of choice.

Pre-explore via RationalGrid.ai here

PFA Film Club hosts free screenings of thought-provoking films, followed by a discussion about the raised philosophical issues, for general public.

Film Club events are currently supported by The Royal Institute of Philosophy's Local Partners Programme and onRedchurch

Thursday Septermber 17
11:50 PM to 12:50 AM UK
online, free

Zoom link becomes available once you sign up.

Meet up fortnightly with Anja and other philosophers at midnight (UK time) for a candlelit hour of thinking about life, the universe and everything. Light a candle and join us on Zoom! Come in from 23:45, event starts at midnight.

Pre-explore via augmented Rational Grid board here

New PFA Video!

Missed August Kant's Cave with Sailee Khurjekar?
It is now available on PFA YouTube, and soon on other podcast platforms!

Book Clubs

As always, most of our events are free, but we invite you to consider supporting PFA (and getting some special perks) by becoming a financial member for a small annual fee of GBP 12 (standing order) or GBP 15 (one off payment). Details here. Thank you to all our existing financial members, some of you have been with us for decades! 

Also, if you know someone who may enjoy PFA membership as a Birthday or another occasional gift, we can arrange a one year membership to their name as a gift voucher! Reply to this e-mail to request this low cost, but high value meaningful gift! 

Our full 2026 programme is at pfalondon.org - check it out! 

Partner Events

Sat 19 September, 12:30pm
Venue: Children's Tent, Kenwood House, Hampstead Heath, London

If you are attending HTLGI London 2026 - the world's largest philosophy and music festival - with your child, don't miss this session!

What if you found a magic potion called "Liquid Luck" that guaranteed you would win every game, ace every test, and never stub your toe again? Would you drink it? And if you did, would your wins still feel like they were really yours? Join philosopher Alexandra Konoplyanik to explore what makes someone lucky, whether you can create your own luck, and if it's ever possible to have too much good luck.

If you are still considering attending, you can use discount code PHILNOW20 for 20% off festival tickets!

Renaissances: The Italian Renaissance
TUE 11am-1pm: 10 weeks starting 29th September
Cost: £135 (10 weeks)
Email to enroll: anja@philosophynow.org

Periods of profound cultural change have sometimes been followed by remarkable outpourings of ideas and art. What makes such intellectual renaissances possible? This course uses the Italian Renaissance as a philosophical case study, exploring neglected thinkers alongside contemporary historians to investigate how new ways of reading, learning and thinking emerge. Through thorough readings of Petrarch, Lorenzo Valla, Marsilio Ficino, Nicholas of Cusa, Pico della Mirandola, Machiavelli and others, together with modern interpreters including Jacob Burckhardt, Eugenio Garin, Stephen Greenblatt and Ada Palmer, we will explore how the Italian Renaissance transformed European thought. Along the way, we will ask what it can teach us about crisis, creativity and the possibility of intellectual renewal in our own time.

Close Readings in Philosophy: Plato’s ‘Republic’
THURS: 11am-1pm: 10 weeks starting 1st October
Cost: £135 (10 weeks)
Email: anja@philosophynow.org

This term we read Plato’s Republic from beginning to end. Alongside its exciting discussions of justice, education and political life, we will examine the dialogue’s dramatic structure, its use of myth, image and irony, and its continuing challenge to our assumptions about knowledge, philosophy and the “examined life”.
These seminars are devoted to the slow reading of major philosophical works. Rather than surveying a thinker’s ideas or offering an historical overview, we work carefully through the text itself, examining its arguments, literary form, conceptual vocabulary and philosophical assumptions. Participants are encouraged to grapple with the work in all its difficulty, allowing ideas to emerge through sustained engagement with the original text.

20thC Political and Social Philosophy Reading Group
TUE 1.30pm-3pm: 10 weeks starting 29th September
Cost: Free (10 weeks)
Email: anja@philosophynow.org

Kant Reading Group
THURS 1.30pm-3pm: 10 weeks starting 1st October
Cost: Free (10 weeks)
Email: anja@philosophynow.org

15–26 September, 7.30pm (Tue–Sat)
Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, SE4 2DH
£17 / £15 concessions

Crime and Punishment is the debut production of Off By Heart, a new London theatre company committed to telling great stories. Adapted and directed by Jack Jacobs — actor, theatre maker and voice artist — the production brings Dostoevsky’s feverish interior world into the intimacy of the Jack Studio.

Raskolnikov is a student living on nothing, in a room barely wider than his arms, in a city that never goes quiet. He has a theory. He believes some people are extraordinary, and the rules do not apply to them. To test his belief, he picks up an axe.

Sonya, a girl with her own reasons for shame, refuses to look away from him. Porfiry, an investigator who never raises his voice, begins to circle. The city presses in. The theory begins to crack. What follows is not just a manhunt but a reckoning.

Dostoevsky’s restless novel is reimagined as a thrilling chamber piece in an intimate study of the theories we use to excuse cruelty, and the quiet work of being found out.

PFA members have been invited to view this production by Jack Jacobs. We are considering a group outing, get in touch if you'd like to join.

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