| Philosophy for All is an association open to everyone interested in philosophy. We are an independent non-profit organisation active since 1998. | |
| | October 2026
Don't miss the following upcoming events, offline and online. | |
|  | | Midnight Philosophy by Candlelight:
Creativity | Thursday October 1 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 | | | | | |
|  | | Kant's Cave:
Ethics Starts With You
by Dr Jim Walsh | Monday October 5, 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 hereIn a time of fear, hatred and suspicion does art really have anything to offer us? With a human centered approach to ethics and the philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Walsh looks at art and how the critical engagement we apply to aesthetics can be used as a model for how we engage with one another. Works by Francis Bacon, René Magritte, Édouard Manet, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Diego Velázquez, among others will be explored. Jim Walsh has a BA in Philosophy, MA in Continental Philosophy and PhD in Art History and Theory, and is the author of Ethics Starts With You. Since 2011, Jim has been the CEO of Conway Hall Ethical Society. 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 and onRedchurchArt: fragment of The Connoisseur (1962) by Norman Rockwell | | | | | |
|  | | Political Animals: Equality | Monday October 127:30 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 | | | | | |
| | | | Midnight Philosophy by Candlelight:
Boundaries | Thursday October 15 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 | | | | | |
|  | | Film Club:
The Last King of Scotland
(Kevin Macdonald 2006) | Wednesday October 21, London 6:00 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: A young man leaves the safety of home in search of adventure, freedom and a life less ordinary. What follows is a series of choices: some impulsive, some self-serving, some made under pressure, and some whose consequences become clear only when it is too late. But when does a choice really count as free? How much responsibility do we bear for decisions made in ignorance, fear, excitement or dependence on someone more powerful? Can we excuse ourselves by saying that we did not know what we were getting into? And once our choices have entangled us in a situation we no longer control, what choices remain? Pre-explore via RationalGrid.ai here (spoilers alert) 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 | | | | | |
| | | | Midnight Philosophy by Candlelight:
Mind | Thursday October 29 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 | | | | | |
|  | | 3-A-Day Book Club | | The current 3-A-Day Book Club is The Waves by Virginia Woolf, which started on August 29. Drop us a line on secretary@pfalondon.org to enrol, you can still join us! This book club is free. | |  | | PFA Junior Book Club | Also, don't forget that PFA Junior Book Club (Philosophy through "The Little Prince" for 8-12yo, online) is still open for enrollment, details here | | |
| 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! | |
|  | | Philosophy Now discount for PFA financial members | One of the perks of being a PFA financial member is a 10% discount on Philosophy Now magazine subscription (for technical reasons, PN can offer this discount for fixed term (1 or 2 years) print subscriptions delivered to the UK addresses only). If you are a UK-based financial member and would like to benefit from this discount, please, respond to this email and we'll let you know the discount code. If you'd like to become a financial member, please, follow the instructions here. Philosophy Now is the most widely-read philosophy periodical in the English language. If you'd like a taster, four digital articles (from the current issue or archives) per reader per month are available for free, browse here | |  | |  | | PFA & Rational Grid AI collab | PFA is collaborating with Rational Grid AI to explore using this tool for augmented structured thinking in public debates and philosophy discussions. PFA now has its own page on the platform hereCheck it out and participate in co-exploring and expanding thematic grids before or after matching PFA events - or start your own grid on any topic of interest, it's free! | | | PFB (Philosophy For Business) and PFC (Philosophy for Counselling / Individual Clients) | As a philanthropic association, we offer most of our events to the general public for free. However, if you are an organisation or a private individual looking for personalised philosophical services, we are now offering these too. Check out the relevant section of our website for details here | | |
|  | - Renaissances: The Italian Renaissance
- Close Readings in Philosophy: Plato’s ‘Republic’
- 20thC Political and Social Philosophy Reading Group
- Kant Reading Group
with PFA's Anja Steinbauer | | 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
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|  | | Philosophy with children (online)
with PFA's Alexandra Konoplyanik | Open enrollment, mixed age group Saturdays, 10am UK (one hour), in English, online - bi-weekly Free taster session, then £10/ session If this time does not suit you, Alexandra can refer you to other online groups of appropriate age range - respond to this email for details What’s the point?Children learn to think independently about complex and important questions, consider different perspectives, build arguments, analyse concepts, communicate clearly, and better understand their own ideas and values. What do we discuss?Big themes such as good and evil, responsibility, choice, happiness, freedom, justice, truth, knowledge and identity. For example: - Is the hole part of the donut?
- Should the ant help the grasshopper?
- Is it better to be an unhappy prince or a happy pig?
- Who is smarter: me or my smartphone?
- If two people disagree, can both be right?
- Am I the same person I was five years ago?
- What is real in virtual reality?
Questions and materials — stories, pictures, thought experiments and situations — are adapted to the children’s age and interests. | | | | | |
|  | | Who can do Philosophy for Children?
Peter Worley | By The Royal Institute of PhilosophyLondon lecture series 2026-7: Children in Philosophy November 19, 2026, 18:15 Room 349, Senate House, Malet St, London WC1E 7HU Can children do philosophy? Can teachers and philosophers do philosophy for children?In this talk, Peter Worley will revisit his first published paper, published in Think in 2008, and consider how his views about the extent to which children can do philosophy have developed and changed. He will draw on what is now 23 years of experience, teaching, writing and thinking about the topic of children doing philosophy, to say something about where it is now and where it can go, what the challenges are doing philosophy with children, and what it still has to offer, if anything. Speaker Peter Worley is a philosopher, educator, and author specialising in questioning, dialogue, and inquiry. He is the creator of PhiE pedagogy and the Open Question Mindset, frameworks designed to cultivate deeper thinking through better questions. Peter is Founder and former CEO of The Philosophy Foundation and author or editor of eleven books, including The If Machine and Corrupting Youth. His work has informed educational initiatives worldwide and featured in productions including the BAFTA-nominated BBC animation What Makes Me, Me?, documentary Young Plato, and the BBC drama Waiting for the Out. Other upcoming events by Peter Worley can be found here | | | | | |
|  | | Philosophical Enquiry for Teachers and Facilitators (online) | October 17-18 weekend course, online, £200pp Course schedule (London time): Day 1&2: 10am - 1pm, 2pm - 5pm Certificates of completion will be awarded after the end of the course Maximum number of participants: 15 Join philosopher, educator and PhiE creator Peter Worley for an intensive weekend exploring the theory and practice of philosophical enquiry. Drawing directly on more than twenty years of practice and the evolving body of work developed across his books – from the bestselling The If Machine to his comprehensive two-volume Corrupting Youth – Peter will introduce participants to the core principles, practical tools and most recent developments in his PhiE methodology. Through a lively combination of theory, demonstration and hands-on enquiry, participants will explore how carefully structured questioning, listening and facilitation can create the conditions for genuinely philosophical thinking and dialogue with children, young people and adults. You will learn: 1) The Socrates-inspired principles of PhiE philosophical enquiry 2) The practical nuts-and-bolts of PhiE facilitation (basic and expert levels) 3) A chance to observe these aspects in practice so that you are ready for classroom application Other events and courses by Peter Worley can be found here | | | | | |
| | | | We organise philosophy events for the general public, in London and online. Subscribe and follow us on social media! | | |  | | secretary@pfalondon.org | |
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