10 week foundation courses in Cambridge & Peterborough

Practical Philosophy

Wisdom, Happiness and Love. Practical life skills with enough toughness to last a lifetime.

Discover the Wisdom Within

Free to be Yourself

Philosophy aims to set you free. Free from pressures and worries, free from limiting ways of thinking, free to grow and be yourself.
Take your first steps to freedom with our 10 week course.

Course details
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Local Course

Local face-to-face course available in Cambridge & Peterborough

Peace of Mind

A safe space with experienced & supportive tutors & others looking to philosophy to set them free.

Practical Wisdom

Courses in practical wisdom for everyday living. Meet with like minded individuals.

This popular course is practical rather than academic and draws on sources of wisdom from East and West, past and present.

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What's Covered in the 10-weeks

Explore Life To The Full… through 10 weekly sessions

How the Foundation Practical Philosophy courses work

This course, available in both Cambridge & Peterborough, offers a practical means to discover fully who we are, understand how to relate to the world we live in and see what gets in the way of being happy, peaceful and free.

  • Students are encouraged to test the ideas put forward in practice for themselves, in the light of their own experience.
  • A tutor presents philosophical ideas, and leads a discussion based on what arises in the group.
  • Practical rather than academic with  the emphasis on personal knowledge and experience.
  • A Tool kit is provided of practical and mindful exercises.
  • Fresh thinking you can put into practice today
  • New insights, Fresh Perspectives, Expertise in good company
Philosophy course peterborough and cambridge

By attending this 10 week course you will learn practical exercises that will help you

  • Reduce stress
  • Understand yourself and others
  • Make better decisions
  • Find contentment and simple happiness
  • Discover the joy of living in the present moment
  • Learn how to harness the transformative power of attention
  • Uncover inner wisdom, potential and purpose

Self-enquiry through practical philosophy

What's Covered in the 10-weeks
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Next Foundation courses

Practical Philosophy Enrolment

The Peterborough Foundation Course: ‘Philosophy of Wisdom, Happiness, Love & Unity‘ starting Tue 1st October 2024. 7:00pm-9:15pm.

PETERBOROUGH LOCATION MAP

The Cambridge Foundation Course: ‘Philosophy of Wisdom, Happiness, Love & Unity‘ starting Thurs 3rd October 2024. 7:00pm-9:15pm.

CAMBRIDGE LOCATION MAP

How to Enrol

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Introductory Offer £60.

Limited places

Frequently asked questions

The course is practical in the sense that it takes philosophical ideas and shows how they can be of direct use in our everyday lives. The intention is to stimulate enquiry and through this expand the way we look at the world and ourselves.

Online by clicking the Enrol Today button on this page. You can also email us at: [email protected]

If you register online, you will receive a confirmation email with your day of attendance. If you register by any means other than online, you will receive a receipt confirming your registration.

No, all you need is an open and enquiring mind. The course is intended for everyone, regardless of education, occupation, race, political or religious belief.

First you need to enrol on a course. The in-person courses are available in Arbury and Peterborough, and also at many other local venues up and down the UK. A local Arbury and Peterborough map can be found on this page.

If you have any questions simply email us at [email protected]

What some of our students say...

“Absolutely loving the course!!"

“Absolutely loving the course!! …Really changing how I think about things and life in general.”

“...I am benefiting greatly ..."

“...I am benefiting greatly from the content and the practical nature of it. Thank you, it is enriching my life.”

"Lovely people with a strong sense of why learning is valuable at any stage in life."
"I started off with the Introduction to Practical Philosophy during the first lockdown and can honestly say it was a lifesaver."
"Have thoroughly enjoyed the introductory course and the daily awareness exercise practice. "
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“I feel more relaxed...”

“The daily awareness exercises … have changed my thinking and I feel more relaxed about situations in the media and other aspects of my daily life.”

"...helped me..."

"The knowledge and experience that I have gained from the philosophy classes has helped me to discover more about myself and better prepare for dealing with life's daily surprises and challenges."

UK LOCATIONS

We have local face-to-face courses available across the UK. Our introductory courses can be attended online or at the following locations: London, Guildford, Midlands (Birmingham), SE London (Croydon), North East (Brighouse, Doncaster, Huddersfield, Leeds, Loughborough, Nottingham, Saltaire, Sheffield, York), North West (Stockport, Chorley, Wirral), St Albans, Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh), Peterborough, Cambridge, Oxford, Sussex, Wessex, Berkshire, East Anglia, Kingston, Kent
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Themes included in the course…

These opening sessions consider how philosophy can help us enjoy richer, less stressful lives.  What is practical philosophy? ‘What would a wise person do here?’ Philosophy means the love of wisdom. Our course is intended to show how philosophy can help us enjoy richer, less stressful and more useful lives. This opening two sessions consider these aims, and introduces simple exercises in mindfulness and the application of wisdom you can practise in daily life. You can download or listen to the Awareness Exercise, introduced in week one here. To download, right-click, choose ‘Save link as…’ and save the MP3 wherever you want. 

Who or what am I?

What is my potential?

Who am I, really? My body? My emotions? My strongly held beliefs? My soul? Possibly all of these? Possibly none?

Such questions have preoccupied philosophers down the ages. We look at practical ways to explore who we really are and how to tap our true potential.

What is our state of awareness?

Why does it fluctuate during the day?

Often the most notable quality of wise people is their alertness to the subtleties of a situation. They are awake, perceptive and curious.

We look at deeper levels of awareness, and consider how we may become more awake to ourselves, our surroundings, and the events we meet.

Living in the now, mindfulness.

What is the potential of the present moment?

We review our own experience of attention through a model featuring attention centred, captured, open and scattered, and how these each relate to the past, present and future.

We examine the extraordinary brightness and freedom naturally available in the present moment. A straightforward practice is introduced. 

Plato’s views on justice.

What does it mean to live justly?

According to Plato, justice and injustice do not start ‘out there’. They begin within us. For justice to prevail, Plato suggests that we must learn to avoid being ‘tyrannised’ by our passions and fears to the extent they overrule our reason.

We discuss the practicality of Plato’s ideas on justice in our daily lives.

The Vedic model of three fundamental energies.

Sometimes we seem not to have enough energy, or the wrong kind. A wise person can act consistently despite these varying conditions.

We consider how to recognise differing energies, how to gain and conserve them and how to use them wisely.

What is reason? How can it enrich our lives? We look at guidelines for Socratic dialogue and how to use them. Developing reason in decision-making and action are also discussed, with practical applications. Obstacles to reason are considered. Everyone has the faculty of reason and we can all use it and develop it. 

What is beauty?

Is there such a thing as absolute beauty?

Beauty has the capacity to open the heart and bring delight. In this session we discuss our direct experience of beauty in its different form: of the sensory world, of thought, of feelings, of the inner nature, and of conduct.

We consider Plato’s idea of there being ultimately one beauty – beauty absolute – ‘not knowing birth or death, growth or decay’. 

Looking for the common thread in life. What is the effect of finding unity? When we look around, we see enormous diversity in nature. The wise person looks for the unifying factor: that which allows all this apparent diversity to be seen as part of a single whole. Seen in this way, life then has the best chance of being led freshly and openly. 

What is truth? How does the desire for truth show itself? Practical philosophy is about discovering the truth of things – not theoretically, but in our own experience. In this final session we look back and ask ourselves how our search for truth has fared as the term has progressed. We discuss what has been discovered and how, in our own way, we may continue to develop it in our daily lives. 

Peterborough course location

St Luke's, Mayor's Walk Peterborough PE3 6EZ

Cambridge course location

Friends Meeting House, 91-93 Hartington Grove Cambridge CB1 7UB