#2000 Readings in Philosophy: The Last Days of Socrates

Tuesday, April 30 (In Person), May 7 (Zoom), 14 (Zoom), 21 (Zoom), 10:00am - 12:00pm

#2000 Readings in Philosophy: The Last Days of Socrates

Have you ever wanted to read some serious philosophy?  Dr. Martin L. Cook, PhD in philosophy and religion from the University of Chicago, is offering an experimental short course in reading philosophical literature.  He proposes reading together some of the early works of Plato, collected in the small paperback volume The Last Days of Socrates.  Each week, each participant will read a short Platonic dialogue from this volume, and Dr. Cook will facilitate a discussion of that dialogue.  These are all “easy Plato” and a great introduction to reading philosophy.  Indeed, the 20th Century philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once remarked that all Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato.  So please note, this will be a departure from the more typical Pillar class which involves an instructor lecturing over the material.  This will offer each participant an opportunity to interact directly with the text, with Dr. Cook serving only as a guide and facilitator.  This may sound familiar as the so-called “Great Books” method of education in which Dr. Cook himself was educated at the University of Chicago.

Purchase the book off of Amazon https://a.co/d/71dxV8i  and read before class:  The Last Days of Socrates ($8.73 for a new paperback, less for a used book, or $0.99 Kindle)  

Martin Cook: PhD and MA in Philosophy and Religion from the University of Chicago.  Dr. Cook has been teaching philosophy and religion for more than fifty years to undergraduates, graduate students, and senior military officers, and government civilians at both the Army and Naval War College. So many of these audiences are not strong in humanities background and, for many, this is their first opportunity to read such material.  Dr. Cook has proven quite successful at drawing such students into unfamiliar material.

His work experience includes Admiral Stockdale Professor of Military Ethics at the US Naval War College and Professor and Deputy Department Head of Department of Philosophy at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Dr. Cook has taught comparative religion at the U.S. Air Force Academy and at Ashesi University in Ghana.  

1st class will be in person, the subsequent classes will be on Zoom.

In Person and Zoom:  All four sessions:  $40 PILLAR Members and Nonmembers