Asclepius Courses in Philosophy and Culture starting Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 10 am

Introduction to Critical Theory Tuesday January 10 2017 10 am

Critical theory stresses the reflective assessments and critique of society and culture by applying knowledge from the social sciences and thehumanities.
As a term, critical theory has two meanings with different origins and histories: the first originated in sociology and political philosophy, while the second originated in literary studies and literary theory.
In sociology and political philosophy, the term "critical theory" (or "social critical theory")describes the neo-Marxist philosophy of theFrankfurt School, which was developed in Germany in the 1930s. The Frankfurt theorist Max Horkheimer described a theory as critical insofar as it seeks "to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them.Frankfurt theorists drew on the critical methods of Karl Marx andSigmund Freud. Critical theory maintains that ideology is the principal obstacle to human liberation.Critical theory was established as a school of thought primarily by five Frankfurt School theoreticians: Herbert Marcuse, and Theodor Adorn


This is a ten week course that lasts for two hours per session. It costs £50 . For more information please ring 07592330467 or 01792 480245 or e mail sqiabs@hotmail.co.

Philosophy of Symbolism and Meaning Wednesday January 11 2017 10 am

This course will examoine the philosophy , meaning and creation of symbolism. Ir is a ten week course that is spread out in 2 hour sessions. The cost will be £50. For more information please ring 07592330467 or 01792 480245. you can also e mail at squabs@hotmail.co.uk

Symbolism
ˈ
1. the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.
"he has always believed in the importance of symbolism in garden art"
2. an artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. It originated in late 19th-century France and Belgium, with important figures including Mallarmé, Maeterlinck, Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Redon.

This is a ten week course that lasts for two hours per session. It costs £50 . For more information please ring 07592330467 or 01792 480245 or e mail sqiabs@hotmail.co.

The Philosophy of Leonard Cohen; there is a crack in everything.........

Thursday January 11 2017 10 am

This is a ten week course exploring the philosophy, spirituality, sexuality and politics in the songs of Leonard Cohen. . The course consists of ten two hour sessions. The cost is 355. For e more details ring 07592330467 or 01792 480245. You can also e mail on squabs@hotmail.co.uk

Those great lines from the song “Anthem”. Ring the bells etc. Forget your perfect offering. There’s a crack – a crack in everything.

It’s like a reprimand to people of my temperament – life’s complainants, eroticists of disappointment, lovers only of what’s flawless and overwrought. Could he be singing this to me? You expect too much, mister. You are too unforgiving. Not everything works out, not everything is great, and not everyone must like what you like. I’ve been taught this lesson before. I remember reading an essay by the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa in which he argues for the necessity of vulgarity in serious literature. Thomas Hardy said a writer needed to be imperfectly grammatical some of the time. Mailer told an audience that not everybody wanted to ride in a Lamborghini. And now here’s Leonard Cohen saying the same thing. Forget your perfect offering. There’s a crack…

And then comes another, still more wonderful, clinching line – “That’s how the light gets in.” Savour that! At a stroke, weakness becomes strength and fault becomes virtue. I feel as though original sin has just been re-explained to me. There was no fall. We were born flawed. Flawed is how we were designed to be. Which means we don’t need redeeming after all. Light? Why go searching for light? The light already shines from us. It got in through our failings.
Leonard Cohen

The lyrics:

The birds they sang at the break of day
Start again I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what has passed away
or what is yet to be.

Ah the wars they will be fought again
The holy dove she will be caught again
bought and sold and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

We asked for signs the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood of every government –
signs for all to see.

I can’t run no more with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud.
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up a thundercloud
and they’re going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring …

You can add up the parts but you won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march, there is no drum
Every heart, every heart to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

This is a ten week course that lasts for two hours per session. It costs £50 . For more information please ring 07592330467 or 01792 480245 or e mail sqiabs@hotmail.co.