May 6 – May 27, 2026, Wednesdays, 6:30–9:30 PM EST Cambridge Community Center, 5 Callender St, Cambridge, MA $302
The Brook Farm Institute for Critical Studies (BFI) offers graduate style seminars both online and in-person for curious adults of all ages and backgrounds across a wide range of subjects. What does it mean to live justly? In this four-week intensive seminar, we read Plato's Republic slowly and carefully — as both a work of political philosophy and a literary construction. Topics include the theory of forms, the allegory of the cave, the noble lie, the critique of democracy, and the tension between philosophical truth and political life. Drawing on responses from Aristotle to Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch, we also situate the text in the political context of fifth-century Athens.
Instructor: Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton