PREVIOUS – THE ART OF THINKING COURSE – ATTENBOROUGH ARTS CENTRE, LEICESTER

Dr Greg Scorzo –

‘THE ART OF THINKING’ 10 week course

ATTENBOROUGH ARTS CENTRE LEICESTER

35 Lancaster Rd, Leicester LE1 7HA

 Ran October 10th – Dec 18th 2016

£67/ £37 for 10 sessions

to book : ART OF THINKING COURSES

Thought provoking course exploring “The Art of Thinking.”

Develop a new kind of philosophical writing.”

Enjoy bouncing ideas off other people.”

Learn to write a new kind of contemporary philosophy combining autobiography, humour and lucid thinking around any subject.”

Explore how complex and philosophically perplexing life can be.”

Get a more in-depth understanding of the way you can continually develop your own world-views and keep an open-mind.”

No previous experience of philosophy needed; just a love of creative, critical and free- thinking.

Run by philosopher Dr Greg Scorzo, the course will be challenging, thought provoking, potentially quite shocking but enjoyable. Classes will include techniques designed to teach you how to both understand and grapple with philosophical issues in your writing and thinking. You will be exposed to texts, recordings, Vlogs, Socratic, and post-Socratic dialogues dealing with controversy, contemporary cultural issues, and the complexity of human beings. You will talk, write, react, and participate in thought experiments that help you to re-evaluate your intuitions and beliefs.The course will explore ways of updating the philosophical tradition, as well as looking at the 21st century equivalents of Socratic Dialogues. It will help you to develop your thinking, without embedding your writing in any pre-existing theories or political etiquette.

Every week, you will do a writing exercise, where you practice putting together arguments that express your views on particular topics. You will be taught how to write eloquently, not commit basic reasoning mistakes, and make your claims persuasive, compelling, and non-dogmatic. You will also practice rhetorical techniques, which enable your arguments to become captivating, and inspirational.

Between Week 1 and Week 10, your writing assignments will vastly improve your writing.

There are two basic themes that will be recurring throughout this course. Firstly you will learn critical thinking techniques for practical philosophical thinking. These will include being able to identify double standards and hypocrisy, as well as becoming more aware of the lenses through which you view the world. You will also learn techniques for learning how to grapple with issues slowly, carefully, and with a consistently open mind.

The second theme of this course is the nature of free and creative thinking, and the role that allowing free speech plays in such thinking. We will discuss issues like marginalisation, public knowledge, and how advocating free speech is much more than merely opposing state prohibitions of speech acts or works of art.

By week 10 Greg will have individually workshopped your writing on a contemporary cultural issue of your choosing, and  you will be ready to write a final draft for a piece of new philosophy for CULTURE ON THE OFFENSIVE, our Leicester based online magazine.

About Dr Greg Scorzo

Dr Greg Scorzo is Editor of CULTURE ON THE OFFENSIVE. He was a writer for One+One Filmmakers Journal from 2010-14. Originally from California, he obtained a PhD in meta-Ethics, (2011) following an MA in Ethics and Political Philosophy from the University of Nottingham. He taught a wide range of philosophy seminars between 2008-13, including Plato, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, and Philosophy of Mind.

He left Academia in 2013 to pursue his practice outside of academic constraints. As an original and creative thinker, his aim is to take philosophical thinking outside the conventions of academic philosophy. He writes post-Socratic Dialogues around universal themes, filtered through a contemporary sensibility. He is currently working on two books, one on Love and Procreation, and the other on political and philosophical interpretations of controversial films.

He has also developed an innovative new format for internet based multi-media essays, not tied to either the constraints of academia or online polemical styles. He has extensive knowledge of contemporary music and films. His work focuses on interrogating the impact today’s culture has on one’s thinking and world-views. See www.gregscorzo.com

Any queries contact admin@gregscorzo.com

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