Philosophy: How to Live a Good Life

Start date: 18 September 2025
Day: Thursday
Course length: 6 Week Course
Time: 10:00 to 12:15

Course code: BM03

Full fee: £129.00 | Over 65s: £116.10 | Benefit: £103.20

Tutor: Jim Mepham


Courses description

How to live a Good Life

A Philosophy for life is a personal framework of beliefs, values, and principles that guide how you think, act, and make decisions. It is essentially your compass—shaped by your experiences, reflections, and worldview - that helps you navigate life's challenges, relationships, and goals. But, how do we know what constitutes a good life?

In this course we will delve into Six influential philosophies and explore this question by considering what they have to say about the issues of meaning, happiness, fulfilment, dealing with adversity, uncertainty and morality.

More detailed outline of sessions:

Week 1 Why does Aristotle think virtue and character are so important to living a good life? What does he mean by eudaemonia?

Week 2 Why, for Epicurus, is pleasure so essential to a good life and what does he mean by ataraxia?

Week 3 Stoicism and challenging adversity. Why do Stoics place some much importance on reason and judgement?

Week 4   Buddhism and ending suffering. What is the connection between desire and suffering?

Week 5 Existentialism and meaning. Why are freedom and authenticity so important for existentialists?

Week 6 Effective Altruism. What has this, more recent, philosophy got to say about our moral obligations towards others?

Material List
Fees & further information

Book Your Place:

For Terms and Conditions click here.