Welcome to Beyond The Agora – a place in which we can explore philosophical and political concepts that have produced the world in which we live, together. The ancient agora was a gathering place – where philosophers, poets and citizens all gathered to question and debate the fundamental questions of humanity. I hope this website serves the same purpose in the modern day – a place for us to understand and foster discussions surrounding crucial philosophical and political questions.
Philosophy, politics and all fundamental discussions that shaped the states in which we live are not just for academic pursuit. We cannot reserve knowledge for only the academics, or those who can understand the most complicated words – it is for everyone. Plato’s questioning on justice and the soul was not intended for only those with a Master’s Degree to understand. My true intention in Beyond The Agora is to instil the questioning in you, too.
I want the realms of philosophical and political theory to be accessible to anyone, as, especially in trying times such as the post-COVID world we live in, it is imperative that we can question governance, ideology and think critically for ourselves. In a world of social-media misinformation, political corruption, and ideological warfare we must avoid the path of hate, anger and hostility – and instead think deeper, to understand why structures are how they are, and how we can change them.
Rather than ignore the past, reserving philosophers as victims of their times, I think it is important we try to understand them. I think you will find, like I did when I first discovered thinkers like Marcus Aurelius, Plato and Nietzsche, that although they lived in wildly different times, the human experience is truly the same.
Join me in exploring the world of theory and allow us to learn together. We all need to think deeper to critically evaluate how the modern world functions, and question it – you will find that the thinkers of the past go far to explain why states are failing their people, why economic inequality is at the worst in hundreds of years, and why hate and noise plagues our politics.
This is not an academic journal, or over-complicated, impossible to understand blog – instead, it is for all of us. I hope you discover something new, a passion just the way I have in exploring why things are how they are (and more importantly, what they could of been if we had just listened to what those thinkers had to say). Beyond The Agora is our project, and we can learn to question together.
Take a look at my suggested books in philosophy and politics here.
Thankyou for taking the time to explore this with me,
Tom
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