Programme in detail

Eudaemonia is designed to serve as a comprehensive Sixth-Form core course, comprising one 50-60 minute seminar a week for 32 weeks. It is advised that reading is done together in class rather than depending on students to read material in advance, though you may advise them to do so. 

The seminars reference works from a variety of writers, artists, and persons of historical interest throughout time, though who tend not to occupy a prominent position in school and Sixth-Form curriculums, if they feature at all. The current iteration includes, and this is not an exhaustive list, Euclid, Augustine of Hippo, Edmund Burke, Mary Shelley, John Henry Newman, G. K. Chesterson, Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis, E. Grombrich, Józef Czapski, Thomas Nagel, Mary Midgley, and Roger Scruton. But also painters, musicians, poets, computer scientists -- really quite varied! 

The seminars deal with a variety of subjects, including ethics, anthropology, science, technology, culture, art history, political philosophy, and theology. Teachers have the option of delivering a small selection of the seminars in the curriculum, according to their subject, or use these seminars in place of lesson plans. They may do this to enhance an existing course or module of a similar nature, for example. The full list of subjects includes:

• Groundwork -- giving students an overview of the socratic method, introducing them to the ideas of wisdom, virtue, and 

• Studying the Human Person -- dealing principally with the nature of the human person, what kind of beings we are, what we know, what is freedom, what is love, and our relationship to art and technology. 

• Meaning and Modernity -- exploring the theme of the 'crisis of modernity' or 'the crisis of meaning' that is popular amongst contemporary thinkers. These seminars deal with doubt, scepticism, the value of life, the relationship between mind and matter, art and science, providence, motherhood, love, and sacrifice. 

• Belonging in the World -- dealing with civilisation, culture, friendship, the sacred, and what makes a functioning society. 

• Practical Living -- a small selection of seminars adapted from Ciro Candia's Personal Excellence Programme, helping students to think more deeply about their relationships, their family life, how to study effectively, and how to plan for their future. 

A seminar typically involves more than one of these subjects. Hence the decision to group seminars under these broader categories. This is also in line with our notion of practical wisdom, which has to do with seeing the world as an integrated whole, bearing problems that rarely so neatly reflect the divisions of subject matter that we are accustomed to. 

Sample seminars

In the long run, we want to work with teachers in person on a regular basis in order to provide them with the necessary formation to deliver this programme. We are presently working to get groups of teachers together in London, Manchester, and Glasgow. For the time being these groups will run without a set plan for formation. They will instead be forums for teachers to come together to read, practice seminars together, help one another in creating similar resources for use in their classrooms, and to think together about what else can be done to promote liberal education in schools. 

The curriculum will be available under the condition of a first complete trial of the programme from September 2025 to June 2026. If you are interested in participating in this please contact us.