Explore Philosophy, Religion & Belief
From the meaning of life to moral dilemmas: explore the questions philosophers and thinkers have pondered for centuries. Our daytime, evening and weekend courses cover a wide range of subjects. Join a class to encounter ethics and existentialism, memory and the mind, or discover the paradoxes and politics of the modern world.
Expert tutors
Our classes are taught by experienced, professional tutors with a wide range of specialisms in philosophy, from ethics to political philosophy, and from Eastern philosophies to psychoanalysis to name just a few. Many of our tutors also teach at London universities and bring their expertise from other academic disciplines, for example art, literature and politics. Please refer to specific course outlines for individual tutor biographies.
Studying at City Lit
Philosophy courses are offered in a range of formats and lengths - from a single day to a twelve-week course, during the day, in the evening and at weekends. Courses can be studied singly or in combination with other courses as your interests and learning develop in new directions. A number of our past philosophy students have gone on to study philosophy at university at degree and masters level.
Find a course
Browse our range of philosophy courses in London and online below to choose your perfect option: both complete beginners and returning students are equally welcome at City Lit.
- Medieval Britain & Europe: Makers of the Medieval North part 1Course start date: Wed 15 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Michael BloomfieldExplore the lives and achievements of some of the most influential men and women of faith and action in northern Europe during the earlier medieval period.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Communism in the USSR: 1945-1991Course start date: Wed 15 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Nick MorganThis course is an introduction to the history of the Soviet regime from the moment of its victory in the Second World
War to its collapse in 1991. - The ‘Great Game’: Anglo-Russian rivalry in Asia
Course start date: Wed 15 Jan 2025Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sebastien ArdouinThe Great Game evokes stories of spies, diplomatic intrigue, and wars in remote regions of Asia. But what was really the Great Game? Why did Britain and Russia become rivals? How did they seek to consolidate their positions? Why and how did it end?Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - 19th Century Britain and Ireland: Parliament, people and protest, 1832-48 Course start date: Wed 15 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: David IngledewExplore the main developments in British political history between 1832-1848 from the Whig government’s social reforms following the Great Reform Act to the Tory split over the repeal of the Corn Laws .
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £77.00 - A short history of the Indian subcontinent Course start date: Wed 15 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Ketan VariaThe India subcontinent is unique in its heritage and history. Join us for a tour of of the period from Pre-Aryans (c5000 BCE) to the start of the Mughal empire.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £169.00 - Germany in the long nineteenth century (1815-1918) Course start date: Wed 15 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Rudolf MuhsThis course offers a broad survey of German history from the end of the Napoleonic era to the end of the First World War in 1918.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £189.00 Concession £123.00 - 17th England, Revolution and Restoration: these distracted times: the 1642–1651 civil wars Course start date: Thu 16 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ellen CarpenterJoin us for a ten-week course to discover the history of the 1642–1651 Civil Wars. From divided families to the breakdown of censorship and rise of propaganda, to innovations in warfare and medicine and the growth of religious sects and witchhunting, for the people who lived through the era, the Civil Wars really did make the world seem ‘turned upside down.'.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - Eastern Europe during the Cold War, 1945-1989 Course start date: Thu 16 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sebastien ArdouinWhat led to the establishment of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, how did they evolve, and why did they collapse? What was life like for citizens of the Eastern bloc?
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £259.00 Concession £168.00 - Living and dying in 14th century England Course start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Vanessa KingWas it a poker or prayer that killed Edward II? His great-grandson, Richard II, produced the first English cookery book and yet he was also deposed and murdered. Were his recipes that bad?
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information. - Post-war German history: 1945-1961 Course start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rudolf MuhsThis course offers a broad survey of German history from the end of the Second World War to the construction of the Berlin Wall at the height of the Cold war. - London's quartiers Course start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sue JacksonThrough 1 lecture and 7 guided walks, explore some of London’s quartiers – Soho, Mayfair, Covent Garden, Spitalfields, Clerkenwell, St James and Bloomsbury and understand how their very distinct characters were formed. The first session will be delivered via Zoom and other sessions will be guided walks.
London guide: Sue Jackson. - German History: Sites of Memory ICourse start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rudolf MuhsThis course offers a broad sweep through centuries of German history by focusing on a selection of Sites of Memory which enjoy a special, but often shifting significance in the nation’s collective memory.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - Ghetto uprising 1943: Jewish life and death in Warsaw Course start date: Sat 18 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: David RosenbergIn April 1943, some 40,000 starving people were still incarcerated in terrible conditions within the Warsaw Ghetto. A few hundred among them – predominantly young people – led an armed rebellion against the Nazis. This course conveys the incredible story of their uprising but also reveals the background of Warsaw's vibrant but increasingly endangered Jewish life in the decades before the uprising. It describes the many forms of resistance that took place after the Nazi invasion, highlights key individuals who played a role, and provides an opportunity to reflects on different aspects of this tragic but inspiring episode during the Holocaust. - Terrific Tudors: Act two The life and times of Henry VIII's children Course start date: Mon 20 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Vanessa KingWas Edward VI a religious prig? Does Mary deserve her bad reputation? What should we make of Elizabeth as ‘the virgin queen’? If Henry Fitzroy had lived could he have become king?Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - Key figures in Black British History – 1700-1900Course start date: Mon 20 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Join a journey of the examination of the rich historical presence and contribution of the Black African and Caribbean Diaspora in Britain, from the 1700s to 1900 with an emphasis on key historic and influential black figures.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00
Can't see a course you want?
Add this category to your waiting list to set up alerts and we will update you when new courses are released online.
Add me to waiting list