Agora Society

18/09/2024

A huge thank you to everyone who came to our first Agora social this past Monday! It was great to see so many new faces and those we missed from last year!

If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry - join us next Monday at 6pm in Aikman’s Cellar for more philosophy and pints! 🫶🏼

04/08/2024

Agora's Issue 3 is still open for submissions, offering a £50 prize to the best work!

Submissions should be sent to [email protected]

Check out our website at https://www.agorastandrews.org/

In Agora we hope to inspire bold and original voices by offering ourselves as a platform for absolute authenticity. We dare you to question and to understand life not as an inheritor of knowledge, rationale, and belief, but as a producer. Face the void that comes with scepticism and you will be rewarded with a deliberate and insightful selfhood. Agora's Issue 3 offers the perfect chance to do just so.

Ask yourself the questions above, and unearth the roots of your answers, see whether they are inherited assumptions; whether the understanding that founded them is vague and unarticulated. Part of the journey of self-becoming is to break free from these assumptions and strive to find our own answers, bound only by your creativity and experience, informed by rigorous dialogue and criticality.

For Agora's Issue 3, feel free to submit a photo or an essay, a poem or a short story, a piece of sheet music or a painting. The world is yours to devour, no matter how naïve one may be. In Agora, we believe that we cannot wait until we are certified geniuses before we can confidently express ourselves. We must all start from somewhere, so start now! Start with Agora Issue 3

Sincerely,
—Agora Committee

11/06/2024

03/05/2024

This Monday the 6th of May at 6pm, the Agora is hosting a discussion on Envisioning Socialism: Ideals & Realities!

From Scotland’s asphyxiating minimum wage, to a consumerist and profit-incentivised economy giving way to mass alienation, socialism stands as a powerful champion of the people. And yet, what exactly would the socialist world look like? How could it help us? How would it avoid the typical downfalls of past ‘socialist societies?’ What does it takes to achieve socialist ideals?

Please join us for a friendly discussion and a pint to vocalise any thoughts, concerns, and insights on this significant matter, or simply to listen if you wish. The more the merrier!

Excited to see you all,
—Agora

03/05/2024

This Monday the 6th of May at 6pm, the Agora is hosting a discussion on Envisioning Socialism: Ideals & Realities!

From Scotland's asphyxiating minimum wage, to a consumerist and profit-incentivised economy giving way to mass alienation, socialism stands as a powerful champion of the people. And yet, what exactly would the socialist world look like? How could it help us? How would it avoid the typical downfalls of past 'socialist societies?' What does it takes to achieve socialist ideals?

Please join us for a friendly discussion and a pint to vocalise any thoughts, concerns, and insights on this significant matter, or simply to listen if you wish. The more the merrier!

Excited to see you all,
—Agora

01/05/2024

Thank you to everyone who came to last Monday’s meeting, it was exciting to hear so many peoples’ perspectives on Nihilism and the Confrontation of Christianity!
From discussing the validity of Nihilism to begin with, to whether a human is legitimate in an “inhuman”universe, to metaethical questions arising from Christian morality, there was a wealth of discussions that could have gone on for many more hours.

Stay tuned for our next discussion!!!

06/04/2024

THIS MONDAY (08.04.2024)
⭐️ Join us for some philosophical brews at our next discussion on THE EVOLUTION OF PHILOSOPHY FROM ITS HUMAN ORIGINS INTO TODAY’S ST ANDRIAN ANALYTIC TRADITION!
⭐️How did philosophy come about in the first place? What was its original purpose and how does it serve us today here in Scotland?
⭐️ Feel free to either prepare yourself ahead of time or simply show up!

We look forward to seeing you there!

23/03/2024

This Monday (25.04.24):
☆ Join us for some philosophical brews & the launch of the second volume of the AGORA!
☆ Feel free to either prepare yourself ahead of time with topics of discussion or simply show up!
☆ Copies of the new volume will be selling at the event for £3.00 each.

We look forward to seeing you there!

18/03/2024

AGORA Issue 2 is hitting St Andrews’ streets this coming Monday at Aikman’s Cellar 6-8pm! 🍾🎉🎉
Come enjoy a drink with us in celebration! We’ve brought many new authors to our humble theatre stage, and our play is called Artifice, focusing on the war for authenticity we wage in everyday life and in the forming of our beings. The Agora has puts lots of labour and love into this issue, and our pieces all written from a place of honesty and deep introspection, we hope as a result that you will find plenty of interest and enjoyment!

11/03/2024

This Monday (11.04.24):
☆ Join us for some philosophical brews.
☆ The guiding questions are TBD, but will relate to ethics and existentialism.
☆ Feel free to either prepare yourself ahead of time or simply show up ready to discuss!

We look forward to seeing you there!

14/02/2024

Happy Valentine’s day from the Agora!! Monday’s discussion was inspiring and romantic, thank you everyone for joining and we will see you next week🌹

11/02/2024

Monday (12.02.24):
☆ Join us for some philosophical brews.
☆ The guiding question is ‘CAN WE LIVE A HAPPY LIFE WITHOUT ROMANTIC LOVE?’
☆ Feel free to either prepare yourself ahead of time or simply show up ready to discuss!

We look forward to seeing you there!

04/02/2024

This Monday (05.02.24):
☆ Join us for some philosophical brews.
☆ The guiding question is ‘HOW DO WE EXPERIENCE ART IN A CULTURE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION?’*
☆ Feel free to either prepare yourself ahead of time or simply show up ready to discuss!

A helpful excerpt to gain insight: “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence. […] The traces of the [original] can be revealed only by chemical or physical analyses which it is impossible to perform on a reproduction; changes of ownership are subject to a tradition which must be traced from the situation of the original. The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity.” - Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1935)

We look forward to seeing you there!

30/01/2024

Yesterday’s discussion at Aikman’s Bar was exceptional! We explored diverse perspectives on free will, ranging from viewing it as an inherent human force to a matter of choice, and even delved into its understanding within a capitalist society. It was a stimulating and diverse conversation, and we look forward to seeing you again next week!

28/01/2024

This Monday (29.01.24):
☆ Join us for some philosophical brews.
☆ The guiding question is ‘HOW SHOULD WE UNDERSTAND ‘FREE WILL’ TODAY?’
☆ Feel free to either prepare yourself ahead of time or simply show up ready to discuss!

We look forward to seeing you there!