ACADEMY OF PHILOSOPHY AND FINE ARTS

In Divine Comedy, at culmination of his spiritual journey, Dante stands before the “Empireo”, the divine realm where God, angels and pure souls dwell. Standing in awe beside his beloved Beatrice, he witnesses this miracle as a living man. Perhaps Dante is suggesting that, if we pay attention, we can perceive the devine among us.

The name "Empyreon" symbolizes the spiritual aspiration to perceive the sacred around us and the need to preserve the hidden harmony that keeps the heart of the world beating.

NAME

Our primary purpose is to provide people with the necessary tools to develop their thinking through dialogue with the greatest minds in history.

Our secondary goal is to create a community where people can share their deep understanding for the benefit of everyone.

MISSION

SERVICE

  • We offer online courses on a wide range of topics related to philosophy and the fine arts. Our strength lies in our philosophical approach. We critically explore various subjects by analyzing issues at their core, encouraging dialogue that allows each student to actively participate in discussions and learn to think alongside a particular author.

  • We offer recorded courses on a variety of topics, including language studies. Each course is designed to provide the foundational knowledge necessary for students to confidently continue their studies independently.

  • We organize conferences in the form of intensive seminars, both to accommodate students with limited time during the week and to allow a larger number of people to participate.

  • We regularly publish reviews of books and films, philosophical articles, and reading recommendations.

    You can find more here: Patreon

METHOD

Our approach is grounded in the teachings of the great philosophical masters, with a focus on:

Careful reading of texts — Engaging in dialogue — Reflection and attention — Patience and dedication — Simplicity and humility

“In short, the student should not learn thoughts, but should learn to think. The philosophy teacher should not carry him, but guide him, if we want him to be able to walk on his own in the future.”

I. Kant [AA 2:306]

“Learning to see – accustoming the eye to calmness, to patience, to letting things come to you; refraining from judgment, learning to take in a particular case from all sides”

F. Nietzsche [KSA 6:73]

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

  • He who seeks to attain it will lose it, while he who renounces it will find it. Only the one who has abandoned everything and, in turn, has been abandoned by everything – who has seen everything collapse and has found himself alone with the infinite – only he has reached the depths of his being and recognized the full depth of life: a great step, which Plato compares to death. What Dante wrote at the gates of Hell should be written in a different sense at the entrance to philosophy: "Abandon all hope, you who enter here." Whoever truly wishes to philosophize must abandon all hope, all claims, all desires; he must seek nothing, know nothing, feel completely stripped and poor, and must renounce everything to gain everything. This step is difficult, and parting from the last shore is hard. We see this in the fact that so few have been able to do it.

  • The fundamental traits of philosophy are the most essential, yet also the most challenging. It is a matter of life and death, a struggle that each person is called to face. This struggle engages our entire being, requiring us to strengthen ourselves and learn to recognize our own power, which is equal to that of the infinite.