GREECE • ROME • THE MIDDLE AGES • MODERNITY • THE 20TH CENTURY
“Not ready-made answers — learning to think.”
An online course for adults who always meant to read philosophy properly and never got past page twenty. Six modules in chronological order, with the texts actually read, two live sessions a week and a community to argue in — taught in English by Beatriz Martins.
Read • Situate • Discuss • Reconsider
6th–4th century BC
4th century BC – 2nd century AD
4th–14th century
17th–18th century
1800 – 1900
1900 – today
Everything unlocked on day one
Start with the Greeks, or with whichever module brought you here
Philosophy with no exam at the end and no hurry: the original texts, in the right order, with someone to discuss them and nobody grading you.
From the first recorded philosophical question to the thinkers still writing today, in the order things actually happened. It is not a playlist of favourite authors: it is the thread that joins them, and that explains why each one said what they said.
Each module has one work — the Apology, Epictetus' Handbook, the Meditations, the Genealogy of Morality. You read it with a guide that tells you what to look for and where the argument turns, instead of listening to someone recount what is inside.
The whole syllabus is recorded, so you watch at your own pace. The two live sessions do not repeat it: they are for reading passages together, clearing up what stayed murky, and arguing about what the group brought that week.
No degree required, no half-remembered school course, nothing read beforehand. It starts at the start and explains the vocabulary as it comes up — without flattening the argument to fit a quotable sentence.
The medieval module includes Avicenna, Averroes and Maimonides — it was through them that Aristotle came back to Europe at all. And the last module goes past the usual European endpoint, into Brazilian and Latin American thinkers asking the same questions from somewhere else.
A questions channel, shared reading and argument about whatever came up that week, in a closed space moderated by Beatriz. Philosophy is done in conversation — reading alone removes half the exercise.
And stopped around page twenty — which is not a failure of intelligence. It is a lack of context and of anyone to argue with. The course fixes both, one week at a time.
Twenty to forty minutes placing the author: the problem they inherited, who they were arguing with, and why it mattered. It is the context you do not get by opening the book cold.
At your own pace, pause and replayThe week's passage comes with a reading guide: what to look for, where the argument turns, which paragraph you may reread three times without guilt. Almost every reading is under thirty pages.
Public-domain works, with a translation recommendedTwice a week the group meets to read passages together, clear up what stayed murky, and disagree productively. If you cannot make it, watch the recording — and ask in the community channel.
Camera and mic always optionalEach module covers a stretch of time, a handful of central thinkers, and one work read in full — or a clearly marked part of it.
Philosophy does not begin with answers. It begins when someone distrusts the answers already on offer. This module follows that turn — from the first Greeks who swapped myth for an explanation you could argue with, to Aristotle, who sorted thought into disciplines we still use. In the middle stands Socrates, who wrote not one line and changed everything.
The Apology of Socrates
Plato
Short, narrative, and literally a man defending his own life — the best first philosophy text there is.
Public-domain work — the course points you to a free copy and a translation worth reading.Philosophy is not a collection of loose opinions: it is one long argument in which each thinker is answering the one before. That is why the course follows the order things happened — and why Nietzsche makes far more sense after Kant.
When asking became worth more than answering.
Module reading: The Apology of Socrates — Plato.
How to live when you do not control the world.
Module reading: The Handbook (Enchiridion) — Epictetus.
A thousand years that were not a pause.
Module reading: Confessions, Book XI — Augustine of Hippo.
Doubt becomes a method and the subject becomes the centre.
Module reading: Meditations on First Philosophy (Meditations I and II) — René Descartes.
The suspicion that consciousness lies.
Module reading: On the Genealogy of Morality (First Essay) — Friedrich Nietzsche.
After the catastrophes, and past the European canon.
Module reading: Ideas to Postpone the End of the World — Ailton Krenak.
Half the philosophical exercise is discovering that someone read the same paragraph and understood something else. The community lives on Circle — a platform built for learning, without the noise and the algorithm of social media. It runs in the browser, nothing to install, and conversations stay sorted by channel.
Stuck on a paragraph? Ask at any hour, including two in the morning on a Sunday.
The passage under discussion, the reading guide, and what everyone made of it — especially when it does not match.
Translations, editions, and what to read next when an author gets hold of you.
Times for the live sessions and direct links to the recordings.
Access link sent right after you sign up • Moderated by Beatriz
This week's guide is up: Confessions, Book XI — Augustine's question about time. Read slowly from paragraph 14 onwards; that is where he gives up on the easy answer.
“I have read it three times and I still cannot see what Augustine means by time not existing. Is it just me?”
Philosophy student at the University of Porto, Portugal
“None of these books was written for specialists. They were written by people who had a problem — and it is almost always the same problem you have.”
Three things said plainly, so you can decide with your eyes open. Beatriz is a philosophy student, not a doctor. This is a reading course, not a degree — no certificate, no academic credit, no accreditation anywhere. And the lessons are taught in English by a Portuguese speaker: fluent, and with an accent. What the course offers is qualified company for reading the texts almost nobody finishes alone.
PLACEHOLDER — no testimonials yet
The English cohort is new. This section goes live only when there are real testimonials from students in it, used with their permission. Until then it stays empty — inventing social proof would be lying to someone deciding where to spend their reading time.
One price, no joining fee, no minimum term. If it turns out not to be for you, the first 14 days are on us.
Access to the whole route — from the Greeks to the present — with two live sessions a week and the Circle community. No joining fee and no minimum term.
A monthly subscription you can cancel at any time. You have 14 days to change your mind and get a full refund, no reason required.Payment is taken inside Circle, by card, in US dollars.
Leave your details and Beatriz will talk to you before anything is charged — to hear what brought you here, what you have already tried to read, and whether this course actually fits. If it does not, she will say so.
Access to every channel in the Circle community
Rather talk first? Send a message on WhatsApp.
What you need to know before starting, how the course runs, and how to sign up.
Still unsure whether it fits your case?
Write directly to hello@beatrizmartins.pt
