What should we do next, and why? Philosophy is not a special domain of inquiry, but a more in-depth version of a conversation that you are already having. It is about how we should live, and we need it - right now - more than ever. We’ll examine what it looks like when the perennial philosophical problems arise out of the concrete circumstances of our lives. In the ordinary course of life we are guided by norms and beliefs about important values, which guide our behavior and shape our choices. These beliefs are subject to distorting influences that we do not see, from our culture and society, and from our desires and appetites. Plato compared our ordinary pre-reflective beliefs to shadows, mere images of the real thing. Through philosophy, we begin to see these shadows for what they are, and we begin to know ourselves.

James Gilmore is a Mt. Desert Island native. He earned a PhD in Philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University in 2013 for his dissertation entitled ‘Intrinsic Goods and Their Role in The Good Life in Plato’, and a BA in Philosophy and Comparative Literature from St. John’s College, Annapolis in 2002. In 2007 Dr. Gilmore was a Summer Member at The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, where he was a Leon Gilbert Barnhart Fellow. Since 2013 Dr. Gilmore has worked as a professional musician in North Carolina, where he leads a jazz trio under his own name. Their debut recording Decorating Time was released in September 2021 on Ears & Eyes Records. He lives in Greensboro NC with his wife Emily and their cats, Mustache and Little Pete.