The Stoa (stoa.uk)
"Putting Philosophy back in the marketplace!"
This is the Stoa. We are a pub philosophy group meeting in Deal, Kent, UK. We meet on the first Wednesday of the month at the Bohemian Pub from 19:30 to 21:00 but we will be moving in October (see below). Everyone welcome. Just bring your brains and some beer money!
A Welcome and an Apology
Welcome to our new website. It has been completely re-written so it's (hopefully) easier to use and certainly easier for me to update. Please have a browse. Some of the previous topics have not yet been transferred from the old site but they will be here within the next couple of weeks.
And an apology to all of you who were expecting a meeting at the beginning of August. It did take place but owing to a technical fault (ie, my fingers hitting the wrong keys!) the notification didn't go out. Sorry about that, but the four of us who did turn up had a good discussion. We will repeat the topic of language in October so no one misses out. Our next meeting, on 2 Sept is definitely ON!
We're moving
The Bohemian have decided they want to start using the upstairs bar, where we normally meet, for serving food. We are grateful to the Landmark Centre 🔗 as they have agreed to let us use the Toft bar for our future meetings starting from October. The meetings will still be free, as the Landmark are not charging us, but they have asked for a donation so we will be passing the hat around at each meeting. The Landmark is a community charity so they depend a lot on donations from voluntary groups like ours.
Upcoming meetings...
Wednesday 2 September 2026
"Punishment"
at the Bohemian, 19:30–21:00
The prospect of the early release of Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were convicted of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper in 2019, has provoked an unusually strong reaction both from the public, who have presented a petition of over a million signatures, and the Police Federation. The policy has also raised the issue of what punishment is actually for. Do we undermine respect for justice by reducing the punishment experienced by prisoners? Will it put the public at risk? ❰More❱
Wednesday 7 October 2026
"Language"
at the Landmark Centre, 19:30–21:00
There are about 6,000 languages spoken in the world today. About 500–10,000 of these languages are spoken by only a handful of people and they are dying off at a rate of 250 a decade. Experts say that by the year 3000 just 600 languages will be left. Is this a tragedy equivalent to the loss of biodversity in nature? Or should we agree with Kenan Malik in his article 'Let Them Die' who considers that if a language is not fulfilling its function as a means of communication then there is no benefit in keeping it alive artificially.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
"Humanism"
at the Landmark Centre, 19:30–21:00
Humanism is a philosophical and ethical outlook which places human beings, their well-being, freedom and capacity for reason at the centre of moral and intellectual life. It holds that human beings must seek meaning, knowledge and moral direction through reason, evidence, experience and reflection rather than divine revelation. Renaissance humanism came out of Christianity but modern secular humanism developed partly from the Enlightenment and the growth of scientific thinking. It became increasingly associated with the view that morality and knowledge could be understood without recourse to supernatural beliefs. But is humanism necessarily opposed to all religion or is there a way of reconciling them? Do humanists have faith in anything at all? How is it possible without the supernatural to find meaning and purpose in life? Can a humanist be happy and hopeful or is humanism a stark and pessimistic philosophy? ❰More❱
Wednesday 2 December 2026
"The Paranormal"
at the Landmark Centre, 19:30–21:00
Paranormal phenomena, parapsychology, psychical research: all these terms refer to the study of anomalous or supernatural phenomena for which we have no natural explanation. While conventional science examines and tries to explain empirical phenomena that we have good evidence for, parapsychology tries to establish the reality of its phenomena by finding evidence. Here's a glossary of the kind of events paraspsychologists try to study. So are these phenomena real or the products of tickery of self-delusion? ❰More❱
Where we meet
What is the Stoa?
The Stoa is essentially a conversation and discussion group and NOT a lecture series, course or reading group. We put up some reading each month on this website but this is just for interest. Feel free to browse but don't feel an obligation to read any of the stuff. Just come along to the topics that interest you. You don't have to be prepared on any of the topics or to have studied philosophy before.
Meetings are always introduced by a member in order to kick-off discussion and you are welcome to interject at any point. However, the Chair tries to keep the discussion on track and to ensure everyone gets equal air-time!
Everyone is welcome and all opinions, however heretical, are tolerated. You just have to give REASONS for your opinions. We only ban dogmatism.
We discuss a wide range of subjects, not just formal philosophical topics. See this page of our past, possible, upcoming topics... ❰Topics❱
If you have anything you would like us to discuss just drop us an email.
Why the 'Stoa'?
It's not an acronym, as people often think, but a reference to the Stoa Poikile, the covered portico in the ancient Athenian market-place. It was here that philosophers used to meet to chew the fat over their various and conflicting theories of Life, the Universe and Everything.
The famous Stoic sages of antiquity got their name from their practice of meeting under the Stoa and not because of anything to do with their school of thought. We like to think of ourselves continuing in the same tradition of doing philosophy in the marketplace like those ancient Greeks, rather than in the 'ivory tower' of academe. However, in our case it's in the pub rather than in the marketplace and we are not Stoics as such, we just meet in the Stoa.
A previous version of the Stoa ran for over 12 years in Faversham and owing to several folk expressing an interest we thought we'd give it a try here in Deal too.
How can I contact you?
You can contact us at: east.kent.stoa@gmail.com
We are also launching a WhatsApp group. If you don't have too many WhatApp subscriptions already drop us a line and we will add you to the group.
QI (Quite Interesting)
The QI section is for the stuff that's not included in our main topics. Click ❰Here❱ for miscellaneous 'Quite Interesting' stuff.
Copyright
Much of the material on this site is shamelessly plagiarised and edited so I claim no personal copyright on anything that appears here. Copy and use it as you will. Where possible I try to give provenance of material so credit goes where it belongs.