Agora Network: Wisdom for Modern Life

Join us for the first Symposium of the season to usher in the coming of Spring! 🌞🌻🌳

In antiquity, a symposium was a gathering of friends who came together to recline around a shared table, where wine and conversation flowed freely into the night. Together, they would choose a topic and take turns speaking, listening, and laughing—guided by the rhythms of drink and dialogue.

Inspired by this tradition, our Symposium has no set theme. It's an invitation to come together with other curious minds, to offer up questions or ideas, and to vote together on where to begin. Whether you're hungry for connection or simply seeking space to speak and be heard, you're warmly welcomed to join the conversation.

Symposium will meet in parks throughout Prague, embracing the sunshine and pleasant weather while we have it. Bring a blanket or something to sit on. There’s no cost to join, but please bring a snack or drink to share, if you're able. Most of all, bring a curious mind and a willingness to learn from the insight of others.

Feel free to bring a friend or two--also, children and friendly dogs are welcome!
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If the weather doesn't cooperate, we'll try to find an alternate venue—so keep an eye on the event chat or your email for updates.

Also, despite the origins of the Symposium, our goal is not necessarily to get drunk and the organizer would encourage you not to come with that sole purpose in mind. :)

The first 45 minutes of the event will be dedicated to simply getting to know one another, and we highly encourage you to join for this part. We will then vote whether to continue free conversation, to join together in a single conversation, or to split up into multiple groups. Afterwards, you’re welcome to stay or follow onto any spontaneous activity that unfolds.

A note on attendance: If you need to cancel, please do so at least a few days in advance and update your RSVP accordingly. This helps honor the host’s efforts and makes space for others who would like to attend. Repeated last-minute cancellations or no-shows may result in being placed on the waitlist for future events.

What if consciousness isn’t something the brain produces — but something the universe is?
Most of us have absorbed a picture of reality in which matter comes first: the brain generates mind, and when the brain stops, the mind vanishes. It feels like common sense. But a growing number of analytic philosophers and scientists are asking whether that picture can actually hold together — and whether idealism, the view that consciousness is fundamental to reality, deserves a serious second look.

Analytical Idealism is not mysticism in disguise. It’s a rigorous, philosophically precise position that engages directly with the hard problem of consciousness, the findings of modern physics, and the limits of materialist explanation. It takes the tools of analytic philosophy seriously — and uses them to challenge one of our deepest assumptions about what exists.

In this session, we’ll explore:
• Why materialism struggles to account for the existence of subjective experience
• What Analytical Idealism actually claims — and what it doesn’t
• What it might mean, practically and existentially, if mind is primary

No prior background in philosophy is needed. We’ll build up the ideas together, and the emphasis will be on genuine inquiry rather than expertise.

About the host: Corrado Alesso is a software engineer working across mobility, big data, security, and energy — and, more recently, a newly-minted carpenter. When he’s not chasing his interests in electronics, astrophotography, or music, he reads philosophy — particularly metaphysics (to peek behind the veil), philosophy of mind (can’t wrap my head around the C-problem) and ontology (so that I can drop this word at parties). It started with a suspicion that blaming consciousness on complexity feels a bit cheap. That suspicion led him to Analytical Idealism, which he finds deeply grounded — and, uncomfortably, quite convincing. He’s looking forward to dissecting it together.