Wisdom Workshop · Seven-Week Workshop
From KinderGarten to WandelGarten
Part philosophy course, part walking group, part container for spiritual exercises. A seven-week seminar for curious people who want to do philosophy, not just study it — with our feet as much as our heads. You'll finish with a written personal philosophy of life.
"The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there."Robert Pirsig
At a glance
PHIL 705
One group walks together in Fort Collins; two meet on Zoom, morning and evening. Same seven weeks, same texts, same footpaths — eight seats each.
PHIL 705.001
Sept 15 – Oct 27 · Tuesdays
4:45 – 6:00 pm MT
Fort Collins, Colorado
PHIL 705.002
Sept 16 – Oct 28 · Wednesdays
9:30 – 10:45 am MT
Online
PHIL 705.003
Sept 16 – Oct 28 · Wednesdays
6:00 – 7:15 pm MT
Online
Outcomes
We'll explore a variety of ways to live a good life. We'll co-create a fun, graduate-level philosophy seminar focused on doing philosophy with other curious people, and explore how comparative philosophy can be used as a tool to clarify, design, and advance entrepreneurial and life goals.
Participants will finish the course with a written personal philosophy of life — a way of choosing a personal philosophy for work and beyond.
Part philosophy course, part walking group, part container for spiritual exercises, we'll together re-imagine continuing education as a WandelGarten.
A note from Sean
This course addresses my biggest pet peeve with what passes as the serious study of philosophy in America. If you're considering enrolling in a philosophy program, you'd likely get 90% Western Philosophy. But the Greeks and Europeans are just one of the world's approaches to the love of wisdom. (I guess it is a Greek word, after all — philosophy literally means a particular kind of brotherly love — philia — with a particular kind of wisdom, sophia.)
I have had sincere teachers in Buddhist, Taoist, and Islamic philosophy — each who have approaches that have changed my life — so I'm including these here. We'll close in honoring all our relationships via earth-and-plant wisdom of Indigenous philosophies.
But perhaps further: world philosophy is especially important today, where so much of a narrow kind of worldview is baked into frontier AI models and ensuing AI discourse. In other words, we don't need artificial intelligence to flatten our inquiry. We need modes of expanding our inquiries in meaningful ways. We need stronger barometers for what matters before intelligence. Better ways to survey the buildings that our ladders are leaning on.
For more on this, see Michael Millerman's "The Analytic Monopoly: And Why It Isn't Enough."
If you took a philosophy course in college, you would read other people's words and write some of your own. For us, doing philosophy means not only reading and writing, but also engaging with our feet, walking. We'll encounter each philosophy as a living footpath, a distinct way of moving and changing here and now — how we relate to ourselves, our lives, our others and our world. We'll pay special attention to the wisdom of nature, process, and plants.
Our WandelGarten — a garden of both walking and change — will encourage each of us to honor the diversity of cultures across the globe as we honor the difference of each member of our group.
— Sean Waters, Lead Facilitator
The seven weeks
Each week, one tradition and the question it will not stop asking. It's an ambitious schedule — we can't pretend to cover each tradition in its entirety. This is an introduction to a series of encounters.
What is this for?
How to Live a Good Life · Chapter 4
How do we cultivate happiness?
Chapters 5 & 6
Why train the mind?
Chapter 1
How do we live in harmony?
Chapter 3
Where do we turn our devotion?
Chapter 10
Who are you? What works?
Chapters 12 & 13
What are our webs of relationships?
Shared texts
Various, edited by Massimo Pigliucci, Skye Cleary & Daniel Kaufman · Penguin Random House, 2020
Robin Wall Kimmerer · Milkweed, 2015
Full reading list and questions available upon enrollment.
"Doing philosophy is each of us, with our hearts and hands, reflecting on what these philosophies mean to us, in our lives, right now."
Enrollment
Applications are read personally — there's no committee. We'll be in touch within two days with registration and enrollment information. Groups are capped at eight participants plus the facilitator, so applying doesn't guarantee a seat.
One-time enrollment
$695
or $59/month on a twelve-month payment plan
The full seven weeks, your group, the shared text, and every writing invitation.
Apply nowReturning alumni
$295
or $25/month
You've been in the room before — skip the application and re-enroll directly.
Re-enrollIf this program is a good fit for you but finances are a barrier, please fill out a scholarship application. Enrollments create space for those who cannot pay. Mark the scholarship option on your application and we'll send the form.
If your learning and development budget covers workplace well-being, resilience, or creative thinking, we have email templates to help get your employer to invest in your wisdom practices. Ask for the templates.
When you enroll, you agree to our code of conduct and terms of participation.
Lead facilitator
Sean Waters
M.A. Philosophy · M.A. English Education
Sean teaches writing at Colorado State University, where he has been a full-time faculty member since 2014. He has facilitated over 1,250 hours of small-group learning across 32 cohorts with 115+ participants in 9 countries.
He founded the Wisdom Workshop in 2020 to bring his vision of creative learning to life. He is also a performing musician with over 1,000 shows across the Colorado Front Range.
Before you apply
Taken on its own, this is a seven-week workshop. Taken as a beginning, it's the Fall doorway into the Personal Master of Arts. Same room, longer arc — but they're separate offers with separate applications, so start with the one you actually want.
This workshop
Seven weeks, standalone. Nothing further required.
The full year
Twelve months, four seasonal workshops, and a culmination project you design, build, and share. This workshop counts as your Fall season.
Eight seats per group, by application. The Fall groups begin September 15 and 16.