Savannah Symposium
a cultural-intellectual festival
Three intense days of grappling with big questions while reading one of the greatest texts ever written. Lectures by leading intellectuals and discussion groups led by great teachers. Encounters with Bach, Plato, Shakespeare. Conviviality and conversation lasting late into the night. All in one of the most beautiful cities of the continent amidst the sublime southern spring.
Expect a multi-sensory and intellectually exciting three days — with philosophers, psychologists, musicians, theologians, artists, comedians, publishers, thespians, entrepreneurs, and political defectors — in an environment absolutely committed to freedom of thought, to listening intently to each other, and to discovering the truth about the most important things.
In an era of cancel-culture and twitter rage, where universities betray free speech and travesty the achievements of the past, where nihilism ravages the spirit, nothing is more subversive than thinking — than discovering the truths that transcend the noise: the bedrock you can build your life on.
This Symposium, hosted by Ralston College, signals a fundamental new beginning in higher education. We are determined to cut through the admission games and student loans, the indoctrination and shocking loss of purpose that afflict our colleges and universities — by returning to the timeless, tried-and-true formula: truth-seeking in a community that values friendship and freedom of thought.
Essential to this gathering is the belief that the thinkers and artists of the past can illuminate the tensions and possibilities of the present. We take our name from the text that will anchor our explorations: Plato’s Symposium. Set as a long conversation over an evening among friends, the Symposium offers one of the most profound reflections ever written on the nature of love and desire (eros) in all its dimensions: interpersonal, philosophical, ethical, political, scientific, cosmological, poetic, and theological. We intend to revive this radical communion of friendship forged in discourse and animated by beauty.
Young and old, beginners and curious seekers, experts and scholars, artists and scientists, atheists and believers: this gathering is for everyone.
We hope you'll join us.