The Chicago Acropolitan

What would Confucius say about Chicago? A practical reflection on virtue, leadership, community, and how city life can shape character.

Athena is present through almost the entire poem. She argues for Odysseus in the councils of the gods, appears at hinges of the plot, and is unmistakably on his side from the first page to the last.

Two episodes in the Odyssey deal with the same problem: what to do when you want something that will destroy you. They arrive close together, they are both famous, and they are usually taught as variations on a theme.

It is the most baffling decision in the Odyssey. Odysseus has just escaped a cave where he watched a giant eat his men. He got out through a plan so clever it has been famous for three thousand years. He is on his ship. He is sailing away. He is safe. And then he shouts his name across the water, and it costs him the next ten years of his life.

A three-thousand-year-old poem is currently the biggest film in theaters. That is worth sitting with for a second. Christopher Nolan's adaptation of the Odyssey opened last week, and audiences are walking out of nearly three hours of shipwrecks, monsters, and a very long trip home asking a reasonable question: what is this story actually about? It is a fair question, because the Odyssey has survived thirty centuries on the strength of something more durable than sea monsters

A philosophy discussion group can bring clarity, courage, and connection. Learn how shared reflection turns big questions into daily practice.

You missed the train by thirty seconds. Your inbox has reorganized itself into a small emergency. Someone cut you off on Lake Shore Drive and somehow took it personally. By the time you sit down at the end of the day, you are carrying the weight of a hundred small things you never chose. This is exactly the kind of life Stoicism was built for. Not the polished, marble-statue version you might imagine, but the real, daily, often inconvenient business of being a person in a

What would Jean-Paul Sartre say about Chicago? A practical philosophical look at freedom, responsibility, identity, and city life today.

This week, the International Organization New Acropolis celebrates its 69th anniversary, marking the beginning of its 70th year of existence. Compared to the lifespan of past schools of philosophy such as Plato's Academy and the Stoa, seventy years is relatively short. Yet it has been long enough to touch the hearts and minds of the many thousands of people who have walked through our doors in search of knowledge, friendship, and purpose. Some have attended a single lecture

Discover 11 best books for practical philosophy that help you build clarity, resilience, purpose, and better habits for everyday life.

Why the philosopher Viktor Frankl still matters: his ideas on meaning, freedom, and responsibility offer practical guidance for daily life.

New Acropolis Chicago is at Square Roots Festival in Lincoln Square, July 10-12 2026. Stop by our booth to say hello and talk philosophy with your neighbors.

Who was Pythagoras of Samos? Learn how this ancient philosopher shaped math, ethics, and daily living through discipline and inner harmony.

If you have come across New Acropolis Chicago while looking for a philosophy class in the city, you may be wondering what exactly it is. Here is the direct answer: New Acropolis Chicago is a nonprofit, all-volunteer school of living philosophy in the Ravenswood neighborhood, built on three pillars of philosophy, culture, and volunteering. It has served the city since 2005, and the first class is always free. That covers the basics. It does not quite explain why people keep

Philosophy classes for beginners can build clarity, resilience, and purpose. Learn what to expect and how to start with confidence.

A full calendar and an empty life are not contradictions. They are one of the more common conditions of modern adulthood. The meetings happen. The messages get answered. The errands get done. And underneath all of it, a quiet question persists: what is this actually for? Timeless wisdom for modern life begins there, not in abstraction, but in that honest recognition that efficiency alone does not produce meaning.

Most people hear the word "philosophy" and picture a dusty lecture hall, an incomprehensible textbook, and a professor who has never had a bad day. That image is wrong. Philosophy, explained simply, is the practice of asking the right questions so you can live a better life.

If you are wondering how to apply philosophy in daily life, start smaller than you think and more sincerely than you think. Choose one principle. Practice it today. Observe yourself without excuses. Correct course tomorrow. Over time, these modest acts create something solid: a life with more integrity, steadiness, and meaning.

Most people do not lose their way all at once. It happens in small moments - saying yes too quickly, scrolling to avoid thinking, moving through the day without asking why. If you have been wondering how to live more consciously, that question may be less about changing everything and more about waking up inside the life you already have.

As summer hits Chicago, droves of people flock Lake Michigan’s beaches for outdoor volleyball - including me! I’ve been in love with the sport since I was a teenager and, in the recent years, have come to some reflections of my love for the sport - metaphors to a philosophy called Stoicism I learned while taking philosophy classes in New Acropolis Chicago. I believe that if the ancient Stoics played a modern sport, they would have played volleyball!