Dates and Planning

2025 planned discussion topics

Planned topics below are subject to change.

Term 4 discussion topics
Class	Dates	Discussion Topics
1	8/10/2025	Philosophy of politics and power - Machiavelli
2	15/10/2025	Philosophy of politics and power - Machiavelli
3	22/10/2025	Philosophy of politics and power - Machiavelli / Foucault
4	29/10/2025	Philosophy of politics and power - Foucault
5	5/11/2025	Philosophy of politics and power - Foucault
6	12/11/2025	Buddhism - Heart Sutra
7	19/11/2025	Buddhism - Heart Sutra

U3A Nunawading Term Dates 2025

Term	Start	End
Term 2, 2025 (10 weeks)	22 Apr 2025	27 Jun 2025
Term 3, 2025 (9 weeks)	21 Jul 2025	19 Sep 2025
Term 4, 2025 (7 weeks)	06 Oct 2025	21 Nov 2025

Some important dates for U3A are stated here:  https://u3anunawading.org.au/contact-us/dates/

Public Holidays for 2025

Holiday	Date in 2025
ANZAC Day1	Friday 25 April
King's Birthday	Monday 9 June
Friday before the AFL Grand Final	Subject to AFL schedule3
Melbourne Cup	Thursday 4 November2004
Christmas Day1	Thursday 25 December
Boxing Day	Friday 26 December

Public holiday dates are based on the following website information on 23/10/24.

1 ANZAC Day, Good Friday and Christmas Day are restricted trading days.

2 As Australia Day falls on a Sunday, the public holiday is on the following Monday.

3 Friday before AFL Grand Final typically falls on the last Friday in September. This website will be updated with the exact date upon release of the 2025 AFL schedule.

4 Melbourne Cup Day is a public holiday across all of Victoria unless alternate local holiday has been arranged by a non-metro council.

Source: https://business.vic.gov.au/business-information/public-holidays/victorian-public-holidays-2025

Possible topics for 2026

• Happiness (see Wifi Philosophy on Youtube)
• Epistemology - Ending with the singularity that AI has all the knowledge (suggested by Maggie)
• Ethics
• Normative Ethics - Deontology
• Normative Ethics - Virtue Ethics
• Daodejing
• Chan/Zen Buddhism
• Shame (suggested by John)
• AI
• Mencius (Mengzi) Virtue theory (includes a discussion on Shame)
• Meta - ethics
• Punishment (see Wifi Philosophy on Youtube)
• History of philosophy (see PPPD blog)
• Conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism and fun (refer to ABC Philosophers' Zone)
• Articles or podcasts from ABC Philosophers' Zone
• Introduction to Ethics - (see Wifi Philosophy)
• Moral Education in Confucianism (see Philosophy Now magazine)
• Other articles from Philosophy Now magazine

Past topics

Term 1 discussion topics
Class	Dates	Discussion Topics
1	5/2/2025	Introduction, Etiquete, political vs philosophical discussion
2	12/2/2025	Political discussion and philosophical discussion, Penrose's three worlds
3	19/2/2025	Introduction to philosophy - PPPD blog post
4	26/2/2025	Logical reasoning - arguments
5	5/3/2025	Logical reasoning - arguments
6	12/3/2025	Logical reasoning - hidden assumptions, analogical arguments, components for strong arguments
7	19/3/2025	Critical thinking - valid patterns, fallacies
8	26/3/2025	Philosophy of friendship - Plato's Lysis
9	2/4/2025	Philosophy of friendship - Plato's Lysis

Term 2 discussion topics
Class	Dates	Discussion Topics
1	23/4/2025	Philosophy of friendship - Plato's Lysis
2	30/4/2025	Philosophy of friendship - Plato's Lysis
3	7/5/2025	Philosophy of friendship - Plato's Lysis
4	14/5/2025	Meaning of life
5	21/5/2025	Meaning of life
6	28/5/2025	Meaning of life
7	4/6/2025	Meaning of life - Explore possible answers
8	11/6/2025	Meaning of life - Explore possible answers
9	18/6/2025	Confucianism - the great learning
10	25/6/2025	Lunch at Blackburn Hotel

Term 3 discussion topics
Class	Dates	Discussion Topics
1	23/7/2025	Confucianism - the great learning
2	30/7/2025	Confucianism - the great learning
3	6/8/2025	Confucianism - the great learning
4	13/8/2025	Confucianism / Monty Hall paradox & other puzzles
5	20/8/2025	Monty Hall paradox & other puzzles
6	27/8/2025	Monty Hall paradox & other puzzles / Philosophy of politics and power
7	3/9/2025	Philosophy of politics and power
8	10/9/2025	Philosophy of politics and power
9	17/9/2025	Philosophy of politics and power