Halkyon Philosophy Academy

The Purpose of the Academy

The Halkyon Philosophy Academy provides online courses and seminars on philosophy, art, and poetry. The Academy pursues the classical Bildungsideal (educational ideal): the proper formation of soul, spirit, and character through thinking, reading, writing, and dialogue with genuine peers.

The leitmotif of the Academy comes from German philosopher Friedrich Schelling:

"All rules for study are summed up in this one: Learn only in order to create!"

We worry not at all about meaningless credentials. What are those but pointless pieces of paper. Instead, our focus is on the true formation and education of human beings - may we flourish and fully become who we are.

The University is dead! Long live the new free scholarship outside the confines of collapsing institutions!

Our seminars are spaces of "otium cum dignitate" of "Leisure with Dignity" entirely devoted to the higher ideal of self-formation without interference by ideology, instrumental rationality or utilitarianism.

The Academy was founded by Dr. Johannes Achill Niederhauser. Johannes is a multilingual European philosopher devoted to rekindle the fire of genuine philosophical thought and to build new centres of learning.

Students of Halkyon come from all walks of life. Our students work in amongst other fields tech, law, medicine, finance, academia, the fine arts

Join Halkyon today and meet your peers on your philosophical journey.

Dr Johannes Achill Niederhauser

Founder & President

Johannes is the founder of the Halkyon Philosophy Academy. Johannes received his PhD from Warwick University in 2018 with a thesis on Martin Heidegger. He has published a book on Heidegger on death and being (Springer 2021) and several philosophy papers in international academic journals.

His philosophical journey started when studying Ancient Greek at a Humanist Lyceum in Germany at the age of 16. Reading the Pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle in the Original Greek set him on the path he still is on today.

His academic work has included research on the Greeks, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Indian Philosophy, Hölderlin and Goethe.

Johannes is a multilingual European philosopher. He studied in Philosophy Politics Economics in Italy and the US, took his MA at King’s College London with a thesis on Kant and radical evil and is now building his own philosophy academy.

Student Testimonials

"Johannes’ Heidegger course has been a real eye-opener for me. There were thrilling moments throughout the classes. I benefited and really enjoyed the material, the time and most essentially, the people. I will follow Halkyon and look forward to participating in your future courses."

- Turhan Beriker

“Johannes was my philosophy teacher at Birkbeck College in London and now I’m taking his courses at his own academy.

Pre-Socratic philosopher meant for me pre-history: it was good to have heard about it but without much implications. After only couple of seminars, Johannes made me realise the depths and power of it, so much so that I know wonder wether all there is, and there always has been in Philosophy is not an attempt to understand the pre-socratics. I am very much looking forward to further journeys with him.” - Mehmet Saydam

"Johannes has written the only important book on Heidegger on death and being."

- Leo Harrington, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Berkeley University.

"Aside from your thorough internalization and embodiment of your material, material you clearly live, you seem to teach like breathing. Your erudition and honesty, warmth, sharing creates the most special learning environment I have ever been in."

- Giovanna S.

Prof John Vervaeke on our course on the Japanese philosopher Keiji Nishitani.

Taylor Steinberg

”I have been studying philosophy with Johannes since October 2020. While my year of coursework with Johannes has been grounded in philosophy, our seminar discussions regularly draw the material into art, economics and much more. His recorded lectures are a great companion to the primary sources, but the live seminars take their own form relative to how students engage with the ideas. I came to Johannes with only a modest amount of self-study and am grateful for his guidance in learning how to read philosophy and authentically respond to it in a cohort of interesting, thoughtful peers.”

Jack Krasucki, MD

Why study philosophy? To learn the complex systems of thought of the world’s great thinkers and to learn how to think more precisely, deeply, and creatively. And the way to learn well is by reading the primary texts and secondary literature, developing a writing praxis to reflect upon and create from what has been learned, having a teacher who himself has thought and written deeply, and participating in a community of peers who take the learning as seriously as you do. With this in mind, I’m here to say – testify – that Johannes Niederhauser Ph.D is the real deal. Since the internet is an unregulated marketplace, it offers thinkers who are but a step or two ahead of you but who pretend to levels of understandings they have not yet achieved. Johannes has the depth of thought crucial to avoiding philosophical missteps and misunderstandings as evidenced by his years of teaching at university and writing a careful and creative treatise on Heideggerian thought. The community that Johannes has built, the Halkyon Guild, is a community I have become part of and cherish. I am now taking my fourth course at the Halkyon Guild and I have loved them all. I am grateful to Johannes for building what he has built and for the courses he offers, and I encourage you to join us.