Welcome to The Portal

an online philosophy comunity

The Portal is an online philosophy community building a future-oriented learning network. Our community is a hotspot for those looking to invest time in self-education and social networking through an intellectual life that is transdisciplinary and transcendent of traditional academic incentives.

We host up to seven live events every month including full courses, reading groups and sharing circles (all of which are made available indefinitely as recordings for members).

The Portal first emerged in the context of the course, conference, anthology, and retreat work that we had been building in the first two years of Philosophy Portal, and met the need for a real ritual community space.

Teaching philosophy in course form is great (and necessary work), but The Portal is the place where philosophy can come to life and we can learn to genuinely think with others constructively in a community context.

The Portal is the result of a double commitment: building an internal community that is intellectually alive and creating a network of diverse and engaging projects and communities.

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Learn more about our courses, conferences, and anthologies below:

Courses
Conferences
Books

Why build a community?

First, we live in an era defined by hyper-connectivity, and yet we also live in intense loneliness. Consequently, we aim to build a community that serves as an antidote to the sterile, atomized isolation of the digital age, while at the same time leveraging the great benefits that the digital age provides.

Second, to provide real social contexts for philosophical and general intellectual work, a space where individual reflexions are gathered by embedding thoughts in a shared process that involves co-learning and co-building: we turn abstract theories into a lived, shared reality.

The members of The Portal are the life blood of all the work at Philosophy Portal. They come from a wide range of generational and disciplinary backgrounds. However, they are united by viewing life-long education as part of their identity and a shared belief that the dialectical process—working the tension with opposing ideas— is an essential catalyst for learning.

We value long-term relationships with both the people we platform and our members. First, we believe in the “patience of the concept”, a principle whereby we allow time for ideas to mature, counteracting the tendency towards accelerationism: the value of long-term relationships lies in its ability to foster the singular and non-reproducible—qualities that immediacy cannot yield.

Second, we aim to create a space that involves a high valuation of friendship, where our members and guests are comfortable sharing their personal relation to ideas and how they navigate with ideas as practical tools for daily life.

Learn more about our reading group, sharing circle, and recordings:

Reading Group
Sharing Circle
Recordings

A philosophical para-academic network

The Portal opens up the possibility for mediations with other people, projects, and organisations. We are not only interested in engaging with thinkers in one-off events but building long-term with a variety of intellectual communities so we can form a network of communities.

Through our collaborations both members of The Portal and guests to each month of work form an informal backbone of a para-academic network.

Why is building a network of communities essential?

First, our network of communities operates on a core Hegelian insight: that true identity is found in the 'identity of identity and difference'. This core insight is about finding the balance between the comfort of belonging and the "productive shock" of the new. By rotating monthly through diverse disciplines and thinkers, The Portal prevents the stagnation of closed-off discourse, members escape the trap of the 'cult-of-the-same', which ensures that our knowledge base remains a living, evolving landscape rather than a static, reified dogma.

Second, a network devoid of community trades true freedom for superficial diversity. Without community engagement, individuals become isolated mapmakers—lost in the fruitless debate of their own private narratives and self-interest.

By combining a community and a network, The Portal opens the best of both worlds, and may prove to be a helpful model allowing thinkers to inhabit what Zizek calls the 'interstices of communities,' where real universal and novel thought truly emerges.

A unique and priceless educational opportunity

The Portal aims to be the best education for the lowest price.

We are pioneering a philosophical form of education that leverages network thinking and communal learning. Our interdisciplinary dialogue and dialectic platform is designed for those who wish to invest in a process of self-education. You will find figures from underground theory and philosophy scenes, as well as liminal web culture scenes.

As a member, you will have access to our two-plus years of recorded history. As The Portal continues to grow and build, we aim to provide more to our members for less.

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Short Story of The Portal

The Portal grew out of the first two years (2022, 2023) of course work at Philosophy Portal focused on great works in continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory. The Portal was launched in 2024 as the community side of Philosophy Portal’s larger course works.

The Portal as community has met weekly since January 2024. Throughout our first year, the community months were organised around "meta-themes” of sexuality, community, and metaphysics, and entertained a wide variety of thinkers from the underground philosophy/theory scenes, as well as liminal web cultural scenes. Each month a different key theoretical concept was developed (e.g. "libido”, "communism”, "self-reference”, "democracy”, "transhumanism”, “holy spirit”) in relation to the works of key living thinkers and projects from these scenes.

In our second year, 2025, the organization of events was altered towards month-long processes to open deeper mediation with other communities and projects.

These communities and projects have opened many different identities and themes (e.g. "Integral theory”, "Marxism and politics”, "Christian transition”, “Literature and art”, "Men’s and women’s work”, "ancient philosophy”).

Throughout 2025, members also gained access to the Slovenian School Reading Group, focused on the works of Slavoj Zizek, Alenka Zupancic, and Mladen Dolar; the Sex and Society Sharing Circle focused on sexuality, identity, performativity, social reality, and politics; as well as the Deleuze and Analysis course developing the philosophical interconnection between the works of Gilles Deleuze and the works of Jacques Lacan, as well as demonstrating their relevance to contemporary continental philosophy.

In 2026, The Portal aims to continue building month-long processes with different people and organisations. We will also be entering the second year of the Slovenian School Reading Group focused on Zizek’s The Parallax View, the second year of the Sex and Society circle, and introducing a new year long course focused on the contemporary relevance of Marxist politics for the Millennial and Zoomer generations.

Our promise to members is to continue building a space that is genuinely open to real inquiry and investigation between community and network, the cultivation of a philosophical mindset in the unity of dialogue and dialectic, committing to our original vision, but also innovating social design to push our work further in relation to what is needed.

How does The Portal work?

What do members of The Portal get?

Members have access to four to seven live events every month, including full courses, reading groups, and sharing circles. The 2026 schedule is available here.

Members are welcomed to all live events, but this is not an expectation. All events are recorded and uploaded the day after. Members have access to the recordings indefinitely.

The Portal offers full flexibility to access courses at any time: some members attend all or most of the live events, some attend a month that is specifically geared to their interests, and some choose primarily to access the recordings.

The Portal's monthly schedule is divided into four categories of events.

1. The Portal monthly process (four events per month)

The Portal month is the core part of the community process, hosted in coordination with external guests from the para-academic network. Each month a thinker, project or organisation interfaces with our community to both help them work through their own process, as well as help us relate their work to our daily life or philosophical journey.

2. The Portal yearly course developed by our professors (one event per month)

Each year, a professor delves into a fundamental philosophical topic during a ten-session course.

The Portal’s 2025 yearly course was on “Deleuze and Analysis”, which attempted to think the relationship between the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and the Freudo-Lacanian tradition, as well as the consequences for contemporary philosophy. The course was taught by Professor Terence Blake.

The Portal’s 2026 course focuses on "Marxist Politics for Undead Millennials (and Zoomers)", which attempts to connect both the problems of Marxist politics and the failures of Millennial socialism to contemporary political tensions. The course is taught by “The Last Marxist”, Professor Chris Cutrone.

Learn more about our courses and event space:

Deleuze and Analysis
Marxist Politics
Event Space

3. An online philosophy book club (one event per month)

The Slovenian School Reading Group, led by Dimitri Crooijmans, is a monthly forum focusing on the Short-Circuit book series published by the "troika of the real" - Mladen Dolar, Alenka Zupancic, and Slavoj Zizek.

The goal is to help us to think about the politics of subjectivity and come to a more reflective understanding of the dialectical and unconscious dimensions of the subject's life.

The 1st year of the Slovenian School Reading Group focused on The Odd One In: On Comedy by Alenka Zupancic, and A Voice and Nothing More by Mladen Dolar.

Throughout 2026 the reading group will be focused on Slavoj Zizek’s The Parallax View.

4. A psychoanalytically oriented sharing circle (one event per month)

The Sex and Society sharing circle led by Rebecca Prentice is a philosophically oriented sharing circle exploring sex, gender, and the tension between the two through themes such as embodiment, sexuality, identity, performativity, social ontology, and politics. The circle meets approximately 10 times per year and is designed for free association/living speech, and the cultivation of relationships that are embedded in reflection about unconscious sexuality and mortality.

Learn more about our reading group, sharing circle, and recordings:

Reading Group
Sharing Circle
Recordings

Our Leaders

Portal Leaders

Cadell Last
Dimitri Crooijmans
Rebecca Rose Prentice

Portal Profs.

Terence Blake
Chris Cutrone

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Our Collaborators and Guests

Portal 2024.

Portal 2025.

Portal 2026.

Endorsements From Our Guests and Collaborators:

"Cadell Last’s work and projects are of extreme significance in the times we live in. The Portal gives theory a platform it doesn’t usually get, and establish connections that one would never thought of. All this with great lucidity, intensity and dedication.” -Alenka Zupancic

“The Portal provides a needed avenue for people to learn existing theories, and just as importantly, to conceive their own. We live in a world where theory has become an existential exigency for everyone, and The Portal is responding to this situation with the appropriate urgency.” -Todd McGowan

“Today's leading-edge thinking requires the cultivation of proactive transdisciplinary spaces that negotiate between intellectual rigor & creative novelty and which can explore big-picture, post-pluralistic frontiers without succumbing to naive utopianism.  The Portal project is hitting that target more reliably than anyone else.” -Layman Pascal

“The Portal is a critical school and community characterised by deep, innovative and honest thinking, something that is becoming rarer all the time in our nearly totally commoditised world. Cadell provides a space in Philosophy Portal where a community (or better put, ‘communion’) of people can come together to share in a fraternity of ideas and, most importantly, friendship.” -Helen Rollins

"I am very proud to say that I have had the honor of collaborating with Cadell Last and teaching at Philosophy Portal. What Cadell and The Portal are doing is nothing less than resuscitating the lifeless body of education itself. If systematic education has any future at all, then it is a future opened up by the alternative framework being developed at The Portal. One goes to university in order to purchase a piece of paper — one goes to Philosophy Portal to truly philosophize.” -Michael Downs

"What The Portal offers is a gift that changes the quality of a whole life: it is not simply a product, but a horizon. I see the world differently now, and I can’t imagine where I would be without it.” -Daniel L. Garner

Endorsements From Our Members:

"The Portal is an extraordinary space that goes deep into the core of human existence. It turns philosophy into a tangible, authentic experience, offering a real and truthful exploration of life's mysteries. I highly recommend for its ability to nurture both personal exploration and professional development.” -Joris de Kelver

"The Portal is the best place to go for the real practice of Hegel’s idea of dialectical modern philosophy, as the evolution from previous modes of consciousness. Cadell engages with new thinkers and technologies seamlessly, and the additional courses are fantastic!” -Eliot and Kirsty Rosenstock

"I fell into The Portal after becoming disillusioned with the University, but still desirous of a life of Higher Learning. I now consider it my intellectual home. My thinking life is continually challenged and enriched by fellow members and their careful but critical engagement with guests and their projects” -Daniel Coughlan

"The Portal has offered me an interactive way of engaging with philosophy online. Cadell has created a shared space where ideas are worked through collectively, allowing one’s own thinking to be challenged, clarified, and deepened." -LaVonne Chantal

"The Portal has been an incredible experience for me.  The community is welcoming, intellectually stimulating, and genuinely inspiring.  Whether you're just exploring philosophical ideas or already well-versed, there’s something here for everyone." -Davide Pasti

"The Portal has been a constant source of information that has opened up a philosophical dialogue far broader than any other online community that I have experienced, and also building a space that is welcoming and accommodating no matter where one stands in their philosophical journey.” -Pae Veo

"The Portal consistently challenges and expands my thinking, placing me in direct dialogue with heterodox, cutting-edge thinkers across philosophy, theology, politics, economics, and spirituality; in an open environment, communal, free of judgment with plenty of room for discussion and reflection. It has genuinely changed my life by creating/curating a recurring space where deep, collective thought feels urgent, rewarding, and intellectually alive.” -Stefan John de Pous

"For anyone struggling to maintain a big-picture overview while delving deep, The Portal actively makes the two reinforce one another, in a way that uniquely allows thought to move from comprehension into lived engagement." -Esben Topland

Our Promise to Members

Our promise to members is to continue building the best philosophy space online, and that will include long-term commitment to our original vision, but also innovations designed to push our work further.  The bottom line: The Portal aims to be the best education and thinking space for the lowest price.  As The Portal continues to grow and build, we will aim to provide more to our members for less.  We will also continue to try and be a space that is genuinely open to real inquiry and investigation, the cultivation of a philosophical mindset, and the application of that mindset to active engagement with living people and projects required to birth a para-academic network capable of thinking the unity of the local-global, as well as the physical-digital.       

Philosophy Portal Members
€50.00
Every month
€500.00
Every year

Philosophy Portal is an online education platform opening space for the next generation of great thought, and cultivation of future philosophical mind. Philosophy Portal members get access to The Portal live event spaces, free access to courses. Couples are encouraged get a 2 for 1 deal. All Sales Final.

✓ Four live events every month + recorded history (150+ hours)
✓ Marxist Politics for Undead Millennials (live)
✓ Slovenian School Reading Group (live)
✓ Sex and Society Circle (live)
✓ Access to past Portal courses (e.g. Deleuze and Analysis)

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Home of a philosophical community building a future-oriented learning network

Continental Philosophy. Psychoanalytic Theory. Emancipatory Politics. Radical Theology.

We host four live philosophical events every month. Members get access to entire recorded history.

Members Enter
Portal Recordings
Membership
COURSES
BOOKS
CONFERENCES
TESTIMONIALS