Mission Statement
The Lyceum Institute provides a digital environment dedicated to fostering the philosophical habit–of questioning the truth of things and the good of life–in all its members, as we collectively pursue the never-ending education of a truly mind-liberating nature. Much of education depends upon the atmosphere in which we immerse ourselves, and, in the twenty-first century, we all inhabit a digital atmosphere. The Lyceum Institute seeks a continual, communal, and thoughtful ennobling of that atmosphere.
The Lyceum Institute plans to develop this mission under the principle of subsidiarity—that every issue should be dealt with at the closest-possible level of decision making, and that financial support should be given at the level that one can, particularly to aid those who cannot afford as much—exhibited in the maxim that small is beautiful.
This means that we will never grow too large: neither in administration, faculty, nor membership—and therefore will strive in all ways to keep costs down. Anyone serious about gaining, maintaining, and developing a liberal education—one that truly frees the mind for understanding and thought—should be able to find the means, particularly today, when digital technology has enabled such to be always at our fingertips. But this education itself suffocates whenever the student becomes lost, just another face in the crowd.
One can read more deeply into the philosophy motivating the Lyceum Institute in Education and Digital Life [via Amazon – Print] [via Newsletter – Digital].
Inquirere, Ordinare, Memorare
This unique digital environment emerges from the practice of the three parts of the Institute Motto: Inquirere, Ordinare, Memorare — to inquire, to remember, and to order.
Why these three actions?
The Lyceum Institute, being a digital environment, is adapted to fit and fructify the habits enabled by the nature of networked digital technology—which, at its core, is archival. That is, the very nature of digital architecture is to receive and retain bits of information that can represent nearly anything. Anything done online can be archived: captured in an arrangement of data and saved for posterity; it thus extends our memorative habits and capacities.
But consequently, for this archivality to be rightly leveraged, digital technology demands a habit of categorical consideration—a habit of ordering: as any good archive must be well-ordered, and approached with an ordered mind, for it to be used properly.
Furthermore, this demands of us an improved capacity for questioning; that is, no quantity of archived information, no matter how well it is organized, can tell us what we need to know if we do not even know how to ask the right questions. Moreover, what to do with that information requires not simply “the” right question, but a habit of knowing how to formulate those questions and pursue the answers. See Education and Digital Life for more details.