News and Announcements
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Fear, Horror, and the Moral Imagination
What drives an audience—be it of a movie or book—to subject itself to the emotions of fear and horror? What are these emotions? Do they play a role in forming the moral imagination? Our Philosophical Happy Hour gets spooky. I will confess—I have never myself been much a fan of horror movies. On the one…
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On Closed Minds
Pivoting from the dangers of curiosity—the unrestrained desire to know all things—this week our Philosophical Happy Hour takes up the opposite vice: the closed and uninquiring mind. We all likely know a person or two (or twenty) who seem never to change their minds. Just this past Friday, I was reminded of my dissertation director’s…
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On the Effects of Curiosity
Do you want to know “what is happening”? Cannot resist peeking behind that curtain, over that fence, clicking that link? Join our Philosophical Happy Hour in this member-led discussion of curiosity. Curiosity Aristotle starts his Metaphysics with the claim that “All men naturally desire knowledge.” (1.1.1.980a21-2, Tredenick Translation). To modern eyes he seems to be…
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We All Dress Like the Emperor
I would dare to say that everyone raised in the Western world has taken “privacy” for granted as a natural right: such that, aside from voluntary participation in the public, each of us is protected from our activities being known. Is this a fairy tale? Join our Philosophical Happy Hour as we pry back the…
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What is “Reality”?
We often say that things are or are not real. But what does this really mean? Though a common conception upon which we all rely, “reality” proves rather slippery to describe. Join our Philosophical Happy Hour as we try to grasp it. What do we mean when we call something “real”? It sounds simple—almost embarrassingly…
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New Publication: Humanitas Technica, Vol.1
Humanitas Technica, Volume I presents in print the results of the Lyceum Institute’s first two years of inquiry into the relation between human beings and technology (note: all these texts are available online and free, but for those who prefer print, this is an excellent solution!). Its central claim is that technology should not be…
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Have You No Shame?
Who among us has not felt a cringe, a desire to disappear, when the eyes of another alight upon our faults and failures? Shame is a feeling equally powerful and undesirable. But what is it, itself, and what role does it play in our lives? We take up these questions in our Philosophical Happy Hour.…
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Signs and Obfuscations: Can the Weather Lie?
The forecast calls for rain, but it remains dry. Someone smiles cheerfully at you, while plotting your downfall. You’ve got a fever—but the only cure is more cowbell. Our Philosophical Happy Hour takes up the question of signs, obfuscation, obscurity, and the signs by which truth and falsity are known. Nobody—or almost nobody—expects a career…
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Felicitates de Quodlibet, III.5
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the art of questioning. A unique fifth installment in our Felictates de Quodlibet series for 2026. In this installment, we ask: do you have a serious question—any serious question whatsoever—which troubles your mind? What is that question? Do we really know what it is what we are seeking? The Lyceum’s…
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On the Nature of Culture
The title might seem like a paradox. Are not “nature” and “culture” radically distinct, even opposed to each other? To answer this we must ask: what do we mean by “nature” and what do we mean by “culture”? Our Philosophical Happy Hour takes up these questions. I have often said, with only a part of…
