News and Announcements
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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…
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The Essence of Tragedy
What is the essence of tragedy? How is it a phenomenon of life, a genre of art? In what actions, characters, and thoughts is it most clearly represented? Join our Philosophical Happy Hour as we take up a central question of artistic signification. “That dinner party was a complete tragedy.” “Her outfit is, like, totally…
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Seminar: Philosophy of Time, Part I
Fall 2026 | Philosophy of Time, Part I: From Antiquity to the Renaissance | Philosophy Seminar Time governs nearly everything human beings do: days are divided into hours, work into schedules, lives into years; clocks and calendars coordinate our activities today with extraordinary precision, allowing a kind of punctuality unprecedented. Yet the ease with which…
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Seminar: Hermeneutics – An Introduction
Fall 2026 | Hermeneutics – An Introduction | Philosophy Seminar Human beings are always interpreting: words, gestures, events, traditions, texts, and, perhaps most of all, one another. But interpretation is not simply extracting a meaning from these things we encounter. Every attempt to understand brings us into further questions: What makes understanding possible in the…
