News and Announcements

  • Passion and the Capture of Reason

    A Philosophical Happy Hour on the ways in which passion may capture and distort our exercise of reason—or, in proper subordination, affect a coherence of our persons Thinking clearly.  It seems a vanishingly rare virtue.  Ours is a reactionary time.  Reaction, however, seldom comes from the clear light of reason—but rather from the murky vapors…

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    Passion and the Capture of Reason
  • Lecture: You Are Not Your Own: a phenomenological investigation of embodiment

    Last year, the Lyceum Institute again hosted Dr. Steven DeLay (Research Fellow, Global Centre for Advanced Studies, Dublin and Tutorial Fellow, Ambrose College, Woolf University) in presenting his research. A prolific author and expert in French phenomenology, we are delighted to have Dr. DeLay contributing to our colloquia for the second year in a row.…

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    Lecture: You Are Not Your Own: a phenomenological investigation of embodiment
  • On Life, Knowledge, and Vocation

    A Philosophical Happy Hour contemplating the role of knowledge in the various vocations of life Lately—though, perhaps always, implicitly—we have found ourselves circling the topic of vocation.  What is the calling of the human person?  Does it fall into determinate categories—as husband or priest, mother or c-suite executive—or does it admit greater variability and complexity? …

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    On Life, Knowledge, and Vocation
  • On the State of Higher Education

    A Philosophical Happy Hour concerning the present conditions, future prospects, and most promising directions for the pursuit of higher education Every reality which exists only in the concrete, corporeal world—and especially those that exist only or primarily within the socially-constructed realities of human interaction—has a natural lifespan.  They are born, they mature, and, eventually, they…

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    On the State of Higher Education
  • Scholastic Latin Course

    Though a single language, Latin finds diverse expression across the centuries of its use. The student familiar with Cicero and Seneca will different modes of expression in Abelard and Aquinas. But Scholastic Latin, albeit less rhetorically fluid than many of the great classical authors, has a beauty all its own—a spiritual depth and a philosophical…

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    Scholastic Latin Course
  • Felicitates de Quodlibet, II.3

    A Philosophical Happy Hour on… whatever! The third installment in our Felictates de Quodlibet series for 2025, in which we talk about whatever we want, so long as it is interesting, and for as long as we are interested. Or, to put this otherwise: do you have a philosophical question—any question whatsoever—you want seriously to…

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    Felicitates de Quodlibet, II.3
  • Linguistic Signification: A Classical and Semiotic Course in Grammar & Composition

    New! The second, greatly expanded edition—for those who seek not mere correctness, but understanding. In a world that ignores education in grammar—first, reducing it to mere “correctness” and, second, outsourcing the verification of that correctness to digital technologies—Linguistic Signification offers something far more substantial: an integrated education in the principles of language itself. This text…

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    Linguistic Signification: A Classical and Semiotic Course in Grammar & Composition
  • On Self-Awareness, Morality, and the Machine

    A Philosophical Happy Hour on the relationship between self-awareness, morality, and machine technologies What is the relationship between self-awareness and our moral convictions?  How do our technologies affect this relationship?  This week’s Philosophical Happy Hour takes up these questions and more.  But let us set the stage for our conversation. A member brought this article…

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    On Self-Awareness, Morality, and the Machine
  • Final Push for Fundraising

    It’s the last week of our Spring fundraiser! To date, we have raised $9,422. This is $15,578 short of our goal of $25,000. To get us as close to this goal as we can, we are asking for your help in this final week! Any donations, large or small, are greatly appreciated. As a token…

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    Final Push for Fundraising
  • On the Discomfort of Unfamiliar Studies

    A Philosophical Happy Hour on the struggle to study unfamiliar topics, subjects, texts, and skills—and the necessity of that discomfort Atop my bookcases—visible just over my computer monitors, reminding me of its presence nearly every day—sits a nice four-volume hardcover set titled The World of Mathematics.  This set intimidates me.  Though I have a PhD…

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    On the Discomfort of Unfamiliar Studies