On Higher Education
In recent years, a number of online alternatives to colleges and universities have been established, of which the Lyceum is but one, even as these conventional institutions expand their own digital presence. Many reasons spur on these alternatives—cost, time, location, curriculum, and so on—but the principal reason (at the very least, for the Lyceum’s existence) […]
Living through the Barbarism
Perhaps this is an odd title—Living through the Barbarism—but it seems that ours is an age of unthinking strife. As a Lyceum Member asks: What is work and what is its purpose? This is something I have been thinking about a lot recently but also as a follow up to our conversation on Private Property […]
On the Death of the Artist
A Lyceum Member proposes, as a topic for our 29 November 2023 Happy Hour: “How much does the artist’s intention factor into the meaning of his art? How can semiotic Thomism help us to answer this question? Can there be a more fitting interpretation of the art he makes than the one he intended? Is […]
On Natural Law and Justice
In his work Introduction to Moral Theology, Fr. Romanus Cessario O.P. remarked on certain misconceptions with respect to how the natural had grown in application and importance over time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: arguing that the presentation of the natural law given in teaching manuals was anachronistic and unhelpful, and in […]
On Modern Science and Sacred Traditions
“Religion is anti-science.” Jerry Coyne, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, once wrote the following: I’ll construe “science” as the set of tools we use to find truth about the universe, with the understanding that these truths are provisional rather than absolute. These tools include observing nature, framing and testing […]
On Worldviews and Ideologies
Understanding the World(view) What do we mean by the common term “worldview”? Our English word originates from the German Weltanschauung (from Welt, meaning “world”, and Anschauung, “view”, “perception”, or even “perspective”). Often, the term is used as though it needs no explanation: “That’s your worldview”, “My worldview is…”, “The Roman worldview” or “The Catholic worldview”, […]
Reclaiming Culture in the Digital Age
The provincial attitude is limited in time but not in space. When the regional man, in his ignorance, often an intensive and creative ignorance, extends his own immediate necessities into the world, and assumes that the present moment is unique, he becomes the provincial man. He cuts himself off from the past, and without benefit […]
On the End of War
“Only the dead have seen the end of war,” wrote George Santayana in 1922. A century later his observation clearly remains poignant. War has proven a commonplace ever since, with seldom a year passing without violent conflict. Though we in the United States have lived fortunate enough never to have prolonged conflict upon our own […]
On Self-Education
As part of our program, members at the Lyceum Institute are encouraged to suggest rich topics for our weekly Philosophical Happy Hour. One member writes: What is the value of self-education? By this I mean education that one engages in, (either through books or courses) without the aid of a teacher. I think there is […]
Property, Ownership, and the Concentration of Wealth
What is property? What is wealth? Who has a right to ownership? What moral quandaries are to be found in the concentration of wealth? Over the past several decades, wealth has become, in many ways, largely dissociated from real things, from tangible beings. This dissociation stems not only from the movement to a fiat currency, […]
