Philosophical Happy Hour
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Quodlibet de Disciplina, III.2
A Philosophical Happy Hour on… anything pertaining to learning (disciplina)! The second installment in our Felictates de Quodlibet series for 2026, with a specific topic but an open field of questioning. Or, to put this otherwise: do you have any question whatsoever, or any idea of weight, so long as it pertains to learning that…
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The Cult of Authenticity and Hypocrisy
A Philosophical Happy Hour reflecting on the pressure to exhibit personal authenticity in an age of hypocrisy. We hear constant calls to “be authentic”, “be yourself”, and “say what you really think”. These imperatives are often treated as uncontroversially liberating—as though the chief moral danger of human life were merely to live under false pretenses.…
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On Lying, Concealment, and Strategic Deception
A Philosophical Happy Hour considering whether every intentional deception is forbidden, or whether some concealment is not only permitted but required. What is a lie? And do we often call things “lies” that aren’t, or conflate lies with other forms of concealment or deception? A difficult and uncomfortable question—but one, perhaps, crucial to ask today. …
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On the Necessity of Solitude for Abiding in the Truth
A Philosophical Happy Hour inquiring into the nature of solitude and its role for our intellectual lives: not as that whereby truth is merely discovered, but by which we abide in it. Two weeks ago, we asked in our Philosophical Happy Hour how and why it is that friendship is necessary for discovering the good. …
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To Will or Not To Will (That is the Question)?
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the act of will, and the question: what does it mean to say that our will is free? What makes a will good? A common staple of western philosophical anthropology is arguing or asserting there is such a thing as a human will, a driving force or the part of…
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On the Necessity of Friendship for Discovering the Good
A Philosophical Happy Hour focused on the question of friendship: its nature, deepening, and the necessity of others with whom we share the search for the good. I have spent much of my life alone. The youngest in my family, I began homeschooling in fourth grade, and continued until I started community college, before transitioning…
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On the Univocal and the Analogical
A Philosophical Happy Hour investigating the principles and aims of language through univocal and analogical predication. What is the meaning or the significance of a word? This question may operate on two levels: first, concerning a specific word’s meaning—“tree” or “justice”, “fruit” or “truth”; or, second, concerning the relationship between meaning in general and words…
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Felicitates de Quodlibet, III.1
A Philosophical Happy Hour on… whatever! The first installment in our Felictates de Quodlibet series for 2026, 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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What Makes a Thinker Worth Exploring?
A Philosophical Happy Hour asking why (or whether) we should read some thinkers over others, explore some ideas before the rest, and take some philosophers more seriously than others. A question surfaces again and again in philosophical discussion, sometimes with impatience: why do certain thinkers keep returning? Why are Plato and Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas,…
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On Knowing Ourselves
A Philosophical Happy Hour questioning how and how well we come to know ourselves. Who are we, really? Commonly we presume today that we know ourselves by a turn inward. We associate self-knowledge with “introspection” and “authenticity”. But despite this contemporary insistence, it seems many people do not know themselves: conflicted in motivation and desire,…
