Brian Kemple

Brian Kemple, PhD

Executive Director

My name is Brian Kemple and I hold a PhD in Philosophy from the University of St. Thomas, in Houston TX.  I have written two scholarly books (Ens Primum Cognitum in Thomas Aquinas and the Tradition and The Intersection of Semiotics and Phenomenology: Peirce and Heidegger in Dialogue), two books intended for the seriously philosophically-minded public (an Introduction to Philosophical Principles and Linguistic Signification: A Classical and Semiotic Course in Grammar & Composition), a number of scholarly articles and a few public-oriented ones, as well. Previously, I have taught at the Wentworth Institute for Technology and the University of St. Thomas (TX). Additionally, I have worked as a private marketing and educational consultant (especially to PhD students).

After spending a few years in conventional university teaching, I began to see the structure of academia as inhibiting rather than enabling philosophical thinking, both for professors and for students.  I realized I had a choice: I could continue striving to fix a broken system from within, or I could try to build something new—risky, but better, if it worked, a new and better kind of institute. Thus, the Lyceum Institute was born in 2019, and it has been my honor to continue leading it since.

In addition to being the Executive Director of the Lyceum Institute—where I teach philosophy seminars, reading circles, and courses in the Trivium program—I am the Executive Editor of Reality: a Journal for Philosophical Discourse, which similarly operates in contrast to the standard practices of academia.