Quaestiones Disputatae – Inquirere & Defensio
There are two available September sessions for Inquirere & Defensio in the Quaestiones Disputatae program. Members are encouraged to participate as Observers, Inquirers, or Defenders.
Fall Seminars
Fall 2021 Seminars are now available to sign up (follow the link for Syllabi). Hard to believe we’re already approaching the last quarter of the year! Announcing our Fall Seminars, discussion sessions starting from October 2 and running until November 20. Members of the Lyceum Institute are free to participate for the first week (the enrollment period for members will be from September 25–9 October). Non-members can enroll from now until October 6.
[2021 Fall] Thomistic Psychology: The Meaning of Evil – Dr. Kirk Kanzelberger
Every human being has some notion of evil as that which is opposed to a good: the good that one desires, the good that one honors – or, perhaps, the good that one wishes one honored or desired more than one does. Even persons who might consider themselves at quite home with the official or trendy relativisms of the day frequently find themselves possessed with anger at states of affairs, ideas, and other persons they clearly judge to be evil. Might not the frenzy of the anger, as well as the lack of humility it evinces, suggest a deeper questioning? For if we are honest, we must admit that, despite every good intention, we ourselves have some share in the mysterious reality of evil in the world.
[2021 Fall] Metaphysics: The Existence, Nature, and Intelligibility of God – Dr. Brian Kemple
“In my opinion,” Umberto Eco once said, “it’s religion that produces God, not the other way around.” Once the sentiment of the purportedly rebellious thinker, today such is a commonplace. But for all Eco’s learning, for as much as he may have read St. Thomas Aquinas (and even admired his mind), it seems that the novelist did not understand the doctor: for having seized the truths of the divine so articulately explicated by Aquinas, one could not help but wish to create a religion around the being thereby revealed, were the Divine not to have already revealed Itself and given us the right means for worship.
[2021 Fall] More than Aesthetics: Ens Artificiale and the Philosophy of Art – Dr. Matthew Minerd
Human experience is filled with beings which are often considered a sort of “non-being” or, perhaps, “diminished” being by many scholastics: artifacts. Sometimes, we are told by this tradition that a door threshold is really just an accidental conjunction of a given shape with the substance of dead wood. However, a cursory glance around the world reveals the a host of realities which are structurally dependent upon human ingenuity and the long history of human exploration and creativity.
Exploring its topic from a broadly Aristotelian-Thomistic perspective, this course will use the work of Jacques Maritain to probe the broader set of philosophical issues involved in the “philosophy of art”…
Weekly Schedule of Events
9/6 Monday
- Exercitium Linguae Latinae (2:00-2:30pm ET). Legemus ex Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata ut melioremus nostrum locutionem et augeamus familiaritatem vocabulis.
9/7 Tuesday
- Ex Sancto Thoma Legimus (9:30-10:00am ET). Legemus ex Sancto Thoma et convertit in linguam Anglicam; practicum bonum et utile est!
- Philosophical Happy Hour (5:45-7:15pm ET). Join us for drinks, conversation, lively debates, and get to know the Lyceum Institute and its members! Open to the public: use the “Send Us a Message” form here (write “Happy Hour” in the message box) and we’ll see you on Teams!
9/8 Wednesday
- Exercitium Linguae Latinae (2:00-2:30pm ET). Legemus ex Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata ut melioremus nostrum locutionem et augeamus familiaritatem vocabulis.
9/9 Thursday
- Ex Sancto Thoma Legimus (9:30-10:00am ET). Legemus ex Sancto Thoma et convertit in linguam Anglicam; practicum bonum et utile est!
- Elementary Latin Class (6:00-7:00pm ET). Discimus de pastoribus, ovibus, canibus, lupis, nubibus, et multis aliis! Legimus et convertimus ex capitulo IX!
9/10 Friday
- Open Chat (9:30-10:30am ET). Our regular Friday-morning open chat, allowing conversation between those in the West and those in the East–bridging the international community of the Lyceum Institute.
- Exercitium in Lingua Latina (11pm-12am ET). Etiam exercitium in Lingua Latina! Ista hora conveniens Orientalibus est (11am Manila time).
9/11 Saturday
- Intermediate Latin Class(10-11am ET). In hac septimana, de praedonibus et classibus Romanis discemus! Reddimus ad fabulam Lydiae et Medii. Legemus et convertemus ex capitulo XXXII.