A Philosophical Happy Hour on… whatever! The second 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 discuss with other people?
In the Scholastic university, renowned thinkers would regularly engage in open debate on questions posed by other scholars or students at the institution. Most often, these questions would concern a specific, pre-determined topic. From this we derive works such as Thomas Aquinas’ Quaestiones disputatae de Veritate and Quaestiones disputatae de Potentia Dei, etc. But sometimes, they would be completely open-floor: Quaestiones de Quodlibet, literally, “questions about whatever”.
This week—yet again—at the Lyceum Institute, we are combining that openness to serious and rigorous intellectual questioning with the joviality of our Happy Hour. In other words: we have no set topic this week, but want to entertain any serious or interesting philosophical question. Attendees are encouraged to think up a question beforehand. We will talk about a topic for as long as the conversation flows—and then proceed to the next.
These can be questions about which you are merely curious (why does everyone have tattoos today, do we spend too much money on entertaiment), in which you are deeply interested (like artificial “intelligence”, what it means to make a decision, ideological revisionism in media, and whether space travel is worth the attention and effort… all of which we plan to discuss this week!), which revisit topics discussed previously (such as subsidiarity, phenomenology, comedy or tragedy, semiotics); questions about specific thinkers or ideas; relations between philosophers; and so on and on!
So if you have any philosophical questions you want to ask, come join us! This is the sixth overall instance of the Felictates de Quodlibet; or, in honor of our forebears, we can identify this as the second quaestio of the second series—and we look forward to many more!
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Come join us for drinks (adult or otherwise) and a meaningful conversation. Open to the public! Held every Wednesday from 5:45–7:15pm ET.
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