What does it mean to care for creation?
In an age dominated by climate rhetoric and ecological anxiety, conversations about the environment often drift into extremes: either sentimental reverence for nature or technocratic management of “resources.” But what if there were another way—one rooted in a deeper understanding of nature, of the human person, and the moral order binding both?
This summer, the Lyceum Institute is offering a seminar that challenges the common presuppositions about environmentalism: Science: Philosophy of Nature and Environmental Philosophy in Synthesis. From June 7 to August 2 (with a break on July 5), this course explores an integrated vision of ecology and ethics grounded in the Thomistic-Aristotelian tradition.
Rather than reducing nature to a mechanical system or treating humanity as a parasite upon the planet, this tradition sees human beings as moral agents called to steward creation—not dominating it, but perfecting it according to its own order and goodness.
The seminar will contrast this anthropocentric and theocentric model with contemporary biocentric and ecocentric theories—such as those of Deep Ecology, Eco-Feminism, and the North American wilderness tradition—placing each in rigorous dialogue through the classical method of disputatio.
Participants will tackle real-world issues: climate change, sustainability, conservation, pollution, and the value of the natural world. But unlike the typical environmental discourse, these topics will be approached through a metaphysical and ethical lens—placing the human vocation to care for the world in its full moral and spiritual context.
If you want a richer understanding of environmental ethics—one that respects both nature and reason—this seminar is for you. Enrollment in the seminar (at the link below) starts at $60.
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