belief
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On Testimony: Rhetoric, Witnesses, and the Problem of Trust
A Philosophical Happy Hour investigating the rhetorical use and fittingness of witness testimony in efforts at persuasion. Very little of what we know—or believe ourselves to know—comes directly from our own experience. That is, someone might have a kind of local familiarity with things, but he has never seen Africa or Asia, never observed distant…
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Discovering Meaning in the Cosmos
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the struggle against nihilism—cosmological and psychological—and inadequate methods to assure ourselves of meaning in the cosmos. What is meaning? What do we mean when we say the word? What does the word signify? It is one of those funny words that everyone seemingly believes himself to know and yet which…
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On the Admission of Bad Taste
In lieu of Happy Hour on this Ash Wednesday, a brief reflection on the admission that we have “bad taste” in popular society, and the embarrassments that prevent our honesty. Since it is always unpleasant to have to admit the lack of something that everyone has as a matter of course, and which therefore properly…
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On Contemporary Atheism
A Philosophical Happy Hour centered around a reading of Jacques Maritain’s essay, “The Meaning of Contemporary Atheism”. Included in a collection of essays under the title, The Range of Reason, we find Jacques Maritain’s, “The Meaning of Contemporary Atheism”. We will gather this Wednesday (2/26/25) to discuss this essay’s primary intention—explaining what it means and…
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Do You Trust Me?
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the reasons for and nature of trust, distrust, and the consequences of breaking it. Image: Christopher Plummer as Iago and James Earl Jones as Othello (Requiescant in Pace). Trust today seems a quality lacking and, yet for which there is great desire. We do not trust our politicians and often…
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Foundationalism, Anti-Foundationalism, and the Justification of Belief
A Philosophical Happy Hour on basic questions of our noetic experience. In our conversation, we will examine these different approaches of foundationalism and anti-foundationalism, ask about their merits, demerits, whether they rest upon certain presuppositions, whether these presuppositions have justification—and what is the meaning of belief. In what follows, we provide brief descriptions of the…