community
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On Informal Language and the Dissolution of Community
A Philosophical Happy Hour questioning whether informal language has erosive effects on community—and how formal articulation might aid our relations. How do we acquire language? We perhaps first need to understand what language is—and we might presume falsely that we do. But we may think, nonetheless, about how young children learn to speak, to communicate. …
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Implementation of Subsidiarity
The principle of subsidiarity—perhaps longest known for its role in Catholic social teaching though also described as “fundamental to the functioning of the European Union”—has an undeniable allure for all serious persons. Succinctly described, subsidiarity holds that governing decisions ought to be made at the lowest level of competence. In a concrete example, decisions about…
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On Education and Its Institutions
The contemporary controversy concerning education centers around the institutions tasked with providing it. We ask ourselves what curricula should be implemented, what teaching methods are most effective, and how governmental agencies can assist in the growth of educational institutions—we debate the morality of teachers and their influence, the rights to speech and questioning, the difficulty…
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The Practice of Philosophy in a Time of Loneliness
Brian Jones (PhD candidate, University of St. Thomas, TX) delivers a thoughtful lecture on how the practice of philosophy in our time of loneliness can sustain and elevate us throughout the present crisis and the threat it poses to the world. Jones draws on the thought of Alexis De Tocqueville, Byung-Chul Han, James V. Schall,…
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What Is Wrong with the World?
“What’s wrong with the world?” Countless thinkers have asked this question, especially over the past century-plus, and they have asked it over and over again; to the point that few in recent years seem to ask it any longer, even for the purpose of adopting the thinnest veneer of rhetorical posturing. No. Today, almost everyone…
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A Vision of the Good
The following is a summary of key points raised in our weekly Philosophical Happy Hour discussion of 9 November 2022 during which we discussed the lacking vision of the good in our contemporary society. Ideologies and False Idols Why do left-leaning progressive politics seem ascendant in the Western world? One does not need to dig…
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This Week [5/24-5/29]
Seminars, Quaestiones Disputatae, and more!