What comes after liberalism? In some sense for centuries, and most definitely for the past several decades, Western politics have been shaped by a largely presupposed consensus towards liberalism—an ideology founded upon individual autonomy, procedural neutrality, and technocratic governance. But today, cracks are widening in presumed foundation. Whether in the erosion of public trust, the […]

In this Philosophical Happy Hour we will turn our attention to the ever-persistent question of the relation between faith and reason. How should we understand the relationship between faith and reason? We will explore this question through the sharp and illuminating lens of St. Thomas Aquinas in his commentary on Boethius’ De Trinitate, specifically question […]

A Philosophical Happy Hour investigating the nature, significance, and importance of authentic play. What does it mean to play?  Though we are all acquainted with play from an early age, we might be hard-pressed nonetheless to define it.  On the one hand, it seems something common to higher animals: not only our pets—dogs and cats—but […]

A Philosophical Happy Hour on the meaning of the postliberal, the postmodern, and the postacademic—and what we signify by “post-”. We do not think often enough about the meanings of words, especially those that have entered into the popular lexicon. The term ‘postmodern’ provides a good example of this unthinking, and in two ways. First […]

Announcing enrollment for our two Spring Seminars: Culture: More than Aesthetics and Thomistic Psychology: The Life of Thought. Culture: More than Aesthetics Thinking of art, we tend to think of the beautiful—and rightly so, for this, in some way, is to what all art aspires: if not directly, then indirectly, inasmuch as even the simple […]

To complement our recent Happy Hour discussion of tragedy, let’s consider the concept of comedy. The Nature and Praxis of Comedy As permits our time and—above all—my supply of shamefully light beer, we shall discuss at our next Happy Hour the nature of comedy and the comedic.[1] To facilitate our chat, I propose we undertake […]

St. Thomas Aquinas presents in the corpus of his work (at, e.g., De veritate q.1, a.1, Summa Theologiae Ia-IIae, q.94, a.2, and In Metaphysicorum, lib.4, lec.3, n.605) the claim that what the intellect first conceives is being and that the intellect further resolves all conceptions into being. Illud autem quod primo intellectus concipit quasi notissimum, […]

A Philosophical Happy Hour on our having become consumers and how we might escape consumerism. I am uncomfortable in nearly all shopping environments (used bookstores being the primary exception).  I do not know when this began—but it became very noticeable to me while in graduate school; perhaps because I was rather poor in those years.  […]

A Philosophical Happy Hour on the role of semiotics in consensus and community. Across many fields, industries, and academia, it has become a popular claim that we must “build consensus”.  The Harvard Law Program on Negotiation states: “Consensus building is a process involving a good-faith effort to meet the interests of all stakeholders and seek a unanimous […]

What is history—and how do we study it?  The answers to these questions—to be asked at this week’s Philosophical Happy Hour (17 January 2024: details below!)—though they might seem simple, perhaps even elementary, not only prove difficult and controversial but elusive.  And given different answers, the practice of historical inquiry will be greatly changed. History […]