On Gratitude and Debts
A Philosophical Happy Hour on gratitude and the repayment of gifts—that is, the satisfaction of debts for the gratuitously-given—through the insight of St. Thomas Aquinas. The virtue of gratitude, St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, “always inclines, insofar as possible, to pay back something greater” than one has received. In a world of diminished personal bonds, […]
On Human Uselessness
A Philosophical Happy Hour on Jacques Ellul’s “Meditation on Inutility”, challenging us to think about the uselessness of human action. For this week’s Philosophical Happy Hour, we will take up a specific short text to read and discuss: the postscript to Jacques Ellul’s Politics of God and Politics of Man, titled “a meditation on inutility”. […]
Dr. Daniel Wagner on Plato’s Meno
Our Faculty Fellow and Professor, Director of Catholic Studies, and Chair of Philosophy as Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI, Dr. Daniel Wagner, joined Dcn. Harrison Garlick of Ascend: The Great Books Podcast to discuss one of his favorite Platonic dialogues, The Meno. You can find (and follow) Ascend on X.com here, and listen to […]
Catharsis and the Intellectual Life
In this conversation, Brian Kemple is joined by Daniel Wagner, a Faculty Fellow of the Lyceum Institute, in exploring the motivations behind intellectual pursuits, the significance of classical education, and the contrast between modern and classical educational philosophies. 00:00 – Introduction to Intellectual Pursuits 03:01 – Catharsis, Healing, and Philosophy 06:55 – Understanding Classical Education […]
Humility: Wellspring of Virtue, or Cowardice in Disguise?
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the nature of humility and its status in contemporary society. What is Humility? For reasons personal, professional, and perhaps preposterous, I’m attempting to learn French. However, I must confess: I am having a rough go of it. Though I’ve a bit of a knack for picking up languages, I nonetheless […]
On Cognitive Security
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the cognitive threats we face in an increasingly interconnected and digital world—and the possible solutions or approaches to them (the “security”). It is mid-2020 and you cannot shake the feeling that you are not getting the whole story. We are told that a lethal virus is raging across the global. […]
Passion and the Capture of Reason
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the ways in which passion may capture and distort our exercise of reason—or, in proper subordination, affect a coherence of our persons Thinking clearly. It seems a vanishingly rare virtue. Ours is a reactionary time. Reaction, however, seldom comes from the clear light of reason—but rather from the murky vapors […]
On Life, Knowledge, and Vocation
A Philosophical Happy Hour contemplating the role of knowledge in the various vocations of life Lately—though, perhaps always, implicitly—we have found ourselves circling the topic of vocation. What is the calling of the human person? Does it fall into determinate categories—as husband or priest, mother or c-suite executive—or does it admit greater variability and complexity? […]
On the State of Higher Education
A Philosophical Happy Hour concerning the present conditions, future prospects, and most promising directions for the pursuit of higher education Every reality which exists only in the concrete, corporeal world—and especially those that exist only or primarily within the socially-constructed realities of human interaction—has a natural lifespan. They are born, they mature, and, eventually, they […]
On Self-Awareness, Morality, and the Machine
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the relationship between self-awareness, morality, and machine technologies What is the relationship between self-awareness and our moral convictions? How do our technologies affect this relationship? This week’s Philosophical Happy Hour takes up these questions and more. But let us set the stage for our conversation. A member brought this article […]
