habits

  • Second Plenary Speaker – Human Formation in the Digital Age

    From 16-17 September 2026, in St. Louis Missouri, the Lyceum Institute is hosting our first in-person event, Human Formation in the Digital Age: a conference asking how we must respond to our changed and rapidly changing technological environments in seeking to retrieve and foster a genuine formation of the human person. Here we announce our…

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  • What Classical Education Needs

    In this conversation, Geoffrey Meadows (Head of Upper School, Tulsa Classical Academy) discusses being a โ€œhunter of causesโ€ and the need to translate enthusiasm into hard work in classical education. Together with Dr. Kemple, he discusses the importance of philosophy, the impact of technology on education, and the necessity of moral formation in students. Geoffrey…

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  • The Mystery of Being and the Rediscovery of Tradition

    In this conversation, Dr. Matthew K. Minerd reflects on his intellectual journey, highlighting the influence of language and philosophyโ€”the dance of ฮฝฮฟแฟฆฯ‚ before our eyesโ€”in shaping his understanding of the world and his habits of inquiry. Listen as he and Dr. Kemple discuss the discovery of meaningful study, the development of a global intellectual perspective,…

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  • Philosophy and the Art of Reasoning

    John Boyer joins Brian Kemple to discuss the decline of traditional liberal education and its impact on university curricula, emphasizing the superficial engagement with important questions in contemporary society, particularly through social media. In place of these superficial approaches, we ought to recover the Aristotelian understanding of causality, developing habits of real inquiry, and discovery…

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  • Building Habits of True Learning

    In this conversation, Dr. Jacob Joseph Andrews discusses his journey into the intellectual life, emphasizing the importance of personal development, moral formation, and the role of classical education. He highlights the significance of language study, particularly Latin, in understanding culture and fostering intellectual habits. Andrews also reflects on the value of specialized study and the…

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  • On Restoring Humanity

    A Philosophical Happy Hour continuing our investigation into economics, politics, Catholic Social teaching, and the restoration of the good life for humanity. Last week, our Philosophical Happy Hour asked what Rerum Novarum, the 1891 Encyclical promulgated by Pope Leo XIIIโ€”and chief inspiration for the newly-elected Pope Leo XIVโ€™s choice of nameโ€”could tell us about the…

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  • On Rerum Novarum and the Future of Human Society

    A Philosophical Happy Hour investigating the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, highlighting key passages and inquiring into their relevance today for considering the future of human society. Rerum novarum semel excitata cupidine, Pope Leo XII begins his famed Encyclical of 1891, โ€œThe desire of new things once having been arousedโ€, passes beyond the…

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  • On the Relation of Reason to Faith

    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…

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  • On Authentic Play

    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 petsโ€”dogs and catsโ€”but…

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