Posts about Liberal Arts

Engagement Survey (Prize Giveaway)

Public Engagement Survey Now Open The Lyceum Institute exists to serve a public good: serious liberal education conducted online, grounded in tradition, and ordered toward intellectual and moral formation. As our programs, seminars, and community continue to grow, it is important that we pause to listen—not only to members, but to the wider public we […]

Trivium: Grammar I – Foundations [Winter 2026]

Announcement of our Winter 2026 Trivium: Art of Grammar course, in which we investigate the foundations of the English language (and language generally) through a rigorous study of syntax and semantics. Description Details This course includes eight weekly readings, lectures, homework assignments and two live class sessions per week. The class sessions are recorded but […]

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 philosophy—the dance of νοῦς before our eyes—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, […]

Trivium Courses (2026)

In 2026, the Lyceum Institute will offer the first three of six courses in our core Trivium curriculum, providing an entryway into a truly “liberal” education: We are also aiming to introduce regular occasions throughout the year for practicing dialectical disputation and rhetorical presentation, though plans for this are still taking shape. The three core […]

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 […]

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 […]

Linguistic Signification: A Classical and Semiotic Course in Grammar & Composition

New! The second, greatly expanded edition—for those who seek not mere correctness, but understanding. In a world that ignores education in grammar—first, reducing it to mere “correctness” and, second, outsourcing the verification of that correctness to digital technologies—Linguistic Signification offers something far more substantial: an integrated education in the principles of language itself. This text […]

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 […]

On the Discomfort of Unfamiliar Studies

A Philosophical Happy Hour on the struggle to study unfamiliar topics, subjects, texts, and skills—and the necessity of that discomfort Atop my bookcases—visible just over my computer monitors, reminding me of its presence nearly every day—sits a nice four-volume hardcover set titled The World of Mathematics.  This set intimidates me.  Though I have a PhD […]

1 2 3 6

Beyond the University

Beyond the University exists because the modern university, even where it succeeds, has become inadequate to the true tasks of education.  Education is not the transmission of information or preparation for employment, but the formation of good intellectual habits.  These aims no longer fit comfortably within institutions ordered primarily toward efficiency, expansion, and measurable outcomes.  The Lyceum Institute was founded to provide a genuinely different institutional form—one ordered toward education as an integral part of life rather than as a credentialing process.

The Lyceum cultivates enduring intellectual habits of inquiry, order, and memory through rigorous seminars, focused studies of the Trivium, classical languages, guided reading, and sustained inquisitive conversation.  By supporting the Lyceum Institute, you help sustain an independent public institution devoted to education ordered toward truth, continuity, and long-term intellectual formation.  Your gift ensures that this alternative remains available—not only for today’s students, but for generations to come.

This year (2026), we are seeking to raise $48,000

Join us in bringing new life to education!

Donors who give $4,000+ will receive a special gift.

Support Our Campaign

Subscribe

Subscribe to News & Updates

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 3,830 other subscribers