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”. […]
The Suffering of Age
A Philosophical Happy Hour making phenomenological investigation into the experience of aging—bodily, mentally, spiritually, morally, as carried out in action and passion from conception until death. We mark the passing years in many ways. Anniversaries of first dates, of engagements, of weddings, of ordinations, of foundings for countries and companies alike—each noted by the year […]
On the Significance of Death
An essay on avoidance of thought about the significance of death. By now, even without knowing much about him, I suspect that most people have likely heard of Bryan Johnson, the men employing the most extreme and elaborate (and expensive) anti-aging protocol in recorded history. Johnson believes that, through the use of medicine, scientific understanding, […]
On the Philosophy of Boredom
Who does not dislike the experience of boredom? To be bored is to feel one’s time, one’s energy, one’s capacities are wasted, withering away on nothing. But, at times, the boredom that seizes us disregards even our greatest loves: no matter the diversion attempted, boredom takes sway. We might pick up a favorite book, only […]
Hidden Hours
This post presents a quick reflection on rediscovering the hidden hours—the hours that we lose in each day. Who among us has not found him- or herself wishing for an extra hour or two in the day? For many, there seems so much to get done, and so little time in which to do it. […]
Wholes and Parts: A Thomistic Refutation of Brain Death
In the first Lyceum Institute Colloquium of 2021, we present our own Michel Accad, MD, who will take us through a discussion of "brain death" as a supposed criterion for determining the presence of life in a human being.
