nature
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Retrospect: the Nature of Culture
Our Philosophical Happy Hour (26 August 2026) inquired into the nature of culture. Here is a brief retrospective survey of our discussion. The word “culture” remains laden with confused significations. Sorting out its meaning, organizing the uses of it, and identifying the proper phenomenon it names proves no easy task. Yet even a relatively short…
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On the Nature of Culture
The title might seem like a paradox. Are not “nature” and “culture” radically distinct, even opposed to each other? To answer this we must ask: what do we mean by “nature” and what do we mean by “culture”? Our Philosophical Happy Hour takes up these questions. I have often said, with only a part of…
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The Human Person and Artificial Intelligence
Today we conclude our first white paper series, derived from the 2024 Difficulties of Technology seminar, with Modules 8 – Technology and the Whole Person and 9 – Consensus on Artificial Intelligence. These papers address the principal and characteristic harm of poorly designed, developed, and implemented technology—namely, its fragmentation of the human person—and the specific…
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Humanitas Technica – Update
Our on-going project of publishing the results and developments of the Humanitas Technica Project continues: today, adding a new theoretical paper by Adam Pugen (Faculty Fellow) and two more of our first white paper series. Reclaiming Communication Reclaiming Communication from Information: Knowing in the Digital Age — This paper argues that digital media reduces communication…
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Reframing Our Understanding of Technology
Technology is often discussed and conceived in extreme terms: triumphant progress, mastering nature; or self-inflicted catastrophic destruction. But rarely is the question asked—and even more rarely answered well—what is technology? How are we affected in ourselves by our technologies? The 2024 Difficulties of Technology seminar, conducted within the multiyear Humanitas Technica project, asked these and…
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Seminar: Steps toward Dialectical Logic [Fall 2025]
Announcement of our Fall 2025 seminar, “What Kind of Certainty?: Steps Toward Dialectical Logic”—have we overlooked an important Aristotelian text and tradition in our understanding of reasoning? Description Details All Lyceum Institute seminars include weekly readings, lectures, and live discussion sessions. The discussion sessions are recorded. This seminar includes extensive readings, but does not require…