philosophy
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Literature, Writing, and the Recovery of Man
A Philosophical Happy Hour inquiring into the virtues of the written word—on literature, writing, and the possibility of meaningful truths amidst a flood of meaningless words. Walker Percy’s brief meditation, titled “From Facts to Fiction” begins autobiographically: a physician trained in the beauty, rigor, and explanatory power of science finds himself forced by illness into…
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Is Democracy Viable?
A Philosophical Happy Hour inquiring into the long-term institutional viability of democratic governance. Why is democracy the favored form of governance in the modern world? The modern forms of democratic government emerged alongside an emphasis on individual rights, autonomy, and equality. Therefore it seems, at the root of such emergence, we find beliefs both about…
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On Informal Language and the Dissolution of Community
A Philosophical Happy Hour questioning whether informal language has erosive effects on community—and how formal articulation might aid our relations. How do we acquire language? We perhaps first need to understand what language is—and we might presume falsely that we do. But we may think, nonetheless, about how young children learn to speak, to communicate. …
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Quodlibet de Disciplina, III.2
A Philosophical Happy Hour on… anything pertaining to learning (disciplina)! The second installment in our Felictates de Quodlibet series for 2026, with a specific topic but an open field of questioning. Or, to put this otherwise: do you have any question whatsoever, or any idea of weight, so long as it pertains to learning that…
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On the Necessity of Solitude for Abiding in the Truth
A Philosophical Happy Hour inquiring into the nature of solitude and its role for our intellectual lives: not as that whereby truth is merely discovered, but by which we abide in it. Two weeks ago, we asked in our Philosophical Happy Hour how and why it is that friendship is necessary for discovering the good. …
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To Will or Not To Will (That is the Question)?
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the act of will, and the question: what does it mean to say that our will is free? What makes a will good? A common staple of western philosophical anthropology is arguing or asserting there is such a thing as a human will, a driving force or the part of…