Semiotics
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Winter 2024: Introduction to Philosophical Thinking
We hear the word “philosophy” used often—often in cringe-inducing ways (“My philosophy on this is…” “That’s an interesting philosophy…” “His coaching philosophy…”), where the speaker really means an opinion or a method. For others of us, it might conjure up images of books or a college course catalog; perhaps something having to do with symbolic…
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Hervaeus Natalis and Logic
Ho ho ho… Harvey is coming to town? One of the many fascinating contributions semiotics makes to contemporary philosophical discourse is role it sees for signs and sign-relations in the domain of logic. In this interview on Dogs with Torches, we are joined by the Lyceum’s very own Dr. Matthew K. Minerd to discuss the…
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On the Death of the Artist
A Lyceum Member proposes, as a topic for our 29 November 2023 Happy Hour: “How much does the artist’s intention factor into the meaning of his art? How can semiotic Thomism help us to answer this question? Can there be a more fitting interpretation of the art he makes than the one he intended? Is…
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On Modern Science and Sacred Traditions
“Religion is anti-science.” Jerry Coyne, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, once wrote the following: I’ll construe “science” as the set of tools we use to find truth about the universe, with the understanding that these truths are provisional rather than absolute. These tools include observing nature, framing and testing…
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On Worldviews and Ideologies
Understanding the World(view) What do we mean by the common term “worldview”? Our English word originates from the German Weltanschauung (from Welt, meaning “world”, and Anschauung, “view”, “perception”, or even “perspective”). Often, the term is used as though it needs no explanation: “That’s your worldview”, “My worldview is…”, “The Roman worldview” or “The Catholic worldview”,…
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Announcing: Trivium 2024
Education in the liberal arts has been neglected in modernity and, when not ignored, derided by the forces of ultramodern thought. The consequences of this dereliction are evident: even those who wish to know often know less than they would like and cannot express themselves as well as they ought. Fortunately, we can retrieve the…
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On Modernity, Ultramodernity, and Postmodernity
If you and I are to have a conversation—that is, a kind of living-together through discourse or the concrete articulations of language—we must, indeed, do so in the same “place”. Put otherwise, we cannot have a conversation unless the objects signified by our words are the same. I do not mean that each and every…
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Reclaiming Culture in the Digital Age
The provincial attitude is limited in time but not in space. When the regional man, in his ignorance, often an intensive and creative ignorance, extends his own immediate necessities into the world, and assumes that the present moment is unique, he becomes the provincial man. He cuts himself off from the past, and without benefit…
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On the Meanings of “Object”, “Objective”, and “Objectivity”
The word “language” often suffers a confusion in use because of a partial equivocation in signification. Sometimes, we use it to signify the species-specifically human capacity to express semantic depth pertaining to a being known as independent of our cognitive activity; in other words, we use the word “language” to indicate our ability for signifying…
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Discussing Certitude and Intuition
A Lyceum Member writes, proposing a Philosophical Happy Hour topic: What is certitude? What role do signs play in achieving certitude? What role do signs play in intuition? Can I be certain about my mother’s love – is it intuited through signs, or through some other means? The notions of certitude and intuition have played…