wisdom
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The Common Good and the Toleration of Evil
Pornography, prostitution, gambling, capital punishment, slavery: each seems somehow evil, and yet—at one time or another—each has been tolerated by governments. Do these tolerations violate the common good? Our Philosophical Happy Hour takes up the unhappy question. How do we live rightly as members of a society when that society is permeated by evils? There…
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For the Love of Wisdom
What makes a human being “wise”? What is “wisdom”? Why is it important? In an age of passionate reaction, it seems a virtue all too scarce, and most notably absent from those who govern. Join our Philosophical Happy Hour to discuss its nature and pursuit. We have more knowledge, expertise, and access to information today…
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On Reading the Great Books
A Philosophical Happy Hour inquiring after the merits of reading the Great Books and understanding the environment of the reader. The recovery of classical education, much in vogue today, has often been identified with the recovery of the Great Books. This is understandable: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Boethius, Dante, Aquinas, Shakespeare, Newman, Dostoevsky, and others do…
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John Poinsot – Cursus Philosophicus
Cursus PHILOSOPHICUS John Poinsot, O.P., also known as Joannes a Sancto Thoma (1589–1644) wrote two major works in his lifetime: the Cursus Theologicus, on which incomplete text he worked from 1635 until 1643, when he was requested to become counselor and Royal Confessor to King Philip IV of Spain. While attending to this new duty,…
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On the Allure of Secret Knowledge
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the allure of secret knowledge—as found in esotericism, gnosticism, the occult, and secret societies. of every kind Spend enough time on the internet—and “enough” is not very long—and you will encounter either an individual or a group proposing to know something that you do not. They will intimate that this…
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Affiliates – Fall Term 2024
Our friends at the Catherine Project have announced their Fall term offerings for 2024, including a new “Life of the Mind” seminar that provides an initial foundation for study of the great books! The Catherine Project is fully free, though they have limited enrollment so apply today. You can also view their larger Fall catalog…
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C.S. Peirce on “Sham Reasoning”
An intellectually vigorous soul does not seek justification of its conclusions, but the truth of the matter. All too often, however, our reasoning is applied not to the discovery of inquiry’s foundations but thrown into the midst of a battle. This today is what we face: either you are with or against, an ally or…
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Expertise vs. Wisdom
Much has been said in the past decade about the “elite”—those with significant wealth, power, influence, and education (or, rather, the reputation garnered from attending specific schools, regardless of education actually attained)—and little of it positive. In our culture of political polarization and populism, to be “elite” is to be painted with two black marks: first,…
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John Poinsot – Cursus Theologicus
Cursus Theologicus The work of John Poinsot, also known as Joannes a Sancto Thoma (though as John Deely noted, his name has often been given in many other variations, across English, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, French, and Latin), has long been the victim of great neglect. His Cursus Philosophicus was critically-edited and published in the 1930s under the…
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⚘ John Deely on the Role of Signs in Human Knowing | Banzelão Teixeira & IO2S Closing Ceremony
Banzelão Teixeira presents “A Semiotic Perspective of Cognition: John Deely on the Role of Signs in Human Knowing” for the IO2S & Closing Ceremonies.