The fourth annual William E. and Carol G. Simon Lecture on Religion in American Public Life, co-sponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, will be given by Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik on Thursday, March 30, 2017, 4:30 pm in Lewis Library 120 on the campus of Princeton University. Rabbi Soloveichik’s lecture will be titled “Passover on July 4th: Franklin, Jefferson, and the Seal of the United States.” [Read more…] about 2017 Simon Lecture: Rabbi Meir Soloveichik on “Passover on July 4th: Franklin, Jefferson, and the Seal of the United States”
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Summer Seminars 2017: Now Accepting Applications
Schools and universities need support if they are to perform their proper function. For over a decade, the Witherspoon Institute has helped the university accomplish its purpose through its summer programming. Each summer, we make courses available for high school students, undergraduates, and graduate and professional school students. Drawing on accomplished faculty, and held in Princeton, our seminars invite students to read, argue, learn, and willingly listen and engage each other and the texts. Our seminars encourage the formation of Socratic friendships and the fostering of civility.
For the summer of 2017, the Institute is pleased to offer the following seminars (please follow the links for dates and application information):
– Moral Life and the Classical Tradition, for rising high school juniors and seniors interested in the ancient philosophical tradition and its influence in Christian moral life.
– First Principles Seminar, for advanced undergraduate and pre-dissertation graduate students with interests in natural law and moral or political philosophy.
– Natural Law and Public Affairs Seminar, for advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in normative ethics and contemporary applications, as well as recent graduates and young professionals in policy or law.
– The Thomistic Seminar: Themes in Aquinas and Charles Taylor, for graduate students in philosophy and related disciplines.
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Spring Seminar: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of John Marshall
The Institute is pleased to announce a spring 2017 seminar on “The Constitutional Jurisprudence of John Marshall.” This seminar will introduce students to the legal and constitutional thought of “the Great Chief Justice,” who presided over the U.S. Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835. In the course of reading and discussing Marshall’s leading opinions, the seminar will cover topics that include the origins and scope of judicial review, presidential power and the law of treason, the constitutional protection of property rights, the enumerated and implied powers of Congress, federalism, and the status of native Americans under the Constitution. Studying the work of the most influential judge in early American history, we will aim at a better understanding of the principles of legal reasoning and constitutional interpretation.
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Senior Fellow Helen Alvaré Receives Edwin Meese III Award for Originalism and Religious Liberty
The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to announce that Senior Fellow Helen M. Alvaré is a 2016 recipient of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s Edwin Meese III Award for Originalism and Religious Liberty. The award is granted to individuals who have made “significant efforts in publicly promoting and defending religious liberty and a principled jurisprudence through the active advancement of constitutional originalism.” The award was established in 2009 in honor of Edwin Meese III, the nation’s 75th attorney general under President Ronald Reagan. [Read more…] about Senior Fellow Helen Alvaré Receives Edwin Meese III Award for Originalism and Religious Liberty
Fall Seminar for Graduate Students: Christianity, Open-Mindedness, and the Intellectual Virtues
The Institute is pleased to announce its 2016 reading group on Christianity, Open-Mindedness, and the Intellectual Virtues. This reading group is sponsored by the Center on the University and Intellectual Life.
This reading group will discuss texts and themes that address, directly or indirectly, the place and proper identities of particular academic virtues in the Christian tradition. Using philosophy (mostly Aristotle) and theology (drawing heavily on Augustine and Aquinas), the group will take up such questions as: What is the connection between open-mindedness (or its absence) and social segregation along ideological lines? What are the costs of such social segregation? What is the difference between true and false intellectual humility? Under what definitions would open-mindedness be (and not be) a bone fide virtue? What changes do the infusion of the theological virtues make to the academic virtues such as intellectual charity? Is it a sin to be intellectually boring? [Read more…] about Fall Seminar for Graduate Students: Christianity, Open-Mindedness, and the Intellectual Virtues
Fall Seminar: Ambition: Intellectual, Moral, Political
The Institute is pleased to announce its 2016 fall seminar on Ambition: Intellectual, Moral, Political sponsored by the Center on the University and Intellectual Life. This seminars is part of the Institute’s efforts to assist the next generation of scholars in reflecting on truly human questions.
In this year-long seminar, undergraduate students will study and challenge the ironism found in both society and the university, exploring the intellectual, moral, and political foundations for a healthy and reasonable ambition, including the quests for truth, free society, and statesmanship. Students’ readings will orbit around Robert Faulkner’s The Case for Greatness: supplementing this with readings on political glory and fame in Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Aristotle, Seneca, Montaigne, Josef Pieper, Aquinas, Tocqueville, and the life of George Washington. Professor Faulkner will lead one of the sessions, while all others will be led by Dr. RJ Snell. [Read more…] about Fall Seminar: Ambition: Intellectual, Moral, Political