The Witherspoon Institute

The Consequences of a Trump or Harris Victory
2024-10-21 19:00, 2024-10-28 19:00, 2024-11-04 19:00, 2024-11-11 19:00, 2024-11-18 19:00, 2024-11-25 19:00 (America/New_York)
The Consequences of a Trump or Harris Victory
Led by Brandon Van Dyck
How will the outcome of the upcoming presidential election affect the US and US policy? This is a positive question, not a normative one; our political preferences are irrelevant. In this semester’s graduate discussion group, we’ll consider the effects of a Trump or Harris victory on the economy, health care, immigration, and the Supreme Court, among other topics.
Reading prior to the seminar is not required. Dinner is provided, as are all reading materials.
All Princeton graduate students are warmly invited.

Aristotelian Reading Group
2024-10-22 08:15 - 09:15, 2024-10-29 08:15 - 09:15, 2024-11-05 08:15 - 09:15, 2024-11-12 08:15 - 09:15, 2024-11-19 08:15 - 09:15
Aristotelian Reading Group
Led by Sebastian Hayden
A line-by-line reading of selected sections of the Nicomachean Ethics. No previous study of Aristotle needed, and reading prior to the seminar is not required.
A light breakfast is provided, as are all reading materials.
All Princeton undergraduate or graduate students are warmly invited.

Witherspoon Forum: A.I. and Religious Belief (Session 3)
2024-10-22 19:00 | Zoom
A.I. AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF
Led by Dr. Joseph Vukov
This event is a part of the Witherspoon Forum, a program which provides a space for high school students who are serious about their studies to discuss foundational questions of human existence and contemporary cultural issues in dialogue with their peers and Witherspoon’s seminar leaders. To attend, students should apply here.
In this seminar, students will address questions such as: What are the differences between human intelligence and artificial intelligence? To what extent should religious believers engage with A.I.? How might such engagement impact religious belief and practice?

Habits of the Mind
2024-10-25 13:00 - 14:20, 2024-11-08 01:00 - 14:20, 2024-11-22 13:00 - 14:20
Habits of the Mind
Led by R.J. Snell
We tend to be familiar with the moral virtues—wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice, say—and many will know Aristotle’s articulation of the intellectual virtues, but Aristotle’s intellectual virtues seem abstract and not especially relevant to our lives. Since we’re intellectual beings, the intellectual virtues oughtn’t be alien to our well-being, however. In this seminar, we examine more contemporary texts, including Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, and Iris Murdoch, on intellectual habits such as attention, reading, understanding, and judging. Thinking, it turns out, is not merely a technical, neutral matter of analytic capacity, but a commitment to being in the world in a certain mode and way, and we can have habits of thought contributing to, or taking away from, our flourishing.
Reading prior to seminar is not required.
Lunch is provided, as are all reading materials.

God Matters
2024-11-01 13:00 - 14:20, 2024-11-15 13:00 - 14:20
God Matters
Led by R.J. Snell
According to Thomas Aquinas, some truths about God surpass the capacity of unaided human reason and require revelation, while other truths are knowable by unaided, natural reason. This seminar explores some puzzles of classical theism through reason alone, without appeal to revelation or any particular religious tradition or authority. What’s the existence of God? How does God’s existence relate to God’s attributes—and does this work intelligibly? How does divine knowledge allow for human freedom? What about evil?
Reading a variety of texts and exploring a variety of questions, the seminar explores whether or not classical theism, as understood philosophically, is coherent.
Reading prior to seminar is not required. Neither is religious belief. Open to all Princeton students, whatever their commitments.
Lunch is provided, as are all reading materials.

Witherspoon Forum: Technology and Human Agency (Session 1)
2024-11-04 19:00 | Zoom
TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN AGENCY
Led by Dr. Landon Hobbs
This event is a part of the Witherspoon Forum, a program which provides a space for high school students who are serious about their studies to discuss foundational questions of human existence and contemporary cultural issues in dialogue with their peers and Witherspoon’s seminar leaders. To attend, students should apply here.
What attitude should we have toward recent developments in digital technology? Are these developments providing new tools to enhance human flourishing—or are they undercutting our ability to cultivate intellectual and moral virtues? Are they an aid or a hindrance to collectively building up and maintaining robust and meaningful communities and polities? We will consider these questions in the light of both classical philosophical reflections on technological revolution and contemporary social commentary.

Witherspoon Forum: Technology and Human Agency (Session 2)
2024-11-12 19:00 | Zoom

Witherspoon Forum: Technology and Human Agency (Session 3)
2024-11-19 19:00 | Zoom

Witherspoon Forum: Genetic Engineering and Human Freedom (Session 1)
2025-01-21 19:00 | Zoom
“Are My Genes Too Tight?” An Exploration of Genetic Engineering and Human Freedom
Led by Dr. Janet Madigan
This event is a part of the Witherspoon Forum, a program which provides a space for high school students who are serious about their studies to discuss foundational questions of human existence and contemporary cultural issues in dialogue with their peers and Witherspoon’s seminar leaders. To attend, students should apply here.

Witherspoon Forum: Genetic Engineering and Human Freedom (Session 2)
2025-01-28 19:00 | Zoom

Aristotelian Reading Group
2025-02-04 08:15 - 09:15, 2025-02-11 08:15 - 09:15, 2025-02-18 08:15 - 09:15
Aristotelian Reading Group
Led by Sebastian Hayden
A line-by-line reading of selected sections of the Nicomachean Ethics. No previous study of Aristotle needed, and reading prior to the seminar is not required. A light breakfast will be provided.
All Princeton undergraduate or graduate students are warmly invited.

Witherspoon Forum: Genetic Engineering and Human Freedom (Session 3)
2025-02-04 19:00 | Zoom

Graduate Seminar on Pragmatism
2025-02-06 18:30 - 20:00
Graduate Seminar on Pragmatism
Led by Brandon Van Dyck
This seminar will explore the most important philosophical tradition of American origin: pragmatism. We will discuss how our perceptions and language relate to objective reality, how ignorant we are of objective reality, and how we should reason and behave in light of our ignorance. We will refer to the ideas of and read selections from, William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, John Dewey, Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam, and Donald Hoffman.
Reading prior to the seminar is not required. Dinner is provided, as are all reading materials.
All Princeton graduate students are warmly invited.

Philosophy in Stone: On Architecture and Public Space
2025-02-07 13:00 - 14:20, 2025-02-14 13:00 - 14:20
Philosophy in Stone: On Architecture and Public Space

Led by R.J. Snell

Material culture, including architecture and public space, is neither simply adornment or brute utility but an expression of value: what we think people are, what we think people are for, and how we think people live and work together. In this seminar we explore architecture and urban planning, drawing on the thought of Roger Scruton, Philip Bess, and Léon Krier (among others).
Reading prior to seminar is not required. Lunch is provided, as are all reading materials.
All Princeton undergraduate or graduate students are warmly invited.

Witherspoon Forum: The Surveillance State and Society (Session 1)
2025-02-19 19:00 | Zoom
THE SURVEILLANCE STATE AND SOCIETY
Led by Dr. Luke Foster
This event is a part of the Witherspoon Forum, a program which provides a space for high school students who are serious about their studies to discuss foundational questions of human existence and contemporary cultural issues in dialogue with their peers and Witherspoon’s seminar leaders. To attend, students should apply here.
How do we retain our humanity in the Information Age? What practices and institutions from the pre-computing world can guide us when social media proposes to replace socializing? All three of our authors in this series—Vonnegut, Hayek, and Lewis—lived through the civilizational cataclysm of World War II, and all of them took seriously the possibility that vast computing power would be used in an attempt to rationally organize entire societies. Today their worries seem to have been realized by the capacity of Big Tech to aggregate the data of billions of people, in collaboration with governments. Drawing on these texts, we will discuss how to master our tools rather than be mastered by them.
