This seminar, for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, examines two topics central to the work of the Witherspoon Institute, namely, (1) the purpose of the university and (2) friendship and marriage. Unfortunately, these topics are often taken up from the vantage point of the culture wars, rather than from a patient, careful study of first principles. In these two weeks, we examine them from the background of philosophical anthropology, the metaphysics of the person, and a study of personal action and the human good.

Online Seminar Led by R. J. Snell Reading: De Ente et Essentia, by Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas’s text De Ente et Essentia is no easy read, and in fact much of it can seem slightly arcane—debates about the language of genus and species don’t make everyone’s pulse quicken with excitement. I’ll admit, the text is technical […]

Online Seminar Led by Joaquim Brooks Readings: from Public Discourse As a follow-up to our Advanced New Natural Law Seminar earlier in the summer, we will examine in greater detail into one of the points of contention between Classical and New Natural Law: the death penalty. Whereas the previous seminar explored the more theoretical underpinnings of […]

This seminar, for graduate students in philosophy and related fields, explores Thomas Aquinas’s understanding of practical rationality alongside work by contemporary analytic philosophers.