“it is in you, my mind, that I measure periods of time” – does Augustine simply “subjectivize” time and its measurement? Is he simply rejecting the Aristotelian reliance on motion, or adding something entirely different?

“Being that can be understood is language” – what does Hans Georg Gadamer have to teach us about language, thinking, and the relation of the mind to what is?

Today’s Aquinas Reading Circle discusses Ia-IIae, q.24, a.4, on whether any passion is morally good or evil according to its species; and introduces q.25, on the order of the passions to one another.

What is measurement? How do we measure time? We take up this question today.

Is hermeneutics universal? A question happening now in our seminar.

Happening now at Human Formation in the Digital Age: Discussion sessions on Cognitive Security; the Study of Languages; and Posthumanism.

Happening now at Human Formation in the Digital Age: Discussion sessions on Environment & Virtue; Education; the Ontology of Digital Objects; and the Nature of Inquiry in the Digital Age.

Happening now at Human Formation in the Digital Age: Dr. Read Mercer Schuchardt on “Lonely at the Top: The Ape, the Angel, the Alien, and the AI” lyceum.institute/new...

Happening now at Human Formation in the Digital Age: Dr. Matthew Minerd on “The Scale of the (Rightly Ordered) Human: Habitus and the Measure of Technology”. lyceum.institute/new...

Happening now at Human Formation in the Digital Age: Dr. Mariele Courtois on “To Build a Human Heart: Hope for Designing Technologies toward Genuinely Human Ends”. lyceum.institute/new...

No online Happy Hour today – we’re having an in-person drink and enjoying each other’s company in St. Louis! We’ll return on 9/23.

Happening now at Human Formation in the Digital Age: an in-depth discussion of how human-centric ethical thinking can enable us to navigate the development and integration of “artificial intelligence” into our lives, while remaining profoundly human. lyceum.institute/res...

Technology never enters a neutral environment. 1/4

White Paper: Pattern-Recognition and Resolution To thrive in the contemporary technological age, we need not only an improved habit of pattern recognition, but also one of resolution.

Pattern-Recognition and Resolution

White Paper: Pattern-Recognition and Resolution | To thrive in the contemporary technological age, we need not only an improved habit of pattern recognition, but also one of resolution.

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Technology is usually judged by measurable accomplishments: the specific product it outputs, the speed and efficiency with which it does it, the breadth of its reach, and the convenience of its use. But artificial making is not justified simply because it “succeeds” at these accomplishments. 1/3

Technology gives us opportunities everywhere: to move faster, communicate farther, automate more, build bigger, choose more. But an opportunity is not good simply because it is possible. 1/4

We need only $644 to reach $30,000 in our fundraising campaign. Can you help it happen by the end of the day?

Beyond the University

Building on Our Foundation The Lyceum Institute has raised $14,508 toward the $48,000 Beyond the University campaign goal. A generous supporter has now committed an additional $10,000, giving this next stretch of the campaign real momentum. This gift should not stand alone. The Lyceum is built by...

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Properly addressing the advent and integration of AI systems into our world requires an understanding not only of human communication and machine information transmission, but also of signification itself. This is what our SEPPUAI Framework aims to provide: tinyurl.com/seppuai26

Our fiscal year ends in 9 days— help us raise as much money as we can before August 31! Donate today: lyceum.institute/bey...

Why should every educated person study rhetoric? Simply put: we are political animals and political ends are pursued through the persuasive use of language. To be ignorant of language's persuasive power is to be deficient in one's understanding of politics--and thus to be deficient in our humanity.

Interpretation is an act belonging to every living thing, and preeminently to human beings. But where do interpretations begin, how do they proceed, and what is their purpose in our intellectual lives? Join our upcoming seminar to study these questions closely

Off to work? Why not plan to enjoy some true leisure this evening with the Lyceum's Philosophical Happy Hour (5:45-7:15+ PM ET) as we take up the topic of tragedy: what it means in life, in art, and its importance for our understanding of being human.

Higher education needs not only new institutions, but new approaches and new models of teaching and learning. Help the Lyceum Institute build a new future: https://lyceum.insitute/beyond

By the word "time", we intend not only a reality independent of our souls, but a movement that occurs within them. How we reconcile the two objects signified constitutes a key question pursued in our upcoming seminar.

Check out our new course calendar to see all of our upcoming, scheduled courses.

What makes something genuinely tragic? Not merely sad or disastrous, but tragic. This Wednesday, our Philosophical Happy Hour takes up tragedy in life and art: Aristotle, catharsis, pity and fear, Dante—and whether there can be such a thing as tragedy for a Christian. 19 Aug | 5:45pm ET

We measure time today with extraordinary precision. But what, exactly, is being measured? Is it motion? Duration? Change? Something in the world—or something constituted through a numbering of before and after? The clock settles none of these questions. 1/2

The opposite of a presupposition is not “objectivity”. Every act of interpretation necessarily arises amidst certain assumptions and inherited concepts. We cannot step outside this framework. Rather, we must understand what precisely it means “to interpret”. 1/2

Are we trapped in a “cultural technology”?

Culture as a Technology

“Culture”. We hear the word all the time: the culture is in decline, we are losing our culture, we are fighting a culture war. But ask someone to define culture, and you will likely receive many different answers—answers which consist primarily in the enumeration of different and apparently disparate phenomena. Such nebulously-used terms often obscure deep conceptual confusions, leading to subsequent practical errors. When it comes to “culture”, these conceptual confusions and practical problems have compounded within our technologized way of life.

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Are we fated to become cyborgs?

Technologizing Our Bodies

We commonly find reduction of the body to a possession, a something distinct from the self. This opposition of the self and the body may result in neglect or abuse of the latter. But it may also turn towards a kind of reductive optimization, a movement increasingly popular today. This optimization movement appears to place a high value on the body by tracking its operations, measuring and evaluating them over time, improving physical performance, and alleviating bodily ailments. But it often does so by treating the body as a system of inputs, outputs, efficiencies, and performance metrics rather than as the living expression of a unified human person.

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