Tradition describes courage, moderation, justice, and prudence as the cardinal virtues (a list going back to Plato) and faith, hope, and charity as the theological virtues (a list going back to Saint Paul). Can we conceive of hope as a virtue, as a good quality for people to have, without a theological framework — without any notion of salvation? On Monday, February 10, 2024, the Morningside Institute hosted Dhananjay Jagannathan, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, for...

Birth is one of the most fraught and polarized issues of our time, at the center of debates on abortion, gender, work, and medicine. But birth is not only an issue; it is a fundamental part of the human condition, and, alongside death, the most consequential event in human life. Yet it remains dramatically unexplored. Although we have long intellectual traditions of wrestling with mortality, few have ever heard of natality, the term political theorist Hannah Arendt used to describe birth’s...

On Monday, October 9, the Morningside Institute and the Galileo Center at Columbia Law School hosted Joshua Katz (AEI) for the last lecture in our series Language Rights and Wrongs. This series explores the relationship between world and word, honing in on ancient texts, namely Homer, Plato, and the Bible. This evening's conversation was not about the Constitution of the United States per se but rather the things that interest comparative linguists when they read texts like Homer's Iliad....

Does language contain truth in itself? And whether or not it does, at what level are the words we use natural, and at what level are they a matter of convention? Plato’s Cratylus provides the earliest in-depth discussion of these matters, and it turns out that we can learn something about our own linguistic problems today by considering this neglected dialogue. On Tuesday, October 3, the Morningside Institute and the Galileo Center at Columbia Law School hosted Joshua Katz (AEI) for his...

This fall, the Morningside Institute and the Galileo Center at the Columbia Law School hosted Joshua Katz (AEI) for a three-part lecture series on the relationship between word and world. The series focused on ancient texts—namely, Homer, Plato, and the Bible—and what these reveal about the nature (or artificiality) of language. On Tuesday, September 26, Dr. Katz introduced the series and led a discussion on the relationship between language and creation in a number of ancient traditions,...

In his famous Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki writes, “In the Beginner’s Mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” These words have served as a guide for James Valentini during his time as a professor of Chemistry and then much-beloved dean of Columbia College. As he has developed it, the concept of beginner’s mind encourages us to put aside the judgment of others as our guide and to use self-awareness and self-reflection to formulate our own...

Thomas Aquinas's ethical system is framed in terms of evaluating an individual's intentional actions, which may be good or bad depending on their conformity with the natural law.  Can such a framework make sense of the notion that social structures and practices can also be just or unjust, as in the contemporary notion of structural racism? On Thursday, February 23, 2023, the Morningside Institute hosted the John and Jean Oesterle Associate Professor of Thomistic Studies at the University of...

We instinctively think of images as things we create, control, and consume. But in this lecture, Prof. Thomas Pfau (Duke) argued that our encounter with images and the visible world as a whole serves as a test of our spiritual and moral condition. Following a brief overview of his recent book on this subject, Prof. Pfau's lecture considered three images in some depth: the famous Pantocrator icon from Mt. Sinai monastery; a painting by Jan van Eyck; and a portrait by Paul Cézanne. On...

Are some books “great” in a way others are not? Can a core curriculum represent all the members of a university community? What should students get out of their classes in the Core? How should we justify liberal education today? These questions shaped many universities' curricula, including Columbia's Core, and today are at the center of debates about the purpose of education and the university. On Friday, February 3, 2023, the Morningside Institute hosted a conversation between Roosevelt...

As American politics descends into a battle of anger and hostility between two groups called "left" and "right," people increasingly ask: What is the essential difference between these two ideological groups? In The Myth of Left and Right, Hyrum Lewis and Verlan Lewis provide the surprising answer: nothing. As the authors argue, there is no enduring philosophy, disposition, or essence uniting the various positions associated with the liberal and conservative ideologies of today. Far from...

Many scholars have held that Christianity created a new kind of religious belief and devotion, unlike the ritualistic, legal, and cultural religious practice widespread throughout the Roman Empire. But in a new book, Jacob Mackey (Occidental) draws on cognitive theory to argue that, despite having little to do with faith or salvation, real belief underlay every aspect of Roman religious practices and helped create and maintain Rome’s social reality. In a deep sense, no man could count as an...

In the past, a lawyer might have taken for granted, as one ABA report explained, that “one of the highest services the lawyer can render to society is to appear in court on behalf of client whose causes are in disfavor with the general public." But not today, when lawyers across the profession increasingly face boycotts, protests, and public shaming campaigns for zealously advocating on behalf of unpopular clients and causes. Are fundamental norms—including professional independence,...

In this talk, Prof. Veronica Ogle (Assumption University) helps us understand how Augustine sees the earthly city as parodying the city of God, a process that produces illusions and lies that entrap its inhabitants in a nihilistic dreamworld. She explores how Augustine’s critique of the earthly city uncovers the self-love and lust for domination that drove Roman thought and history. But Augustine places his unmasking of Rome’s injustice within a broader framework aimed at reorienting this...

As our society continues to fracture, writers across the political spectrum have repeatedly invoked the classical concept of the common good. Thinkers such as Jacques Maritain and Yves Simon offered robust accounts of the common good in a pluralistic, democratic society. Yet frequently, today’s invocations of the common good dodge questions about pluralism and pass over these accounts or reject them outright. Were these earlier thinkers naïve? Do their accounts still offer us valuable...

It seems as though our cultural and moral debates in America and Europe take place between a secular side and a traditional, frequently religious, side. Secular liberalism is seen as consciously moving away from religious convictions of the past toward a more fair and objective viewpoint. But some scholars argue that the framework of secular liberalism is rooted in Judaism and Christianity and still operates with their metaphysical and ethical categories—albeit in an unacknowledged way. In...

African American literature has a rich tradition of both using and discarding the classics. In the 20th century, the Black feminist poet Audre Lorde argued that, “[t]he master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” and Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for poetry, was inspired by Black Arts Movement poets to de-colonize her artistic practice systematically by eschewing poetic forms and modes of European origin. In this talk, Prof. Chiyuma Elliott...

The problem of relativism has presented itself ever since Herodotus introduced his readers to the astounding variety of religious beliefs and moral judgements among human communities. Philosophers soon began to consider the proposition that there is no objective truth and falsity, right and wrong, but that all of these are products of different conventions and cannot apply beyond the contexts in which they originated. Indeed, relativism seems to be an intuitive response to the fact of...

In August 410 Alaric, King of the Goths, entered Rome with his army, and proceeded to carry out a rather impressive version of a “sack”: murder, mayhem, theft, and desecration of churches and consecrated virgins. St. Augustine, then the bishop of Hippo Regius in North Africa, soon received a large number of refugees, both pagan and Christian. These refugees grumbled that Christianity failed to protect the City. After all, what are gods good for if they cannot guarantee the temporal safety and...

The Ancient Greek Sophists kickstarted moral philosophy in the West with the provocative idea of relativism: that there is no objective right and wrong. Plato formulated and refuted the relativism of the Sophist Protagoras in his dialogue Theatetus, and this engagement remains arguably the most interesting discussion of relativism in the history of philosophy. If relativism is demonstrably false, why is it still interesting? Is there still truth that we can take away from it? Professor Katja...

It is time to rethink justice. Dominant in the West is the classic definition of justice as the constant will to render another his due. In the modern world, this definition has come to mean rights and retribution. However, based on his experience as an activist in Kashmir and the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Prof. Daniel Philpott (Notre Dame) finds this conception inadequate for reconciliation after large-scale violence and denials of dignity. By contrast, the Bible offers a broader concept...

Popular theories like game theory try to explain why people find it rational to accept risk when making decisions, especially economic ones. But as thinkers such as Kierkegaard and Pascal argued, accepting risk factors into the greatest questions of life, such as whether or not to profess faith in a particular religious creed or philosophy. Join us for a lecture from Prof. Lara Buchak (Princeton) on how our understanding of rationality and risk can help us understand what faith is and when it...

Much has been written recently about Arendt's political observation that totalitarian masses would "believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true," but her views on space exploration and astronomy have attracted less attention, even if she ranks "the invention of the telescope" alongside the Protestant Reformation among the decisive events of the modern era. As entrepreneurs and nations alike race toward the Moon, Mars, and beyond, what moral and...

Must public actors sacrifice their principles in order to advance their desired political ends? Realists, who argue that the messiness of political life makes moral purity impossible, accuse moralists of having their heads in the clouds. But Hume reminds us that one need not ignore political reality in order to promote a humane political culture. This is a Living the Core seminar with Aaron Zubia, who is a Postdoctoral Fellow with The Tocqueville Program in the Department of Politics and...

Religious thinkers and contemporary scientists have seen acedia as a fundamental problem, as it opposes the goal of rest in relationship to the divine and enjoying the goodness of human relationships. Drawing upon Evagrius, Aquinas, and contemporary psychology, Prof. Chris Jones (Barry University) will offer advice on how to identify acedia in the distractions of contemporary life and offers practices to correct its harmful influence. Chris Jones is Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics...