Les meilleurs podcasts Morningside Institute (2024)

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Is Virtue Sufficient for Happiness?

20d ago

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According to ancient philosophers, all human beings want to be happy. But how can we achieve this? In Books 3 and 4 of his dialogue “On the Greatest Good and Evil” (De finibus bonorum et malorum), Cicero and his interlocutor, the Stoic Cato, discuss what guarantees a person’s supreme happiness. Is it enough to be a morally good person (as the Stoic…

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Secular Hope

9M ago

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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? O…

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Natality and the Counter-Tradition of Birth

9M ago

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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 intellec…

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Language Rights and Wrongs: Originalism, Textualism, Traditionalism, or Activism?

1y ago

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On October 9, 2023 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…

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Language Rights and Wrongs: Is Language Truthful?

1y ago

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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 neglec…

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Language Rights and Wrongs: In the Beginning Was the Word?

1y ago

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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 September 26, 20…

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Beginner's Mind with James Valentini

1y ago

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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’…

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Aquinas and Structural Racism

1+ y ago

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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 Thurs…

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Learning to See: Images in Theology and Philosophy

1+ y ago

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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 i…

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Why Read Great Books?: Liberal Education in the Twenty-First Century

1+ y ago

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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 ab…

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The Myth of Left and Right

2y ago

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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 endurin…

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Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion

2y ago

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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 u…

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Why Should Lawyers Represent Unpopular Clients?

2y ago

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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 shamin…

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How to Live in the Earthly City: Augustine on Loves, Lies, and the Politics of Perfection 37:12

2+ y ago37:12

37:12

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 th…

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Ross Douthat: What Is the Common Good in a Pluralistic Society? 1:04:06

2+ y ago1:04:06

1:04:06

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 p…

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The Theological Framework of Secular Society — Eric Nelson 37:14

3y ago37:14

37:14

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 libera…

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Classical Allusions in Contemporary African American Poetry — Chiyuma Elliott 40:42

3y ago40:42

40:42

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 poe…

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Taking Disagreement Seriously: Does Relativism Follow from Cultural Diversity? — Michele Moody-Adams 37:22

3y ago37:22

37:22

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 con…

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Reading Augustine at a Time of Chaos — Russell Hittinger 42:09

3y ago42:09

42:09

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…

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Plato on the Relativism of Protagoras — Katja Vogt 30:03

3y ago30:03

30:03

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…

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Resurrecting Justice: How Can a Broader Vision of Justice Heal Society's Wounds? — Daniel Philpott 40:49

3y ago40:49

40:49

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) fin…

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What Does Game Theory Say about the Philosophy of Religion? — Lara Buchak 44:23

3+ y ago44:23

44:23

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…

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Hannah Arendt: Space Conquest and the End of Humanitas — Charles McNamara

3+ y ago

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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…

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Can You Separate Morality and Politics? Hume's Politics of Humanity — Aaron Zubia 30:05

3+ y ago30:05

30:05

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. T…

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The Problems of Acedia: Some Historical and Contemporary Reflections on Distraction and Rest 42:39

3+ y ago42:39

42:39

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 …

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Violence and the Spread of Islam in Late Antique Christian Societies — Christian Sahner 41:07

3+ y ago41:07

41:07

You may watch this lecture along with Dr. Sahner’s PowerPoint presentation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/96CmUeeNLls How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play (or not play) in this process? This lecture explores how Christians across the early Islamic caliph…

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Using History Well: How Past Discord Can Help Us Understand a Divided Present — James Hankins & Allen Guelzo 54:40

3+ y ago54:40

54:40

Many wonder what will come of the deep divisions in American society. What lessons do the Civil War and other historic periods of conflict offer for our own divided time? How can we use history well to understand the present? Join us for a conversation with two of America's greatest historians, Allen Guelzo (Princeton) and James Hankins (Harvard), …

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What It Means to Be Human: Taking the Body Seriously in Contemporary Ethics — O. Carter Snead 47:05

3+ y ago47:05

47:05

You may watch this lecture along with Dr. Snead's PowerPoint presentation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Uab1SpYgAVI The natural limits of the human body make us vulnerable and therefore dependent, throughout our lives, on others. Yet American law and policy disregard these stubborn facts, with statutes and judicial decisions that presume people to b…

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Narcissus, the Serpent, and the Saint: Living Humanely in a World of Artificial Intelligence 40:06

4y ago40:06

40:06

Long before humanoid robots look like us, we will be able to have conversations with our smartphones that will evoke from us all the empathy that adults habitually reserve for fellow human beings. That is, we will own assistants and companions that will feel to us like persons but (unlike pets) will be entirely at our disposal. With assistance from…

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The Arabic Roots of Medieval Scholasticism 38:29

4y ago38:29

38:29

The translation of Avicenna and other writers of the Islamic Golden Age into Latin was one of the most formative events in the history of Western Philosophy. Professor Therese Cory (Notre Dame) provides a glimpse of the “detective story” of how knowledge was transmitted from Muslim scholars to the European scholastics. She also discusses (24:48) ho…

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Faith and the Big Bang Cosmos of Georges Lemaître 52:04

4y ago52:04

52:04

In 1930 the Catholic priest and physicist Georges Lemaître published a revolutionary view of the cosmos as one with a finite age and a definite beginning. But how he got there is as interesting a story as the idea of the Big Bang itself, and reveals just how profoundly this one man of faith and science set the stage for modern cosmology, the study …

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The Error of Beginnings and the Beginning of Errors: Cosmology and Creation 47:52

4y ago47:52

47:52

This is the final lecture in a four-part series by Prof. William Carroll (Oxford) titled “Evolution, Cosmology, and Creation: From Darwin and Hawking to Aquinas”. This lecture explores recent developments in cosmology and the problems that would follow from identifying the concept of creation with that of a beginning. These lectures were presented …

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Transcendence, Providence, and Divine Agency in Nature 44:48

4y ago44:48

44:48

This is the third lecture in a four-part series by Prof. William Carroll (Oxford) titled “Evolution, Cosmology, and Creation: From Darwin and Hawking to Aquinas”. This lecture explores whether it is possible to have an idea of God as providential (i.e. as someone whose Will is never frustrated) in the context of an evolving universe of contingency …

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Creation and a Self-Sufficient Universe 45:37

4y ago45:37

45:37

This is the second lecture in a four-part series by Prof. William Carroll (Oxford) titled “Evolution, Cosmology, and Creation: From Darwin and Hawking to Aquinas”. This lecture explores whether the autonomy of natural processes is compatible with God being the complete cause of all that is. These lectures are presented from September 23 to October …

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The Challenges of Evolution and the Metaphysics of Creation 44:07

4y ago44:07

44:07

This is the first lecture in a four-part series by Prof. William Carroll (Oxford) titled “Evolution, Cosmology, and Creation: From Darwin and Hawking to Aquinas”. This lecture explores the challenges that evolutionary biology offers to the traditional doctrine of creation, and whether there can be a metaphysical view of creation distinct from the n…

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The City and Its Gods: Deus ex Machina: Byzantine Sanctuaries and Apple Stores 49:00

4+ y ago49:00

49:00

The second of two lectures by critic in architecture, Prof. Kyle Dugdale (Yale and Columbia). It is a commonplace of urban history to assert that the cities of antiquity belonged to their gods, and that those gods belonged to their cities. Athens belonged to Athena, and Athena to Athens, just as Babylon belonged to Marduk, and Marduk to Babylon. Th…

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The City and Its Gods: Seeking the Go(o)ds of the City, from Aristotle to Activism 43:55

4+ y ago43:55

43:55

The first of two lectures by critic in architecture, Prof. Kyle Dugdale (Yale and Columbia). It is a commonplace of urban history to assert that the cities of antiquity belonged to their gods, and that those gods belonged to their cities. Athens belonged to Athena, and Athena to Athens, just as Babylon belonged to Marduk, and Marduk to Babylon. The…

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The Stoic Roots of Augustine’s Conversion 39:20

4+ y ago39:20

39:20

Lecture by Prof. Sarah Byers (Boston College). What happened, exactly, in Augustine’s famous “conversion scene”? Professor Byers will show that Augustine is drawing on Stoic and Platonic epistemology and action theory to understand how divine grace acts on, and with, the human mind.Par The Morningside Institute

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Do Bad Catholics Make for Good Fiction? 21:48

4+ y ago21:48

21:48

Novelist Randy Boyagoda, a professor of English at the University of Toronto, talks about what it means to create art and tell stories about pursuing the good as fallen persons. He discusses recent and classic examples of this phenomenon, and propose that there’s something distinctively possible to good storytelling in Catholic thought and practice…

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Morality and Mortality in Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop | Sr. Ann Astell 58:48

4+ y ago58:48

58:48

This presentation by Sr. Ann Astell, Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, was given as part of "The Moral Imagination of the Novel", a conference held at Columbia University on 4-5 October 2019. The conference was co-hosted by the Morningside Institute, Columbia University's Department of Philosophy, and the Thomistic Institute. T…

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Fiction and Moral Reflection | Thomas Pavel 1:03:57

4+ y ago1:03:57

1:03:57

This presentation by Professor Thomas Pavel (University of Chicago) was given as part of "The Moral Imagination of the Novel", a conference held at Columbia University on 4-5 October 2019. Professor Pavel is the Gordon J. Laing Distinguished Service Professor in Romance Languages and Literatures, Comparative Literature, the Committee on Social Thou…

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Etiquette and Morality in the Novel 19:21

5y ago19:21

19:21

This presentation by Spencer Lee Lenfield, PhD candidate in English at Yale University, was given as part of "The Moral Imagination of the Novel", a conference held at Columbia University on 4-5 October 2019. The conference was co-hosted by the Morningside Institute, Columbia University's Department of Philosophy, and the Thomistic Institute. The p…

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The Anti-Moral Imagination Of Michel Houellebecq | Dhananjay Jagannathan 1:11:08

5y ago1:11:08

1:11:08

This presentation by Dhananjay Jagannathan, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, was given as part of "The Moral Imagination of the Novel", a conference held at Columbia University on 4-5 October 2019. The conference was co-hosted by the Morningside Institute, Columbia University's Department of Philosophy, and the Thomistic In…

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‘Now, How Were His Sentiments to be Read?’ Imagination and Discernment in Jane Austin’s Persuasion | Lauren Kopajtic 44:45

5y ago44:45

44:45

The handout can be found here: http://bit.ly/36mEs This lecture by Lauren Kopajtic, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, was given as part of "The Moral Imagination of the Novel", a conference held at Columbia University on 4-5 October 2019. The conference was co-hosted by the Morningside Institute, Columbia University's Departm…

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The Need for a Christian Critical Tradition | William Gonch 26:06

5y ago26:06

26:06

This presentation by William Gonch, PhD candidate in English at University of Maryland, was given as part of "The Moral Imagination of the Novel", a conference held at Columbia University on 4-5 October 2019. The conference was co-hosted by the Morningside Institute, Columbia University's Department of Philosophy, and the Thomistic Institute. The p…

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Walker Percy's The Moviegoer Seen Again | Paul Elie 1:06:06

5y ago1:06:06

1:06:06

This lecture by Prof. Paul Elie (Georgetown) was given as part of "The Moral Imagination of the Novel", a conference held at Columbia University on 4-5 October 2019. The conference was co-hosted by the Morningside Institute, Columbia University's Department of Philosophy, and the Thomistic Institute. The program included lectures by Lauren Kopajtic…

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How Can I Say What I Never Knew? The Limits of Moral Knowledge in Great Expectations 21:02

5y ago21:02

21:02

This presentation by Catherine Enwright, PhD candidate in English at Boston College, was given as part of "The Moral Imagination of the Novel", a conference held at Columbia University on 4-5 October 2019. The conference was co-hosted by the Morningside Institute, Columbia University's Department of Philosophy, and the Thomistic Institute. The prog…

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The Crisis of Liberalism | Patrick Deneen and Vincent Phillip Muñoz 1:09:15

5y ago1:09:15

1:09:15

In light of the increasing tensions apparent in liberal societies, is liberalism an inherently contradictory system whose success generates its own downfall? Patrick Deneen elaborates on the argument of his new book Why Liberalism Failed and Vincent Phillip Muñoz responds. This panel discussion, co-sponsored by The Portsmouth Institute and The Univ…

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Local Goods, Global Good, and Desire | Dr. Candace Vogler

5y ago

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A lecture given during "Desire and the Good Life: Reflections on the Aristotelian Tradition," a conference cosponsored by the Thomistic Institute, the Morningside Institute, and the Philosophy Department of Columbia University at Columbia University in New York City. October 12-13, 2018.Par Dr. Candace Vogler

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To be Good is to Do the Truth | Dr. Jennifer Frey 56:59

5y ago56:59

56:59

The handout for this lecture is available at thomisticinstitute.org/hand-out-for-…jennifer-frey A lecture given during "Desire and the Good Life: Reflections on the Aristotelian Tradition," a conference cosponsored by the Thomistic Institute, the Morningside Institute, and the Philosophy Department of Columbia University at Columbia University in N…

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