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Bastille Day is not a celebration of liberty, fraternity, and equality, but of man's inhumanity to man. Modern society is still suffering the consequences of embracing the French Revolution's absolute freedom. Read Article
Herodotus named two main purposes to his work of history, and both of these purposes have everything to do with finding the true causes of human actions. Read Article
The law is something “promulgated”—or so Aquinas states in his common definition of law. This seems quite acceptable in the case of human, positive law. However, how can one speak of a “promulgation” of the natural law, let alone the eternal law? This article is a discussion of the general themes involved in considering this problem. Read Article
For theology to be necessary to a city and the formation of its laws, then that necessity must arise out of the fact that theology says something true about the world, and that it is the aim of law to harmonize the city towards the truth of that reality. Read Article
Renaissance Humanism is characterized by a return to the ideas of antiquity. But this generalization is misleading since it does not say whether the return is to Greek or Roman ideas. Read Article
The term “law” is most easily understood in terms of the positive law that we experience in our day-to-day life. In order to discuss “natural law” without being equivocal in our use of language, we need to consider how it can even be possible to transition from discussing the case of positive “law” to that of natural “law.” Read Article
A short introduction to Horace’s Ode 4.2, which is dedicated to Augustus the deliverer of the Roman state. The introduction includes a discussion of the poem’s images, motifs, and themes. Read Article
A consideration of Thomas Aquinas’ general definition of law. These reflections will serve as the basis for probing the implication of this definition, ultimately aiming to treat the natural law in its proper boundaries. Read Article
Many well-meaning philosophical ethicists appeal to some notion of “natural law”, as though this notion accounts for the fundamental aspects of moral philosophy. However, the domain of discourse for “law” is an explicitly inscribed one. In this article, we will note Aquinas’ placement of the “conceptual space” for discussions of “law and the natural law.” Read Article
Agricola was a general in the Roman frontier in Britain who gained fame through his prudent and just character. We remember Agricola especially because he won renown at a time in the Roman empire when the emperors were particularly cruel and prone to jealousy. Read Article
Although the term “idealism” is used in many senses to describe various trends in epistemology, each case is most illuminatingly understood in its historical context. To understand Berkeley's idealism, we must understand it as a reaction to Locke. Read Article
Kierkegaard explains that given the ontological reality of Christianity, sin at its base is the denial of who we really are and our relationship to reality. Read Article
Tocquville outlines the various advantages and disadvantages of a democratic government in Democracy in America. An advantage is the ability for the people to participate in government, and a disadvantage is the possibility of the tyranny of the majority. Read Article
The way we know the world determines to a large extent our ability to understand what a thing is, such as a tree or an animal. This in turn forms our understanding of the intelligibility in the world itself Read Article
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem’s Lectures on the Christian Sacraments serve as an historical example for how the early Christian church performed the various sacraments, including Baptism, Unction, and the Eucharist. Read Article
In his Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes outlines the character of speech, and words which are the components of speech. His assumption that words only nominally represent particulars affects how he understands propositional logic. Read Article
An examination of the significance of early American townships in the development of democracy within the American polis. At the root of Tocqueville’s discussion is the principle of the sovereignty of the people, and how this sovereignty firmly takes place within the local townships of the colonies and spreads out into the state. Read Article
In his Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes rejects the Ultimate End and the Ultimate Good in favor of the natural end and the natural good of man. Man, because of his desires, must always aim to acquire power in order to maintain his estate. Read Article
An examination of the "point of departure" for American democracy according to Alexis De Tocqueville. This departure is paramount to his overall examination of the American spirit, particularly the relationship between liberty and equality and the relationship of religion to the advancement of democracy's central tenants and principles. Read Article
It is our task as critics to identify the facts of the Bacchae and to understand how those facts guide the play through an internal necessity towards its tragic conclusion. Read Article
In his City of God Augustine raises the question of what the relationship is between the civil political order and the ecclesiastical order. How ought a church interact with the state? Read Article
The division of the sciences, especially of the liberal arts from the other sciences, is propaedeutic for knowing and understanding the world around us. Read Article
Moore gives three definitions of the Good through which he hopes to restart the science of Ethics. The Good, however, is not so easily defined. First Moore must differentiate between the Good in a moral sense and the Good in the ontological sense. Read Article
Early Christian martyrs, especially the Desert Fathers, were revered in much the same way as pagan heros. They serve as examplars for struggling Christians to imitate. Read Article
During the Middle Ages, the rediscovery of Aristotelianism brought about the question of what the relationship between each science was. Is there a natural hierarchy? Can any science be understood independently of the other sciences? Read Article
The need to dominate nature is a corruption of the desire to know. It stems from the desire to see the effects of all our knowledge in action, whether harmful or beneficial. Read Article
Although monasticism of the Medieval Ages encouraged the formation of schools and the preservation of learning, still their primary aim was the contemplative life. Read Article
Petronius gives a comedic account of the fictional extravagant dinner hosted by Trimalchio, who has more money than taste or sense. Read Article
A reflection on Martin Heidegger's essay The Question Concerning Technology and on the dangers he warned of that are present in contemporary society. Read Article
A comparison is made between the Thomistic and the Neo-Platonic notion of signs, and how such signs relate to our knowledge of the world. Read Article
The Lives of the Saints describes the lives of the heroes of the Christian West. Therefore, they serve as a pedagogical example of how a man ought to live. Read Article
Hume attempts to deconstruct epistemology through a criticism of the necessity of cause and effect. Instead, he spurs the investigation of nature through statistics and probability. Read Article
A discussion of Porphyry's Isagoge and Aristotle's Categories. Porphyry discusses the priority among the predicables. Is this priority logical or ontological? Read Article
Before his death, Emperor Augustus wrote Res Gestae, an autobiographical note about his life and works which gives insight into his mind and self-perception. Read Article
Is gender equality possible in the Ideal City in Plato's Republic? Also, is gender equality best for the city? Is it best for the individual? Read Article
In Book 19 Penelope questions Odysseus, who is disguised as a beggar. What is the importance of this scene? Perhaps Penelope tests Odysseus as much as he does her. Read Article
Comments on the fideist objections to a Christian philosophy, that revelation is a sufficient source of truth apart from philosophy. Read Article
In the Republic, Socrates gives an argument for the inclusion of women in the training of warriors for the Ideal City. Read Article
During the Renaissance, Humanism became a battle cry against Scholasticism. However, the two schools of thought have much in common. Read Article
Tiberius was chosen heir to the Roman Empire by Augustus. Yet, it seems, he had little desire to rule. Instead, he prefered isolation and debauchary. Read Article
In his fifth discourse of The Idea of a University, Newman explores what a university is, its use, and its proper end. Read Article
Thomas Aquinas examines pure forms in an attempt to distinguish the metaphysical principles of beings. He extrapolates that being and essence are distinct. Read Article
In the Timaeus, Plato addresses the principle on which our world was established, and its relationship to the Forms and to Beauty. Read Article
Saint Francis founded a religious order that sought to engage the world through love and humility, an alternative to the isolation of the monastics. Read Article
Cola di Rienzo was a Italian leader who attempted, but failed, to unite Italy in the 14th century. Read Article
A reflection on the opening chapters of “The Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy” by Etienne Gilson, in which Gilson examines the possibility of a Christian Philosophy. Read Article
Aristotle grounds art, and in particularly poetry, as an imitative art through which we come to know better the world around us. Read Article
During his examination of geometrical figures, Descartes develops a new means of abstracting which goes beyond what others before him have done. Read Article
Eusebius presents the conversion of Constantine as one of divine providence. But perhaps the conversion was a political conversion of convenience? Read Article
The Minos deals with law and its source, and how they are related. The dialog acts, therefore, as a prequel to Plato's Laws, which explores good law. Read Article
Kant gives a revised definition of truth that contains his own vocabulary and explores the possibility of general criterion of truth. Read Article
The Carthusian Monks saw themselves as warriors every bit as effective as medieval knights and soldiers, fighting not a physical war, but a spiritual one. Read Article
Martin Heidegger attempts to formulate a metaphysics within his existentialist system, using as his basis the relationship between time and being. Read Article
The Book of the Courtier investigates the philosophic purpose of government, and attempts to answer the question of what makes a government good or bad. Read Article
Leonaro Bruni understood a republic to be guided by virtue, for virtue is absolutely necessary for good ruling and good citizenship. Read Article
John Duns Scotus examines the two means of dividing being, into finite and infinite and into the ten genera, to discover what a transcendental is. Read Article
Procopius' Secret History of the rule of Justinian is filled with wild embellishments which may undermine the authority of his other more serious works. Read Article
In Plato’s Laws an argument is made for the pedagogical need for symposia, the drinking parties in Greece. In the Symposium, we see how one plays out. Read Article
A reflection on Plotinus' treatment of the union of Intellect and the intelligibles and a comparison of his treatment with the epistemological. Read Article
The function of literary critcism is to determine what is of value within a work of literature, and how a work of literature reflects reality. Read Article
The conversion of Constantine permanently altered the Roman attitude towards Christianity. No longer clandenstine, Christianity began to flourish in the West. Read Article
Aristotle explains in his Physics that good philosophy begins with the observation of physical objects, and ends with relating those objects to thought. Read Article
A brief reflection on Socrates’ statement in Plato's Apology that the unexamined life is not worth living. Read Article