Academic life shapes our intellectual desires in profound ways. Our desire to understand the world can lead to confusion, excitement, restlessness, and satisfaction. But how do we know when our intellectual desires are being properly formed? And how can we learn to identify the intellectual vices that can corrupt us? In this reading group, we will examine these questions through selections from Paul Griffiths' celebrated book, Intellectual Appetite. It will be led by Senior Fellow Matthew Rose.

This week we will focus on chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 and dive into premodern views of the search of knowledge: curiositas, or an anxious hunger for knowing so as to banish unknowns, and studiositas, a limited desire to know more fully what one loves. During this seminar, we will discuss the fundamental difference between the two ways an intellect can seek knowledge.