University students already have lectures, lengthy readings and exams; our seminars and reading groups are opportunities to stop over lunch or dinner and reflect on ideas that are relevant to all majors and professions. Helped by brief excerpts of important texts and often in conversation with established scholars, these informal discussions explore big questions that the liberal arts can help us answer.
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Join Nate Ijams (Morningside) for a discussion of Wendell Berry’s conception of the immeasurable goods of life: things too great, too small, or too unusual to be valued by standard economic models.
Join Justin Hawkins (CUIMC) for a dinner seminar on finding a theory of dignity that relies on something more fundamental than accomplishment.
Join Anthony Hejduk (Columbia) for a conversation about rootedness and how its absence in industrial life contributed to the crises Simone Weil observed.
Join Nate Ijams (Morningside) for a discussion of Wendell Berry’s conception of the immeasurable goods of life: things too great, too small, or too unusual to be valued by standard economic models.
Join Taylor Pincin (Columbia) for this dinner seminar about the four causes, why they matter, and what might unify them
Join Amogha Sahu (Columbia) for a conversation about Simone Weil’s attempt to synthesize spiritual and political thought.
Join Morningside and philosopher Dan Addison for a seminar series with working professionals on ethics in work and everyday life.
Join James Valentini and Katja Vogt (Columbia) for a small group discussion of Beginner’s Mind and humanistic inquiry.
Join Amogha Sahu (Columbia) for a conversation about Simone Weil’s analysis of political power.
Join Professor Dhananjay Jagannathan (Columbia) for a discussion of what belongs to us, and what does not.
Join Professors Richard John and Casey Blake (Columbia) for this dinner seminar series on Democracy and Solidarity.
Join Amogha Sahu (Columbia) for a conversation about Simone Weil’s proposal to under-gird science and the world with the sacred.
Join Morningside and philosopher Dan Addison for a seminar series with working professionals on ethics in work and everyday life.
Join Professors Richard John and Casey Blake (Columbia) for this dinner seminar series on Democracy and Solidarity.
Join Professor Teodolinda Barolini for a dinner conversation on what it is to act freely in Dante and Aristotle.
Join Professors Richard John and Casey Blake (Columbia) for this dinner seminar series on Democracy and Solidarity.
Join Professors Richard John and Casey Blake (Columbia) for this dinner seminar series on Democracy and Solidarity.
Join Mark Lilla (Columbia) for a dinner conversation on Thomas Mann’s reaction and non-reactionary politics.
Join Morningside and philosopher Dan Addison for a seminar series with working professionals on ethics in work and everyday life.
Join Morningside and philosopher Dan Addison for a seminar series with working professionals on ethics in work and everyday life.
Join Megan Laverty, director of the Columbia Teachers College Program in Philosophy and Education, for an engaging discussion of Wittgenstein’s ethics.
Join Nathaniel Peters (Morningside) for a dinner seminar on Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death and our new digital age.
Join Justin Hawkins (CUIMC) for a dinner seminar on the various models of disability used today.
Join Morningside and philosopher Dan Addison for a seminar series with working professionals on ethics in work and everyday life.
Join Nathaniel Peters (Morningside) for a dinner seminar on Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death and the rise of the television.
Join James Valentini and Stuart Firestein (Columbia) for a small group discussion of Beginner’s Mind and the scientific mind.
Join Nathaniel Peters (Morningside) for a dinner seminar on Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death and the loss of an American culture of print.
Join Morningside and philosopher Dan Addison for a seminar series with working professionals on ethics in work and everyday life.
Join Nathaniel Peters (Morningside) for this lunch seminar on Joan Didion's greatest journalism on false stories, false selves, and false societies.
Join Professors Richard John and Casey Blake for a series of dinner conversations on hyper-moral politics in the works of Richard Niebuhr and Musa al-Gharbi.
Join Nathaniel Peters (Morningside) for this lunch seminar on Joan Didion's greatest journalism on false stories, false selves, and false societies.
Join Professors Richard John and Casey Blake for a series of dinner conversations on hyper-moral politics in the works of Richard Niebuhr and Musa al-Gharbi.
A dinner conversation on intellectual firmness with James Valentini (Chemistry) and Nathaniel Peters (Morningside)
Join Nathaniel Peters (Morningside) for this lunch seminar on Joan Didion's greatest journalism on false stories, false selves, and false societies.
Join Professors Richard John and Casey Blake for a series of dinner conversations on hyper-moral politics in the works of Richard Niebuhr and Musa al-Gharbi.
A dinner seminar with Professor Gareth Williams, discussing the modern resonance and relevance of the Metamorphoses.
Lunch seminar with Amogha Sahu responding to Chesterton's "On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family" and "Reflections on a Rotten Apple"
Lunch seminar with Amogha Sahu responding to Chesterton's "The Diabolist" and "The Revival of Philosophy–Why?”
What are the fundamental ideas behind the American national project? What are its persistent aspirations and struggles? What is this country about? What was it created to achieve? A dinner seminar with Roosevelt Montás.
Join Professors Richard John and Casey Blake for a series of dinner conversations on hyper-moral politics in the works of Richard Niebuhr and Musa al-Gharbi.
A screening of the new documentary The End of Humanity, and a conversation with Columbia ethicist Ashley Moyse.
Lunch seminar with Anthony Hejduk responding to Chesterton's "Turning Inside Out" and "The Drift from Domesticity."
A dinner conversation on intellectual firmness with James Valentini (Chemistry) and Nathaniel Peters (Morningside)
Lunch seminar with Anthony Hejduk responding to Chesterton's "The Book of Job" and "On Shakespeare."
Are Faith and Doubt Compatible? A dinner seminar with Stephen Grimm on John Henry Newman, co-sponsored by the Merton Institute.
Join philosopher Dan Addison for a lunch seminar discussing the role of truth and lies in society.
Join Professor Pierre Force (Columbia) for a lunch seminar close reading of passages from Pascal's Pensées.
What makes for a good explanation? Explore this question and the insights of Aristotle and Plato at this dinner seminar with Taylor Pincin (Columbia).
Join philosopher Dan Addison for a lunch seminar discussing Alasdair MacIntyre's views on the natural law, and how we can begin to resolve our moral conflicts together.
A dinner lecture by poet and critic Adam Kirsch on the concept of “settler colonialism” and its past, present, and future applications.
