How ought I to act and why? How should we organize our political institutions? What is reality really like? Is it all just atoms in the void, or is there some transcendent reality? Ultimately, what is the nature of the human person? These are questions of ethics, politics, metaphysics, and human nature. The world’s greatest minds – philosophers, literary authors, theologians – have left us a patrimony, as it were, of thinking about these questions.
The goal of this seminar series is to explore this patrimony and ask the question: What does this have to do with me and how I ought to live? In the Fall semester, we will explore texts from Antiquity and in the Spring, we will look at texts from Modernity, both broadly understood. We will focus the academic year on one theme and address other themes and texts from Antiquity and Modernity in future years.
For the Fall 2022-Spring 2023 our focus will be on God, specifically the view that claims that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good, completely transcendent and, ultimately, a person. This view of God has been anticipated by the rational arguments of pagan philosophers. A philosophical account of such a God has been shared by Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the middle ages, despite their very real theological differences. This view has, of course, been challenged in various ways by philosophers ancient and modern.
In the Fall we’ll explore some crucial primary texts that pertain to such philosophical accounts in Antiquity. We’ll begin with selections from The Book of Job, the story of a deeply righteous man–a man with a committed relationship with God–who seems to suffer unjustly. This seems to present a classic problem for God’s existence: why would God let Job suffer? Next, we’ll explore arguments by Plato (429?–347 B.C.) and Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) that claim to provide a rational basis for an all-good, transcendent being that is the source of all. These kinds of arguments would be picked up by medieval philosophers. We’ll also look at the views of God put forth by Epicurean materialist philosopher Lucretius (died mid to late 50s BC): on the Epicurean view, there is no ‘God’ as traditionally understood. Finally, we’ll look at texts from the Jewish Rabbi Saadia Gaon (892-942), the Muslim Al-Ghazali (1058 – 1111), and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) on why God permits evil. Come join the conversation!
Email jprather@houstoninstitute.org to RSVP & receive copies of the readings.
Led by Dr. Victor Saenz
Meets Tuesdays, 10/25, 11/1, 11/8, 11/15
