The Morningside Institute

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 philosophy. If relativism is demonstrably false, why is it still interesting? Is there still truth that we can take away from it?

Professor Katja Vogt (Columbia), a specialist in ancient philosophy and ethics, led a seminar on Plato’s discussion of Protagorean relativism for the Morningside Institute on October 13, 2021. Join us for the rest of our seminars on relativism this semester here: https://www.morningsideinstitute.org/wrestling-with-relativism. 

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) finds this conception inadequate for reconciliation after large-scale violence and denials of dignity. By contrast, the Bible offers a broader concept of justice based on right relationship. This framework does not reject rights or punishment but includes obligations and virtues that extend beyond duty: mercy, generosity, and forgiveness. In this lecture, Prof. Philpott explores the biblical understanding of justice and the way it can bear fruit in contemporary society, including reducing our current polarization and addressing historical wounds such as racism.

Daniel Philpott is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. This lecture was given at the Morningside Institute on October 6, 2021. The Morningside Institute brings scholars and students together to examine human life beyond the classroom and consider its deepest questions through the life of New York City. For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

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 for a lecture from Prof. Lara Buchak (Princeton) on how our understanding of rationality and risk can help us understand what faith is and when it might be rational to have faith.

Lara Buchak is a Professor in the Philosophy Department at Princeton University.

This lecture was given at the Morningside Institute on May 7, 2021. The Morningside Institute brings scholars and students together to examine human life beyond the classroom and consider its deepest questions through the life of New York City. For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

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 Reformation among the decisive events of the modern era. As entrepreneurs and nations alike race toward the Moon, Mars, and beyond, what moral and political questions surrounding space exploration might emerge? How does Arendt's unease with our "conquest of space" invite us to reconsider the achievements of Galileo, Descartes, and other early scientific thinkers?

This is a Living the Core seminar with Charles McNamara, who received his PhD in Classics from Columbia in 2016 and his AB from Harvard in 2007. He is an instructor of Contemporary Civilization at Columbia, and received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2016. 

This seminar took place at the Morningside Institute on April 8, 2021. The Morningside Institute brings scholars and students together to examine human life beyond the classroom and consider its deepest questions through the life of New York City. For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

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.

This is a Living the Core seminar with Aaron Zubia, who is a Postdoctoral Fellow with The Tocqueville Program in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Furman University. In 2019-20, he was a Thomas W. Smith Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. 

This seminar took place at the Morningside Institute on April 5, 2021. The Morningside Institute brings scholars and students together to examine human life beyond the classroom and consider its deepest questions through the life of New York City. For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

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 distractions of contemporary life and offers practices to correct its harmful influence.

Chris Jones is Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Barry University.

This lecture was given to the Morningside Institute on March 15, 2021. The Morningside Institute brings scholars and students together to examine human life beyond the classroom and consider its deepest questions through the life of New York City. For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

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 caliphate slowly converted to the faith of the Arab conquerors and how small groups of individuals rejected this faith through dramatic acts of resistance, including apostasy and blasphemy. 

Christian Sahner is associate professor of Islamic history and a fellow of St. Cross College at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Christian Martyrs under Islam: Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World and, most recently, an editor of Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age: A Sourcebook.

This lecture was given to the Morningside Institute on March 18, 2021. The Morningside Institute brings scholars and students together to examine human life beyond the classroom and consider its deepest questions through the life of New York City. For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org​.

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), who will reflect on these conversations in light of the Civil War and the Italian Renaissance.

Allen C. Guelzo is the Senior Research Scholar in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University and Director of the James Madison Program’s Initiative in Politics and Statesmanship. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War, and the Reconstruction era.

James Hankins is Professor of History at Harvard University and the Founder and General Editor of the I Tatti Renaissance Library. He writes on Renaissance intellectual history and has most recently authored Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy.

This virtual conversation was held at the Morningside Institute on February 25, 2021. For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org. This event is co-sponsored by the Abigail Adams Institute and the Elm Institute.

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 be autonomous, defined by their capacity to choose. This individualistic ideology captures important truths about human freedom, but it also means that we have no obligations to each other unless we actively, voluntarily embrace them. Under such circumstances, the most vulnerable among us must rely on charitable care. When it is not forthcoming, law and policy cannot adequately respond. In this lecture, O. Carter Snead rethinks how the law represents human experiences so that it might govern more wisely, justly, and humanely.

O. Carter Snead is Professor of Law, Director of de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, and Concurrent Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. You may find his recently published book, What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics, via this link: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674987722

This lecture was given to the Morningside Institute on February 24, 2021. For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

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 antiquity, and in engagement with such contemporary philosophers of mind as Daniel Dennett, Prof. Jordan Wales (Hillsdale) discusses how we might live humanely in a world of artificial intelligence by taking up four questions: First, how would an apparently personal AI work? Second, what might this entity be? Third, what might we become, owning apparent persons that are mere tools? Lastly, how might we live as owners of apparent persons in such a way as to enhance rather than to erode our own humanity?