Carlos Carvalho, President of the University of Austin (UATX), recently told me, "UATX is Navy Seals training for the mind". It's no surprise, then, that when I ask 19-year-old UATX student Merrick Meardon difficult philosophical questions, he was more than capable of sustaining a high level of discourse about concepts of "abiding significance". (Hat tip to the late philosopher Dan Dennett who popularized this phrase.)

Merrick and I didn't know what we'd talk about when we sat down together, but we both knew the unspoken assumptions: You will be held to task for your ideas; our conversation will likely not be intellectually easy; if I detect a mistake in your reasoning you'll know about it, and I expect the same courtesy from you; there are no limits on the content or how deep the conversation will go. Merrick attends the University of Austin, and that's the normative expectation.

Watch this episode on YouTube and read the accompanying Substack post.

Follow Peter Boghossian