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Cercle d'études: Fall 2026

Cercle d'études: Fall 2026

Welcome to Cercle d'études, Fall 2026! Here you will find some resources for the Fall 2026 iteration of the Cercle, as well as an overview of the semester's speakers and topics.

Meeting details

Wednesdays, 5:15-6:30 p.m.

The Maritain Library, 437 Geddes Hall

Resources

A few key resources for current students:

Contact information:

Instructor: Prof. Jean Porter

Need logistical support? Contact Maritain Center Program Manager, Beth Muench

Syllabus:

Download the Cercle d'études Fall 2026 syllabus [PDF, 65k]

Speakers and Topics

August 26: Introduction with Prof. Jean Porter (Theology)

September 2: "Aquinas and the Right to Participate in Community"

Speaker: Prof. Therese Cory (Philosophy)

Abstract: In his account of human nature, Aquinas stresses the natural necessity of community for human life. I argue that this natural necessity of community for humans grounds a fundamental natural right to participate in community, which flows from the right to life. Given Aquinas's view of the role of political leadership within a community, the natural right to participate in community is not opposed to appropriate regulation. However, such regulation has to be understood as parallel to the regulation of exercise of other natural rights, such as marriage. Obviously, this view has important implications for a natural law perspective on immigration.

September 9: "Why logic is a lot more interesting than you might think: Two examples"

Speaker: Fr. Nicholas Lombardo (Theology)

Abstract: It is safe to say that books on logic do not frequently make the New York Times bestseller list. Even among professional philosophers, a great many prefer to focus on topics besides logic in their teaching and research. And yet, while logic does not have a reputation for intellectual excitement, partly due to the way logicians go about their business, in fact, logic can be extremely interesting. One key insight is realizing that logic is not just about how to reason correctly, or whether X implies Y, or how to spot bad reasoning; it’s also about how words work, and how our words connect to reality.

The boardgame Othello has the tagline: “A minute to learn. A lifetime to master.” In this Cercle d’etudes, we will discuss two logical puzzles that take a minute to grasp, and yet have occupied some of history’s greatest minds for much of their lives. One is about language and Gottlob Frege’s sense/reference distinction, and the other is about the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and how it can make logical sense to say that God is both one and three.

September 16: “Is Stoicism about a stiff upper lip?”

Speaker: Prof. Gretchen Reydams-Schils (Program of Liberal Studies)

Abstract: This discussion will start from a passage from the Meditations by the Stoic Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (121–180 AD), which he probably wrote for himself or a very small circle, at most. In this passage (2.17), he appears to scorn the human lifespan, the body, the soul, fortune, fame, in sum, pretty much everything a human being ordinarily cares about. We may well wonder, then, whether the turn to philosophy, as the Stoics perceive it, asks of its adepts that they give up too much. In my presentation I will develop some lines of thinking to show that this is not actually the case and that this ‘negative’ attitude is only an opening move on Marcus Aurelius’ part, not his fully considered stance.

September 23: "On Divine Revelation: The Nature of Unwritten Tradition"

Speaker: Fr. Kevin Grove (Theology)

The intellectual currents of the late nineteenth and early 20^th centuries pushed Catholic theology to consider precisely what theologians mean by the word tradition. Trent famously described “unwritten traditions” (1546). Our Cercle d’etudes conversation concerns this most important aspect of divine revelation, and how it comes to be defined in Dei Verbum 8. Thinkers along the way include: Luke, Newman, Blondel, and Congar.

September 30: "Don't Look Now! Theater as Breeding Grounds for (Toxic?) Empathy in Augustine's Confessions"

Speaker: Prof. David Cory (Philosophy)

Abstract: Like many in the ancient world, St. Augustine took the passions to be among the most serious obstacles to the moral life. In his Confessions, he identifies the theater and literature and the feelings they arouse as breeding grounds of corrupting feeling. Not only does he cry (already regarded with suspicion by Stoics and others) but he cries for the guilty passion of Aeneas and Dido, fictionalized characters he does not even know. Augustine's criticism of weeping at fictional distress bears at least a passing resemblance to a growing suspicion in contemporary culture of all that arouses empathy. "Toxic empathy" has become a term used to criticize those who, perhaps self-indulgently, feel the anguish of others and consequently fail in duties that are harsh, such as punishing the criminal. How might Augustine weigh in on debates about “toxic empathy”? Separately, is he discouraging the development of sentiment through literature and theater? More generally, what role (if any) does empathy, especially as fostered by fiction have in the cultivation of virtue and moral excellence?

October 7: "To Whom Do Children Belong? Examining the Foundations, Scope, and Limits of Parental Rights"

Speaker: Prof. Melissa Moschella (Philosophy)

Abstract: Do parents have the right to send their children to private or religious schools that align with their values? Would it be a violation of parental rights for the state to require all children to attend public (i.e. government-run) schools, as Oregon attempted to do in the 1920s? The US Supreme Court answered yes to these questions in the famous 1925 case, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, arguing that the constitution protects the rights of parents to direct their children's education and upbringing. But why do parents - rather than the state - have primary responsibility for and authority over their children's upbringing and education? What are the limits of parental authority and rights? And what is the proper role of the state in this arena? We will discuss these difficult and timely questions both in the abstract and in relation to some real-life cases, including Wisconsin v. Yoder (a case in which Amish parents sought to exempt their children from the compulsory education requirement after the 8th grade so that they could educate their children at home in the Amish way of life), and Mahmoud v.Taylor (a recent case in which Maryland parents sought the right to opt their kindergarten and elementary school children out of lessons involving story books that promoted LGBTQ lifestyles).

October 14: "Where is Granny? Death, Personal Identity, and Immortality"

Speaker: Prof. John O'Callaghan (Philosophy)

What happens when we die? Some say that when we die, that's it. Life is finished. Indeed, some say, "you are dust and unto dust you shall return." Upon death we cease to be, or do so very rapidly as we decompose. We say, "we buried grandma today." It is foolish to hope for anything more. However, some deny this. They say, "That's not grandma in the casket. That's grandma's body and grandma's body ain't grandma." They say something survives our death, namely the soul survives, and that's not nothing. It's something. In fact, it's grandma. After all, we pray for the dead, not their bodies. We pray for the intercession of the saints, like Peter, and Therese, and Maximillian, and Fulton, and so on. They agree, if grandma, the saints, and the dead do not survive death, then what we do and say is indeed most foolish. No. So, the dead do not die, since one cannot both die and survive death. And yet St. Paul, writing about the resurrection of the dead, says, "For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life." If the dead do not die, how can they be brought to life in Christ through the resurrection? And Thomas Aquinas, who is dead, commenting while he still lived on this discussion in St. Paul, writes, "anima mea non est ego." And elsewhere, “It is necessary therefore that the resurrection be ordered toward the perpetuity of the individual. Not however according to the soul alone, for the soul had this perpetuity of existence before the resurrection. Truly, the perpetuity of the individual is had according to the composite of soul and body. A human being, therefore, rising, lives perpetually.” All very strange sayings. But the important question remains, "where is grandma?"

October 28: "How Much Is Enough? Limits on Wealth and Possessions in Christian Life"

Speaker: Prof. David Cloutier (Theology)

Abstract: St. John Chrysostom and other Fathers condemn much frivolous spending, St. Thomas Aquinas makes a distinction between our desire for "natural" versus "artificial" wealth, and modern Catholic social doctrine teaches that our superfluous possessions ought to be used for what the Catechism calls "natural solidarity." But how should we think about these teachings in a culture that assumes our desire for possessions is insatiable and our standard of living must always rise? Join us for a discussion of key markers that we might use to think through this key problem for both individual Christians and the common good of the society.

November 4: "Persons, Individuals, and Jacques Maritain’s Challenge to Modern Political Philosophy"

Speaker: Prof. Jacob Saliba (Cushwa Center/Global Catholic Research Initiative)

Abstract: The French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain once argued that, in the wake of modernity, our conception of human nature had become split into divergent categories of “individuals” and “persons,” with the former as a secular construct and the latter as the sole guarantor of true human dignity according to Church teaching. 1 Maritain’s chief contention was that as individuals, human beings only appear as isolated entities in society, subordinated to the temporal laws of the state and no longer exercising transcendent agency and ethical duties. In contrast, the view of human beings as persons guarantees that everyone, by possessing a soul and God-given dignity, transcends the failures of the temporal order and the ills of a given political regime. A crucial implication of this distinction concerned the threat of totalitarianism and the evil of the Holocaust which reduced human beings to lifeless cogs in a machine, cast aside with no dignity, freedom, or sacred value. Totalitarianism, according to Maritain, only reinforced the egocentric dangers of individualism that seeks to isolate human beings rather than put them into communion with one another. This distinction between persons and individuals is one of the most important interventions of Catholic philosophy, legal theory, and politics in the last century as well as of the most crucial ingredients to Maritain’s own systematic political thought on questions of the common good, rights, responsibilities, and democracy.

November 11

Speaker: TBD

November 18

Speaker: Prof. Trent Pomplum (Theology)