The After Dinner Scholar

America at 250, Episode 8: Are ALL Men Created Equal? with Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos

When the framers of the Declaration of Independence listed “self-evident truths,” they began with three truths that precede any sort of state: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Yet about one third of the signers of the Declaration were slave owners. Wyoming Catholic College professor Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos helps us to make some sense of that.

Aristotle on Friendship with Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos

“Social connection,” wrote U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy in  his May 2023 “Advisory on our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” “is a fundamental human need, as essential to survival as food, water, and shelter. Throughout history, our ability to rely on one another has been crucial to survival.”

That may come as news to many modern Americans, but back in the fourth century BC Aristotle would have told you the same things. Friendship, he wrote in his Nichomachean Ethics, “is not only a necessary thing but a splendid one. We praise those who love their friends, and the possession of many friends is held to be one of the fine things of life.”

Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos recently taught The Nichomachean Ethics with our Wyoming Catholic College juniors and looking at, among other things, friendship.

Giving Thanks with President Kyle Washut

The great Roman statesman and orator, Marcus Tulius Cicero said: 

In truth… while I wish to be adorned with every virtue, yet there is nothing which I can esteem more highly than being and appearing grateful. For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.

The ancients understood—as most moderns don’t—that virtuous living makes us happy. Thus, Cicero argued, gratitude, thanksgiving is the gateway to happiness.

With the celebration of Thanksgiving Day approaching, Wyoming Catholic College President Kyle Washut had this to say about the virtue of thanksgiving.

Aristotle’s ”Nicomachean Ethics” with Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos

“Every art and every investigation, and similarly every action and pursuit,” wrote Aristotle at the beginning of his book on ethics, “is considered to aim at some good. Hence the good has rightly been defined as ‘that at which all things aim’.”

We all, Aristotle contends, aim at what we believe is the good. But how do we know what is truly good? And how is it possible as he tells us, that the way to aim at the good has to do with politics?

Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos is reading Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics with our Wyoming Catholic College juniors. Here's what he had to say about the good.

“Dumb but Disciplined: Why You Should Wake Up to Your Alarm” with Mr. Aidan Wood

“As a modern man,” wrote Wyoming Catholic College senior, Aidan Wood,” the paths to happiness are seemingly endless, and endlessly confusing. However, there is one simple path that guarantees man’s mission: the path of discipline.”

We all know the feeling: While trying to lose some weight, you pass the donuts someone put in the break room. Just one won’t hurt. Reading St. Thomas Aquinas is a great idea, but I’m tired in the evening and TV is an easier option. The alarm goes off, but well… there’s a snooze button. 

Our guest, Mr. Aidan Wood, wrote his senior thesis and oration on the topic of discipline. Clear here to hear his presentation.

Pro-Life After Dobbs 2: The Arguments for Abortion Rights with Dr. Michael Bolin

“Usually when I debate on this topic,” said pro-life advocate Helen Alvare, “I feel like I’m behind a podium speaking French and the other person is behind a podium speaking Finnish. There’s no common ground.”

Part of the reason there is no common ground in the abortion debate is that our pro-abortion family and friends don’t understand our arguments and we don’t understand theirs.

Wyoming Catholic College philosopher, Dr. Michael Bolin allows his students to puzzle over what might be the best philosophical argument for abortion rights: Judith Jarvis Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion” published in the journal Philosophy & Public Affairs in 1971—about 18 months before Roe v. Wade was decided.

Pro-Life After Dobbs 1: Humanae Vitae with Dr. Jeremy Holmes

At a banquet for a local pregnancy care center the speaker noted the U. S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade. It’s true and thanks be to God. But, the speaker suggested, quoting Winston Churchill, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” That is, the battle rages on and could be uglier than ever.

With that in mind, this week and next will focus on the theology and philosophy of life beginning this week as theologian, Dr. Jeremy Holmes, discusses the encyclical Humanae Vitae.

Plutarch, Politics, and the Gracchi Brothers with Dr. Tiffany Schubert

Studying the lives of men and women is complicated, but it is from that study that we see vice and virtue and the end results of each, we learn of honor and dishonor, sacrifice and selfishness, self-discipline and dissipation. 

The Greek Platonist and priest of Apollo at Delphi, Plutarch understood the project of instruction by writing the lives of great Roman and Greeks.

Dr. Tiffany Schubert has been teaching Plutarch’s Lives with the Wyoming Catholic College sophomores.

An Introduction to Leon Kass’ ”L’Chaim and Its Limits” by Dr. Daniel Shields

In his essay, “L’Chaim and Its Limits: Why Not Immortality?” Dr. Leon Kass asks, “If life is good and more is better, should we not regard death as a disease and try to cure it?”

While “curing” death may seem far-fetched, the so-called trans-human project seeks to do just that.

Kass, an Orthodox Jew, wrote the essay for those with no or with little religion. Wyoming Catholic College philosopher, Dr. Daniel Shields gave the participants in this year’s Wyoming School of Catholic Thought this introduction to Kass’ essay before we broke into seminar groups.

Leadership and ”The Abolition of Man” with Dr. Travis Dziad

In his book, After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, Fr. Michael Ward writes that Lewis in The Abolition of Man, “defends the objectivity of value, pointing to the universal moral ecology that all great philosophical and religious traditions have acknowledged as self-evident.” Self-evident, that is, until just recently.

Today the idea that there might be a “universal moral ecology” seems unthinkable. My truth is my truth; your truth is your truth and good is whatever I define good to be.

Believing that ideas have consequences and having an ability to reason from premises to conclusions, C. S. Lewis saw the danger and in The Abolition of Man issued a firm warning.

Dr. Travis Dziad recently taught The Abolition of Man in his sophomore leadership course.