Events

Developing our exploration of the themes of inheritance, justice and providence in Augustine's City of God, we turn now to two of the foremost French writers. Nearly three centuries between them, Michel de Montaigne and Joseph de Maistre offer timeless insights into the fragility of that heritage which binds generations together. We'll be discussing Montaigne's essay 'On Custom', reflecting on what he describes as the 'tyranny of custom' and its abuse in justifying vice, following which we shall tackle de Maistre's celebrated 'Seventh Dialogue' defending the providence of war. 

Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France contains a powerful defence of hereditary government founded on an understanding of society as an indissolubly intergenerational project. We consider what influence these arguments had on the subsequent generation of English Romantic poets, in particular Wordsworth and Byron. 

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Roger Scruton is remembered for his writings on an array of themes, but perhaps none so compellingly as art and architecture. Scruton's aesthetics are rooted in deep convictions about the nature of the human person. We study a chapter of his book The Soul of the World that connects traditional architecture to the religious and moral imperatives that drove the first human settlements.

We commence our Spring seminar series on heritage with Plato's Republic, particularly the chapters dealing with the relationship between art and morality and how this informs Plato's view of the role of art in relation to the state.  

St Augustine's City of God defends his fellow Christians against accusations that they were responsible for the fall of Rome to the Visigoths in 410, attributing it instead to moral decay. What follows is an impressive survey of Rome's history, her own poets and historians marshalled to the defence of Augustine's thesis, followed by an equally impressive survey of the Old Testament and the derivation of an ideal city in heaven that contrasts with those across the earth. We consider the dependence of society on strong moral formation and how this squares with the concept of providence. 

We conclude this series on liberty with the debate between John Rawls and Michael Sandel and consider the present state of liberalism and whether it has any future.

We consider the importance of the distinction between legislation and governance for the preservation of a negative concept of liberty, as this was argued by the eminent economist and former chair of the London School of Economics, Friedrich Hayek. 

The three essential materials are now available online and we will be looking at Sartre, De Beauvoir and Camus and recommended readings are also available.

We explore two competing notions of liberty as they were originally formulated by J. S. Mill and their reprisal in the work of Isaiah Berlin.

We follow the work of Rousseau with another social contract theorist, Locke, and his impact on the American Founding Father, Paine.

We commence this season with Rousseau's social contract theory