Johnathan Bi

Harvey Lederman, a New York University philosopher specializing in mind, rationality, and AI, explores whether artificial systems could deserve moral consideration. They discuss AI identity, continuity, death, consciousness, welfare, autonomy, and engineered desires. The conversation weighs computational theories of mind, machine distress, introspection, and whether respect might be owed even to nonconscious agents.

A spirited seminar tracing Tocqueville’s take on capitalism, aristocracy, land, inheritance, and social character. The group debates mobility versus hereditary prestige and how commerce shapes ambition and creativity. They link democratic theater to social media, consider AI’s role in outsourcing thought, and worry about soft despotism, civic skills, and how education can preserve deep inquiry.

Gregory Nagy, Harvard professor and leading Homeric scholar, explores why Odysseus weeps and how sorrow (penthos) shapes epic. Short takes cover grief as central to heroic fame, Helen’s false laments, kleos versus nostos, sirens and poetic truth, and how tragedy compresses epic themes.

A close reading of why Odysseus returns to Penelope and what makes her the ideal partner. Visits to Ithaca and the palace set the scene with olive tree imagery. Loyal Penelope is compared to Clytemnestra and contrasted with Calypso, Circe, Nausicaa, and Helen. Discussion focuses on Penelope’s cunning, one-mindedness with Odysseus, and her deferential role as key virtues.

A close reading of the Cyclops scene and the Greek wordplay connecting 'nobody' and cunning. A contrast between Achilles’ named glory and Odysseus’ strategic anonymity. How ritualized deception functions during travel and social tests. Moments when identity must be revealed to secure fame. A discussion of heroism, pain, and the shift toward Platonic critique.

A tour of four afterlives for Odysseus, from accidental death and political fallout to Dante’s punished seeker, Tennyson’s restless voyager, and Plato’s measured chooser. Scenes in Ithaca and archaeological notes set the stage. Themes: wandering versus settling, consequences of roaming, and whether experience or philosophy should guide life.

Gregory Nagy, Harvard professor and leading Homeric scholar, explains how Homeric poetry grew from living oral performance. He recounts fieldwork on extemporaneous singers, audience-driven expansion and compression, traveling poets shaping regional traditions, and how ritual festivals and formulas crystallized the Iliad and Odyssey into what we know.

A lecture tracing Tocqueville’s uneasy take on American religion and why democratic life both needs and corrodes faith. It contrasts moral platitudes with serious belief and explores how toleration, materialism, skepticism, and family changes reshape Christianity. The talk also considers technology, AI, and the possibility of a new spiritual revival.

A lecture at the Chateau de Tocqueville traces Tocqueville’s take on American mores, envy, and ambition. It examines how inequality and industrial elites shape standards, civic life, and the rise of an industrial aristocracy. The talk contrasts meritocratic exams with American admissions, explores democratic threats to freedom, and urges stewardship of technology and plural institutions.

Thomas Pangle, a University of Texas political philosopher known for work on the American Founding and classical thought, explores how early Americans embraced commerce and acquisition in ways ancients did not. He traces commerce's civic virtues and failures, the founders' views on work, religion, and progress, and debates how institutions and education might recover a civic-minded culture.