What We Can't Not Talk About

Conservatism today, whether animated by concern for lost political greatness or by dismay over the evisceration of traditional morality, has grown skeptical of the case for personal liberty and for market freedom. Individual liberty is condemned on account of the excesses of radical autonomy, the free market on account of corrupt practices of wealthy corporations. Drawing on insights from leading figures in the liberal tradition, Professor James Stoner will argue that a balanced account of human happiness and the common good includes ample room for personal freedom and free enterprise, in the context of moral law and political right. Professor James R. Stoner, Jr., is the Hermann Moyse, Jr., Professor and Director of the Eric Voegelin Institute in the Department of Political Science at LSU. He is the author of Common-Law Liberty: Rethinking American Constitutionalism (Kansas, 2003) and Common Law and Liberal Theory: Coke, Hobbes, and the Origins of American Constitutionalism (Kansas, 1992), as well as a number of articles and essays. In 2009 he was named a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute of Princeton, New Jersey; he has co-edited three books published by Witherspoon, The Thriving Society: On the Social Conditions of Human Flourishing (with Harold James, 2015), The Social Costs of Pornography: A Collection of Papers (with Donna M. Hughes, 2010), and Rethinking Business Management: Examining the Foundations of Business Education (with Samuel Gregg, 2008). He was the 2010 recipient of the Honors College Sternberg Professorship at LSU. He is a senior fellow of the Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture. Dr. Stoner has taught at LSU since 1988, chaired the Department of Political Science from 2007 to 2013, and served as Acting Dean of the Honors College in fall 2010. He was a member of the National Council on the Humanities from 2002 to 2006. In 2002-03 he was a visiting fellow in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, where he returned in the 2013-14 academic year as Garwood Visiting Professor in the fall and Visiting Fellow in the spring. He has teaching and research interests in political theory, English common law, and American constitutionalism. YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyz0LbSp1WU

In this episode, Dr. Susan Yoshihara, President of the American Council on Women, Peace, and Security, joins us to discuss war as it relates to women in the context of her own background as a former Naval officer, the conflict in Ukraine, as well as humanitarian efforts in war. Dr. Yoshihara here also discusses foreign intervention and the nature of just war theory. We invite you to listen to this podcast to consider these matters more deeply and to meditate on the role of women in warfare in the modern world.

As the war in Ukraine is raging on, we are seeing how a nation responds to the roles of its men and women in a time of great crisis. In this episode, UT Professor and AI Senior Fellow Mark Regnerus shares key insights about his latest Public Discourse article, “War Highlights Sex Differences and Family Ties." “A nation could recover from the loss of scores of men, as the twentieth century’s postwar societies all did. But it has no future without women and children and the moral order of the family and society that these not only represent but constitute. Civilization hinges on women.” Join us for this timely episode! https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2022/03/80876/

In this episode, J. Budziszewski, Professor of Philosophy and Government at the University of Texas at Austin and Senior Fellow of the Austin Institute, joins us to discuss his latest book, How and How Not to Be Happy. Prof. J. Budziszewski reflects here on his motivations for writing the book as well as the following questions: What is the meaning of happiness? Do such things as pleasure, honor, or power constitute happiness? We invite you to join us in listening to this podcast to consider some problems with modern and ancient theories of happiness and to think about what happiness actually might be.

In this episode, Kate Bryan, author of the recent book Living the Feminist Dream, joins us to talk about her book and her project 1 Girl Revolution. Ms. Bryan discusses with us such topics as her background, her interest in the stories of various women in modern society and how they change the world around us, the importance of women in community, the failures of the contemporary secular feminist movement, and beyond. We hope that you enjoy this episode of our podcast and find something to take away and consider concerning the meaning of femininity in the present culture. 1 Girl Revolution website and podcast: https://1girlrevolution.com "I’m a 32-year-old virgin, and I’m living the feminist dream" article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/09/08/im-a-32-year-old-virgin-and-im-living-the-feminist-dream/ The Girl Inside: Official Documentary: https://1girlrevolution.com/the-girl-inside/ "Living the Feminist Dream" (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Living-Feminist-Dream-Faithful-English/dp/1565485165

Can the Christian ethic of selfless, self-sacrificial Agape be reconciled with the classical eudaemonism of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle? Thomas Aquinas attempted such a reconciliation, agreeing with the Greeks that one’s own happiness (eudaemonia/beatitude) is the ultimate end of all human action, and that self-love (eros) is the foundation of all other loves, while insisting (with the Christian tradition) that we are called to love God above self, and even to love oneself only for God’s sake. I will defend Aquinas’s harmonization against the charge of inconsistency, by distinguishing two ways in which something can be an “ultimate end." About our Scholar: Professor Robert Koons, University of Texas at Austin Professor Robert Koons specializes in philosophical logic and in the application of logic to long-standing philosophical problems, including metaphysics, philosophy of mind and intentionality, semantics, political philosophy and metaethics, and philosophy of religion. His book Paradoxes of Belief and Strategic Rationality (Cambridge, 1992) received the Aarlt Prize from the Council of Graduate Schools in 1994. He is the author of Realism Regained (OUP, 2000) and the co-editor (with George Bealer) of The Waning of Materialism (OUP, 2010). He is at work with Tim Pickavance on a textbook on metaphysics. He is working on analytic Aristotelianism and social ontology.

In this podcast special, Sohrab Ahmari, best-selling author and editor of the New York Post, discusses his most recent book, "The Unbroken Thread," with Dr. Mark Regnerus, Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and Senior Fellow of the Austin Institute. Mr. Ahmari and Dr. Regnerus specifically discuss Question Ten of the book: Is Sex a Private Matter? Mr. Ahmari explains the background for the chapter in reading the work of John Cavadini and his attempt to reconcile St Augustine and Andrea Dworkin on the troubling nature of sex, and Dr. Regnerus relates Ahmari’s writing to the problems of “deformed sexual learning” and pornography. We welcome you in joining us for this special and hope it provides some substantial ideas for reflection about the nature of sex and state of the modern sexual culture.

In this podcast special, Sohrab Ahmari, best-selling author and editor of the New York Post, discusses his most recent book, The Unbroken Thread, with Dr. Robert Koons, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin and Senior Fellow of the Austin Institute. Mr. Ahmari and Dr. Koons specifically discuss Question Nine of the book: What is Freedom For? Mr. Ahmari explains the background for the chapter in the 1978 Harvard commencement speech given by Alexander Solzhenitsyn concerning the shortcomings of the liberal democratic west, and Dr. Koons poses questions concerning the “eclectic” nature of Ahmari’s book and broader political project. We welcome you in joining us for this special and hope it provides some substantial ideas for reflection about the nature of freedom and the state of western politics.

In this episode, Dr. Brian Willoughby, assistant professor at the School for Family Life at BYU, discusses his recent research conducted with the support of the Wheatley Institute and Austin Institute on the effects of pornography on relationships. Dr. Willoughby details some of the methods and categories used in carrying out this survey, explaining some controversies in modern social science on these topics along the way. In what way exactly does porn harm relationships? Does it make a difference whether it’s used by both partners? We hope that you join us in finding out the answers to these questions and find something useful that you can apply to your own relationships and marriage. National Couples and Pornography Survey 2021: https://wheatley.byu.edu/National-Couples-and-Pornography-Survey2021/ The Porn Gap How is Pornography Impacting Relationships Between Men and Women Today? https://wheatley.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/The-Porn-Gap-Wheatley-2021.pdf

On Saturday, November 20th, 2021, three scholars and senior fellows of the Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture conversed with journalist and author Sohrab Ahmari. Focusing on three chapters of his most recent book and on the figures of Thomas Aquinas, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Andrea Dworkin, the speakers engaged in conversations about the reasonableness of God, the purpose of human freedom and the meaning of sex. These videos are broken into three parts. This is part two. About our Speakers Sohrab Ahmari is a contributing editor of The American Conservative and a visiting fellow of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan University. Previously, he spent nearly a decade at News Corp., as op-ed editor of the New York Post and as a columnist and editor with the Wall Street Journal opinion pages in New York and London. Dr. J. Budziszewski is a professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. His main area of research is the natural moral law, in which he is best known for his work on moral self-deception. His most recent books include Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Happiness and Ultimate Purpose (2020), and Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Divine Law (2021).