Thomistic Summer Conference: Virtue, Law, and the Common Good
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Join us this summer at our sunny California campus to enjoy lectures, conversations, and fellowship as we explore the theme of “Virtue, Law, and the Common Good” together with Dr. Christopher Kaczor, Dr. Michael Pakaluk, Fr. Sebastian Walshe, Dr. John Francis Nieto, and Dr. John Goyette.
Early-bird discount on registration available through Monday, April 22.
Paper proposals will be accepted until February 19.
Authors will be notified by February 29.
Link for registration — Details and link for paper proposals
St. Thomas’s extensive writings on morality hinge on a few key ideas and principles: Virtue (an intrinsic principle of moral life), Law (an extrinsic principle of moral life), and the Common Good (the end or perfection of the moral life).
Understanding the moral life is, of course, invaluable for those who seek to understand human nature and human flourishing in this life and the life to come, and for a deeper understanding of God’s providence.
Participants at the 2024 Thomistic Summer Conference will address such questions as the following: What is virtue, and how is it related to happiness and the common good? What is justice, and why is that virtue specifically ordered toward the common good? Are the theoretical virtues also ordered toward a common good? How do the supernatural virtues differ from the natural virtues? What is law? Is it a work of reason, or is it merely an expression of force or power? What is the natural law? How do we know the natural law, and is there an order among its precepts? Does it presuppose a divine lawgiver? What is the proper relation between natural law and human law? Why are natural law and human law insufficient to order man toward his ultimate end? What is the relation between the political common good and the common good of the whole universe? What about the relation between the political common good and the common good of the heavenly city?
Join us for three days of engaging lectures and lively conversation exploring questions such as these in the light of the thought of St. Thomas, a champion of the essential harmony between faith and reason.