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This lecture was delivered on June 18, 2021 as part of the third annual Thomistic Philosophy and Natural Science Symposium: Chance and Indeterminacy in the Natural World. Slides for this lecture can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/4643mb4v

For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.

About the speaker:
Dr. Valerie Plaus is Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, where she teaches calculus-based physics classes designed for pre-engineering and chemistry majors. She taught physics and mathematics at universities in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin before coming to Franciscan in Fall 2018. She completed her masters and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph. Her primary research interests are in supersymmetry and Higgs physics. Aside from physics, she is also passionate about swing and blues-idiom dancing and hiking.

The (De)Evolution of Determinism in Physics | Dr. Valerie Plaus

This talk was given on June 25, 2021 as part of the 10th Annual Aquinas Philosophy Workshop, "Knowledge, Truth, and Wisdom in Aquinas." The handout for the talk can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/phksp393

For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.

About the Speaker:
Edward Feser is Professor of Philosophy at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California.  He has been a Visiting Assistant Professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.  He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California at Santa Barbara, an M.A. in religion from the Claremont Graduate School, and a B.A. in philosophy and religious studies from the California State University at Fullerton.

Called by National Review “one of the best contemporary writers on philosophy,” Feser is the author of On Nozick, Philosophy of Mind, Locke, The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism, Aquinas, Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction, Neo-Scholastic Essays, Five Proofs of the Existence of God, and Aristotle's Revenge, the co-author of By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment, and the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Hayek and Aristotle on Method and Metaphysics.  He is also the author of many academic articles.  His primary academic research interests are in metaphysics, natural theology, the philosophy of mind, and moral and political philosophy.

Feser also writes on politics and culture, from a conservative point of view; and on religion, from a traditional Roman Catholic perspective.  In this connection, his work has appeared in such publications as The American, The American Conservative, The American Mind, Catholic Herald, Catholic World Report, City Journal, The Claremont Review of Books, Crisis, First Things, Liberty, National Review, New Oxford Review, Public Discourse, Reason, TCS Daily, and the Times Literary Supplement.

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and six children.

Truth as Transcendental: Ontological Foundations | Dr. Edward Feser

This lecture was delivered at the University of Arizona on September 14, 2021. The handout can be found at https://tinyurl.com/4tj4vebb.

For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.

About the speaker:
Gregory T. Doolan received his B.A. in political theory from Georgetown University in 1993 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 2003. He taught philosophy at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. from 2004–05 and joined the faculty of the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America in 2005. Dr. Doolan’s research interest is in the area of Aquinas’s metaphysics; in recent years, his focus has been on Aquinas’s account of the Aristotelian categories of being. A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Doolan currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and three children.

Why Should We Believe God Exists? | Prof. Gregory Doolan

This talk was given on June 26th, 2021 at the 10th Annual Aquinas Philosophy Workshop: Knowledge, Truth, and Wisdom in Aquinas. The handout can be found at https://tinyurl.com/yv5by7f5

For information on upcoming Thomistic Institute events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.

About the speaker:
Robert C. (“Rob”) Koons is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has taught for 33 years. M. A. Oxford, Ph.D. UCLA. He is the author or co-author of four books, including: Realism Regained (Oxford University Press, 2000), and The Atlas of Reality: A Comprehensive Guide to Metaphysics, with Timothy H. Pickavance (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017). He is the co-editor (with George Bealer) of The Waning of Materialism (Oxford University Press, 2010), and co-editor (with Nicholas Teh and William Simpson) of Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science (Routledge, 2018). He has been working recently on an Aristotelian interpretation of quantum theory, on defending and articulating Thomism in contemporary terms, and on arguments for classical theism.

On the Union of the Knower with the Known | Prof. Robert Koons

This talk was given on September 20, 2021 at Vanderbilt University.

For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.

About the speaker:
Sister Jane Dominic Laurel, O.P., is a member of the Saint Cecilia Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Nashville, TN. Currently, she teaches Theology at Aquinas College in Nashville and assists with the theological formation of the newest members of the religious congregation. She studied theology at the Angelicum (The Pontifical University of St. Thomas) in Rome, Italy.

What Can an Adulteress Teach Us about Happiness? | Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel, O.P.

This lecture was given on March 25, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies as part of the Thomistic Institute's Annual Spring Thomistic Circles Conference: "Our Father: Prayer and Theology."

For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.

About the speaker:
Dr. Heereman was born and raised in a devout Catholic family in Germany. Originally trained to become a lawyer, she experienced a deep encounter with the Lord which led her to discern a vocation as a lay woman celibate for the sake of the kingdom. She received two years of spiritual formation and attended the ICPE school of Evangelization in India, Banglore, which eventually led her to theological studies so as to consecrate her life to the study and teaching of the Word of God.  She received an STB from the Pontifical Gregorian University, an SSL from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and the SSD from the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem on and the Université de Fribourg. During and after her doctoral studies she lectured at the Collège des Bernhardins, Paris, and the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome as a visiting professor. Explaining her discernment to join St. Patrick’s faculty, Dr. Heereman writes: “In particular, I desire to open up the treasures of the Scriptures to future priests so that their ministry might be rooted in the Word of God as the living source of their life and preaching.  I am deeply committed to the Church’s desire to make ‘the study of the sacred page the very soul of theology’ (DV 24).”

Thy Kingdom Come | Prof. Nina Heereman

This lecture was given on March 17th, 2023, at "The Passion & the Sacred Wounds: An Intellectual Retreat" at the Dominican House of Studies.

For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

Speaker Bio:

Fr. Michael O'Connor, O.P.(Dominican House of Studies) was raised in Illinois and did his undergraduate studies at St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota, where he earned a B.A. in music performance and philosophy. He worked as a church musician and as an editor of the St. Michael Hymnal for a few years before entering the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 2006. He was ordained a priest in 2012 and completed the S.T.L. at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in 2013. Fr. O’Connor was then assigned to Providence College, where he taught courses in Theology and the Development of Western Civilization for three years. In 2016, he moved to Rome to begin doctoral studies (S.T.D.) in moral theology at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, where he completed a dissertation on a Thomistic understanding of the orientation of human sexuality.

By His Wounds We Are Healed | Father Michael O'Connor

This lecture was given during a conference on Thomas Aquinas and the Greek Fathers at Ave Maria University, that was held January 26-27, 2018, entitled: "What is Beauty? Is God Beautiful?" This event was hosted by the Aquinas Center and the Thomistic Institute.

What Is Beauty? Is God Beautiful? | Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP

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The (De)Evolution of Determinism in Physics | Dr. Valerie Plaus

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