The Thomistic Institute

Prof. Thomas Osborne clarifies how, for Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, the distinctive immateriality of human intellectual knowledge grounds a philosophical case for the soul’s immortality, going beyond today’s narrower “problem of consciousness.”

This lecture was given on October 16th, 2025, at University of Connecticut.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Thomas M. Osborne, Jr. (Ph.D, Duke University, 2001) is the Frank A. Rudman Endowed Chair in Philosophy and the Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas. He has published widely on Thomas Aquinas, Thomism, and medieval and late scholastic philosophy. His interests cover moral psychology, ethics, political philosophy, and metaphysics. His latest book is Thomas Aquinas on Virtue (Cambridge University Press, 2024).

Keywords: Aristotle's De Anima, Immaterial Intellect, Immortality of the Soul, Intentional Presence, Philosophy of Mind, Soul, Subsistent Form, Universals and Knowledge

Prof. Marshall Bierson uses Aristotle’s distinction between work, play, and deeper “energetic” activities to argue that friendship and contemplation uniquely allow us to “rest” in what is truly good and meaningful, and then shows how Aquinas radicalizes this by making both contemplation and friendship with God the heart of human fulfillment.

This lecture was given on November 20th, 2025, at Cornell University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Marshall Bierson is an assistant professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of America. His research centers on the intersection of ethics and philosophical anthropology. He is particularly focused on the work of Elizabeth Anscombe and in exploring how her Thomisticly inflected philosophical psychology clarifies moral absolutes.

Keywords: Aristotle, Energeia and Kinesis, Friendship and Contemplation, Meaning of Human Activity, Nihilism and Work–Play, Practical and Theoretical Reason, Thomistic Friendship with God

Dr. Erik Dempsey explains how St. Thomas Aquinas sees pleasure as a natural and God-given part of the good life, one that both signals our true human ends and yet must be disciplined by temperance in a fallen world.

This lecture was given on December 4th, 2025, at Southern Methodist University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Professor Erik Dempsey an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Departments of Government, Classics, and Religious Studies, and is the Assistant Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas. He has taught at the University of Texas at Austin for over ten years, during which time he has offered classes in the history of political philosophy, on the Bible and its interpreters, on American political thought, on classical philosophy and literature, and others. His favorite classes to teach are Jerusalem and Athens, a class comparing the political, moral, and theological ideas of the Hebrew Bible to Aristotle's, and the Question of Relativism, a class on what he considers the central quandary of our time. He writes primarily about Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and he is currently studying John Locke's commentaries on St. Paul's epistles. Last but not least, he is an Eagle Scout.

Keywords: Asceticism and Grace, Desire, Natural Law, Original Sin, Pleasure and Temperance, Screwtape Letters, Virtue and the Good Life

Prof. Timothy O’Connor examines why an all-loving, omnipotent God permits horrendous suffering and explores how, within a Christian framework, such evils can be “defeated” and taken up into the communion of saints as part of our eternal union with God.

This lecture was given on December 3rd, 2025, at University of Scranton.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Tim O’Connor is the Mahlon Powell Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. He has held research fellowships at the Universities of Oxford, St. Andrews, and Notre Dame. He specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of religion. He has given 200+ lectures in 26 countries. He has written two books, one on free will and the other on God and ultimate explanation. He is currently co-writing a large and wide-ranging book entitled Human Persons: A Contemporary Philosophical-Scientific Synthesis.

Having spent many years as an ecumenical Protestant, Tim was received back into the Catholic Church in February 2024. He has an apostolate to help Protestants better understand and be receptive to the fullness of Catholic faith.

Keywords: Communion of Saints, Eleonore Stump, Horrendous Evil, Marylyn McCord Adams, Problem of Evil, Suffering and Divine Love, Theodicy, Union With God, Wandering in Darkness

Sr. Mary Madeline Todd draws upon Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, and friendship with Christ in order to show that sharing a common journey and life, together with mutual self-gift, turns everyday relationships into true, virtuous friendships that enable us not merely to survive but to thrive in happiness with God and one another.

This lecture was given on November 27th, 2025, at Thomistic Institute in Limerick.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Sister Mary Madeline Todd, O.P., a Dominican Sister of the Congregation of Saint Cecilia, has spent over three decades joyfully living consecrated life and sharing the teaching ministry of Christ. After completing a master’s degree in English at the University of Memphis and in theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Sister was blessed to study in Rome, earning her doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. Sister Mary Madeline speaks and writes on spiritual and moral theology. She currently teaches theology at Aquinas College in Nashville, where she finds joy in helping the next generation discover the liberating freedom of who they are in Christ.

Keywords: Aristotle on Friendship, Benevolence, Divine Friendship, Friendship, Mutuality, True and Virtuous Friendship, Willing the Good of the Other