Category: Being
We’re excited that you’ve joined the conversation! At HMU, we want to continue the great authors’ conversations in a contemporary context, and this blog will help us do that. We look back to Aristotle and the early philosophers who used reason and discourse to gain wisdom and now we endeavor to do the same every day.
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February 27, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The soundtrack to The Hours by Philip Glass
The Hours, a 2002 film based on the novel by Michael Cunningham, weaves together the lives of three complicated women. First, Virginia Woolf is shown writing the manuscript for Mrs. Dalloway. Next, Laura Brown, a housewife in the 1950s,
June 13, 2025
Thanks to Estella Achinko, a 2025 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s blog.
The question of what it means to “be” has fascinated philosophers for centuries. The essence of man—our nature, existence, and purpose—is layered with complexities. We are not merely physical beings navigating the world, but entities entwined with our surroundings, shaped by interactions, thoughts, and deeper realities. To truly understand ourselves, we must acknowledge both the tangible and the abstract—the seen and the unseen.
» Read more about: Man and the Pluralistic Essence of Being »
March 7, 2025
Thanks to Ibrahim Nureni, a 2025 Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
There is a widespread conception or misconception of autobiography as a retrospective prose narrative focusing on personal life and existence of a real person, who is believed to stand behind the narrative under the mask of a proper name. Autobiography is viewed as a chronological representation of authorial desired subjectivity. However, the radical interventions of poststructuralists within the premise of autobiographical discourse (as represented in the critical essay of Paul de Man “Autobiography as De-facement”) have undermined the commonsensical study of autobiography as “real-life-in-writing,” the unproblematic connections between writing and author and the conception of language as representational.
April 8, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
I spent the past few months investigating Artificial Intelligence (AI). Though it resides far outside of my educational background, AI actually affects nearly every field. More importantly, however, is how little understood it is. I have asked numerous people to define it, but in response I get a handful of vague answers. Encyclopedia Britannica says that it is “the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.” It often includes thought processes such as reasoning,
March 11, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week marked the end of HMU’s Winter Film Series. I cannot express how much I love this series. If you were unable to join us, never fear, we will host another film series next winter. In the meantime, the following thoughts resulted from this wonderful discussion.
As usual, leader Gary Schoepfel opened discussion with some quotations focused on the idea of Truth.
» Read more about: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Film Discussion »
February 11, 2022
Thanks to Gabriel E. Etienne, a 2021 Fellow in Ideas recipient, for today’s post.
The movie Moonlight is a coming-of-age story that details the complexity of the journey of boyhood to manhood of the character Little/Black/Chiron through the issues of authentic Blackness and hegemonic masculinity (Johnson 2003). This review uses the concepts of Quiet and Silence to view and understand the movie Moonlight.
» Read more about: Film Review: Quiet and Silence in Moonlight »
January 28, 2022
Thanks to Rebecca L. Thacker, a 2021 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
As we enter the new year, as per usual the media is filled with “year-in-review” articles and listicles: the year’s best books, tv, movies, and music, the top ten highlights of 2021, those we’ve lost in 2021. The Associated Press’s Year in Review features articles on the January 6 insurrection,
» Read more about: Literature as “Artivism”: The Exonerated »
January 21, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
I have written about George Orwell’s novel 1984 in the past on this blog (see the links at the end of this post), but never the film. Today’s post focuses on the film adaptation, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The film stars John Hurt playing Winston and Richard Burton as O’Brien. (This film is the first of three discussions in our Winter Film Series which is dedicated to the great idea of Truth.
September 11, 2020
Thanks to Dean Coslovi, a 2020 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
“Among my writings my Zarathustra stands by itself. With this book I have given mankind the greatest gift it has ever been given.” – Ecce Homo, Friedrich Nietzsche.
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche has his enlightened character, Zarathustra, proclaim to a town of simple villagers,
March 27, 2020
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
“It’s possible to understand the world from studying a leaf. You can comprehend the laws of aerodynamics, mathematics, poetry and biology through the complex beauty of such a perfect structure. It’s also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing.”
— Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate
Joy Harjo is the current U.S. Poet Laureate. She comes from Oklahoma and identifies as Mvskoke (Muscogee) and is,