Category: Virtue
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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August 7, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Before I selected the Book of Job as the focus of the July Quarterly Discussion, I knew a little bit about Job. I’d heard snippets at church, an occasional reference to the plight of the unfortunate, and the question “why do bad things happen to good people?” Honestly, that’s all that I knew of Job. So, imagine my surprise to read forty-two chapters of gorgeous poetry!
July 31, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
According to Emily Wilson, a Greek hero is extraordinary because of their connection to the divine. The closer one is to the gods, the more heroic the human. So, heroes don’t need to do good deeds or have impressive moral standards. Instead, Greek heroes are uncannily victorious, beyond superior on the battlefield. One might say they have a lot of plot armor.
May 29, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Today’s blog continues a theme from the previous two weeks. You can find those blogs here and here.
I am still using chapter three of Candide as the basis for my definition of charity. Charity has many potential definitions such as “benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity;” “generosity or helpfulness toward the needy or suffering;” or “the theological virtue by which humans love God above all things.” Charity can be synonymous with compassion,
May 22, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan concludes with Jesus’s advice to be merciful and charitable. “Go and do likewise” Jesus reminds the reader. Be like the Samaritan who saw a fellow human in need and helped them.
In last week’s blog, I made a case for discussing charity in Voltaire’s Candide, basically arguing that chapter three retells the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
May 15, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
In April, HMU hosted four discussions dedicated to Voltaire’s Candide. Although Candide is not solely about charity, we used this as the focus topic in each discussion. While charity is not listed as a great idea in the Syntopicon, it seems like a pretty vital idea for society. To begin our conversations,
April 10, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
We watched Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, … and Spring for the final film in the HMU Winter Film Series. What a film with gorgeous scenery and a wonderful narrative!
As the title would indicate, the film opens in springtime. A boy forages on a mountainside while his master, a Buddhist monk, goes into town for some supplies.
March 20, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week, I introduced some of Martha Nussbaum’s thoughts from Justice for Animals. The idea of granting capabilities to animals is unique to Nussbaum. However, even she admits that it will be problematic to assign capabilities to species that are so completely other from us as to be unintelligible. Here, I insert the example of sharks,
» Read more about: What Lurks Below Melville’s Whale: The Shark Chapters Part III »
March 13, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
If you read the post from last week, you’ll remember that Stubb orders a sermon from the ship’s cook. Poor Fleece unwillingly obliges. But the whole scene smacks of injustice and indecency. Fleece seems to be the most blameless of all the characters — he’s just an aged and broken body being ordered around. And yet,
» Read more about: What Lurks Below Melville’s Whale: the Shark Chapters Part II »
January 23, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Peter Brook’s version of Lord of the Flies opens to church bells and a stream of photos from and English boys’ school. The photos and audio include math lessons and angelic sounding chorale arrangements, which are quickly replaced by drums and a cricket match interspersed with missiles, airplanes behind Big Ben, and a chalkboard list of evacuation plans.
October 31, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
For the October Quarterly Discussion, we read a selection from Seneca’s “On the Shortness of Life” in combination with Nelson Mandela’s statement at the opening of the defense case in the Rivonia Trial (Pretoria Supreme Court, April 20, 1964). Mandela’s speech ends with the words:
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people.