Topical Seminars is a monthly series of seminars based upon essays whose topics include philosophy, the arts and literature, science, politics, economics, communications, and much more. Participants are asked to read an essay chosen by the facilitation team and then submit a written response in advance of each session. The group then meets for a lively discussion on the posted piece and on the participants’ responses to it.

Essays are available for reading at our website a month in advance. Responses are due no later than the day before each meeting and are also posted on the website. For more information, contact David White, facilitation team member.

The term community is ubiquitous in our public discourse: community organizing; the Black community; the LGBT community; community development; the business community; the Evangelical community; the academic community; etc. This month we will take a deep dive into how and why this term is deployed so widely, starting with Ferdinand Tönnies’ distinction between gemeinschaft (community) versus gesellschaft (society), that is social relations based on personal relations, traditions, and deeply shared values versus mass society organized around formal, impersonal, contractual relations. Our contemporary widespread usage of “community” suggests a recognition something positive and essential to human relations, perhaps solidarity and connectedness, that is diminished by modernity.

Registration is requested.

Topics for 2025-26 are:

September 10 | Cryptocurrency
October 8 | Comedy
November 12 | The Power of an Idea  
December 10 | A Personal Response to the Concept of Wisdom
January 14 | Pursuit of Happiness and American Identity 
February 11 | The Great Political Realignment 
March 11 | Romanticism
April 8 | Community and Technocracy  
May 13 | Rewritten Masterpieces 
June 10 | Reflections on this year's Topical Seminars programs and thoughts for the future