Political Philosophy

This is a segment from a course from the Maurin Academy, “What’s Human About Intelligence: The Ethics of AI.” You can find more information about this course here: https://pmaurin.org/whats-human-about-intelligence/

You can join the Maurin Academy’s Patreon and get access to this class and all our content recorded, or live and recorded. Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Patrons at the Worker Scholar monthly level receive everything we do, including this class, recorded; patrons at the Salt of the Earth level or above get all our content recorded and live.

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events. Follow us also on Patreon!

Why is it so hard to control our own technology so that it helps humanity instead of making things worse? This is the biggest question of our time, and the one we can’t afford to get wrong. In light of the Heidegger series and the Maurin Academy course on the Ethics of AI, this video gives some thoughts on what gets in the way of our ability to think ethically about our own technologies.

More information about the course mentioned in this video: https://pmaurin.org/whats-human-about-intelligence/

You can join the Maurin Academy’s Patreon and get access to this class and all our content recorded, or live and recorded. Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Patrons at the Worker Scholar monthly level receive everything we do, including this class, recorded; patrons at the Salt of the Earth level or above get all our content recorded and live.

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events. Follow us also on Patreon!

Agonistic politics is true democratic politics, as opposed to the propaganda and mass manipulation of contemporary politics. It is important to remember the basis of true democratic politics.

Link to AI course description: https://pmaurin.org/whats-human-about-intelligence/

You can join the Maurin Academy’s Patreon and get access to this class and all our content recorded, or live and recorded. Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Patrons at the Worker Scholar monthly level receive everything we do, including this class, recorded; patrons at the Salt of the Earth level or above get all our content recorded and live.

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events. Follow us also on Patreon!

Getting ready to discuss the second half of Martin Heidegger’s essay “The Question Concerning Technology” with the Great Books/Political Philosophy reading group at the Maurin Academy. This video completes the discussion of terminology in Heidegger’s essay.

More information about the course coming up in October: https://pmaurin.org/whats-human-about-intelligence/

The Neflix documentary is “The AI Doc: How I Became an Apocaloptimist.”

You can join the Maurin Academy’s Patreon and get access to this class and all our content recorded, or live and recorded. Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Patrons at the Worker Scholar monthly level receive everything we do, including this class, recorded; patrons at the Salt of the Earth level or above get all our content recorded and live.

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events. Follow us also on Patreon!

Getting ready to read Martin Heidegger’s essay “The Question Concerning Technology” with the Great Books/Political Philosophy reading group at the Maurin Academy.

You can join the Maurin Academy’s Patreon and get access to this class and all our content recorded, or live and recorded. Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Patrons at the Worker Scholar monthly level receive everything we do, including this class, recorded; patrons at the Salt of the Earth level or above get all our content recorded and live.

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events. Follow us also on Patreon!

Getting ready to read Martin Heidegger’s essay “The Question Concerning Technology” with the Great Books/Political Philosophy reading group at the Maurin Academy.

You can join the Maurin Academy’s Patreon and get access to this class and all our content recorded, or live and recorded. Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Patrons at the Worker Scholar monthly level receive everything we do, including this class, recorded; patrons at the Salt of the Earth level or above get all our content recorded and live.

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events. Follow us also on Patreon!

The Maurin Academy hosted Dr. Hugo Drochon for a talk on “Elites and Democracy.” The lecture originally took place on 8/15/2026. Drochon’s argument touches on a handful of thinkers, including the original “elite theorists” Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, and Robert Michels, as well as theorists of democracy such as Joseph Schumpeter, Robert Dahl, and Raymond Aron.

The book, Elites and Democracy, is available from Princeton UP: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691181554/elites-and-democracy?srsltid=AfmBOopcGtKE4dWouIGhAw8y6iVTlrV5CzDdRwGZ-4L-3yUvQvxOKW8U

You can join the Maurin Academy’s Patreon and get access to this class and all our content recorded, or live and recorded. Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events. Follow us also on Patreon!

I interviewed Caleb Owens recently. His class starts this Wednesday, on the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount was perhaps the most important biblical inspiration for Dorothy Day, Leo Tolstoy, and others who developed Christian pacifism and direct action/mutual aid. You can find a full description of the course here:(https://pmaurin.org/the-sermon-on-the-mount-over-the…/).

If you’re not a Patron and want to access this course live or recorded, you can either purchase the course in our shop, or become a patron. Either way, we hope you can join us for this four-part class!

Course Description

The world imagined by the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) is one decidedly at odds with its contemporary world and our own. It is a strange place in which the poor and the hungry are blessed; in which strength is demonstrated through nonviolence and compassion; in which debts are forgiven, enemies are loved, and God and Mammon are seen as contradictory masters, rather than two sides of the same (literal) coin. From its delivery onward, the Sermon on the Mount has both inspired and offended, providing inspiration for some of the most radical experiments in Christian living, as well as some of the most complacent. Are we truly called to “be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect,” or is the Sermon intended to demonstrate the impossibility of this perfection? Should the Sermon’s demands be read literally (off with that lusting eye!) or figuratively? What to make of its Lukan counterpart–the so-called “Sermon on the Plain”–and its more direct elevation of the lowly and condemnations of wealth? Does the Sermon merely describe the neurotic projections of the weak and resentful masses, or does it point the way to Kingdom of Heaven?

In this four-session course, we will investigate these questions and others through a close study of the Sermon on the Mount and influential commentary upon it. We will begin with the early church, examining the earliest reception of the Sermon (as seen in the Didache, for instance) and both tensions and affinities between the teaching of the Sermon and the value systems of Roman antiquity. We will then study Patristic interpretations of the Sermon, especially those of Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa. The third class will review medieval and Reformation interpretations, devoting special attention to the commentaries of Aquinas, Bonaventure, and Luther. In the final class, we will study the Sermon’s influence on 20th century figures such as Leo Tolstoy, Dorothy Day, and John Howard Yoder. Readings will be optional, and will consist of excerpts from primary texts. Central themes will include the role of nature and grace in moral life, universal and particular morality in the Sermon, and the motivations and methods of spiritual vs. material interpretations of the Sermon.

Course image: The Sermon on the Mount by Karoly Ferenczy

When, Where, Who

When: The course will meet over four Wednesdays: 8/12, 8/19, 8/26, 9/2. All course meetings will take place from 7-8:30pm CST.

Where: All sessions will be held on Zoom. Live sessions are available to Maurin Academy patrons at the Worker-Scholar tier or above. Recordings will be made available to patrons at the Salt of the Earth tier or above. Check out our Patreonfor more info!

Who: The course is taught by Caleb Owens, a graduate student in theology at Boston College. Previously Caleb taught a course on Jacques Maritain’s concept of ‘antimodern progress‘ for TMA.

Course Schedule

• Week 1 (8/12): The Sermon on the Mount in the Early Church and Roman Antiquity

• Suggested Reading:

• Matthew 5-7
• Luke 6
• The Didache
• Seneca, Letter 47

• Week 2 (8/19): Patristic Interpretations of the Sermon

• Suggested Reading:

• Excerpts from Augustine, Commentary on our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount
• Augustine: Sermon 53, Sermon 60, Sermon 61
• Selections from Gregory of Nyssa, Sermons on the Beatitudes

• Week 3 (8/26): Medieval and Reformation Interpretations

• Suggested Reading:

• Excerpts from Aquinas’ Summa Theologica
• Excerpts from Bonaventure, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke
• Excerpts from Luther, Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount

• Week 4 (9/2): The Politics of the Sermon

• Suggested Reading:

• Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You
• John Howard Yoder, “The Political Axioms of the Sermon on the Mount”
• Selections from Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin

The Maurin Academy YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UCIByKgUFQUnEBASu9yPiuAQ

Website: https://pmaurin.org

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/maurinacademy

Substack: https://themaurinacademy.substack.com

This is a segment from the third session of a class taught in the Summer of 2026 for the Maurin Academy on Creation, Food and Agriculture.

You can join the Maurin Academy’s Patreon and get access to this class and all our content recorded, or live and recorded. Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Patrons at the $5 monthly level receive everything we do, including this class, recorded; patrons at the $10 or above get all our content recorded and live.

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events. Follow us also on Patreon!

This is a segment from the second session of a class taught in the Summer of 2026 for the Maurin Academy on Creation, Food and Agriculture.

You can join the Maurin Academy’s Patreon and get access to this class and all our content recorded, or live and recorded. Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Patrons at the $5 monthly level receive everything we do, including this class, recorded; patrons at the $10 or above get all our content recorded and live.

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events. Follow us also on Patreon!

This is a segment from the first session of a class taught in the Summer of 2026 for the Maurin Academy on Creation, Food and Agriculture.

You can join the Maurin Academy’s Patreon and get access to this class and all our content recorded, or live and recorded. Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Patrons at the $5 monthly level receive everything we do, including this class, recorded; patrons at the $10 or above get all our content recorded and live.

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events. Follow us also on Patreon!

https://leostrausscenter.uchicago.edu/audio-transcripts/courses-audio-transcripts/

Get in on everything we do: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events, and subscribe to our post feed at pmaurin.org

Get in on everything we do: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events, and subscribe to our post feed at pmaurin.org

Get in on everything we do: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here:

Home

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events, and subscribe to our post feed at pmaurin.org

You can find out more about this class, coming Feb. 4, 2026, here: https://pmaurin.org/antimodern-progress-contradiction-or-christian-alternative/

Get access through Patreon: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy Patrons at the $5 monthly level receive everything we do, including this class, recorded; patrons at the $10 or above get all our content recorded and live.

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here: https://pmaurin.org

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Instagram for notifications about upcoming events, and get our free newsletter: https://pmaurin.org/newsletter/

Get in on everything we do: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here: https://pmaurin.org

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Twitter and Instagram for notifications about upcoming events, and get our free newsletter: https://pmaurin.org/newsletter/

Get in on everything we do: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here: https://pmaurin.org

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Twitter and Instagram for notifications about upcoming events, and get our free newsletter: https://pmaurin.org/newsletter/

Dr John Fliter, author of U.S. vs. Darby Lumber Co.: The Triumph of Fair Labor Standards (University Press of Kansas, 2025), is our guest today. The interview covers the history of the struggle for fair labor standards in the US, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the state of labor today.

Get in on everything we do: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here: https://pmaurin.org

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms!

Follow the Maurin Academy on Twitter and Instagram for notifications about upcoming events, and get our free newsletter: https://pmaurin.org/newsletter/

This is my talk from a recent visit to Milwaukee to view Maurin documents at Marquette University. It was part of a Catholic Worker roundtable with Lincoln Rice. It represents my initial thoughts on how Maurin’s life, in some ways, is a microcosm of modern dislocation, not any extensive research on Maurin, which is ongoing. From doing a bit more, I think the reason why Maurin moved around so much while he was a teacher is that he was having a hard time with teaching (perhaps not good at teaching children and young people), and he moved around trying to find a level or place where his approach was successful.

Get in on everything we do: https://patreon.com/maurinacademy

Find out more about our classes and see our schedule here: https://pmaurin.org

Political Philosophy Podcast: https://political-philosophy.com

Dustbowl Diatribes and Political Philosophy are podcasts of the Maurin Academy, which can be found on almost all podcast platforms! Follow the Maurin Academy on Twitter and Instagram for notifications about upcoming events, and get our free newsletter: https://pmaurin.org/newsletter/