The Thomistic Institute

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Predictive AI, Manipulation, and Human Freedom According to Aquinas I Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P. Sep 08, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Anselm Ramelow explores the tension between predictive artificial intelligence and human freedom, drawing on St. Thomas Aquinas to argue that while AI and social systems can influence and predict behavior to a certain degree, genuine free will and moral responsibility remain grounded in rational deliberation and virtue.

This lecture was given on June 12th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speakers:

Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P., a native of Germany, teaches philosophy at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California, where he is also currently the chair of the philosophy department. He is also a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and the Academy of Catholic Theology. He obtained his doctorate under Robert Spaemann in Munich on Leibniz and the Spanish Jesuits (Gott, Freiheit, Weltenwahl, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997) and did theological work on George Lindbeck and the question of a Thomist philosophy and theology of language (Beyond Modernism? - George Lindbeck and the Linguistic Turn in Theology, Neuried: Ars Una 2005). Other works include Thomas Aquinas: De veritate Q. 21-24; Translation and Commentary (Hamburg: Meiner, 2013) and God: Reason and Reality (Basic Philosophical Concepts) (Munich: Philosophia Verlag, 2014), as editor and contributor. Articles appeared in Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte, Nova et Vetera, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly and Angelicum. Areas of research and teaching include Free Will, the History of Philosophy and Philosophical Aesthetics. He has worked on a philosophical approach to Miracles and other topics of the philosophy of religion, and more recently the philosophy of technology.

Keywords: Algorithmic Manipulation, Autonomy, Behaviorism, Free Will, Human Freedom, John Paul II, Prediction, Rational Deliberation, Surveillance Capitalism, Virtue Ethics

AI and Interpersonal Relationships I Prof. Jordan Wales Sep 05, 2025

Show notes

Prof. Jordan Wales explores the ethical and spiritual implications of interpersonal relationships with artificial intelligence, emphasizing the dangers of mistaking AI’s simulated personhood for authentic human connection.

This lecture was given on June 11th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speakers:

Jordan Wales is Associate Professor and John and Helen Kuczmarski Chair in Theology at Hillsdale College, where he teaches historical theology. His scholarship—appearing in journals such as Augustinian Studies, the Journal of Moral Theology, and AI & Society—focuses on early Christianity as well as theology and Artificial Intelligence. Holding degrees in Engineering (B.S.), Cognitive Science (M.Sc.), and Theology (Dip.Theol., M.T.S., Ph.D.), he is a member of the AI Research Group for the Centre for Digital Culture, under the Dicastery of Culture and Education at the Holy See; a fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion; and a fellow of the Centre for Humanity and the Common Good.

Keywords: Augustinian Theology, Empathy, Ethics, Idolatry, Interpersonal Relationships, John Paul II, Personhood, Pride, Simulated Personhood, Technology and Spirituality

AI and Ethics I Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P. Sep 04, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Anselm Ramelow examines the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence, highlighting both its beneficial uses and its risks to human dignity, personal relationships, moral growth, and authenticity.

This lecture was given on June 10th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speakers:

Keywords: Autonomy, Deskilling, Empathy, Ethics, John Paul II, Moral Virtue, Minority Report, Personal Relationships, Pope Francis, Sherry Turkle

AI and Knowledge of the World I Prof. Jordan Wales Sep 03, 2025

Show notes

Prof. Jordan Wales explores how artificial intelligence and neural networks engage with meaning and knowledge, contrasting their statistical methods with the depth of human conceptual understanding rooted in philosophical and theological traditions.

This lecture was given on June 10th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speakers:

Keywords: Augustinian Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, Creation, David Bentley Hart, Knowledge, Meaning, Neural Networks, Personhood, Phantasm, Thomas Aquinas

Mind, Matter, and Life: Can Machines be People, too? I Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P. Sep 02, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Anselm Ramelow examines whether machines can possess consciousness or personhood, arguing from philosophical and theological perspectives that artificial intelligence lacks the essential qualities of subjective experience, intentionality, and rational unity found in living beings.

This lecture was given on June 9th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speakers:

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Chinese Room Thought Experiment, Consciousness, Ethics, Free Will, John Searle, Materialism, Personhood, Qualia, Thomas Nagel

AI and the Human Person I Prof. Jordan Wales Sep 01, 2025

Show notes

Prof. Jordan Wales critically examines the relationship between artificial intelligence and human personhood through the lens of Christian theology, exploring how AI challenges traditional notions of intelligence, consciousness, and relationality.

This lecture was given on June 9th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speakers:

Keywords: AI Ethics, Artificial Intelligence, Christian Theology, Consciousness, Emmanuel Augustine, Harari Yuval Noah, Intelligence, Personhood, Silmarillion, Trinity

The Neuroscience of Vice and Virtue I Dr. Paul LaPenna Aug 29, 2025

Show notes

Dr. Paul LaPenna delves into the neuroscience of vice and virtue, explaining how neuroplasticity, habit formation, and philosophical insights from figures like Aquinas inform our understanding of humility, magnanimity, pride, and vainglory in the development of moral character.

This lecture was given on May 2nd, 2025, at Thomistic Institute in New York City.

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About the Speakers:

Dr. Paul LaPenna is a neurologist based in Greenville, South Carolina, specializing in the care of patients with neurological emergencies. He is also an award-winning professor at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he teaches neuroscience and has been recognized as the Professor of the Neuroscience Block from 2019 to 2025. Dr. LaPenna’s professional and academic work is deeply informed by the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, particularly regarding the integration of faith and reason, science and religion, and the Thomistic understanding of the human person. Through his lectures and writings, he explores how modern neuroscience complements classical philosophy and theology, offering insights into human cognition, virtue formation, and the relationship between mind, brain, and soul. Dr. LaPenna lives in Greenville with his wife Nicole and their three daughters, Catherine, Susanna, and Lucia, who daily remind him of life’s greatest joys and deepest blessings.

Keywords: Addiction Neuroscience, Aristotelianism, Habit Formation, Humility, Magnanimity, Moral Psychology, Neuroplasticity, Summa Theologiae, Teleology, Vice and Virtue

Origins of the Christian 'Just War' Tradition in Augustine's Anti-Manichean Works I Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P. Aug 28, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Andrew Hofer explores the origins of the Christian just war tradition through Augustine’s anti-Manichean writings, examining the theological debates around violence, authority, and moral law within early Christianity.

This lecture was given on June 11th, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speakers:

Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P., (Ph.D. Notre Dame) is professor of patristics and ancient languages at the Pontifical Faculty of the Dominican House of Studies where he serves as the director of the doctoral program. He authored Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford University Press, 2013) and The Power of Patristic Preaching: The Word in Our Flesh (Catholic University of America, 2023). He co-authored A Living Sacrifice: Guidance for Men Discerning Religious Life (Vianney Vocations, 2019). Editor-in-chief of the academic journal The Thomist, Hofer is editor or co-editor of several volumes including The Oxford Handbook of Deification, The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons, and Thomas Aquinas and the Greek Fathers. He enjoys speaking with students about their theological and spiritual questions.

Keywords: Augustine of Hippo, Augustinian Ethics, Christian Just War Tradition, Ethics of Violence, Against Faustus, Manichaeism, Moral Law, Pacifism, De Libero Arbitrio, Theology

Drone Warfare and Just War Theory: Aquinas on the Virtuous Use of Violence I Prof. Michael Krom Aug 27, 2025

Show notes

Prof. Michael Krom analyzes the ethics of drone warfare through the lens of Aquinas’s just war tradition and virtue ethics, addressing moral principles of discrimination, proportionality, and the indispensability of human judgment in the use of violent technology.

This lecture was given on March 18th, 2025, at Virginia Military Institute.

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About the Speakers:

Michael Krom started reading Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae shortly after his conversion at the end of college. Upon learning about Flannery O’Connor’s “hillbilly Thomist” habit of reading Aquinas every night, he started studying two articles a day and completed the Summa while in graduate school at Emory University. As a professor at Saint Vincent College, he saw the urgent need for collegians and seminarians to receive a solid foundation in Aquinas’s philosophical theology. In 2020, he published Justice and Charity: An Introduction to Aquinas’s Moral, Economic, and Political Thought (Baker Academic Press), and teaches a Thomistic philosophy course each fall. In addition to continuing work on the moral, economic, and political topics covered in the book, his current research is on the influence of monastic spirituality on Aquinas; he is working on a monograph tentatively entitled Aquinas Among the Benedictines.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence in Warfare, Christian Ethics, Double Effect Principle, Drone Warfare, Ethics of Technology, Human Judgment, Incendiary Weapons, Just War Tradition, Proportionality, Virtue Ethics

Just War Theory I Prof. Joseph Capizzi Aug 26, 2025

Show notes

Prof. Joseph Capizzi presents the just war account within the Catholic tradition, arguing that the use of force in war can be a moral act of peacemaking grounded in pursuit of the common good, and emphasizing the importance of authority, intention, cause, proportionality, and distinction between guilt and innocence.

This lecture was given on April 11th, 2025, at The Ohio State University.

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

About the Speakers:

Joseph E. Capizzi is Dean of Theology at the Catholic University of America. He teaches in the areas of social and political theology, with special interests in issues in peace and war, citizenship, political authority, and Augustinian theology. He has written, lectured, and published widely on just war theory, bioethics, the history of moral theology, and political liberalism.

Keywords: Anabaptism, Aristotelianism, Augustine of Hippo, Christian Pacifism, Common Good, Ethics of War, Francisco de Vitoria, Guilt and Innocence Distinction, Natural Law, Schleitheim Confession

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