Christopher Utter

I was very impressed (if not surprised) by how insightful both our Lincoln Scholars and our Johnnie hosts were during our joint seminar on @stjohnscollege's Annapolis campus this past Tuesday! I hope it becomes a semiannual tradition! @AmericanU

@uttercb @w_merrill @SunyataC Congratulations on this feature on the Lincoln Scholars Program!! @AmericanU american.edu/magazine/the-e…

@alexpriou “Moral man as such is the potential believer” (PAW, 140)

"Not every man but every noble man is concerned with justice or righteousness and therefore with any possible extra-human, supra-human support of justice, or with the security of justice. The insecurity of man and everything human is not an absolutely terrifying abyss if the highest of which a man knows is absolutely secure." – Leo Strauss, Spinoza's Critique of Religion, 10–11

Once again proud of St. John’s College: nytimes.com/2026/01/03/sty…

Come read Dante with me!

Congratulations to Dr. Butterworth on receiving the 2025 Barry Prize! academysciencesletters.org/2025-barry-pri… academysciencesletters.org/member/charles…

@alexpriou Ok, your daughter just made me go re-read the Antichrist; tell her she should wait until she’s 26 to read it, or at least 13

“Daddy, Nietzsche’s Antichrist seems deeply engaged with Machiavelli. Sect. 15 reads like a gloss on chap. 15 of The Prince, and it even has 62 sects. total, the reverse of the 26 chaps. of The Prince. Also, sect. 46, the 15th sect. of the 2nd half, mentions Cesare Borgia, daddy!”

@chezaristote @Blahbliptyblah Thank you! The black background helps them stand out too

@uttercb @Blahbliptyblah this has to be one of the coolest arrangements for these I've ever seen, Chris, wow! I love how the glass isolates the problem of the green.

wondering if there is a paint color you could paint a bookshelf where the acid green of vintage loebs would look really good

@chezaristote @Blahbliptyblah The previous owner installed these narrow display cabinets with recessed lighting and glass shelves; you can buy LED strip lights with an adhesive backing to recreate the effect

@Blahbliptyblah @uttercb yes, @uttercb, would love to see what you came up with!

Socrates is everyone's possession and no one's possession, he is not your friend, and he is definitely not a vehicle for bourgeois self-creation. I review Agnes Callard's "Open Socrates" for @BulwarkOnline, link in next>>>

I was so happy to welcome our new cohort of Lincoln Scholars today with @w_merrill and @SunyataC!

Hmmmm. events.sjc.edu/event/adam-smi…

I’m leading the one in the middle! Apply to come Study with me!

@Blahbliptyblah I’d give it at least two meetings. And that’s great you’re assigning it; I’ve been thinking of including it somewhere in one of my classes for a long time. We’ll have to talk about how it goes

How many class sessions should I give Alcibiades I? Haven’t taught it before so let me know your experience. Context is a seminar on ancient pol phil with Thucydides and the Symposium taking up most classes. Might add Gorgias but not sure there’s room

@jguipre Yes, if the wind fails and you take to the oars, you’re going in the same direction

Is it more correct to say that the Socratic Turn is a actually turn toward natural science, by way of political philosophy, instead of away from it?

@GregMcBrayer3 @stevensmithyale A lot of Paul Cantor’s Shakespeare lectures are on YouTube. Bob Bartlett also did a series for Great Courses on Socratic political philosophy

What are the best Western Civ lectures (thru 1500) available out there on the interwebs? A friend is putting together an online course. I know of @stevensmithyale lectures. Others?

I'm excited to help advance our Lincoln Scholars program at @AmericanU as the new Associate Director! I can't wait to meet our new students at orientation and continue our work this fall with @SunyataC, @w_merrill, @Blahbliptyblah and many other fantastic colleagues and students.

@kaishuo123 @GregMcBrayer3 Yes, I’ve seen a draft with my own eyes. I’m not sure when it’s coming out though

@GregMcBrayer3 Nice! Btw is it true that Prof. Butterworth's currently planning on finishing the translation of Averroes' short commentary on the Organon?

Oh yeah 📕 🧠

Calling all @HertogFDN alumni: read #Genesis with @uttercb in #HumanitiesAtHertog this summer!

@alexpriou This seems to be Hobbes’s reading (Lev. xv.21)

@alexpriou Also, re: perceiving reason without having it, I wonder if this is related to what he says in EN 1.4 about the three kinds of people. If so, this would imply that all those who don’t “understand all things” are natural slaves.

Why does Aristotle appear to endorse slavery in the Politics? To be sure, he gives compelling arguments against it and so defines the natural slave as to condemn conventional slavery. Yet there is still the apparent endorsement of it. So, why?