How to Be an Elitist

Alex Priou, UATX Professor of Political Philosophy

Are all men created equal, or are some simply better than others?  Do you think you're exceptional, or want to be exceptional, but you're not sure why or how?  In this seminar, we will read essays by Winston Churchill and Leo Strauss about the challenges to excellence in the age of mass democracy.

Alex Priou received a Ph.D. and M.A. in Philosophy from Tulane University, an M.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Connecticut. Priou is the author of three books on Plato: "Becoming Socrates: Political Philosophy in Plato’s Parmenides" (2018), "Defending Socrates: Political Philosophy Before the Tribunal of Science" (2023), and "Musings on Plato’s 'Symposium'" (2023). He has also written essays on the history of philosophy for various journals and edited volumes in Classics, Philosophy, Political Science, Literature, and Film, including studies of Homer, Hesiod, Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, and beyond. He also engages in public scholarship, occasionally writing for a general audience, but most frequently with The New Thinkery, a weekly podcast he co-hosts with his two close friends, Gregory McBrayer and David Bahr. Together, they aim to model friendly and fun conversations between friends on texts and topics in the history of philosophy.

Is Beauty Objective?

Clay Greene, UATX Assistant Professor of Literature

Judgments of taste about works of art often cluster, but people tend to defend their own taste passionately, even when they divert from the norm. It is as if having one’s own idea of beauty is experienced as a basic human right, and people fight for their taste almost as if fighting for their lives. Given this variety, can we say that beauty has an objective basis? In this class, we explore this question and possible answers, looking at answers emerging from human biology, the nature of God, or our social life.

Clay Greene is a scholar of early modern literature and thought. He received his Ph.D. in English and Renaissance Studies at Yale. His work focuses on the literary, philosophical, and historical inheritances of early modern Greece and Rome.

Transhumanism

Allen Porter, UATX Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Delve into the bold promises and perils of transhumanism. Explore visions of technologically enhanced humans and posthumans, and consider the moral, political, and even religious dimensions of this emerging movement.

Allen Porter is a philosopher from New Orleans with interests in phenomenology, ethics, politics, the philosophy of technology, and the history of philosophy. Prior to becoming Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Austin, Dr. Porter was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Rice University in 2021. He holds a M.A. in Philosophy from Tulane University and a B.A. in German from Princeton University.

The Technology & Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence 

Clint Staley, UATX Professor of Computer Science

Explore the nature, power, and limits of artificial intelligence—from how large language models like ChatGPT work to the ethical and philosophical questions they raise. Experiment with AI chatbots, learn the basics of machine learning, and consider issues of copyright, liability, and employment in an AI-driven world. Conclude with a discussion of human-level intelligence and consciousness: could an AI ever truly think?

Clinton Staley is a professor in the Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at UATX. He holds a BA in Mathematics and English from Principia College, and an MS and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UC Santa Barbara. Staley has 40 years of combined experience in academia and industry. He has taught computer science at UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly SLO, and at Principia College, and has built software and managed software development projects for a variety of small and large organizations, including several small software companies of which he was a cofounder. He is the holder of 8 U.S. patents.

America’s Founding Principles 

Chris Nadon, UATX Visiting Professor

Read Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence and his famous Letter to Holmes. Together, these works invite us to grapple with the philosophic basis of American political life—its ideals, its contradictions, and its reckoning with slavery.

Christopher Nadon (B.A., M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago) writes on the character and history or republican government understood as self-rule in authors such as Herodotus, Xenophon, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Sarpi, Hobbes, Locke, Tocqueville, and Lincoln. He has taught political philosophy and Humanities at Emet Classical Academy, Claremont-McKenna College, Trinity College, and Kiev-Mohyla Academy.

The Future of American Freedom

Jonathan Yudelman, UATX Assistant Professor of Political Theory

The American political order was founded to secure freedom for its citizens and has succeeded in many ways. Yet in the 19th century, French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville warned of a "soft despotism" that could transform American liberty into its opposite, and in the 20th century, Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn offered a similar, dire warning in his address to Harvard University. The seminar will reflect critically on Tocqueville and Solzhenitsyn's analyses of the greatest threats to American freedom, and discuss how American freedom might be preserved.

Jonathan Yudelman is Assistant Professor of Political Theory in Intellectual Foundations at UATX. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston College and from 2020-2024 held postdoctoral positions at Princeton, Harvard, Baylor, and Arizona State University. His current research focuses on early modern political theory, the idea of progress, sources of political authority, and the intersection of politics and religion. 

Will the Real Bible Please Stand Up?

Carson Bay, UATX Associate Professor of Classics & Biblical Studies

How did we get the version of the Bible we have? Who decided which texts were in and which texts were out? This course explores ways of approaching these questions and critically examines canonical boundaries related to Jewish and Christian Scripture. 

Carson Bay is a scholar of Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian antiquity whose interests and expertise span across languages and literatures of the ancient Mediterranean and medieval Europe. Before joining UATX in 2025 he was a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a post-doctoral fellow within the international project Co-Produced Religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. After a B.S. in Biblical Studies at Moody Bible Institute – Spokane and an M.A. in Theology & Religious Studies a John Carroll University, he completed an M.A. in Classics and a Ph.D. in Religions of Western Antiquity at Florida State University, during which time he spent a year as a Fulbright Graduate Fellow at the Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum of the University of Münster, Germany.