Seminars: International Seminars

Legacy of Truth "First Principle" Seminar Topics Include:

First Principles of Education:
This session examines the origin and meaning of the term “university.” Plato said, “The direction in which education starts a person will determine his future.” Moreover, Aristotle said that the aim of education is to “make the pupil like and dislike what he ought.” If this statement is true, and there seems to be many reasons to believe so, then it is incumbent upon educators to provide students with an accurate academic and moral compass in order to make the right decisions in life. Hence, students will learn why the essence of education is not just acquiring knowledge, but also attaining two kinds of virtues—intellectual honesty and moral responsibility.

Cross-Cultural Communications:
This lecture covers the principles of inductive, deductive and inferential thinking skills and their application in a culturally diverse setting. Students will learn how to use the first principle of language arts (Aristotle considered it to be the basis of all knowledge) and gain an understanding of how use those skills to strike common ground with others who hold opposing viewpoints (see note below).

Critical & Constructive Thinking:
This session will introduce students to the methodology of critiquing books, articles and lectures by using logical and epistemological principles and skills. Any good and fair minded critique ought to be both positive (what we can learn from the writer/speaker) and negative (what is erroneous and the consequences of acting upon fallacious conclusions). This session is highly interactive as students pick a controversial issue and apply the principles and methods of logic and epistemology in a classroom setting.

Philosophy—Asking The Right Questions:
Philosophy can be thought of as an inquiry into, and an analysis of, the fundamental realities of our existence; even to the point of analyzing the very words and concepts which constitute every day language. According to Aristotle, philosophy begins with the natural desire we all have to know the truth. However, a desire to know the truth is one thing, but finding the truth is quite another. If we are serious about the pursuit of truth, we must learn how to correctly identify, understand and apply the first principle of philosophy—correspondence—to reality and life. As Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living” and it is also true that the incorrectly examined life most often results in dire consequences.

Principles of Forensic Science:
The word science literally means “knowledge”; it has its origin in the Latin term scire (to know). However, science assumes a certain interdependent order of knowledge and if ignored or abused, can lead to highly questionable scientific inferences and conclusions concerning reality. The forensic scientific method superintends the kinds of investigations of events that were not observed and are not repeatable. This kind of event is called a singularity. Homicide detectives use this method to potential investigate murders, in order to discover the cause of death. In order to discover the cause of a past event, the first principles of both basic and forensic science must be utilized—causality and the uniformity principle (or principle of analogy). This session applies forensic science to the question of the origin of life.

Social Injustice & Human Responsibility:
The social sciences are mainly concerned with the origin and development of human society, and the institutions, relationships, and ideas involved in social life. One of the foremost goals of the discipline of social studies ought to include analyzing social trends, injustices, and difficulties in an effort to identify their root causes and propose solutions that will help to make society “better.” The first principle of social studies can be derived from the concept of unity in diversity by properly utilizing disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, political science, history, law, and psychology. Hence, this lecture attempts to define what it means to be human both physically (anthropology and biology) and psychologically (uniqueness and identity). What we believe about ourselves and how we behave as individuals will affect the way we think and behave as a society.

Global Thinking and Ethics:
How To Think About Good & Evil: Moral behavior assumes some standard of good and evil. How is the standard derived and can it be universally agreed upon? This lecture utilizes the first principle of noncontradiction and identity, along with critical and constructive thinking skills, to lay a foundation for ethics. An open discussion will follow with respect to the philosophical soundness of moral absolutes and their application in history.