Socrates Dialogues

Socrates Dialogues is a new series from Socrates in the City that brings two voices from the “Socrates Universe” into conversation with one another.

Each episode is framed by a central theme—such as “C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien: On Myth as a Vehicle for Truth” or “Tradition in a Time of Upheaval: Can the Past Ground the Future?”—and invites leading thinkers, writers, and cultural figures to reflect together on questions that matter most.

 

Socrates Dialogues

Socrates Dialogues is a new series from Socrates in the City that brings two voices from the “Socrates Universe” into conversation with one another.

Each episode is framed by a central theme—such as “C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien: On Myth as a Vehicle for Truth” or “Tradition in a Time of Upheaval: Can the Past Ground the Future?”—and invites leading thinkers, writers, and cultural figures to reflect together on questions that matter most.

 

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How Political Correctness Hijacked the Arts | Roger Kimball and Heather MacDonald
What gets to be called art — and who decides? In this wide-ranging Socrates Dialogues conversation, New York–based thinkers, writers, and art admirers Heather Mac Donald and Roger Kimball explore the definition of art and the history of the unmaking of beauty in modern contemporary art. Drawing on examples from Duchamp, Warhol, Serrano, Hirst, and others, the two discuss how the banal, the transgressive, and the political have reshaped the aesthetic experience of art, often robbing it of spiritual resonance.

On Myth as a Vehicle for Truth I Louis Markos & Holly Ordway

How often do you use your imagination? In our newest program, Socrates Dialogues, authors and professors Louis Markos and Holly Ordway discuss the enduring friendship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and their most famous works, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of The Rings. They discuss how the two balanced their disagreements while maintaining respect and a close bond, the mythical worlds they created, the fight between good and evil, and ultimately, the importance of imagination through reason.

Tradition in a Time of Upheaval | Mary Harrington & Melanie Phillips

What does it mean to hold onto tradition in an age of constant disruption? In this Socrates in the City conversation, writer Mary Harrington and journalist Melanie Phillips explore the challenges of living in a culture defined by digital disruption, the erosion of intimacy, and the relentless push toward hyper-individualism. Together they reflect on the state of Britain today, offer a critique of the ideology of “progress,” and ask whether there is reason to hope for the future.

Socrates Dialogues is a new series from Socrates in the City that brings two voices from the “Socrates Universe” into conversation with one another.

Each episode is framed by a central theme—such as “C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien: On Myth as a Vehicle for Truth” or “Tradition in a Time of Upheaval: Can the Past Ground the Future?”—and invites leading thinkers, writers, and cultural figures to reflect together on questions that matter most.

The result is not a lecture, but a genuine meeting of minds: free-flowing, rigorous, and unexpected. In the spirit of Socrates, the goal is not to deliver answers but to model the kind of dialogue that sharpens thought and opens new perspectives.

With Socrates Dialogues, audiences are invited to listen in on conversations that illuminate both timeless ideas and urgent contemporary issues—conversations that carry forward the Socratic tradition of asking “the right questions.”