For over fifty years, the School of Philosophy has hosted an annual Fall Lecture Series, most of which have been organized around a compelling philosophical theme, or devoted to the thought of a particular philosopher.
A sampling from the list of topics treated in recent years gives a sense of the series' range: "Practical Reason," "Weakness of Will," "Natural Moral Law in Contemporary Society," "Augustine," "Early Greek Philosophy," and "Heidegger." Contributors include some of the leading philosophers and scholars of the second half of the twentieth century: George Anawati, Lewis White Beck, Seth Benardete, Roderick Chisholm, Donald Davidson, Emil Fackenheim, Ernest Fortin, Hans Georg Gadamer, Hans Jonas, Sidney Hook, Jacob Klein, Bernard Lonergan, Ralph McInerny, Ernest Nagel, Joseph Owens, Anton Pegis, Josef Pieper, Richard Rorty, Stanley Rosen, Wilfred Sellars, Leo Strauss, and Peter Strawson, to name only a few. Over the decades, the Fall Lecture Series has also given rise to a number of published collections, published by The Catholic University Press in the series "Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy."
Lectures are open to the general public.