Does Marketing Make Us Less Human? – Dr. John-Paul Heil

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Religion &Amp; Spirituality, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. John-Paul Heil critiques modern marketing’s implicit anthropology, explaining that marketing driven by manipulation, simulation, and quantity undermines human dignity, authentic friendship, and the pursuit of truth, advocating for a vision of marketing grounded in transparency, service, and the intrinsic value of persons.

This lecture was given on October 7th, 2025, at Washington and Lee University/Virginia Military Institute.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

John-Paul Heil is a Core Fellow in history, philosophy, Catholic anthropology, English, and theology at Mount St. Mary's University. He received his PhD in history from the University of Chicago and is pursuing an MBA in marketing. He has received multiple awards from the U.S. and Italian Fulbright commissions. His writing has appeared in Time, Smithsonian, The Week, and Los Angeles Review of Books. He is the books editor at the University of Pennsylvania's Dappled Things.

Keywords: Abusive Language, Anthropological Reductionism, Aristotle, Authentic Friendship, Cicero, Empathy In Marketing, Joseph Pieper, Regenerative Agriculture, Simulation And Dissimulation, Wendell Berry

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Timistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.7	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.3	To learn more and to attend these events,
0:21.7	visit us at Tomistic Institute.org.
0:25.3	It is such an honor to be here at Washington
0:27.9	and Lee nestled as it is in my home state
0:30.6	and the greatest state in the Union, Virginia.
0:33.2	And before I begin, I have a number of people
0:34.8	who justly deserve thanks.
0:36.4	Thank you to Emma Jones at the Tamistic Institute for all of her valiant and unsung work behind the scenes.
0:41.3	Thank you to my mother and to my girlfriend, both of whom listened to early versions of this talk with heroic patience, careful attention,
0:48.3	and an unflinching willingness to provide lots of feedback.
0:51.3	Lots of feedback.
0:53.3	To make these arguments better. Thank you especially
0:56.7	to all of you for being here, and in a particular way I want to single out for thanks those in the
1:00.6	audience who are preparing to serve our country in its armed forces, and to undertake the often
1:05.6	thankless task of preserving freedom at home and abroad. But I want to save my most significant
1:10.8	gratitude for one group of people in particular.
1:12.6	The leadership team of the Washington and Lee, Virginia Military Institute,
1:17.6	chapter of the Timistic Institute, and especially to Professor Taylor,
1:20.6	Mr. Dominic Vogelbocker, Ms. Ramsey Green, and the excellently named John Paul Adams.
	...

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