How To Be A Good Friend: Combatting Envy And Apathy And Exercising Love And Wisdom | Prof. W. Scott Cleveland

The Thomistic Institute

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

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This lecture was given on February 21st, 2025, at University of Michigan.

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

About the Speaker:

Professor Scott Cleveland received his PhD in philosophy (Baylor University) and is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Catholic Studies at the University of Mary (Bismarck, ND). His research interests are in ethics, moral psychology, and philosophy of religion. He is especially interested in the study of virtues and emotions, the relation between the two, and the role of each in the moral and intellectual life. His thought is deeply influenced by Aristotle and Aquinas and his work has appeared in journals such as American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Res Philosophica, Religious Studies, Religions, and the Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. He is the co-editor with Adam Pelser of Faith and Virtue Formation: Essays in Aid of Becoming Good with Oxford University Press.

This project/publication was made possible through the support of Grant 63391 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.1	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.4	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:18.4	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at
0:21.9	to mystic institute.org. Thank you very much for having me today. The title of talk is,
0:28.7	as you can see, well, I'll say it again, how to be a good friend combating envy and apathy,
0:35.3	exercising love and wisdom.
0:39.0	I'll first discuss the relationship of friendship and human flourishing.
0:44.4	I aim to show how living with an adequate vision of human flourishing is essential to being
0:50.1	a good friend.
0:52.7	This theoretical groundwork sets up my discussion of two virtues that build and
0:56.7	maintain friendship, love and wisdom, and two vices that harm are end friendships, envy and
1:04.6	apathy. My general advice today for how to be a good friend is to understand true human happiness,
1:11.6	avoid these vices, and pursue these virtues.
1:15.6	If this sounds too abstract, I beg your patience.
1:18.6	This talk will get very practical by the end.
1:21.6	So to proceed, let's now turn to work that motivates the importance of friendship
1:26.6	and then turns to the nature of human
1:29.2	flourishing.
1:30.3	And then we will.
1:31.6	So Robert Waldinger is the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which followed
1:37.0	men from their teenage years at Harvard into their 90s.
	...

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