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The Thomistic Institute

I Want to Live a Good Life, Where Do I Start? – Dr. Wes Siscoe

The Thomistic Institute

The Thomistic Institute

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

4.8873 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dr. Wes Siscoe argues that true happiness and the good life are not found in pleasure, wealth, fame, or even bodily health, but in a fully ordered human flourishing that culminates in union with God.


This lecture was given on February 19th, 2026, at Indiana University.


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


About the Speakers:


Wes Siscoe is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The Ohio State University. He is also a Thomistic Institute alum, having founded the TI chapter at the University of Arizona. With a passion for making philosophy accessible to college students and the general public, Wes founded the Philosophy Teaching Library at the University of Notre Dame and participated in the Philosophy as a Way of Life Project. When he isn’t doing philosophy, he’s hanging out with his family and two miniature dachshunds.


Keywords: Aquinas, Beatitude, Fame, Happiness, Health, Human Flourishing, Union with God, Virtue, Wealth

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the Tumistic Institute podcast. Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square. The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Tumistic Institute chapters around the world. To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at

0:21.7

to mystic institute.org. First, a little bit about me. So we were talking about this a little

0:27.8

at dinner, but I was raised. My dad was a Baptist pastor. And then by the time I was done with

0:33.4

undergrad, I'm like, you know, I don't really think I'm Protestant anymore, probably, but I was also an American. So I believed in democracy, which means no Pope.

0:41.9

So for that reason, I went to a Greek Orthodox Church for a couple years while I was getting

0:46.9

my master's in philosophy. And by the end of that, I was like, you know, this Catholic thing,

0:51.6

actually, I think it might be true. So I became

0:54.3

Catholic. That was about a decade ago. And now I'm a professor at Ohio State. A couple of more personal notes. So my wife and I got married. We were a COVID couple. You can see her here. She's very tiny. Here's a larger picture of her, but she is also a professor at Ohio State. So we're very glad to be there.

1:09.9

We have two minister doctrines.

1:11.1

I brought one into the marriage, Bella.

1:14.1

And then... also a professor at Ohio State. So we're very glad to be there. We have two minister dachshunds. I brought one into the marriage, Bella.

1:14.0

And then my wife liked her so much that we needed to get another.

1:17.3

We say that Mochi, she was designed in a lab for cuteness.

1:22.0

But at this point, you might be starting to get a little bit worried, right?

1:25.1

So Pope Francis had some things to say about people who raise primarily dogs instead bit worried, right? So, Pope Francis had some things to say about people

1:28.1

who raise primarily dogs instead of children, right? So he says, today we see a form of selfishness.

1:34.5

We see that some people do not want to have a child, but they have dogs and cats that take the

1:38.5

place of children. So to assure you that I'm not one of these people, here's a picture of my baby.

1:45.0

So this is Judah. He's over a year now. This is when he was a little bit smaller, his first Halloween.

1:49.3

But, yeah, Judah is one and a half years old now, and so we're very blessed to be parents.

1:54.6

Okay. So you probably heard of Thomas Aquinas. The important thing to know is that he is a doctor of the church.

2:02.4

So declared a doctor of the church in 1567. And this is doctor in kind of like a PhD sense,

...

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