About
The Washington Center for Civics, Culture, and Statesmanship at West Virginia University is dedicated to the study and appreciation of Western civilization and the American ideals of free inquiry, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association. In the tradition of Socrates and Plato, the Center fosters genuine philosophical inquiry into the enduring questions of human life and political order — questions that dominant academic and cultural institutions too often discourage or suppress. By examining the intellectual, moral, and spiritual foundations of the West, the Center equips students and citizens to think critically about the world they inhabit, to recognize the forces that shape it, and to pursue wisdom and truth rather than mere appearance. At a time when the life of the mind is increasingly constrained by ideological conformity, the Washington Center stands as a place where those questions may be asked, debated, and honestly answered.
Patrick Lee Miller
Director
Patrick Lee Miller, Ph.D. is the founding Director of the Washington Center for Civics, Culture, and Statesmanship at West Virginia University. A specialist in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Platonism, Nietzsche, and psychoanalysis, he holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Philosophy and an M.A. in Classics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a Doctorate in Psychoanalysis from the Psychoanalytic Institute of the Carolinas. He is the author of Becoming God: Pure Reason in Early Greek Philosophy (Continuum, 2011) and co-editor of Introductory Readings in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy (Hackett, 2015), and has published widely on figures ranging from Heraclitus and Plato to Nietzsche and Freud. Prior to joining WVU, he served as Associate Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University for twenty years.