As Walt Whitman put it, the open road is a "test of wisdom," and furthermore

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Wisdom is not finally tested in schools, 

Wisdom cannot be pass’d from one having it to another not having it, 

Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof, 

Applies to all stages and objects and qualities and is content, 

Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things; 

Something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes it out of the soul. 

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The road compelled him to 

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re-examine philosophies and religions, 

They may prove well in lecture-rooms,

yet not prove at all under the spacious clouds

and along the landscape and flowing currents. 

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Unlike anything else, the Further Inquiry is at least something like the integration of study abroad (without all the binge drinking and museums), an alternative spring break (absent the moralizing imperialism), and an outward bound experience (drained of its patronizing pop-psychology and nature worship). Students are confronted with intellectual material that will push the horizons of their thought as they simultaneously move across distant landscapes. The basic idea is that once everyday experience is liberated from the bog of the familiar, new intellectual breakthroughs are uniquely possible. Readings and lectures are carefully paired with each location on the itinerary and sequenced for maximum impact.    

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Our next undertaking, scheduled for the summer of 2018, pairs course offerings in Continental philosophy and avant-garde literature with a journey across Western and Eastern Europe by rail, with stops in Utrecht, Grunewald, Saint Jean de Luz, San Sebastian, Tallinn, Riga, Prague, Budapest, Ljubljuana, and Dubrovnik.  

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No more than fifteen students, currently enrolled in American universities, will be selected to participate. If you think you should be one of them, please contact us.