This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of Walker Percy’s death, and the eminent philosopher-novelist repays our attention and thought more than ever. With the posthumous publication of his only work of systematic philosophy in 2019, Symbol & Existence, we have still more evidence of his lasting importance as a thinker.

Here we present two new essays offering reflections on the most important lessons we can learn from him today:

The American Pursuit of Happiness

by Elizabeth Amato

An Age of Theory and Consumption

by Brian A. Smith

For those who wish to learn more, we also wish to take the opportunity to collect all of Law & Liberty’s essays that engage deeply with Percy’s ideas:

The Democratic Self: A Quiz After Walker Percy’s Lost in the Cosmos

by Micah Meadowcroft

Living as an Ex-Suicide

by Jessica Hooten Wilson

Soulcraft, Indirectly: Reading Walker Percy’s Lost in the Cosmos

by Brian A. Smith

The Truth about Happiness

by Jessica Hooten Wilson

Balancing Technology and Self-Knowledge with Walker Percy

by Titus Techera

Living as an Ex-Suicide

by Jessica Hooten Wilson

Walker Percy and the Politics of Deranged Times

by Brian A. Smith

Atticus Finch’s American Stoicism

by Peter Augustine Lawler

Walker Percy’s American Apocalypse

by H. Collin Messer