In Knowledge Worthily Received, we considered the paradox that Socrates considered himself “barren of wisdom”—yet was able to help bring forth knowledge in his students. We considered the temptation of “easy knowledge,” of the illusion of learning without struggle. We recalled St. Thomas’ claim that truth, properly speaking, is in the mind—with the peculiar result […]
In Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe, Jeffrey Hart says of the Socratics that they “sought to know ‘actuality,’ which ultimately had to include everything, and do so independently of religion, myth, and received tradition.”1 While the search for knowledge and understanding of science and philosophy is admirable, the attempt to do so independently of religion […]
01
May
May
In the Theaetetus, Socrates describes himself as a midwife of the mind: The difference is that I attend men and not women, and that I watch over the labor of their souls, not of their bodies. Theaetetus 150b. Socrates, however, declared himself “barren of wisdom” (150c). Yet he is one of the greatest teachers in […]
15
Apr
Apr
The mathematician Israel Gelfand once said: “The most important thing a student can get from the study of mathematics is the attainment of a higher intellectual level.”1 We might twist this slightly to say that “the most important thing a human being can get from the study of mathematics is an understanding of oneself as […]
07
Apr
Apr
While stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, I participated in an online reading challenge. I don’t remember the exact requirements, but I recall one prompt in particular standing out; it instructed me to read an author I knew I ought to read but didn’t think I would enjoy. I wasn’t thrilled. That meant it […]
Every year, when I teach Plato’s Republic, something subtle happens to the students. At first, the students are confident. They are articulate, well-read, informed. They have opinions about justice, politics, freedom, identity. They have listened to podcasts, read articles, absorbed arguments. Their minds are not empty. And yet, somewhere around Book VII, the atmosphere shifts. […]
While stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, I participated in an online reading challenge. I don’t remember the exact requirements, but I recall one prompt in particular standing out; it instructed me to read an author I knew I ought to read but didn’t think I would enjoy. I wasn’t thrilled. That meant it […]
Sapere aude—dare to know. With this bold exhortation, Immanuel Kant claimed to have summoned an entire age to ‘intellectual awakening.’ It was the clarion call of the Enlightenment, a command for mankind to liberate itself from the presumed shackles of authority and immaturity and to begin thinking independently. In the philosophical revolutions of the seventeenth […]
There is a kind of education that chills the soul. It operates with impressive order, produces well-timed outputs, and maintains impeccable discipline—yet something essential is missing. No spark leaps between minds, no encounter lingers after the lecture, no personal memory anchors the learning. The institution runs smoothly, but no one remembers why it began. It […]
Classical rhetoric arose as a discipline designed to aid speakers before courts of law and other public settings. By identifying three primary means of persuasion—appeals to authority (ethos), appeals to emotion (pathos), and appeals to reason (logos)—it taught speakers to calculate more precisely which combination of these three would produce the desired effect in an […]