Reflections on Eva Brann’s “Paradoxes of Education in a Republic”
Paradoxes of Education in a Republic. Eva T. H. Brann. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1979. A few weeks back I suggested that Eva Brann’s Paradoxes of Education in…
Political Theory: Methods and Approaches
Political Theory: Methods and Approaches. David Leopold and Marc Stears, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. As their book opens, “Political theorists are often silent on…
Tips for Parenting
Obedience Training Why worry about obedience? In some cases it is a matter of life and death. Do not run into traffic. Do not stick objects into…
The New Calvinists
Puritanism is back, and not just the #MeToo sort. The drama of the damned and the saved, of public accusation, confession, absolution, and condemnation for every sort…
On Teaching
The dominant school of thought when it comes to teaching philosophy is for the professor to hide his opinions and to strive for an objective and neutral…
Some Inflammatory Remarks about Philosophizing
All I had in all my classes were jocks trying to make up credit, you know? You know that feeling? They weren’t there to learn at all.…
Litter-Picking the Teacher’s Soul for Contemplative Pursuits
A number of years ago, I abandoned a secure, well-paying high school teaching position and took up a job picking litter for the city’s Roads Department. At…
Is There a Patron Saint of Teachers?
“Your total ignorance of that which you profess to teach merits the death penalty. I doubt whether you would know that St. Cassian of Imola was stabbed…
On the Mystery of Teachers I Never Met
In The Apology, Socrates brought up the question of whether he was paid for being a teacher, like the Sophists, who were paid for their skill in teaching whatever it was…
Higher Education as American Counterculture
The author of the best book ever written on America, and the best book ever written on democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville, claimed to see almost no higher…
Globalism, Technology . . . and the Humanities?
I would like you to imagine the following situation: Sometime after graduation a college student is hired as an intern at his university’s newly founded Center for…
Aristotelian Citizenship for a Multicultural World
One the debates confronting liberal democracies is how to conceive of citizenship in an age of multiculturalism. Liberal political theorists regard citizenship as primary a legal entity…
Statesmanship and Democracy in a Global and Comparative Context
One of the most pressing and central problems in a democracy is that of political leadership. While it appears that democracy is a universally-lauded form of politics,…
Teaching the American Political Tradition in a Global Context
Education is the task of crafting the souls of students; it is never simply about conveying information so that students can enlarge their body of knowledge. While…
The Case Against Education: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money
The Case Against Education: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money. Bryan Caplan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. According to Caplan, an…