Music and the Idea of a World: Part I
“Music, too, is nature.” —Victor Zuckerkandl, Sound and Symbol This lecture explores the differences between two perspectives on music: one ancient, one modern. The texts I…
Plato and Love
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and all your soul. And your neighbor as yourself. This is the first and…
The Misuse and Abuse of Words: Reflecting on Misology with Plato and Josef Pieper
Introduction: The Corruption of Words Concerning the apparent abuse of the word “eternity,” Romano Guardini observes: “A word is not merely a sign to convey a meaning. …
More or Less: Utopia as a Meditation on Human Nature
Introduction Even a perfunctory read of Utopia is likely to give one pause. Included in More’s “truly golden handbook” are incongruities too glaring to escape notice—incongruities between…
Freedom from Reality. The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty
Freedom from Reality. The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty. D.C. Schindler. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017. This book examines the philosophical roots…
Yin-Yang, Buddha and Plato’s Cave at the Dawn of the Covid Age
At the dawn of the “Covid Age” the prospect of a quantum-like leap into an unprecedented consolidation of what is known as the Global Society is overtaking…
Plato on the Fall of Ancient and Modern Greece
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, warned us that there is nothing new under the sun. At least in terms of the current crisis in Greece,…
Glaucon’s Fate: History, Myth, and Character in Plato’s “Republic”
Perhaps the best measure of the richness and complexity of Plato’s Republic, the most influential work of political philosophy in the Western tradition, is the remarkably broad…
Plato on Wealth, Poverty, and the Conditions of Happiness
At least since the time of the ancient philosopher Plato, private property rights have posed challenges to those aspiring to craft a just political society. During the…
Prisons and Punishment
Gnosticism imagines that the disorder and conflicts of earthly existence can be overcome with gnosis – special knowledge; insight and learning. Ruth Gilmore Wilson, a prison abolitionist…
Knowledge, Sophistry, & Scientific Politics: Plato’s Dialogues. Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman
Knowledge, Sophistry, & Scientific Politics: Plato’s Dialogues. Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman. James M. Rhodes. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2020. Rhodes wants to see whether…
Plato’s Caves: The Liberating Sting of Cultural Diversity
Plato’s Caves: The Liberating Sting of Cultural Diversity. Rebecca LeMoine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. It is an exciting time to be a Plato scholar. The…
Introduction the Subfields of Political Science: Political Philosophy
In my previous posts, I explained how I try to introduce the activity of politics to students. Following my “great books” approach to introducing political science, I…
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…
Speech and Knowledge in Plato’s Hippias Major
Near the beginning of Greater Hippias, Socrates introduces an alter-Socrates (his intellectual conscience, we might say) who poses this question: “Socrates, how do you know what sorts…
