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“What’s the use of philosophy?” This is a fairly common question posed by philosophy students, one often followed by: “Why do we have to study the things a bunch of dead guys said years ago?” The question is reasonable, but it is a “top floor” question. To sufficiently answer...
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The mythos represents man’s imaginative and, ultimately, spiritual effort to make this world intelligible; the logos sets forth his rational attempt to do the same.1 Humans have two basic tools with which to make this world intelligible: the mythos and the logos; anything else results in incoherence and a rejection of order and purpose. The former,...
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Last month, we dealt with those pesky third declension nouns. This month, we will take a look at third conjugation verbs. For some reason, thirds are always a bit difficult in Latin. Please keep in mind that the Romans did not order declensions and conjugations; rather, those who...
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In the Christmas of 1838, Danish author Hans Christian Andersen published The Steadfast Tin Soldier. In it, a one-legged tin soldier endures an adventure filled with many trials—including a passionate love for a beautiful paper ballet dancer—only to be spontaneously thrown into a fiery furnace by a capricious boy. The...
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Last year, I had the opportunity to study T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Journey of the Magi” with a high school student whom I was tutoring. I had read the poem before and my graduate school roommate was an Eliot aficionado, so I felt reasonably confident as I approached the...
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In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles refuses to accept gifts from the hand of Agamemnon precisely because he refuses to become “the king’s man.” Agamemnon had wronged Achilles—grievously—and to receive his gifts would amount to admitting that it was within Agamemnon’s authority to commit such a wrong; it would equate with accepting the...
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This week was a busy one in my Challenge III class. Students completed study guides in philosophy, turned in American history notebooks, gave a philosophy lecture, and completed finals in US history and chemistry. There were several important reasons for a classical education to include these tasks. The finals...
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Our current world is obsessed with quantitative thinking. Frankly, I am, too. Numbers are extremely helpful in gauging all sorts of things in life, from the output of the economy to the number of people who show up in church each week. The problem, however, is that in order...
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Watch this video to hear the thoughts of Leigh Bortins, Chief Academic Officer, and Robert Bortins, Chief Executive Officer, as they share a recap of 2012 and some thoughts for 2013. https://youtu.be/kIn4mY00Ny0
Read the Full ArticleI am not a machine, and neither are my children. That is one of the reasons I took them off the conveyor-belt-style education of public school. It is too easy, however, to slip into conveyor-belt education at home by taking the view that if all the blanks in the...
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Of all the intellectual tools I have been given over the years, there are two that stand out as exceedingly valuable for me. Both of these were bequeathed to me by my parents through the example they set for me; they never taught me these things directly, but I...
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Thirds are difficult in Latin. Third declension is troublesome, third conjugation is perilous, and third declension adjectives are downright inconvenient. Just when you think you have a handle on Latin—after first and second declension nouns, verbs and adjectives—third comes along and provides a jolt to your system. You start...
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