Monthly Archives: October 2012

Man Up with a Memento Mori

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Dr. J

It may be true that people throughout history have had trouble dealing with death, but modern people seem to have an especially difficult time with it. They’re not encouraged to think about their own mortality as a rule, except perhaps … Continue reading →

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Leaving Eden

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Dr. J

It looks like I’m just barely going to make an actual Great Books Monday post this week. The big news is that, after wrapping up Paradise Lost last week, we embark today on Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, which … Continue reading →

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Suffrage Doesn’t Preserve Liberty

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Dr. J

In the Great Books Project this week, we will wrap up the English language’s greatest poem as well as one of the English language’s funniest plays. We’ll also embark on a reading of one of the most important scientific works … Continue reading →

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Tolkien Professor on NPR

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Dr. J

I know it’s Monday and everyone is expecting a Great Books post, but I can’t resist pointing you all to an interview posted on NPR’s site yesterday with my colleague Corey Olsen AKA the Tolkien Professor. In the interview, Olsen … Continue reading →

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Space and Time: A Priori Intuitions?

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Dr. J

On this Great Books Monday, I’ve been ruminating on the difficulty of some of the works we’re going through. Seriously, Aristotle’s Physics and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason are pretty dense. I’ve had to remind myself that part of analytical … Continue reading →

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Aristotle vs. Stephen Hawking

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Dr. J

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has been going around for the last couple of years telling people that the universe is the result of “spontaneous creation.” In other words, according to him, something came out of nothing. I couldn’t help being … Continue reading →

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The Devil Made Them Do It

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Dr. J

Welcome to Great Books Monday! We need some fanfare to commemorate the fact that this week we hit the 10,000-page mark in our reading program, as well as the 3,000-page mark in Imaginative Literature and the 2,500-page mark in Philosophy/Religion. … Continue reading →

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What Is Temperance? Don’t Ask Socrates

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Dr. J

After not posting for more than a week (international travel can do that to you), it’s good to be back with this week’s Great Books post. We are closing in on several milestones in our reading schedule, but today I’d … Continue reading →

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