tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post6773790328868649392..comments2024-03-28T17:53:43.541-04:00Comments on DarwinCatholic: Are Great Books Not The Answer?Darwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-18359695182109073392010-04-13T17:32:05.003-04:002010-04-13T17:32:05.003-04:00The Historical Point of View has variants that app...The Historical Point of View has variants that apply to all parts of the philosophical spectrum. I met more closed-off and untouchable people at the Christian college that I attended (for one year) than I did at the state school to which I later transferred. I never attended any Catholic school, but I will react with extreme scepticism if anyone tries to tell me that the problem doesn't exist in those parts as well.<br /><br />JoelAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-87864227787255085602010-04-12T20:03:56.642-04:002010-04-12T20:03:56.642-04:00It was more like he'd memorized a catalogue th...<i>It was more like he'd memorized a catalogue than anything else, and in a way I think his education only served to inoculate him against the Great Books.</i><br /><br />This is S.O.P. in modern academia, and has been for a century or more. Screwtape describes it perfectly:<br /><br /><i>The Historical Point of View, put briefly, means that when a learned man is presented with any statement in an ancient author, the one question he never asks is whether it is true. He asks who influenced the ancient writer, and how far the statement is consistent with what he said in other books, and what phase in the writer's development, or in the general history of thought, it illustrates, and how it affected later writers, and how often it has been misunderstood (specially by the learned man's own colleagues) and what the general course of criticism on it has been for the last ten years, and what is the "present state of the question". To regard the ancient writer as a possible source of knowledge—to anticipate that what he said could possibly modify your thoughts or your behaviour—this would be rejected as unutterably simple-minded.</i>Tom Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16067031472666752839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-43817174850535689992010-04-12T17:25:20.627-04:002010-04-12T17:25:20.627-04:00I did notice that when I was acquiring my liberal ...I did notice that when I was acquiring my liberal arts education (at "Mr. Megalomaniac's Catholic Brand College, first attempt"), I would go home over the summer and compare notes with my secular friend (attending "Prestigious Canadian Humanities College Program") and although we read a lot of the same things, they had a completely different impact on us. <br /><br />They must have been taught very differently over there - I would start going on about the ideas in some influential thinker's writing, discussing the merits and flaws, and he would immediately give an intellectual biography and a label (oh, yes, he was very influenced by so-and-so, the *ist), and basically dismiss it. It was more like he'd memorized a catalogue than anything else, and in a way I think his education only served to inoculate him against the Great Books.Katehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03787892622804373968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-65979784683251476112010-04-12T16:25:07.690-04:002010-04-12T16:25:07.690-04:00Emily,
No, that was a true typo. (fixed)
That&#...Emily,<br /><br />No, that was a true typo. (fixed)<br /><br />That's interesting about suicide at St. John's. (Something else that might be driving that rate is that, at least of 12 years ago, their drug-use rates were insanely high, even by college standards.)Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-45099263852316589912010-04-12T15:23:00.051-04:002010-04-12T15:23:00.051-04:00Is "Great Gooks" intentional or a typo? ...Is "Great Gooks" intentional or a typo? Kind of funny, considering some of the characters included on the Great Books reading list. If nothing else, reading the great books introduces you to fascinating thinkers you'll never meet in this life. I heard somewhere anecdotally that St. Johns has one of the highest suicide rates of any college supposedly because students become so overwhelmed by contradictory options of how to live a good life that they decide no life is worth living. That route isn't as likely for students studying the great books at a Catholic college where faith is the answer to how to live.Emily J.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01132106976424535611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-15438103371461051632010-04-12T15:17:16.923-04:002010-04-12T15:17:16.923-04:00"I have enough faith in the quality of the gr..."I have enough faith in the quality of the great books themselves to think that it is better to have read them under almost any circumstances than not to have read them at all. " <br /><br />Agreed.Melanie Bettinellihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12557248434888642114noreply@blogger.com