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When you first pick up the world's most famous work of philosophy, Plato's Republic, you might be surprised to find that it starts with Socrates describing a day trip he took with his friend Glaucon to check out a festival happening just outside Athens. Where are the syllogisms? Where is the metaphysics? It does not seem very grand, at least at first.

Colin Redemer joins the podcast to kick off part 1 of a 10-episode series on Plato's Republic, to give some suggestions for how to read Plato, and to walk through the various definitions of justice we encounter in Book 1 of The Republic. In Book 1, we encounter a large cast engaged in discussion with Socrates about this very question. Is justice returning to others what you owe them? Benefitting friends and harming enemies? The advantage of the stronger?

H.I. Marrou's A History of Education in Antiquity: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780299088149

Plato's Republic (trans. Allan Bloom): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780465094080

Davenant Press's Reforming Classical Education: https://davenantinstitute.org/davenant-press/reforming-classical-education/

Austin Hoffman's review of Reforming Classical Education: https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2023/02/awkward-family-dinner-a-review-of-reforming-classical-education/

Colin Redemer's response to Austin Hoffman: https://adfontesjournal.com/web-exclusives/revisiting-platonic-education-the-ever-sharable-feast/

James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780679744726

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Download and subscribe to Ekho: ancientlanguage.com/ekho/

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New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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Charlotte Mason argues that all education is ultimately self-education. Unless a student makes the choice to assimilate knowledge into himself, he will not learn anything. If this is so, what role is there for a teacher? Can a student actually be educated into virtue or wisdom?

In this episode, Jonathan and Ryan read and discuss the opening chapters of Charlotte Mason's book A Philosophy of Education.

Charlotte Mason's A Philosophy of Education: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781922348050

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780060935467

Ambleside Online: https://www.amblesideonline.org/

Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781402782831

John Senior's The Thousand Good Books: https://seascs.net/documents/2017/10/John%20Senior%20The%20Thousand%20Good%20Books%20List.pdf

Two ways to support the show and unlock bonus episodes:

Download and subscribe to Ekho: ancientlanguage.com/ekho/

Subscribe to New Humanists+ for bonus episodes: buzzsprout.com/1791279/subscribe

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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Properly understood, politics is an expression of culture. But the politician would like to use culture for political ends. In doing so, he boils his people's culture down to the merely aestheticized: food, traditional dance, music, dialect or accent. But this is culture as mere costume, not as a vital force that incarnates the total, religious experience of a people's life.

Similar to the way a shallow version of culture gets deployed for political ends, so education too gets used for "levelling the playing field," so that everyone has equality of opportunity to succeed. But true equality of opportunity is a fiction; it could exist only in a state of the most radical communism which not only levels all social and economic distinctions, but also attacks the family and goes to war against nature.

In this episode, Jonathan and Ryan read the closing chapters of T.S. Eliot's Notes Toward the Definition of Culture: Chapter V - "A Note on Culture and Politics," and Chapter VI - "Notes on Education and Culture: and Conclusion."

T.S. Eliot's Notes Toward the Definition of Culture (in Christianity and Culture): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780156177351

Alan Jacobs's The Year of Our Lord 1943: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780190864651

John Le Carré's Absolute Friends: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780316159395

John Le Carré's The Spy Who Came in From the Cold: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780143124757

John Le Carré's A Perfect Spy: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780143119760

Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg Address: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg.html

Leon Trotsky's Literature and Revolution: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781931859165

Previous NH episode on selections from "Notes on Education and Culture": https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/9884564-t-s-eliot-s-praise-for-privilege-episode-xvi

Two ways to support the show and unlock bonus episodes:

Download and subscribe to Ekho: ancientlanguage.com/ekho/

Subscribe to New Humanists+ for bonus episodes: buzzsprout.com/1791279/subscribe

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Support the show