Online Great Books Podcast: Recent Episodes
Online Great Books Podcast
Scott and Karl read "The Greeks and Greek Civilization" which sums up the relevant lectures the notable Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt first gave in 1872.
Karl says, "I now have a little portable guide to all the Greek literature that I want to read." Scott adds, "Burckhardt explains what might be going on around the world around Socrates that allows him to drink the hemlock."
The duo acknowledges Jacob Burckhardt's ability to research and analyze Greek culture at great length, but whether or not he fully admires the ancient Greeks is up for debate.
Tune in to learn more about the true 'Greek spirit' of the ancient world that Burckhardt provides. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Beyond producing a body of pioneering research in thermodynamics, Faraday left an educational legacy: his great lectures on the “Chemical History of a Candle.”
Originally published in 1861, this series of six lectures showcases Faraday's ability to clearly display scientific principles to a general population, landing him the reputation of one of the first 'popular scientists.' Scott says, "When people say to trust the science these days, they aren’t doing Faraday's type of science."
Why a candle? Faraday believes that choosing a candle as the topic of investigation is the best way to introduce viewers to the nature of science. Scott adds, "In terms of physical investigations, a candle is about as close as you can get to the beginning."
Karl says, "There are wonders around you that you should be gobsmacked by every time you see it. A candle is one of those things."
The duo agrees, this book would be a good addition to your home library collection, especially if you are interested in homeschooling. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Tune in for Part Two of Scott and Karl's discussion on Hilaire du Berrier's Background to Betrayal.
Published in 1965, it remains the only book du Berrier ever produced and a crucial resource on the history of Indochina and our government's policies in Vietnam.
Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
In 1965, the Birch Society's publishing house, Western Islands, printed du Berrier's Background to Betrayal: The Tragedy of Vietnam. While hard to come by, it remains the most authoritative source in English on the crucial history of Indochina up to that point and is indispensable for an understanding of the tragic consequences of our government's policies in Vietnam.
Scott and Karl believe that du Berrier's book on Vietnam has stood up against the test of time while so many of the experts who opposed him have been vanquished by the truth of history.
Tune in as the duo begins their discussion of this hard-to-find book and the equally fascinating author.
Scott and Karl read and discuss James S. Taylor's 1998 book, Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education.
Taylor describes his work as an “attempt to resuscitate a nearly forgotten mode of knowledge.” This "poetic knowledge" is not the knowledge of poetry. Rather, it is an intuitive, obscure, mysterious way of knowing reality. As Karl points out, "Poētēs in Greek means making... you're a maker of things. I think that's a reasonable way to think about it."
The author traces the history of poetic knowledge through Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Benedict, and the beginning of its demise with Descartes. Tune in for a fascinating look at what has been and what might be again when we turn theoretical into practical knowledge.
Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl delve into James Howard Kunstler's 2008 end-of-days novel, World Made by Hand.
James Howard Kunstler is an American author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger, perhaps best known for his 2005 novel, The Long Emergency. He has an active podcast, KunstlerCast, where you can find more of his honest urban commentary.
World Made by Hand is from your typical post-apocalyptic novel. Scott says, "It's not an unpleasant world that he pictures for us after the simplification." Karl believes that Kunstler is even optimistic despite the novel being set in a post-oil American future.
Scott points out, "This is a world where everything feels big. They grieve more, there's more death and it's closer, but they care more about the people that they do have, too."
Tune in to hear the duo's discussion of this dystopian science-fiction novel. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Father Francis Bethel's biography, John Senior and the Restoration of Realism.
According to Scott, if you have concerns about yourself, how you interact with the world, and where the world is going— you need to read some John Senior as well as this biography.
In his works, John Senior discusses how there are ways of life that actually require realism. The duo talks about the pockets of our world where realism exists versus a way of life where unreality rules.
Tune in to finish Scott and Karl's discussion on what a full restoration of realism would look like, or if it's even possible. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl begin their discussion of Father Francis Bethel's biography that examines the life and thought of "cultural critic, university professor, and sometime cowboy," John Senior.
John Senior is the founder of Clear Creek Abbey, a Benedictine Abbey in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. He is the author of both The Death of Christian Culture and The Restoration of Christian Culture.
As Karl points out, this biography doesn't so much delve into the details of Senior's life but focuses on his ideas.
Scott says, "One of [Senior's] assumptions, and I think he's right, is that Proper Christian culture is the underpinning behind the real metaphysics that built the West and the metaphysics that tied, past tense, science to reality. Senior thinks we are getting away from being tied to the real world and that our metaphysics is busted."
It's clear to see how John Senior is one of Scott's heroes. Tune in to the first half of the duo's discussion on the restoration of realism. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
To round out 2022, Scott and Karl decided to revisit Shelby Foote's 2,968-page, 1.2 million-word history of the American Civil War. Collectively, Foote's history of the Civil War includes three compelling volumes: Fort Sumter to Perryville, Fredericksburg to Meridian, and Red River to Appomattox.
Scott and Karl begin talking about the tenuous nature of history yet how Foote still manages to bring his narrative power to this great epic. Scott says, "Shelby Foote made Ken Burn's career... Shelby Foote talks about things that happened 120 years ago like it was this morning."
The duo agrees—there are great lessons to be learned in these books. Tune in to hear more of Scott and Karl's take on this monumental trilogy. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
We're back! Scott and Karl explore Helen and Scott Nearing's The Good Life (1954) and Continuing the Good Life (1979) in a new, long-form podcast.
In the 20th century, Scott and Helen Nearing became the new models of self-sufficient lifestyles and rural homesteading. Having abandoned their life in New York City in 1932, rural Vermont became the place the couple could escape a capitalist life. Scott says, “They were trying to live out the 1930s communist ideal.”
Over the next 60 years, the Nearings developed a system of living called the good life, inspiring others who are city-weary to do the same. But as Karl points out, "This is not Walden."
Tune in to learn more about Scott and Karl's take on the back-to-the-land movement. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl are back after a brief hiatus to finish their discussion of Dean Koontz's 2003 thriller, Odd Thomas.
While the ending might make you emotional, this book satisfies its genre— it's suspenseful, memorable, and thoroughly entertaining. Still, Scott points out that reading this type of fiction in the present times is getting harder and harder.
Tune in for Part Two of the duo's conversation. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com
Scott and Karl are back after a brief hiatus to finish their discussion of Dean Koontz's 2003 thriller, Odd Thomas.
While the ending might make you emotional, this book satisfies its genre— it's suspenseful, memorable, and thoroughly entertaining. Still, Scott points out that reading this type of fiction in the present times is getting harder and harder.
Tune in for Part Two of the duo's conversation. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com
This week, Scott and Karl begin their discussion of Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas, a best-selling thriller novel published in 2003. Koontz is known for being a masterful storyteller with a talent for creating richly drawn characters. While this novel is definitely a thriller, Scott points out it reads like a noir detective story.
If you are looking for an entertaining read, this book checks all the boxes for the duo. As Karl points out, "[Koontz] appears to have reasonably good metaphysics. Evil is evil, it's understandable, and the good guys are actually good."
Tune if for Part One of Scott and Karl's conversation. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of the first novel in Isaac Asimov’s classic science-fiction masterpiece, Foundation.
The novel is set in the future, when the world is barely remembered, and humans have colonized the galaxy. While this series helped to redefine the science-fiction genre, the duo takes issue with the ways this make-believe society responds to the problems Asimov lays out and the use of mathematics and probability to predict the future. As Karl points out, "Scientific progress as a moral good makes no sense."
Tune in to hear Part Two of Scott and Karl's conversation. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, the duo tackles Karl's pick— the first novel in Isaac Asimov’s classic science-fiction masterpiece.
Largely regarded as a launch pad for space-age science fiction, Foundation is a collection of five short stories which were first published together as a book by Gnome Press in 1951. The series tells the story of the Foundation, an institute founded by psychohistorian Hari Seldon to preserve the best of galactic civilization after the collapse of the Galactic Empire.
Scott says, "Asimov and all that stuff from this era is one of the reasons the boomers are the way they are. They were inculcated with a worldview that is out of fiction. They think everything is always going to improve, that science has the answer, and they see that history and the scope of time is a character and acts in and of itself so they don't have a responsibility."
Tune in to hear Part One of the duo's conversation and learn why Karl calls this "a good bad book." Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Dorothy M. Johnson’s Indian Country, a collection of some of the greatest short stories about the American West. Scott says, "I don't want to talk about the book too much because it's that good. I love the characters, I love the setting, I love Dorothy Johnson, I love the themes, I love the style."
While this work is out of print, the duo agrees it is worth your while to hunt down a used copy and have a read. Each of the eleven tales shines with implicity, Karl calls them "iceberg stories" because there is so much in them that isn't written.
Tune in to hear the rest of Scott and Karl's conversation about Dorothy Johnson's skillful presentation of early frontier life. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl read Dorothy M. Johnson’s Indian Country, a collection of eleven stories showing a frontier alive with complex struggles. You may be familiar with two of her most famous stories, “A Man Called Horse” and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” which are included in this collection.
Johnson, a Montana-based author, brings to western fiction a clear ideal of individuality and honor. Scott says, "The sense of life that comes out of this book and right into your face is astounding to me. The character of the author is all over the thing, I couldn't imagine her writing anything other than a western.”
Tune in to learn more about a book that Karl classifies as "desert literature"— set in a mysterious, forgotten place where all of one's actions become magnified. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire which follows the Roman Empire over thirteen centuries - its rulers, wars and society, and, of course, the events that led to its collapse.
Towards the beginning of the show, Karl asks, "how do lasting emporiums last?" The duo unpacks thought-provoking questions about the idea of an empire whose history touches on nearly any imaginable type of human occurrence and serves up parallels for modern events.
Tune in for Part Two of the duo's conversation. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl tackle a massive narrative of one of the world's greatest civilizations. Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire follows the Roman Empire over thirteen centuries - its rulers, wars and society, and, of course, the events that led to its collapse.
Published between 1776 and 1788 in six volumes, Gibbon gained himself the reputation of being the first modern historian of ancient Rome. But does he belong on the Great Books list? Scott says, "If you are putting together this list, there are things that have happened that you must have books about. The fall of Rome, there needs to be something that covers it. What would it be? I guess this."
Gibbon, who devoted most of his life to this project, scored immediate success that was resounding. Speaking about Gibbon's influence, Karl says, "This is a sellout book informing educated Europeans about ideas of empire."
Scott adds, "I think modern people carry ideas about the Romans that came from Gibbon even if they haven't read this book. He's very influential."
Tune in for Part One of the duo's conversation. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl test out an alternative format, and enjoy huge success!
Also, enrollment is open, now through this weekend. Visit OnlineGreatBooks.com to learn more.
This week, Scott and Karl are off, so we'll flashback to July 2019, for a very relevant conversation from a very different world.
Scott and OGB producer Brett discuss pedagogy and dominant learning theories, as Scott aspires to be a better Starting Strength coach and a more effective interlocutor at Online Great Books.
We begin our discussion with an exploration of the common learning theories practiced in public school and higher education, along with a cost/benefit analysis of each: behaviorism, cognitivism, and (social) constructivism. We also touch on connectivism and mindset theory.
Originally recorded for School Sucks Podcast.
This week, Scott and Karl finish their discussion of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, a heavy fandom collection of mythopoeic stories that form a complete history of Middle Earth.
The duo agrees— don't read this unless you’ve read the big trilogy first. Karl adds, “I think it’s very good. If Tolkien is as big of a part of your life as it is in mine, then you’ve got to read The Silmarillion.”
Will Tolkien eventually make the Great Books list? Scott says, "I think that through the fog of time and through bit rot that will destroy a lot of histories, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion will take on a historical aspect."
Tune in for Part Two of Scott and Karl's conversation, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl begin their discussion of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, a collection of mythopoeic stories that form a complete history of Middle Earth. Until 1977, these manuscripts were unpublished until his son, Christopher Tolkien, edited them posthumously.
Producer Brett warns, "If you don't know what The Silmarillion is, you might be stepping into a rabbit hole... but you'll be better for it."
The Silmarillion is actually Tolkien's first book and also his last. It shows us the ancient history to which characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, talk, rhyme, and sing about. Tolkien worked on it, changed it, and enlarged it throughout his entire life. Tune in for Part One of the duo's conversation, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl finish their discussion of John Dewey's essay, "Challenge to Liberal Thought."
Written in his later life, Dewey expands on his criticisms of the Great Books of Western Civilization enterprise and a liberal arts education.
The duo agrees— this is shoddy work to say the least. At the end of their conversation, Scott says, “This is just not very good. I wonder, how did these people get the traction that they got? Why do our intellectual overlords keep telling us we need to read Dewey?"
Tune in to hear the rest of Scott and Karl's response to Dewey's essay. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl finish their discussion of John Dewey's essay, "Challenge to Liberal Thought."
Written in his later life, Dewey expands on his criticisms of the Great Books of Western Civilization enterprise and a liberal arts education.
The duo agrees— this is shoddy work to say the least. At the end of their conversation, Scott says, “This is just not very good. I wonder, how did these people get the traction that they got? Why do our intellectual overlords keep telling us we need to read Dewey?"
Tune in to hear the rest of Scott and Karl's response to Dewey's essay. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
In the tradition of intellectual fairness, Scott and Karl read from someone they don’t agree with this week.
Toted as the 'King of Progressive Philosophers', John Dewey was an educational reformer active throughout the first half of the 20th century. He left a very significant, progressive mark on the public school system.
His essay "Challenge to Liberal Thought" can be found in The Later Works of John Dewey, Volume 15 which focuses on his writings between the years 1942 to 1948. This particular essay expands on his criticisms of the Great Books of Western Civilization enterprise and a liberal arts education.
Scott says, “This is a utopian, managerial approach to social sciences that’s pretty gross.... If you've never read Dewey, this encapsulates progressives' whole attitude and approach to managing people."
Tune in to hear Scott and Karl's response to Dewey's essay, and be sure to tune in next week for Part Two. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their two-part discussion of Robert Maynard Hutchins' 1952 essay "The Great Conversation: Substance of a Liberal Education."
The Great Conversation is the ongoing process of the best writers and thinkers of Western Civilization referencing, building on, and refining the work of their predecessors. According to Hutchins, "The tradition of the West is embodied in the Great Conversation that began in the dawn of history and that continues to the present day."
Tune in to hear Scott and Karl's hot takes surrounding this essay. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
In 1943, two University of Chicago educators, Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer Adler, launched a series of Great Books seminars with prominent Chicagoans.
By 1952, Hutchins had penned "The Great Conversation," an essay promoting the Great Books of the Western World published by Encyclopædia Britannica and intended for the masses.
The Great Conversation embodies the tradition of the West that began in the dawn of history and continues to the present day— a tradition Online Great Books strives to keep alive.
Both Alder and Hutchins point out that these books act as a principal instrument of liberal education. “Until lately the West has regarded it as self-evident that the road to education lay through great books,” Hutchins writes.
However, Scott and Karl disagree on Hutchins' metaphysical judgment of the books lodged in his salesmanship. Scott says, "I think they need to be read because there is something divine and special about these books and they are edifying to the individual."
Karl adds, "I think you should read the Great Books, dear listener. I don't think necessarily everyone ought to read the Great Books. More people ought to read them than do, but a lot of people can't read."
Tune in to learn more about the substance of a liberal education. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Joel Salatin's book Polyface Micro: Success with Livestock on a Homestead Scale.
Success with domestic livestock does not require large land bases. Salatin's goal is to raise animals that yield integrity edible food as evidence of his family's Polyface Farm in Virginia. Scott says, "He's an efficiency expert."
Karl continues, "It's like reading Aristotle. Of course that's the way logic is! But you didn't know it until you read it."
Salatin leaves everything on the table— no trade secrets, no locked doors. Whether you’re a new or seasoned homesteader, you’ll find tips and inspiration as Joel coaches you toward success and abundance. This conversation is brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week and next, Scott and Karl explore Joel Salatin's book Polyface Micro: Success with Livestock on a Homestead Scale.
Joel Salatin and his family own and operate Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The farm produces pastured beef, pork, chicken, eggs, turkeys, rabbits, lamb, and ducks, servicing roughly 6,000 families and 50 restaurants in the farm’s bioregion. Karl says, "His absolute conviction and his brilliance at systems come through. He figures out a way that it can work."
Salatin believes that success with domestic livestock does not require large land bases. Whether you live in an apartment in a big city or on a farm as a seasoned homesteader, you’ll find tips and inspiration as Joel coaches you towards more abundant living. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Walker Percy's 1983 book Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book.
Percy's contribution to the self-help book craze deals with the Western mind's tendency toward heavy abstraction. With that, he invites readers to think about how we communicate with our world.
The duo dives into Percy's take on the problem with the self and the way that language works. Karl says, "You can see the cosmos around you but you can also see what it could be... because you have a world that has meaning but it may not be physical."
Does Percy see that ability as a gift or a curse?
Scott warns, "This is a particular kind of book that is not about the blessings of humanness."
Tune in for Part Two to hear Scott and Karl's opinion on the matter. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl pick up another book by a recurring guest on the show, Walker Percy. Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book is more of a mock self-help book, designed not to help but to provoke.
Part satire part deadly serious, Percy's goal is to explore ideas of the self and expose the social ills which plague society as a result of "humanity's epic identity crisis."
However, the duo disagrees on how one deals with this problem of introspection. Scott asks, "Do you think it's possible for the mindful person to be introspective and avoid the problem of existentialism?"
If you like to both chuckle and think hard, consider picking yourself up a copy, too. Don't forget to tune in next week for Part Two of Scott and Karl's discussion.
This podcast is brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com, a community dedicated to developing classically educated men and women using the Great Books of Western Civilization.
Scott and Karl finish discussing the Rule of Saint Benedict, written over 1,500 years ago.
Benedict's careful and comprehensive Rules outline a monastic day of work, prayer, and contemplation. Karl says, "If you're going to do work and prayer, which is the Benedictine motto, this is a really great way to keep people working hard for lifetimes and have a life that they don't hate."
The benefits that the Benedictine way of life can have on your day-to-day routine are hard to ignore. Prayer for Benedict was marked by regularity and fidelity, not mood or convenience. The spiritual life was something to be worked at, not merely hoped for. Scott says, "My days will be more regimented after reading this."
The duo also chews on how this structure, however simple and pure, is really civilization-building. Scott adds, "You can point to Benedict when the trains run on time. There's a thread somehow between those two things."
The Rule of Saint Benedict survives as a masterpiece of spiritual wisdom which is as meaningful today as it was when it was written in the sixth century. Tune in for Part Two of the duo's discussion on the Benedictine way of life, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl begin discussing the Rule of Saint Benedict, written by the father of Western monasticism. These rules have been used by the Benedictines for 15 centuries and act as a guide for religious communities or anyone wishing to live more simply.
Karl says, “It’s civilization stuff, it’s not papal stuff. Western civilization, probably all civilization, is monastic.”
While the book was written for monks living collectively under the authority of an abbot, you'll find aspects of leadership, management, and community in these rules that could be useful in many different realms.
Tune in for Part One of the duo's discussion, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Volume One of Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative.
The duo agrees, if there was anyone to write about the real Civil War, Shelby Foote was the man to do it.
Overflowing with color, life, and character, Foote is able to bring a novelist's narrative power to this great epic. In Karl's words, "this book is filled with perfect sentences."
Both as a historian and a novelist, this trilogy firmly places Foote in the ranks of the masters. Tune in for Part Two of Scott and Karl's conversation, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl are discussing Volume One of Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative which is largely considered one of the great historical narratives of our century.
In Karl's words, this is the American Iliad.
Originally published in 1958, Foote spent 20 years writing this classic narrative of the American Civil War which includes three compelling volumes: Fort Sumter to Perryville, Fredericksburg to Meridian, and Red River to Appomattox.
Foote describes himself as a novelist, not a historian. He is able to portray the characters in the conflict with honesty, celebrating the heroes on both sides. Karl says, "It takes a big soul to be able to see the humanity in all sides. This book does it."
Scott presents the case for why this book should be in the Western Canon. Do you agree? Tune in for Part One of the conversation, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Edward Feser’s Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction.
The duo picks up where they left off last week, exploring Feser's arguments against scientism and the issues that arise when the scientific method implies moral truths or the limits of reality. Karl says, "It becomes a problem when the scientific method quits being a tool and becomes a metaphysics... things leap out of their proper spot."
Scott adds, "There are things about humans that are not explicable by scientism. Those things end up being entirely denied."
Tune in to learn more about Feser's contemporary introduction to scientism and what can happen to the human experience if it is reduced to the quantifiable. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl explore Edward Feser's Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction.
Published in 2014, Professor Feser provides an overview of scholastic metaphysics in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas, relying heavily on an appeal to reason.
Scott says, "The scholastics are the best at steel manning. They will investigate, and explore, and expand upon any possible objection to their case and refute them one by one." Karl adds, "Think of it as a classroom of really smart people...it's a very charitable way to think."
Scott and Karl discuss the style and approach of the scholastics, guided by the Aristotelian theory of actuality and potentiality. Scott concludes, "The reliance on reason that the scholastics have is more rigorous, more generous, and more modern than most modern philosophy and even science."
The duo also begins discussing the professor's arguments against scientism. Producer Brett provides us with a definition of scientism being an excessive belief in scientific knowledge both in its explanatory power and its ability to guide action.
Tune in to learn more about the illusion of scientism and the defense for scholasticism. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Lysander Spooner's 1870 essay No Treason No. 6: "The Constitution of No Authority."
While the duo believes Spooner is metaphysically wrong about the nature of government, this essay will leave you with a lasting impression. Karl asks, "How can you compel someone to stay in an organization which he freely joined? It turns out, government isn't contractual. It is based in violence."
While it may be a hard pill to swallow, be sure to tune in for Part Two of Scott and Karl's discussion. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl read Lysander Spooner's 1870 essay No Treason No. 6: "The Constitution of No Authority."
Spooner was an American anarchist, abolitionist, and legal theorist of the nineteenth century. He is known for competing with the U.S. Post Office with his American Letter Mail Company, later forced out of business by the United States government. Scott says, "The violent revolutionary approach to political change doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with anarchism. Anarchism, in the Spooner form, doesn't mean a free-for-all. It means organic laws and no overarching ruler."
In this essay, Spooner examines the potential validity and lasting authority of the U.S. Constitution as a binding contract between men. Karl asks the listeners, "Have you given consent to the Constitution? In what way did you give that consent? Is it because you haven't moved away?"
Tune in for Part One of the duo's discussion. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Martin Heidegger's ten-page lecture "What is Metaphysics?".
A friend of the void, Heidegger's writing style isn’t for everyone.
Karl points out, “Part of the problem with any of these early 20th-century continental philosophers is that you can get seduced by them. Every now and then you have to step back and say, ‘Yes he’s really smart but is he saying anything right?’ ” While Karl answers yes, Scott might disagree.
The duo continues to discuss Heidegger’s concept of nothingness and how human nature impinges itself on metaphysics. Scott says, “They are not metaphysical problems. They are people problems.”
Tune in for Part Two of Scott and Karl's conversation, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl begin their discussion of Martin Heidegger's ten-page lecture "What is Metaphysics?".
This lecture was presented to the faculties of the University of Freiburg on July 24, 1929, as Heidegger's inaugural address.
Taking the typical continental approach, Heidegger isn't telling us what metaphysics is; instead, he's instructing us on how to do metaphysics so that it may present itself.
Karl says, "This is a podcast about nothing. In order to talk about beings, you have to be able to talk about what aren't beings."
Tune in for Part One of the duo's discussion, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Edmund Morris's Ten Acres Enough: The Classic 1864 Guide to Independent Farming.
After giving up city life and buying a small farm in the New Jersey countryside, Morris chronicles his family's experience and ends up writing of the most popular books of the time. He emphasizes that agricultural success depends not on how much you grow but on what and how.
The duo picks up where they left off from last week, speaking to the crucial accounting lesson Morris can teach us.
Scott says, "The approaches to dealing with money [in the modern MBA] are not intuitive and not useful for small business. This is just perfect for small businesses stuff— it seems so simple, but we've lost this."
Ten Acres Enough is an inspiration, but it's also very practical. Tune in for Part Two of Scott and Karl's conversation, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week Scott and Karl begin their discussion of Edmund Morris's Ten Acres Enough: The Classic 1864 Guide to Independent Farming.
The book chronicles Morris leaving the Philadelphia business world in the early 1800s and buying a small farm in the New Jersey countryside. Karl says, "It's a back-to-the-land book for 1864."
Scott later adds, "These back-to-the-land movements certainly do seem to come in cycles, but they never really go away... There is always a large number of people who want to provide for themselves in a less abstract way."
Ten Acres Enough is perfect for any would-be owners of small farms, and anyone drawn to the idea of an agrarian lifestyle.
Both Scott and Karl have personal and practical contributions to make to the discussion— be sure to tune in next week for Part Two. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl are joined by special guest Thomas Mirus, Director of Podcasts for CatholicCulture.org, to finish their discussion of Jacques Maritain’s Art and Scholasticism.
What does contemplating beautiful art do for the soul? Mirus says that if you have metaphysics going into your art, "It's going to make you aware of what art is leading you to and also where art is coming from."
The trio also talks about how great art causes an emotional response but its object is not to do that. Scott adds, "If you are yanking everyone's emotional chain, you are not exactly creating art."
Tune in for Part Two of their discussion, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl are joined by special guest Thomas Mirus, Director of Podcasts for CatholicCulture.org, to discuss Jacques Maritain’s Art and Scholasticism.
Maritain argues for an objective view of both art and the artist, bringing an orderly, scholastic, Thomistic approach to understanding aesthetics. Mirus says, "Maritain gets art better than any other philosopher who came before him in the Western Tradition."
For Maritain, art is “a virtue of the practical intellect that aims at making." The virtue or habitus of art, Maritain writes, is not simply an “interior growth of spontaneous life”, but has an intellectual character and involves cultivation and practice.
The trio also talks about how fine arts and practical arts have been cloven off. How can we hold them both in esteem without denigrating the other?
Scott says, "If we really know what art is then we will be more connected to honest work— that will be a refuge from this intellectual confusion, this metaphysical disgustingness, around us."
Tune in for Part One of their discussion, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of “Good and Evil, Good and Bad,” the first essay from Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals.
Nietzsche demonstrates that the Christian world is steeped in false piety and infected with slave morality. Slave morality is based on resentment over the beauty, wisdom, power, and glory of the master class of people.
Nietzsche regards this resentment as the greatest weakness of our time. As for resentment politics, Scott says, "It only works if you live in a society that is ruled by that morality."
Tune in to hear more of the duo’s discussion on noble morality vs slave morality. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl begin their discussion of “Good and Evil, Good and Bad,” the first essay from Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals.
This essay questions the value of our moral concepts and examines their evolution. Karl says, "Evil is not the same as bad. Once you figure that out, the rest of the essay is easier for you."
Nietzche believes the inversion of values develops out of the resentment of the powerful by the weak. He writes, "The revolt of the slaves in morals begins in the very principle of resentment becoming creative and giving birth to values."
Have the concepts of good and evil actually been of value to the human race? "Once you figure out the origins [of these terms] you can ask the question of their value," Karl adds.
Tune in for the first part of the duo's discussion. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
What is a lie? What does it take to be a good liar?
This week, Scott and Karl finish their discussion of one of Plato’s earlier Socratic dialogues, Greater Hippias and Lesser Hippias.
These two dialogues make you ask all the questions to figure out what is fine, what makes a good person, and whether the liar is better than the non-liar. Karl says, "The problem that this dialogue is pointing out is that there’s something wrong with looking at goodness as simply power or capability."
By the end of the show, Karl attests that if you haven’t read your Plato, you might not be a critical thinker. Tune in and join the conversation at onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl discuss one of Plato’s earlier Socratic dialogues, Greater Hippias and Lesser Hippias.
The dialogues are named after Hippias of Elis, an eminent sophist and contemporary of Plato.
What is a sophist? According to Scott, “A sophist is someone who says what he needs to say in order to teach you something so that he can take money from you.”
These dialogues show Socrates at work on topics related to the Greek word καλόν, translating to fine, noble, or beautiful. Scott says, “Plato is the best writer ever. Socrates is the best teacher ever. And they are dealing with all the best, most difficult problems ever."
Tune in for a fascinating discussion on sophistry and what it means when something is “fine." Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl read one of Agatha Christie's greatest mystery novels, Murder on the Orient Express.
The novel features Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective known for his shrewd intuition or "little grey cells." While this scrupulous sleuth may be the epitome of refinement and intelligence, Scott points out that he is no Sherlock Holmes.
Unlike Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character, Christie doesn't share Poirot's methods, just his conclusion. "She shares Poirot's reasoning but not how he got to his reasoning," Scott voices.
Still, the duo agrees that Christie's perfection lies in her advancement of the detective genre—the small place, the interrogations, the big revelation—which she used, fairly consistently, in her sixty-six detective novels published between 1920 and 1976.
By the end of the novel, Karl says, “You have the satisfaction of the puzzle box and the satisfaction of justice being served.” Tune in to learn more about what makes Christie one of the most widely celebrated and published authors of all time. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl break with tradition to talk about the OGB seminar standard of conduct.
As our members know, the seminar experience is really the backbone of the program. Written by Karl, these ground rules have been a great help in setting boundaries that lead to better discussions.
The duo also dives into the role of dialectic as aided discovery and how this mode of learning is crucial. Scott says, "Dialectic won't work if you don't believe in capital-T Truth. We don't have to agree on what it is, but we have to agree it is there."
Tune in to learn more about the overwhelming benefits of the type of discussions had in OGB seminars. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl wrap up their discussion with special guest Malachy Walsh, author of Socratic Scribbling.
If you don't know what goes into good writing, it may look like a mystical art form or exclusively for the gifted. Malachy argues that we can all use the socratic method to deal with the blank pages in our life, empowering us to pick our own minds for ideas we didn't even know were there. Scott says, "The Blank Page Syndrome is really because you don’t know how to do the pre-thinking. That’s key."
How can you use writing to collect and sort your ideas? Socratic Scribbling provides a fresh take on how classical rhetoric can help you generate the kinds of questions and answers that improve your thinking and your phrasing. Be sure to go to socraticscribbling.com to learn more and purchase your copy.
Scott and Karl are joined by special guest Malachy Walsh to talk about his new book, Socratic Scribbling.
As a retired advertising man, Malachy had to write on demand for 30 years. In Socratic Scribbling, he reveals secrets he learned from Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintillion, Shakespeare, and other Great Writers and Thinkers that helped him make his mark in advertising. Tune in for the first part of their discussion and visit socraticscribbing.com for more information and to purchase Malachy's book.
Scott and Karl finish their two-part discussion of Unrestricted Warfare: Two Air Force Senior Colonels on Scenarios for War and the Operational Art in an Era of Globalization.
As Scott points out, this book was largely born out of an analysis of the Gulf War. Karl asks, “If the media, as these Chinese authors argue, was a weapon of war in the First Gulf War, when did it stop being a weapon of war?”
While Unrestricted Warfare is marketed as an anti-American manifesto, Karl and Scott agree that it’s a military manual, and it’s even-handed.
Tune in to learn more about the nature of modern warfare, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl read Unrestricted Warfare: Two Air Force Senior Colonels on Scenarios for War and the Operational Art in an Era of Globalization.
Written in 1999 by two colonels in the People's Liberation Army, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, this book offers a sobering study on war in the modern era. Karl says, "We don't kill each other very much anymore. But we sure do try and impose our will on others."
As the authors point out, Modern American military doctrine is typically led by technology. Scott adds, "Because of the interconnectedness of the world, this modern, unrestricted type of warfare does not have a discreet battlefield and can be brought to bear. But should it be?"
Unrestricted Warfare explores this new class of weapons and how it exposes a crucial weakness that disadvantaged nations might take advantage of to successfully attack powerhouses like the United States.
Scott, Karl, and special guest Brett McKay finish their discussion of Larry McMurtry’sLonesome Dove.
The trio discusses the novel's unforgettable assortment of characters and their virtues (or lack thereof). Brett says, "This book makes me reevaluate my telos. What is guiding me through mortality? If you don't have it, you might end up like some of these guys in Lonesome Dove."
Tune in to hear more about this classic written about the last defiant wilderness of America.
Also, be sure to sign up for Brett's platform, The Strenuous Life, designed to help you put your abstract intentions into action.
This week, Scott and Karl are joined by special guest Brett McKay, founder of The Art of Manliness, to discuss Larry McMurtry'sLonesome Dove.
An epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove may be the grandest novel ever written about the lawless American West. It also happens to be Brett's favorite fictional novel of all time.
While western novels are some of the most genre-specific books, Lonesome Dove takes a slightly different approach. Scott says, “I turn to my Westerns for idealism, for heroism, for a picture of the good, for a picture of what freedom best-lived looks like. That ain’t in here.”
As Brett points out, one of McMurtry's main themes you'll find throughout his fiction is how one can deal with uncertainty. Karl argues, "For me, it wasn’t necessarily about uncertainty. It was a novel about the border of civilization. The border has gone past these guys, and they don’t like it.”
Tune in to hear Part One of the trio's conversation on this monumental novel. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of The Tower Treasure, the first volume in the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories.
The Hardy Boys books have never been out of print since first coming onto the scene in 1927, have been translated into 25 different languages, and continue to sell over a million copies annually.
Is there a formula for creating a page-turner? The founders of the Hardy Boys clearly saw a way to minimize cost, maximize output, and standardize creativity. Scott says, "The Stratemeyer Syndicate that created these books had principles, and while they had commercial concerns, there's no hippy stuff. Just good characters, doing good things."
Tune in to learn more about one of the most popular and enduring teen mystery series of all time. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl read the first volume in the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories, The Tower Treasure. While the book appears to be authored by Franklin W. Dixon, it was actually written for the Stratemeyer Syndicate by Leslie McFarlane in 1927.
There's a good chance many of our listeners grew up with Frank and Joe Hardy as literary companions. Tune in for Part One of Scott and Karl's discussion of America's favorite detective duo. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their discussion of Philip Rieff’s book The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud.
Thanks to Freud, idioms of therapy have successfully invaded the education and religious spheres.
Scott says, "If Freudianism is around us and some of his bedrock assumptions are that man is sick because he questions the meaning and value of life and "objectively neither has any existence" we need to consider whether or not he should be seeping on in."
Rieff documents with devastating insight the ways in which truth has been displaced as a value and replaced by psychological effectiveness. Karl adds, "If you're stuck in Freudianism, there's no right or wrong."
Tune in to hear more of the duo's conversation, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl begin discussing Philip Rieff's book The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud.
Published in 1966, the problems that Rieff saw with an increasingly irreligious view of society have only expanded with time.
Rieff asks, "The question is no longer as Dostoevsky put it: “Can civilized man believe?” Rather: Can unbelieving man be civilized?”
The duo talks about the elements that may have created a therapeutic culture in place of theology. Scott says, "He's kind of like Nietzsche. A keen observer who gets all of the problems right, and I don't like that."
Tune in for the beginning of this two-part discussion. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl conclude their discussion of Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International Book 1.
The duo talks about what it takes to write an urban fantasy novel with a coherent worldview.
There's great value in reading books that aren't "important." Karl says, "It's not high-brow, it's funny, it's a book you can enjoy because as far as I can tell Correia has good character, so it has good character in the story too."
For one, the characters in Correia's novels operate with extraordinary will. Scott says, "There are certain arenas where the only thing that works is will."
Tune in to hear more about what it takes to habituate genuine acts of the will when you need it the most. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl begin their discussion of Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International Book 1. Self-published in 2009, this novel kicks off what will soon be a ten-book series.
Scott says, "He manages to write about this world exposing these hidden monsters that seems consonant with the world I see."
Monster Hunter International ends up being a cautionary tale akin to Huxley's Brave New World or Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.Tune in for monsters, werewolves, vampires, trolls, and much more. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl finish their two-part discussion of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust.
The legend of a man selling his soul to the devil seems to have particular resonance at times of moral crisis. Regarding modern Faustians and their insatiable appetite for expansion, Karl says, "It's the idea that this is where fulfillment lies that is the problem."
Largely considered one of the Greats in German literature, you can hear echoes of Goethe's Faust in the works of later philosophers like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Heidegger.
Tune in as the duo wraps up their discussion of this legendary battle between good and evil. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl begin their two-part discussion of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust.
Faust is highly successful and well-read yet dissatisfied with his life. As the now-legend goes, this leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for forbidden knowledge.
The duo talks about the relationship between good and evil, what function this tension serves, and what it implies about Faust and human nature. Scott says, "Evil does seem to be an active force that is personified."
Scott and Karl are reading from Walter Kaufmann's translation which provides the original German text and its English counterpart on facing pages of the book. Tune in to learn more about the greatest work in German literature.
Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl discuss Jordan B. Peterson's Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life.
As the companion volume to 12 Rules for Life, Peterson's new book offers "further guidance on the perilous path of modern life."
While Scott and Karl agree these are decent, sensible rules for life, they are not well-grounded and possibly even planted in sand.
"I've read books for this show that I don't agree with, written by people who I think are awful like Marcuse and Alinsky," Scott says, "But their books at least hang together to push their end. This doesn't do that."
Both a self-help manual and a bestseller, Beyond Order has already resonated so profoundly with so many. Karl later adds, "It's a shallow pond, but it's a good pond."
Tune in for more Peterson talk, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Are we all in despair, whether we know it or not?
Scott and Karl discuss S¢ren Kierkegaard’s cheerful little book, The Sickness Unto Death. Published in 1849, Kierkegaard outlines his theory of the self in relation to his categories of despair, wherein despair is a "disease" of the self.
For Kierkegaard, an individual is in despair if he does not align himself with God or God's plan for the self. In this way, he loses his self, which Kierkegaard defines as the "relation's relating itself to itself in the relation."
“Even talk of the self is philosophical baggage of the Christian theological doctrine of the Trinity,” Karl says, “They don’t think about the self very much before that.”
Tune in as the duo takes their first dive into continental philosophy on the podcast. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl are joined by special guest Matt Reynolds to discuss Yukio Mishima's book, Sun and Steel.
Born into a samurai family, Mishima died by his own hand in 1970, committing seppuku or ritual suicide.
While controversial, Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. Sun and Steel is a memoir of the author's relationship to his body.
Karl says, "I think this book is an aesthetic project, so it's Nietzschean. Take your life and make it a project. To make it a beautiful life you're going to need sun and steel."
Mishima's return to classical aesthetics is a revolt against the sedentary body modernity causes.
As the founder of Barbell Logic and a former Strongman himself, Reynolds brings a unique perspective to the conversation.
Tune in to learn more about the parallel between books and barbells. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Small Is Beautiful is economist E. F. Schumacher’s classic call for the end of excessive consumption.
Schumacher offers a crucial message for the modern world struggling to balance economic growth with the human costs of globalization.
Scott says, "These problems are going to get a lot closer to our houses in the coming years than anyone is willing to recognize."
This collection of essays also address the problems of production, especially with an economy that is premised on cheap energy.
Karl asks, "You have to look at the way you live. Is it a way that your great-grandkids could live? If not, there is probably something wrong."
Tune in to learn more about this landmark statement against "bigger is better" industrialism.
In the second episode of this two-part series, Scott and Karl finish discussing The New World Order by H.G. Wells.
Scott says, "There are people that write things that I don't agree with but they hang together and they are internally consistent. Wells is really not."
The duo believes there are a huge number of people in the political class of the world that have read or been influenced by this small book. Do you agree?
Tune in to hear more about Wells's Declaration of the Rights of Man and Scott's disdain for it. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
In the first episode of this two-part series, Scott and Karl begin discussing The New World Order by H.G. Wells.
Published in January 1940, Wells’s motivation for writing The New World Order was based upon the outbreak of World War II. He proposes a framework of international functionalism that he believes could guide the world towards achieving world peace.
Karl says, "Wells thinks that the human race is in danger. He believes the only way out of it is collectivization."
As Scott points out, "In this short book, he doesn't acknowledge the fact that there are people who are driven in such a way that one-world government just makes a bigger, juicer target for war and overthrow."
Tune in to hear the first part of a fascinating conversation, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl read Going Postal by British writer Terry Pratchett, the 33rd book in his Discworld series.
The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Going Postal is the first book featuring the character Moist von Lipwig.
Moist is a con artist and a fraud and a man faced with a life choice: be hanged, or put the ailing postal service of Ankh-Morpork – the Discworld’s city-state – back on its feet.
Even though Discworld is a flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle, don't let this strange magic deter you.
As Karl points out, "It's satire, set safety on an impossible world where things that could never happen, happen. But yet, it's the same things that happen in the regular world."
It’s also a novel about freedom, including the freedom to take the consequences. Scott adds, "The good things and the bad things surrounding hope are a main theme in this book."
If you enjoy wit, humor, and a fastly-paced plot, you will enjoy yourself immensely. Tune in to learn more about Pratchett's complex and compelling world. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl discuss three of Leo Strauss' essays, "On a Forgotten Kind of Writing," "Esoteric Teaching," and "Persecution and the Art of Writing."
Published between 1952-54, these works center around the same set of concerns: the relationship between philosophy and politics.
In Strauss' view, classic philosophers had to “adapt their literary technique to the requirements of persecution.” Their "art of writing" was the art of esoteric communication.
Of course, the reasons why philosophers write esoterically will shape how they write esoterically. But what about modern accounts of esotericism?
Karl says, "It makes it look like you are making intellectual choices when you're picking from the very small menu of acceptable thoughts that you can have...If you wish to communicate things [not on the standard political menu], you're going to have to communicate them sideways as a what-if."
Scott adds, "In 2021, there are a number of opinions, or noble lies, that are becoming pretty worn and they don't seem to really work any longer."
Tune in as the duo unpacks Straussianism, speech shuttering, and more. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl read The Moviegoer, Walker Percy's first novel. Awarded the 1962 National Book Award for Fiction, the story follows Binx Bolling, a young New Orleans stockbroker who surveys the world with a removed gaze.
Karl says, “There’s a certain type of person that these novels are going to be good for: the kind of detached person, the observer.”
Binx gives a running commentary on life as it passes before his eyes, almost as if he were watching a movie. Scott says, "Life is a movie for Binx, he's a spectator in life until the end of the book."
The novel focuses on "the search" for authenticity in a scripted, stylized, mediated world. Set in New Orleans, Percy incorporates a sense of place and legacy while grappling with Binx's malaise, as is the tradition of southern writers.
Tune in to hear about the book that establishes Percy as one of the major voices in Southern literature. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl discuss Allan Savory's book Holistic Resource Management.
Savory warns that while fossil fuels and livestock grazing are often targeted as major culprits behind climate change and desertification, it's really our mismanagement of resources that pose the biggest threat.
Scott says, "If you care about regenerative agriculture, sustainable agriculture, permaculture, homesteading, or profitability, this is a formative text in the circles that are trying to fix a lot of the problems with Big Ag."
Holistic Resource Management is an approach to help land managers, farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, and policymakers develop strategies for regenerating degraded landscapes.
However, the beauty of Savory's framework is it requires no specialized knowledge or elaborate technology to utilize. Karl says, "It's books like this that make your wheelhouse bigger."
Tune in to hear more about Savory's philosophy and method. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott and Karl discuss The Naked Sun, a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the second in hisRobotseries.
Elijah Baley, a detective from Earth, is given a new assignment to investigate the murder of a Spacer (long-lived humans that colonize space) on a distant world called Solaria.
Asimov portrays Solaria as a place focused on avoiding physical contact with other people. Communication is frequent, but it is "viewing" of a transmitted image.
This world may strike a chord in the present day. Scott says, "It's a cautionary tale that no one paid attention to, apparently."
Like any good science fiction, this book makes you practice thinking about the knock-on effects of the decisions we make.
The duo also dives into what it means to be a robot, mechanization, and more. Brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl read “Pray Without Ceasing” which is included in Wendell Berry’s collection of short stories That Distant Land.
Berry writes about a murder committed in the summer of 1912, 78 years before the narrator learns its details, a crime that has haunted Port William ever since. Still, if you're of the Port William membership, this story is part of your history. Scott says, "He writes the way I recollect things. It's a familiar groove for me."
Berry’s idea of a healthy community, which relies heavily on filial piety, is embodied in all his fiction. Karl says, "Filial piety is a virtue that used to be everywhere that we've lost a bit. It's clearly in this story."
Tune in to hear more about this fascinating short story, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl discuss Albert Z. Carr's 1968 article "Is Business Bluffing Ethical?." Originally published in the Harvard Business Review, the article has become a classic on the subject of business ethics.
Mr. Carr was Assistant to the Chairman of the War Production Board during World War II, serving as an economic adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a Special Consultant to President Truman.
The basis of Carr’s argument seems to be that there is a difference between what he calls “private morality” and the moral context of the business world. Carr sets out to defend a "game-strategy" view of business, using the game of poker as his analogy.
As you might expect, Scott and Karl point out the many holes in his argument.
Scott says, "What does morality mean for him, what does ethical mean for him, what does lying mean for him, what does bluffing mean for him— it's all a little bit slippery." Karl adds, "Socrates would have stopped him right there."
Tune in for more great conversation, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
Scott, Karl, and Trent explore Vince Guaraldi's timeless Christmas album, the soundtrack to "A Charlie Brown Christmas," the 1965 TV special based on Charles Schultz's iconic Peanuts comic strip. At once hopeful and melancholic, Guaraldi's breezy jazz soundscape captures the childhood innocence of the Peanuts cast while lamenting the loss of meaning in the increasingly commercialized Christmas season.
This episode is a simulcast of the Music and Ideas Podcast, and is also being broadcast with our friends at the Barbell Logic Podcast. Barbell Logic is a premier online coaching service for people of all ages seeking to become stronger, fitter, and healthier.
Barbell Logic: https://barbell-logic.com
Barbell Logic Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barbell-logic/id1255032859
Music and Ideas Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/music-and-ideas/id1500358614
This week, we are celebrating our 100th episode of the Online Great Books podcast! Thank you to our listeners and supporters of the show— we appreciate you.
To commemorate the occasion, Scott and Karl read the timeless tale, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Most of us know the story from one rendition or another. But have you read the original novella?
Published in 1843, the book was written during a period when there was strong nostalgia for old Christmas traditions as well as the introduction of new customs, such as Christmas trees and greeting cards. "There’s a lot about modern Christmas not to like," Scott points out.
Tune in to learn more about one of Dickens's most widely enjoyed work. Interested in joining the conversation? Head over to onlinegreatbooks.com to join the VIP list.
This week, Scott and Karl discuss James Madison's Federalist No. 51, titled: "The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments."
In this Federalist Paper, Madison explains and defends the checks and balances system in the Constitution. Of its effectiveness, Scott says, "He doesn't make any errors, he only makes oversights."
Each branch of government is framed so that its power checks the power of the other two branches; additionally, each branch of government is dependent on the people, who are the source of legitimate authority. For Karl, this is the most important part of this paper: "Government means that the rights of the minority must be preserved, or else it's not a government at all."
Tune in to learn more about "the great difficulty” of founding, and Madison's core arguments for checks and balances in a federalist system of government.
This week, Scott and Karl talk about two, while unsuspecting, companion pieces: Thomas Gray’s poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” and Norman Rockwell's iconic painting Freedom from Want.
Scott says, "They are both about hearth and normal forgotten people."
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a 1751 poem about the buried inhabitants of a country churchyard and a meditation on the inevitability of death. This is considered the best example of elegiac poetry in English literature of the eighteenth century.
Freedom from Want, also known as The Thanksgiving Picture or I'll Be Home for Christmas, is the third of the Four Freedoms series of four oil paintings by American artist Norman Rockwell.
Tune in to hear more about the connection between these two pieces, and the celebration of life found in both.
This week, Scott and Karl read the classical epic, The Song of Roland, translated by Dorthy Sayers.
The Song of Roland is an 11th-century epic poem based on the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778, during the reign of Charlemagne. Although the poem was set in the Carolingian era, The Song of Roland was actually written later by an anonymous poet. Karl points out, "It's romantic, epic, thrilling, and it probably gets most of the details wrong."
The duo dives into the character of Roland, Charlemagne's campaign of vengeance, and the medieval code of chivalry.
Tune in to learn more about the oldest surviving major work of French literature.
This week, Scott and Karl read Mark Twain's "The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut."
Don't let the long title misguide you, this Twain original is short and wonderfully mischievous.
As the story goes, Twain is expecting a visit from his dear, nagging Aunt Mary. Before her arrival, Twain has an unexpected visit from an ugly dwarf; an unwelcome guest he soon discovers to be his conscience.
Lauded as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced" and "the father of American literature" by William Faulkner, Twain manages to tie in some heavy themes to a lighthearted scenario.
Scott says, "Twain has no room for healthy conscience here. You either have a small conscience and you’re into being a mean man, or you have a large conscience and you’re a tortured soul for all of your days."
“Or you nag everyone else,” Karl adds.
Tune in to enjoy this Twainish treat, and make sure to share with a friend.
This week, Scott and Karl read a novella by Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Published in Russian as Smert Ivana Ilycha in 1886, this short story remains one of Tolstoy's most celebrated pieces of late fiction.
As Scott puts it, "This is the smallest chunk of Tolstoy that could be had."
The story provides an examination of the nature of both life and death, and how man can come to terms with death's inevitability. Ivan Ilyich, a worldly careerist, has to realize he's dying before he starts to put any value on himself. By forcing Ivan to confront the prospect of his death, it brings him face to face with his own isolation.
Before having to look death in the face, Scott says, "Ivan thought everything in his life was for someone else to observe and judge."
How does an unreflective man confront his moment of truth?
Tune in to learn more about the slow degradation of Ivan, but also the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.
This week, Scott and Karl read Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener, one of America’s most beloved storytellers.
As the author of more than forty books of fiction and nonfiction, the majority of Michener's novels were lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales, incorporating solid history.
As a collection of related short stories, Tales of the South Pacific interweaves Michener's personal anecdotes from his time stationed as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy on the island of Espiritu Santo during the Pacific campaign in World War II. Karl says, "The book is trying to capture Mitchener's view of what humans are like that ought to be remembered."
Written in 1946, Tales of the South Pacific goes on to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948. Tune in to hear more about Michener’s exploration of what happens when cultures connect, or fail to, in this classic wartime book.
Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage has played a significant role in shaping the popular Western genre.
First published in 1912, this novel is often referred to as "the most popular western novel of all time." But as Karl points out, "We've made Westerns for much longer than when there was a Wild West."
Set in Southern Utah canyon country in 1871, it tells the story of a woman, Jane Withersteen, trying to escape the control of her fundamentalist Mormon community with the aid of two cowboys, Bern Venters and Jim Lassiter. What ensures is horse-theft, kidnapping, gunfights, and lots of romance.
Scott summarizes, "This book is about salvation."
But what's the appeal to the Western genre?
You'll find that the lone cowboy heroes in this story are self-assured, with a strong sense of justice.
Scott adds, “Lassiter and Venters are complete within themselves. They’ve been alone enough that they know what they think."
Even if Westerns aren't your favorite, you'll be intrigued by this piece of pulp fiction. "These are stories about the edge," Karl says, "the frontier is [a place] where things are possible and more is demanded of you."
Tune in to learn more about Grey's best-selling book that solidified him as the father of the western novel.
This week, Scott and Karl read Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C. S. Forester. Published in 1950, this novel is considered the first episode in the 11 volume set about the career of the young British Naval officer, Horatio Hornblower.
Hornblower commences his career in the Royal Navy as an inexperienced midshipman in January 1794. Through a series of adventures and hardships, Hornblower discovers he is actually talented as both seaman and a leader.
At the young age of 17, Hornblower is already an Aristotelian hero. Scott says, "He exibits the nuts and bolts way of how to become Aristotle's great-souled man."
Karl adds, "This is the poetic image of virtue you would want your kids to have."
The duo talks about the virtue of courage, ultimately being what allowed Hornblower to see the whole picture and do the right thing, according to the right measure, at the right time. Scott adds, "His fears put him right where he needed to be over and over again."
Scott and Karl agree: Horatio Hornblower is a character that always lives in the back of their minds. Tune in to hear more about one of the most renowned sailors in contemporary fiction.
This week, Scott and Karl read selections from Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Addresses to the German Nation. They focus on the Second Address, “The General Nature of the New Education,” and the Third Address, "Description of the New Education."
As a series of polemical speeches delivered during 1807-8, Fichte detailed his plan for national revival, or rather “salvation,” for Prussia after falling to Napoleon at Jena in 1806.
In a time of national crisis, he believes a new kind of education is necessary to preserve the nation. Only with a total revision of the method of educating children could Germany hope to become immune from the Napoleons of the future.
According to Fichte, this system would, "completely destroys freedom of will in the soil which it undertakes to cultivate, and produces on the contrary strict necessity in the decisions of the will, the opposite being impossible."
Karl says, “He doesn’t want the product of an education to still be capable of choosing evil."
Scott adds, "For Fichte, if you employ the right educational methods, every student will have a vision of what the state will be like, and it will be identical, and they will march forward on that vision."
But why should we care about Prussian education?
As it turns out, Fichte’s influential Addresses are at the heart of the universal compulsory schooling system we know in the United States today.
Tune in to learn more about how his ideals, while radical during his lifetime, have become the foundation for the American education system.
This week, Scott and Karl read the first book in the James Bond series, Casino Royale. Written by British author Ian Fleming and published in 1953, you'll find traces of the rising tensions of the Cold War mixed in with this spy thriller.
The story opens with James Bond gambling at the casino in Royale-les-Eaux to bankrupt the treasurer of a French union and a member of the Russian secret service known as Le Chiffre. What ensues is a tense but effortlessly stylish story packed with intrigue (not to forget Bentleys and gorgeous women).
Scott warns, "This [James Bond] is not the debonair Roger Moore, Sean Connery character here. He's a blunt instrument."
Karl adds later, "He's not an action hero. This is about being clever."
Tune in to learn more about Fleming’s inaugural James Bond adventures that launched the lethal and dashing 007 into a pop icon for generations of readers and movie-watchers.
This week, Scott and Karl discuss Nietzche's On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense.
Written in 1873 one year after The Birth of Tragedy, it was published by his sister Elisabeth in 1896 when Nietzsche was already mentally ill.
In just 24 pages, the work wrestles with epistemological questions about the nature of truth and language, and how they relate to our formation of concepts.
Nietzsche's primary question is this: Where do you have the desire for truth? For him, it is difficult to explain where any drive to truth comes from when the human intellect functions to deceive us.
If you've never encountered Nietzche before, Karl warns, "He's a really good philosopher with a hammer."
Tune in to learn more about the social roots of truth-seeking according to Nietzche and what happens when humans get concepts.
This week, Scott and Karl read the 1939 novel by Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep. This hardboiled crime novel is the first of seven novels to feature the famed detective Philip Marlowe.
As Chandler’s first Marlowe story, there is no introduction to the character; rather, we leap straight into the investigation as it gets underway. Throughout the novel, Marlowe finds himself entangled with kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder, but as Scott points out, "You have to have your eyes wide open... It's really nasty without him putting it right in your face and hitting you over the head with how dark it all is."
Heralded as one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century, Chandler writes as if pain hurt and life mattered. Karl says, "Chandler is able to provide this contrast between beauty on the one hand and horror on the other."
The duo talks about how these gritty, realist detective stories present a new kind of hero. Scott says, "The detective never wins. He might solve the problem, but he's never better off at the end of it. He's swept up in a world of conflict and intrigue and he's put down at the end of it right where he was." Karl adds, "He's an outsider able to solve crimes and see the truth of the society he's living in."
Tune in and learn more about the quintessential urban private eye.
In the second episode of this two-part series, Scott and Karl finish up their discussion of Benjamin Graham’s 1949 classic The Intelligent Investor.
Graham wanted to teach investors the basic principles needed to navigate markets. In doing so, he teaches investors how to manage themselves. Graham's rules for investing are designed to help readers treat the menu of options before them with rational criteria.
But as Scott points out, "His rules aren't the important thing. The important thing is seeing how to create a framework for decision making in the financial world."
Tune in to learn more about and this hallmark investment guide and gain insight into understanding your own risk tolerance.
In the first episode of this two-part series, Scott and Karl begin discussing Benjamin Graham's 1949 classic The Intelligent Investor.
Heralded as the greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Graham's philosophy of “value investing” provides the core tenants of all good portfolio management.
Karl says, "It is [about] how to invest. But what it is not is how to speculate."
Where the speculator follows market trends, the investor uses discipline, research, and analytical ability to purchase assets that will produce a predictable yield.
Tune in to learn more about and this hallmark investment guide and dig into what Scott calls Graham's "metaphysics of corporatehood."
In the second half of the conversation, Scott and Karl continue discussing Herbert Marcuse’s 1965 essay “Repressive Tolerance.”
In the course of analyzing Marcuse, Karl creates a new word: "justism."
As Karl describes, "It's when you take a complex reality and you reduce it to one simple concept. For Marcuse, it looks like the "justism" is towards whatever his vision of freedom is, which will require the repression of the normal people who support the established order."
Although Scott and Karl agree with some of his criticism on the media, they find fault in his ability to show his work and give concrete solutions. As Scott puts it, "He's a smuggler."
Tune in to part two of the show and learn more about the Marcusean shape of intolerance.
Is tolerance a good thing and who deserves it?
In the first episode of this two-part series, Scott and Karl begin discussing Herbert Marcuse's 1965 essay "Repressive Tolerance."
Marcuse argues that the whole of society shapes what is politically possible for each of us, so any discussion of politics must attend to society as a whole.
Scott says, "For Marcuse, whether something is tolerable or intolerable is entirely based on whether that thing gives his group more power."
While Marcuse doesn't clearly provide boundaries to what is tolerable and intolerable, Scott and Karl dig in for themselves.
Scott says, "We live in a world of scarcity. We are never completely liberated and never can be... there will be compromises, things we must do to not perish. [Marcuse] doesn't carve out allowances for those things either."
Tune in and learn more about Marcuse's essay and the problem when tolerance becomes a partisan tool.
This week, Scott and Karl read Hilaire Belloc's "An Essay on the Restoration of Property." Written in 1936, Belloc attempts to rectify the wrongs in both major economic theories by approaching the problem from an entirely new angle, offering his own program for property distribution.
As Scott points out, "The whole idea underlying what he's writing about is predicated on a much different notion of 'the good' that most people carry today... Belloc's main concern is economic freedom."
Property to Belloc is something that directly contributes to your economic freedom. Karl adds, "Property seems to have it's own kind of rights, at least it's own kind of interests."
Would a propertied class be a more politically active and politically savvy class? Tune in to hear Scott and Karl discuss how Belloc illustrates the practical application of many such societal questions.
This week, Scott and Karl discuss A Canticle for Leibowitz, the post-apocalyptic science fiction classic by Walter M. Miller Jr., first published in 1959.
Scott says, “It's a story about how fragile civilization is, how fragile knowledge is, and what people’s responsibility to that may or may not be."
As the plot goes, the monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz work to preserve the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the world is again ready for it after a devastating nuclear war.
Divided into three parts, the book spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself, harboring themes on the cyclical nature of technological progress and regress.
The separate novellas share a nostalgia for things that have been lost. “Post-Megawar stories are about an afterlife,” Miller writes, “Survivors don’t really live in such a world; they haunt it.”
Tune in to hear more about this timeless story in a mythic dimension, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
12 years ago, an anonymous person using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This week, Scott and Karl discuss this revolutionary concept of how Bitcoin set out to change the way the world views currencies.
At just ten pages long, Nakamoto’s original paper is still recommended reading for anyone studying how Bitcoin works. Nakamoto’s vision for the project is this: digital currency that anyone can use without needing to go through a bank or any other centralized organization.
Bitcoin provides a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. According to Nakamoto, "The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work.”
Although the paper spares no technical detail in explaining how the Bitcoin network operates, both Scott and Karl agree— there is elegance and unrealized potential of Nakamoto’s idea. Karl says, “It’s a very clever solution to get at the core of money: it’s non-repeatability, it’s finiteness, but made of digits and not gold, silver, or copper."
Scott adds, "We can operate this currency using a certain kind of citizenship, a certain way of running referendum, a certain way of self-governing, and none of those ways can be changed by a court ruling or a tyrant."
Tune in to learn more about the future of cryptocurrency.
What are fairy-stories? What is their origin? What is the use of them?
This week, Scott and Karl read “On Fairy-Stories” and “Leaf by Niggle” by J. R. R. Tolkien. Both works offer answers to these questions while providing the underlying philosophy of Tolkien's own fantastical writing, such as The Lord of the Rings.
In his essay “On Fairy-Stories,” Tolkien discusses the nature of fairy tales and fantasy in an effort to rescue the genre from those who would relegate it only to the nursery.
In the process of discussing the making of a fairy tale, the duo dives into the relationship between bare fact and storytelling. The power of a story, according to Karl, “pulls you out of where you’re living, what you’re doing, and makes you see things that you don’t see.”
Tune in to hear more on Tolkien's defense of fantasy and why there's no such thing as writing "for children."
This week, Scott and Karl read Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. The role of community in the shaping of character is a recurring theme for Berry, who is the author of more than forty books that largely serve as an extended conversation about the life he values.
Berry is a writer, a novelist, an essayist, but also a poet, a farmer, and an environmental activist. He now lives and works on a 125-acre farm in the same community in Kentucky where he was born.
According to Scott, “There’s a kind of conservationist that sees the human as the parasite of the earth and the source of the problems. Berry sees the human as the steward of the earth and the source of good, or who can be."
The backdrop for many of Berry’s stories is a fictitious town located in Kentucky, Port William. Jayber Crow, this novel’s narrator, shares his life story— from a young man who abandons his plans to become a minister and becomes the town barber instead, eventually earning membership into the Port William community.
Crow's life, which begins as WWI is about to erupt, is emblematic of a century of upheaval, and Jayber's episodic tales challenge contemporary notions of progress. According to Karl, "This is an anti-progress book. The difficulty with the concept of progress is that it’s undefined. It’s just continued movement, but movement to where?"
Tune in to hear more about Jayber's journey of homecoming and one community's resilience.
This week Scott and Karl read Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, the memoir widely viewed as the best account ever written of fighting in WW1. Printed in 1920, this book illuminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, seen through the eyes of a German soldier. "Ernst is a generous soul who can see the good in all things," according to Scott.
Forged by the storm of steel, Jünger is able to share a thoughtful depiction of both the good and the bad parts of war as part of the human experience.
Karl says, "Reading this book, you can understand something of human nature... there's the temptation to think that we're the good ones, we'll do it right, we'll bend the arc of history. Everyone has already thought that through history."
Tune in to learn more about the book that has accomplished what so many others claim but are not: a classic account of war.
Why are modern debates on morality so shrill?
This week, Scott and Karl read After Virtue, a book on moral philosophy by Alasdair MacIntyre.
Published in 1981, MacIntyre examines the historical and conceptual roots of the idea of virtue and diagnoses the reasons for its absence in personal and public life. In Karl's words, "Ethical conversations are currently pointless and unable to be resolved. We talk about reason, we talk about right and wrong, but we don’t really mean it."
Maclntyre believes that modern life is characterized by the absence of any coherent moral code, and especially a lack of any genuine community. According to Maclntyre, there's importance in being a part of a community "within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us."
After Virtueis a really hard book to read and fully understand, but it’s the enjoyable kind of hard. Tune in to hear Scott and Karl talk about virtue and the fate of a moral culture without a shared telos.
This week, Scott and Karl read The Inimitable Jeeves, the second collection of Jeeves stories written by P. G. Wodehouse, published in 1923.
First appearing in print in 1915, Jeeves continued to feature in Wodehouse's work until his last completed novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, a span of 60 years.
The Inimitable Jeeves follows the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves, through a hilarious parade of linked short stories. You'll find a certain harmony in their relationship that is hard to replicate. As Scott points out, "It takes two of these guys to make a complete person."
Tune in for a fascinating discussion of Edwardian English, Aristotelian virtue, and the frivolous, empty, and perfectly delightful world of P. G. Wodehouse's The Inimitable Jeeves.
This week, Scott and Karl read War is a Racket, the antiwar classic, written by one of America's most decorated soldiers— General Smedley D. Butler. When he published this essay in 1935, General Bulter was already a retired United States Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient.
In his essay, you'll find that he argues against war because war is a racket. But what is a 'racket'?
According to the General, "A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
His frank essay showcases how American war efforts were animated by big-business interests such as war profiteering. Tune in to hear Scott and Karl's take, and learn just how General Bulter recommends disrupting the war racket.
Scott, Karl, and Brett Veinotte of the School Sucks Project continue their discussion of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals.
Picking up where they left off from last week, the trio polishes off the remaining rules on Alinsky's list. Scott says, “What he outlines here is pretty much the way things work. I don’t think he invented anything. I think he discovered, codified, and learned how to teach what really works and what really happens to people."
According to Alinksy himself, "The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away."
Even if you're unwilling to embrace the tactics, you'd be unwise to ignore them.
Tune in to hear more on Alinsky-style organizing, real-world influences, and the rules continuing relevance.
Scott and Karl are joined by Brett Veinotte, creator of the School Sucks Project, for a special two-part discussion on Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals.
Divided into ten chapters, Rules for Radicals provides 10 lessons on how a community organizer can accomplish the goal of successfully uniting disenfranchised people with the power to effect change on a variety of issues. Alinsky also offers his list of 13 “Rules for Radicals," tactics which Karl calls "a poisoner's manual."
Does this book promote disorder in society?
According to Brett, “You can give it an optimistic treatment like it’s real-world tactics for changing the status quo. More cynically, it’s a non-ideologically driven, slogan rich quest for power relying on ridicule and polarization happening in an environment where widespread rationality is not going to be a factor."
If that sounds like a lot to unpack, you are not mistaken. Tune in for part one of a revolutionary discussion on Alinsky's mass power organization and its ongoing application.
This week, Scott and Karl read and heartily discuss G.K. Chesterson's What I Saw In America.
Chesterson was a prolific English journalist and author who traveled to America on a lecture tour of the US in 1921. What I Saw In America begins as a travelogue of his journey but eventually becomes an extended reflection on what makes a nation a nation.
Chesterton is often referred to as the "prince of paradox" and his opening line doesn't disappoint. He writes, “I have never managed to lose my old conviction that travel narrows the mind.”
Throughout his travels, the main question on Chesterson's mind— what does it mean to be an American?
As Scott points out, "He's a perpetual outsider who sees everything clean."
Tune in for a fascinating discussion on the American ideal, the drawbacks of progress, and what Chesterson deems to be the greatest guarantor of political and economic liberty.
What’s the proper cost of being a citizen?
This week, Scott and Karl read and discuss Starship Troopers, written by Robert A. Heinlein in 1959. Labeled both a seminal and controversial military Sci-Fi read, this book is a provocative challenge that makes you think about citizenship, leadership, and moral philosophy.
As the plot goes, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the universe and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against humankind's most frightening enemy. On a deeper level, Scott says, “[Heinlein] is very thoughtful about the whole art of war.”
Join Scott and Karl for a look behind the curtain of a book that continues to resonate and influence to this day, a book you may even find yourself picking up more than once.
This week, Scott and Karl put on their tin foil hats for a reading of George Orwell's 1984.
Published in 1949, the enduring relevance in 1984 is hard to overlook. Of its message, Karl says, “There are definitely right stories to tell and wrong stories to tell. The wrong stories get pulled which is why I’m frustrated with George Orwell— you wrote the instruction manual!"
In a world where language is used solely for political purposes and family life is replaced by pure economic calculus, Orwell managed to tell a story with characters that his readers can identify with.
Karl continues, "If you have any sort of sensitivity like I do, this is one [book] you will throw across the room. Not because it is bad, but because it rings so true.”
Tune in for a fascinating discussion on political prophecy, power, and compliance in this week's episode, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com.
This week, Scott and Karl read a collection of stories starring Conan the Barbarian, a series by Robert E. Howard.
Known as the “Father of Sword and Sorcery,” Howard helped create this subgenre of fiction. To this point, Karl adds, "There is so much of your popular culture, dear listeners, that comes out of Conan."
You think of other heroes that we read like King Arthur, Beowulf, and Achilles: none of them are like this barbarian. After reading about him, you may find Conan to be one of the greatest fictional heroes ever created.
Open any of his stories, and you'll find a swordsman who cuts a swath across the lands of the Hyborian Age, facing powerful sorcerers, deadly creatures, and ruthless armies of thieves and reavers. As Scott points out, “Conan has absolute trust in his own senses. That’s what sets this apart from lesser pulp fiction heroes."
This week, Scott and Karl read two short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s stories are known for following many traditions of Gothic fiction, and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and “The Masque Of The Red Death” are no different.
First, the duo dives into “The Masque of the Red Death” published in 1842. The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a mysterious plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey. You may find a modern-day parallel in times of emergency and precarity.
Published a year earlier, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue" has been described as the first modern detective story. However, Karl points out, “It’s not following the rules of the conventional mystery.” Scott adds, “This is more about the detective than the story or the mystery.”
In 1580, Michel De Montaigne is asked by the pregnant Madame Diane de Foix on what the best way of educating a child is. In his essay "Of the Education of Children," Montaigne provides her with a glimpse into his own upbringing, advising her on how children should apply their education to their own life.
Karl warns, “I don’t think you should let anyone read this because they will become dissatisfied with the current state of education.”
There’s nothing that will squash curiosity and a love of learning more than compulsion and force. Can Montaigne's mode of education even be done in a modern classroom?
If you are struggling with how to school your children at home, Karl has some advice for you. "Keep the screens turned off, have good things in the house, and eventually they will learn stuff out of boredom."
Tune in for more advice from Montaigne, Scott, and Karl on the proper means of educating your children.
This week, Scott and Karl are joined by Aristotelian scholar and OGB seminar host, John Pascarella. The trio talks about the not-so-obvious side of Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice.
Austen’s Aristotelian ethical ideas are often overlooked by the majority of readers, but as Scott points out, "This isn’t a chick book. This is a people book. This is about rational people trying to pursue a rational happiness, making decisions about their life, and taking agency in doing things on their own behalf according to the contents of their mind.”
Austen wrote her novel in 1813 — you'll find it provides an honest depiction of manners, education, marriage, and money during the Regency era in Great Britain. But it's also a lot more than that.
John says, “You just don’t see stories written like this anymore. [Now] it’s all about the sentiment and not about the virtue."
Tune in to hear a fascinating discussion about why a novel that has consistently appeared near the top of lists of "most-loved books" is more than meets the eye.
This week, Scott and Karl discuss Schopenhauer's Metaphysics of Love.
Among 19th-century philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer was one of the first to contend that at its core, the universe is not a rational place. His view of love is no different— earnest but slightly unromantic.
Scott sums up Schopenhauer's theory by saying, “Love is an experience you have that entices you to select a mate that would make up your genetic shortcomings and this force that acts on you... is the will to live from your unborn child.”
Karl adds, "It's an illusion of choice, but in fact, you’re doing the species’ bidding.”
The truth is, we all care about the things we find attractive, so this podcast may hit close to home.
Tune in to this week's episode and hear more anti-Hallmark love advice from Schopenhauer.
This week, Scott and Karl read The Sound of Waves, a 1954 novel by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima.
The novel follows Shinji and his romance with Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the wealthy shipowner, on the island of Uta-Jima (Song Island). It’s a charming coming-of-age story, but as Scott points out, “There’s not a reformer in this book.”
Do you believe it is the obligation of a good and just society to protect the material circumstances in a place?
To this point, Scott adds, “If all the material circumstances in life change from generation to generation, then my experiences are completely irrelevant to my children. I’m unable to transfer my wisdom or my culture to my kids because everything has changed.”
Karl says, “I don’t know you can escape the change of material conditions... that just means you should hold on tighter to the spiritual conditions, the traditions."
Tune in to hear more about this heartwarming story that will make you think about the way things are, the way they were, and maybe the way things ought to be.
Welcome, dear listeners, to a show that explores what it means to be human. Sound intriguing?
This week, Scott and Karl read Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune which is a book thought to be The Lord of the Rings equivalent in the science fiction genre.
Scott expands, "In The Lord of the Rings, there’s something comforting and familiar about that world even when it get’s scary and the outcomes look uncertain. This world is much scarier, much more uncanny. It may be because there are elements of this world familiar to us. This book is not about saving the environment. This is about man’s ability to mold his environment."
Tune in for a discussion on what makes us human, how certain environments can put our humanity on display, and the type of education that sparks adaptability over mere preparedness in times of crisis.
This week, Scott and Karl read and discuss the 63 clauses of the Magna Carta.
In 1215, Bad King John pledged, under duress, to his barons that he would obey “the law of the land” when he affixed his seal to a charter that came to be called Magna Carta.
Few men have been less mourned, few legal documents more adored.
Although most of the charter deals with medieval rights and customs, the Magna Carta has become a powerful symbol of liberty, influencing the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Mahatma Gandhi.
So how should you read an 800-year-old legal document?
Scott says, “Read it not straight-ahead for what it says, but what it must be reacting to.” Karl adds, “Presume that the people that are writing this are just as human as you are, just as smart as you are. It’ll give you a more sympathetic, more understanding reading of this stuff.”
Tune in to hear a fascinating discussion of the history and legacy of one of the most celebrated documents in history.
This week, Scott and Karl read the Articles of Confederation. This "firm league of friendship" was written in 1777, stemming from wartime urgency. However, it was not actually ratified until 1781.
It now lays on the ash heap of history, formally replaced by the present United States Constitution on March 4, 1789.
Under these articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. Karl says, “It does not impose anything from the top down. You wonder, why did they get rid of it?”
Tune in to this week's episode and learn more about the first governing document of the United States of America.
This week, Scott and Karl read A Modest Proposal, a satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729.
Are human lives the sort of things you should add up like numbers? Despite suggesting that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to rich gentlemen and ladies, Swift actually thinks you should treat people like humans.
Needless to say, Swift's essay is widely held to be one of the greatest examples of sustained irony in the history of the English language.
Tune in and hear insights into public policy, rhetoric, and Swift’s savage commentary on England’s legal and economic exploitation of Ireland.
A special thanks to Brett Veinotte of the School Sucks podcast for helping to make this show possible. Scott is a presenter in Brett Veinotte's virtual summit on how to better organize your thoughts, effectively synthesize information, and become more persuasive.
Learn more about all the presenters and topics at sspuniversity.com/ideasintoaction. You can save 30% and help Online Great Books by using the coupon code HAMBRICK at checkout.
In the spring of 1845, Henry David Thoreau borrowed an ax, walked into the woods, and started cutting down trees to make a shack to live in. Walden is the result of this endeavor.
Through this process, Thoreau spells out his distinctly American project — simple living with as few compromises as possible. Karl says, “The book is not a guide to your life, the book is a challenge to your life.”
In the woods, Thoreau makes precise, scientific observations of nature, writing his thoughts down in pastoral poetry. He wishes to drive life into a corner, to experience a sense of wonder, but also oneness, with nature.
When you are feeling uncoupled from your life, how might you come to “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life?”
Tune in to this week's episode to hear more about Thoreau's experiment and what can happen when you pick up an ax.
Scott and Karl are back at it again, this time with Tom Wolfe and his book, The Painted Word. Wolfe is a mid-century American writer and the inventor of New Journalism. He’s known for straddling multiple genres at once, reporting back to his readers on a world we ultimately couldn't see without him.
In The Painted Word, Wolfe provides a critique of modern art and the world that surrounds it. In a way only Tom Wolfe can, he's able to describe how the art world of the 1970s was controlled by an insular circle of rich collectors, museums, and critics with outsized influence.
For Wolfe, modern art has become completely literary— the paintings and other works exist only to illustrate the text. To understand modern art, one must know the words of current criticism. In other words, can you know if modern art is any good unless someone tells you?
Tune in to hear an enlightening conversation on the history of taste-making, "Cultureburg," and the project of modern art. In the process, Scott and Karl reveal their criteria for good art. Do you agree?
This week, Scott and Karl dive into The Gulag Archipelago by Russian writer and historian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Published in 1973, the title refers to a series of disconnected prisons in the Soviet Union that, nevertheless, all shared the same culture.
The manuscript had to be hidden, originally published by the underground Samizdat press which reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader. This work of literature, and countless others like it, were essential in ultimately undoing the Soviet Union.
Solzhenitsyn has his own theory on the vast importance of literature. He believes this beauty will save the world. How does that work?
Scott says, “Beauty transcends language, it transcends rationality— it’s such a visceral thing that everyone can recognize. We might have trouble recognizing truth, we might have trouble recognizing goodness, those things might be hidden from us, but you just can’t hide the beautiful. The lowest among us and the most poisonous among us can see it a mile away. It’s probably the most powerful of those three lights."
This novel also works as a powerful warning. What can happen when the dignity of the individual doesn't matter? What measures could be taken if thoughts can be crimes?
Tune in to hear reflections on the nature of art, ethics, and a literary investigation Solzhenitsyn came to look upon as his inescapable moral duty.
In this week’s episode, Scott and Karl talk with Michelle Hawkins, music professor and Online Great Book’s member. The trio listen and discuss Beethoven’s Third Symphony and read The Heiligenstadt Testament, a heartbreaking letter written by Beethoven to his brothers.
Beethoven's Third Symphony is regarded as a turning point in musical history, the ideas for which began during his tumultuous "Heiligenstadt Testament" period. Why is it that so few of us are listening to this landmark symphony?
In today's music climate, understanding and enjoying classical music may seem far-fetched for some.
Michelle has a theory: “We’re living in a post-musical culture now… people are not growing up in the same musical atmosphere that used to be the case. It is harder to listen to these pieces of music because you do need to have a little bit of context. They are complex, it may be hard to enjoy something so complex when you have no context and no exposure.”
What if you want to explore classical music, but you’re not sure where to begin? We approach great music the way we approach great books— you don’t have to be an expert before going out and encountering the thing.
If you are interested in starting your journey with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.
We’re switching up our normal routine to answer your Online Great Books questions.
In this episode, Scott and Karl address everything from membership, seminar, accountability, and our mission.
What will reading the books on this list do for you, anyway?
Scott says, “If you read them in earnest and you take them seriously and actually go to the seminar, they will make you address the bedrock questions behind so many of your opinions.”
In short, “it'll ruin the life you’ve got but you’ll get a different one.”
Tune in to hear answers like these plus the reasons behind some of the decisions we make. Even if you’re a member with us already, you’re bound to learn something new.
This week, Scott and Karl read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, author unknown. This narrative poem is considered to be one of the jewels of English Literature and a crowning achievement of Middle English poetry.
Filled with chivalric knights, seductive sirens, and plenty of temptation and testing, this Arthurian legend lives up to the name.
This poem was lost for a while, from a region that didn’t win the language war. Karl remarks, “It’s a pattern of language that still works, even if it lost the lottery.”
When you take on one of these lost pieces of literature that really hasn't been a part of the conversation, what's the interest? Why would you want to read it?
Scott says, “This poem gives me a better understanding of English, of English history, and doggonit, it’s fun!”
Go read Sir Gawain and the Green Night, then tune in for an adventure-packed conversation!
As a reminder, if you are interested in starting your own adventure with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.
The medium is the… massage?
In 1967, Marshall McLuhan teamed up with graphic designer Quentin Fiore to write The Medium is the Massage, a short 160-page picture book that offers us a glimpse as to how the medium "shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action,” of work and leisure.
Karl points out, “to say the media is the massage means the medium, this conceptional world, is massaging you— it’s rhetoric."
Have societies always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which we communicate or by the content of the communication?
This nonconventional book is a nice companion piece to Bernays’ Propaganda and part of our “Modern Sophists” podcast series.
Tune in to this week’s episode and discover how media can touch our character formation, our public and private lives, even our sentimentality versus hard-head clarity.
“I would prefer not to.” In their simplicity and politeness, these five words illustrate a story of passive resistance that will both move you and leave you searching for answers. You may have even uttered the line yourself at work.
"Bartleby, the Scrivener, A Story of Wall-Street," was published in Putnam'smagazine in November and December 1853 by Herman Melville. It is centered around the dehumanization of Bartleby the scrivener, the nineteenth-century equivalent of a photocopy machine.
Sound intriguing? If you’ve ever read Moby Dick, you’ll know the more profound Melville gets, the more elusive the solutions he arrives at.
Tune in to this week’s episode for a fascinating discussion on this eerily aching short story and one of the most enigmatic sentences in American literature.
In this week’s episode, Scott and Karl discuss Edward Bernays’ 1928 book Propaganda. Referred to as “the father of public relations,” and “the Machiavelli of the 20th century,” Bernays pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion which he famously dubbed “engineering of consent.”
His seminal work, Propaganda, is a look behind the veil of the most powerful and influential institutions orchestrating the unseen mechanisms of society. In Karl’s own words, “It’s a very good book you want to throw across the room.”
Tune in to hear a fascinating discussion about the methods, uses, and ideas behind Bernays' influencers to regiment the collective mind.
When you begin reading the Great Books, family and friends may be puzzled. They will see you toting around huge books, taking notes, and gazing off thoughtfully into the void.
Greg, one of our members, was questioned by a coworker. “Why are you reading Thucydides at lunch?” He restated this question on our OGB Slack channel. We have an active community of readers, friends who help each other work through the texts.
In this week's episode, Scott and Karl dive into the many reasons why we decide to travel through two-and-a-half millennia of the greatest of the Western tradition.
If you are interested in starting your journey with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.
This week, Scott and Karl read Josef Pieper’s Leisure the Basis of Culture. The duo dives into the Pieper-style definition of leisure, work, and their relationship.
Pieper shows us that the Greeks and medieval Europeans understood the great value and importance of leisure. But do we?
Most of us have been brought up on heavy doses of careerism, or what Pieper would define as work related to the servile arts, with the sole purpose of survival. Leisure, in effect, becomes a bad word, merely a way of recharging our batteries.
For Pieper, the whole point of civilization is leisure, or the active engagement in higher things that aren’t economic. Idleness isn’t the point. Leisure should be contemplative, divine, and distinctly human.
What must be present for contemplation to occur? How can you be more intentional with your leisure time? Tune in to this week’s episode and let us know your thoughts.
This week, Scott and Karl discuss Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The America Scholar.” This address was delivered at Cambridge in 1837, before the Harvard Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
According to Emerson, there’s a fundamental challenge American scholars are faced with— what is it they ought to be doing?
Emerson has a reverence for work and the common man. The scholar must realize the importance of action in the life of the American intellectual or risk becoming a mere thinker. Emerson believes you must do action, and the deeds you do become your vocabulary. If you are in your head all the time, you lose touch. Emerson writes, “Instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm.”
On the surface, this may appear to be a challenge to what we do at Online Great Books.
However, a big part of what we do is achieved in our seminar discussions. As Scott points out, “the seminar is where you take action on what you read. The seminar is where you start to incorporate the book into the self. The seminar is where you dodge the bullet of potentially becoming a bookworm.”
Tune in to this week’s episode and find out why Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. declared this speech to be "the declaration of independence of American intellectual life."
In this week’s episode, Scott and Karl discuss all things related to reading. Before opening a book, it’s crucial to define your “why” and then your “how.” If you are reading for entertainment, your methods will differ than if you’re reading for enlightenment.
Here at Online Great Books, the first book our members read in the program is How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. Adler has four basic questions a reader should have in active reading: What is this book about was a whole? What is being said in detail, and why? Is the book true, in whole or part? What of it? This method of investigation is our gold reading standard as we encounter Great Books authors from Aristotle to Shakespeare.
But instead of letting Adlerian perfection be the enemy of the good, Scott advises, “Be patient with yourself, allow yourself to be eclectic in your reading style, and let the text be the measure of how well you’re reading.” In this episode, Scott and Karl discuss tools, timing, and note-taking methods as you take on your Great Books list.
True to form, Karl takes notes on things that bother him in the text. What do you take notes on? Tune in and let us know your thoughts!
This week, Scott and Karl discuss Book I of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle may seem like an intimidating figure that you can’t tap into, but this just isn’t true. As the author of the first book on ethics, Aristotle treats human behaviors like a science. If you believe in reason, if the world is a place you want to learn about and explore, what things must hinge on each other? Are things good because we aim at them or do we do things because they aim at the good?
Aristotle asks readers to consider the highest good and how it can be achieved. In doing so, he devotes his first book to a preliminary account of happiness. But as Karl points out, you must first differentiate the English and Greek definitions of happiness.
Happiness is not the correct word for what Aristotle is talking about but it's as close as we could get. "In English, happiness means a smile on your face, it is related to the word happen," Karl continues, "so you’re walking down the street and find $20 and you’re happy because something happened to you. But you didn’t make it happen."
Aristotle uses the Greek word eudaimonia, meaning “good spirit” or flourishing. Unlike the English definition, Aristotle believes this is the only human good that is desirable for its own sake. According to Aristotle’s definition, happiness is action in accordance with virtue, not contentment. It's an activity, not a product.
Tune in to this week's episode and let us know your thoughts!
In this week's episode, Scott and Karl discuss an essay by Plutarch, “How a Man May Become Aware of His Progress in Virtue.” As an eminent biographer and moralist, Plutarch is best known for his Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans arranged in tandem to illuminate their common vices and virtues.
To Karl’s initial dismay, Plutarch’s essay is less about the metaphysical elements of virtue and more of a self-evaluation for the reader. Presuming you already want to be a good person, what are the signs you’re doing alright? How do you know your vices and follies are in abatement and that your virtues are in ascendancy? If you know all about virtue and you still don’t get any better, do you really know all about virtue?
Plutarch is in opposition of the Stoics— he believes you can get better, even if it's hard to see progress. It just takes practice and habituation.
Tune in to this week’s episode to find out what virtue looks like according to Plutarch and how to take real action towards becoming a more virtuous person.
This week, Scott and Karl discuss Dorthy Sayers’ paper, "The Lost Tools of Learning." This groundbreaking work is a great deal important to our mission here at Online Great Books, and for anyone else who wants a redo on their education.
What did Sayers notice was lost back in 1947? Why does it matter that we have lost the tools of learning?
In this episode, the guys talk about the all-encompassing ideas behind the Trivium, the downfalls of specialization, and the purpose of school.
In school, you learn math and biology, but do you learn how to learn?
For Sayers, the materials you use in order to teach how to learn doesn’t matter, only the process. “The sole true end of education,” says Sayers, “is to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.”
Tune in to this week’s episode and find out how your schooling may have failed you and how to recover your own tools of learning.
One year ago, Karl decided to give up his 20-year teaching career as a university professor of humanities and philosophy. Why did he make this decision? In Karl’s own words, “It was no longer rewarding for me or valuable to the students.”
Towards the end of his teaching career, Karl started to notice a decline in his student’s ability to read and a general reluctance to share opinions. Scott and Karl dig into the dismal state of higher education today and the problem of chasing credentials.
These days, Karl is helping people get strong in body and mind. He’s a barbell coach and an interlocutor here at Online Great Books. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Karl’s full story!
In this week’s episode, Scott and Karl pay homage to the recently deceased Harold Bloom, a great ally to our mission at Online Great Books.
Once hailed the most notorious literary critic in America, Bloom was a professor of humanities at Yale and a fierce defender of canonicity. His version of the canon, with Shakespeare reigning at its center, is far more extensive than the Adlerian version.
Scott and Karl read Chapter 1 of Bloom’s The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. The two discuss what makes this book so controversial to begin with, the problems with postmodernism, and the aesthetic value of books.
What is your goal in reading the canon? Do you read because it’s good for you or just because it’s good? According to Karl, your goal should be “to seek as hard a pleasure as you can.” Here at OGB, we welcome the simplicity in reading from the canon– it narrows down how you should be spending your time. We think Dr. Bloom would agree.
If you are interested in starting your journey with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.
This week, Scott and Karl read Chapters 1-3 of Gabriel Marcel’s Man Against Mass Society.
Mass society doesn’t just include people for Marcel, he also includes art, media, and technology. Marcel is concerned with human existence, or more specifically, with the quality of human life in relation to the transcendent.
Written in 1952, Marcel’s discussion of these topics is remarkably contemporary. He believes we are in danger of losing our humanity and certain “techniques of degradation” in modern systems are the root cause.
Scott and Karl talk in length of these dangers and the problems that lie with giving in to a spirit of abstractions. For Marcel, the problem with abstraction lies in the ability to fascinate, its tendency to draw us into thinking that the abstraction itself is the reality in which we move and relate with one another.
In Karl’s own words, “if all you can get into your mind space is thin gruel, that’s all you can digest.”
How can we avoid flat, diluted access to the transcendent that leaves us all with the same dull experience?
Tune in to this week's episode and let us know your thoughts!
Thomas Hobbes is the type of writer you love to hate– but he’s also the guy you’d love to play cards with. Scott believes Hobbes’ Leviathan is one of the most fruitful books he has ever read. It’s a founding text of western thought filled with original ideas that are still relevant to contemporary politics.
In today’s episode, Scott and Karl dig into chapters 13-15 and 17. It's only 36 pages so make sure to read it before listening in!
For Karl, Hobbes says things about human nature that he doesn’t want to be true. But that he’s not sure aren't true. Around the time “Leviathan” entered the English lexicon, Britain was engaged in a time of civil discord. The tooth and nail mentality of the time might explain Hobbes’s summary of man as “solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.”
In order to improve these conditions, the duo considers what makes people want to live in a commonwealth. For Hobbes, it was 3 things: fear of death, the desire of commodious living, and hope of getting it. Hobbes then provides 19 laws of nature he derives from that. Tune in to the episode to hear Scott and Karl’s rendering of Hobbesian liberty.
If you are interested in starting your journey with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.
Scott is joined by Karl Schudt in this week’s discussion of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, “Self-Reliance.”
For Emerson, authentic, unmediated thought has some sort of divine truth in it. This is crucial to our mission at Online Great Books. In seminar discussion, everyone has a unique perspective that we need to hear about. Your thoughts are worth a whole lot!
Despite that freedom Emerson felt, and wrote about, and saw in transcendentalism, we are more conformist than ever as a nation. Even with endless choices in front of us, is true freedom of action waning?
Scott and Karl talk about everything from finding the glory of your own consequences, to the problem of pathological empathy, to internet trolling. Tune in for an unforgettable episode!
If you are interested in starting your journey with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.
Do we reveal our most authentic inner selves by our choice of partner? How can you identify meaningful love in others? In what ways does love grow? Scott discusses the role of choice in love with fellow OGB interlocutors Karl Schudt and Marsha Enright. The trio digs into a chapter from José Ortega y Gasset’s book On Love.
Gasset is a prolific 20th-century Spanish philosopher who, in his writings, focuses on the subtle, almost ineffable aspects of human personality that are oftentimes overlooked.
What if actions and words are not the best clues in identifying a person's authentic self but rather their gestures and facial expressions?
Without giving up all the answers, Gasset urges us to think deeply about what it is we love in proportion to our range of values and source of character. Tune in to this week's episode and let us know your thoughts!
If you are interested in starting your journey with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.
The tables have turned. Scott makes Karl read “A Scandal In Bohemia” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Understanding this short story is to understand what made young Scott tick.
Sherlock Holmes is a saint of reason. The world is an explicable place- one where he can deduce who you are simply by looking at your shoes. To Holmes, humans are rational actors with incentives and motivations. So long as he can find out what their motives are, all that’s left is looking at the sense data to figure out what happened and who did it.
Scott and Karl talk about this view of rationality in great length. Tune in and hear the discussion of what is, to an art, the first real detective story.
In the second installment of the series, Scott Hambrick and Karl Schudt continue their discussion of Tolkien’s magic in The Lord of the Rings. The two talk about the problem of evil in this Homeric story, what the good life actually looks like, models of hope we see in many of the characters, the unyielding power of friendship, language’s captivating ability to transmit culture, and so much more.
Not only is The Lord of the Rings a monumental work of a single intellect, but it’s also so expertly integrated with foreshadowing, world-building, new language creation, and anthropology, you’ll feel the pages fly by. Even if you’re not the sort to read fantasy literature, you ought to give LOTR a try.
Karl thinks, 300 years from now, if people are still reading Great Books, LOTR will probably be on that list. Do you agree? Tune in to this week’s episode and let us know your thoughts!
If you are interested in starting your journey with the Great Books, use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!
After years of Karl’s persistent hounding, Scott finally reads The Lord of the Rings. The two discuss elves, orcs, dwarfs, hobbits, and so much more.
Disclaimer: If you haven’t yet already, do not watch The Lord of the Ring movies before reading the books. Don’t let your first Tolkien experience be from Peter Jackson. Karl will find you and scold you.
The whole genre of fantasy literature, creating a world that isn’t this one and giving it a history, originates from one man— J.R.R. Tolkien.
In the first episode of this two-part series, Scott and Karl begin discussing Tolkien’s ability to create a world so big it doesn’t have edges. Amidst all the magic, you’ll find themes of classism, progressive temptation, and domination of will. But you’ll also come to know what true friendship looks like, what glory feels like once you've given yourself the occasion, and ultimately how you ought to relate to the world.
If you don't believe in anything, how can you make meaningful art?
Scott and Dr. Karl Schudt discuss their first encounter with philosopher-novelist Iris Murdoch. Her essay "Against Dryness" addresses that question, along with the ideas and forces that brought that question about.
Looking at art and of literature, Murdoch laments the loss of moral context, concepts and a full vocabulary for the examination of human personality. Scott and Karl agree.
Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!
Scott and Dr. Karl Schudt discuss Walker Percy's essay on how preconceived ideas about experiences cause us to overlook their essence.
Why do so many people surrender their experiences of things to the way others want those people to experience them?
How do we get around Percy's "symbolic complex" of a book or a place, and find a way to experience the thing in itself?
Can we be sovereign in our engagement with the world?
Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!
Plato's Seventh Letter has it all - history, politics, epistemology, pedagogy. And the complaints of an old man who has watched his life's work...fail?
Scott and Dr. Karl Schudt discuss the letter and the drama behind it, and then wrestle with the question of whether or not a lover of wisdom actually has the ability to "make people good." And even if the answer is no, is it still a worthwhile pursuit?
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In the second installment of the Moments miniseries, seminar leader Karl Schudt reflects on the capricious and tenuous nature of our current political environment. As Thucydides reminds us, extreme partisanship is nothing new: "reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal supporter... prudent hesitation specious cowardice." And where there is partisan rancor, violence and revolution is often not far behind.
If Thucydides was right, we should be worried.
OGB enrollment is open as of July 8th! Podcast listeners can use the discount code OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!
Scott says it all the time -- if you can start your own Great Books group at home, do it! There's nothing that can truly replace the camaraderie, the deep shared intellectual experiences, and the accountability of an in-person group. Several years ago Scott started his own Great Books group in the tradition set forth my Mortimer Adler in his foundational How to Read a Book. The group is still going strong, and one of its members, Thad Hensley, joins today's show to discuss his experience with the group.
Having trouble starting your own group? Online Great Books is opening enrollment on July 8th, 2019. Podcast listeners can save 25% off enrollment by using the discount OGBPODCAST at Online Great Books!
This week we're trying something new at Online Great Books: a new series of short episodes reflecting on one aspect of the Great Books. We're calling them Moments. We'll hear personal reflections from the seminar staff and from members.
One core tenet of Online Great Books is that seminar staff do NOT teach during seminars. They serve to moderate and guide discussion about the books, posing questions and digging into the participants arguments to help them better understand what they believe, and why they believe it. So the Moments are a way to hear some of the seminar leaders' own thoughts about the books we read. We'll hear from some of our members too.
This week Karl Schudt reflects on Medea and the uncomfortable -- even terrifying -- rationality of her decisions.
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Scott Hambrick and Karl Schudt discuss Friedrich Nietzsche's book The Joyful Wisdom, Book 3, which contains his infamous proclamation "God is dead." Nietzsche is perhaps best known for his writings about nihilism, the rejection of God and moral principles, or of any notion of meaning in life. From the nihilist's perspective, nothing in the world is real; it's merely a representation of the real, a concept that hearkens back to Plato's Allegory of the Cave.
Despite his systematic dismantling of God, religion, and the traditional moral codes of the West, Nietzsche was not an advocate for nihilism but rather viewed it as modern man's essential challenge: to overcome the sense of despair and meaninglessness.
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Scott Hambrick and Online Great Books member Miles Marco Bennett -- in fact the very first member to join OGB -- discuss Michel de Montaigne's insightful, tongue-in-cheek, and occasionally droll essay Of Cannibals. Montaigne's essay, which appears in a larger collected work of his essays written in the 16th century, describes the author's experience with the native Tupi peoples of Brazil, a vibrant warrior culture that practiced ceremonial cannibalism of their enemies.
Montaigne draws comparisons between these strong, swarthy people and the barbarians of medieval Europe, praising their "natural" way of life and value system which prized strength and valor. He also notes how their loose governance -- led by people with the most strength and force of ams -- emerged naturally from their values and habits, as opposed to the contrived government and value systems proposed in Plato's Republic.
In this way Montaigne rebuts traditional Western philosophy and impugns its figureheads, showing disdain for philosophers who "know better" and would see their way of life imposed on society by an organized government. Montaigne is, in a sense, the people's philosopher, and shows a deference to the common man which is both charming, genuine, and more intellectually honest than most colonial accounts of the "noble savages."
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Scott talks to Joe McCormack, author of Brief: Make Bigger Impact by Saying Less, about the importance of brevity in communication. Joe is an author, speaker, and consultant who has worked with executives, military personnel, and many others to hone their ability to communicate efficiently in critical situations.
With attention spans shrinking and ever-growing demand for that limited resource, communicating briefly is an essential skill for the modern human being. For some, communicating with brevity is a matter of life or death. For others, it may make the difference in nailing an interview, or securing an important contract with a client. Whatever your reason for communication, brevity should be your chief aim.
You can find Joe at The BRIEF Lab, where he offers online classes, bootcamps, and other resources to improve your communication skills. He also hosts a podcast called Just Saying where he reflects on various aspects of communication in short 10-15min episodes.
Psychiatrist Dr. David Puder joins the podcast to discuss Sigmund Freud's 1917 paper Melancholia and Mourning.
You can find Dr. Puder on Instagram @dr.davidpuder and you can subscribe and listen to his podcast at https://psychiatrypodcast.com.
Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books.
Online Great Books founder Scott Hambrick and seminar leader Emmet Penney tackle the first scientific work on the podcast, Euclid's Elements. The Elements are a collection of treatises, postulates, and propositions that ultimately drive toward important mathematical concepts such as the Pythagorean theorem and the theory of numbers, i.e. integers, divisibility, prime numbers.
Everyone who has attended American public school has heard of these concepts, and their mention likely dredges up memories of endless, boring, rote work about triangles and algebra. Indeed school teaches the formulas, but it does not teach Euclid, who compiled numerous propositions form earlier mathematicians and weaved them into a thoughtful, cogently argued work about the nature of geometry and mathematics. Studying Euclid prompts the question: are these concepts discovered or invented? Does mathematics represent a fundamental truth of the universe, or does it merely describe the truth?
And that's why we study Euclid and other formative scientists and mathematicians at Online Great Books; they prompt us to consider the nature of truth and how the things we are taught in school came to be. It's quite a philosophical exercise. Yet philosophy and science exist in diametric opposition, at least in today's age. Emmet points out a difference between the practice of science (and the technological fruit it bears) and scientism, the faith in science as a diviner of absolute truth. Reading Euclid, he argues, shows us the deep interconnection between science and philosophy, and leads us to a deeper understanding of the truth.
You can find Emmet on Twitter as Emmet Martin Penney. You can read some of his written work at:
- Popula
- Paste Magazine
Scott and Producer Trent wrap up their discussion of Shakespeare's Hamlet, close-reading Hamlet's soliloquies and dissecting the structure of Shakespeare's verse. They reflect on Shakespeare's impact on modern literature, the curiously secular perspective of the play in a highly religious time period, and whether Shakespeare sought to moralize or draw conclusions (spoiler: we don't think he does).
You can't read Hamlet and not talk about the most famous of his soliloquies, the "To Be or Not to Be?" speech at the heart of the play, both literally and figuratively. A surface level reading suggests that Hamlet is contemplating suicide at this moment of the play, having come to no certain conclusions about the best way to resolve his dilemma -- his father murdered, his mother's loyalty in doubt, and many of his friends suspect. It's an understandable position, but perhaps Hamlet is also touching on something deeper, a question of existence; whether humans would be better off having never existed, rather than face the "whips and scorns of time." It's an existential reflection, which Hamlet sums up beautifully elsewhere in the play: "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
In this soliloquy and the ones that follow, Hamlet arrives at an unpleasant truth: that we are all dealt different hands in life, yet we all must play them (or not be living at all). Sometimes the optimal play for that hand predicts no good outcomes, yet play we must. The notion of a "good life," therefore, rests on the manner in which one plays their hand, rather than the outcome or influence their play has on their circumstances. Even if the optimal play is a poor one, "nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
In one sense, Shakespeare draws a rather modern conclusion -- an existential conclusion -- about life, centuries before existentialism would be formally developed. He also cleverly avoids moralizing, leaving any sense of justice, revenge, or morality ambiguous. In the end, nearly every major character dies. The inevitability of death, and the way the it annuls the virtue (or vice) of ostensibly good and evil characters, is the only firm conclusion the play seems to make: "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
Producer Trent returns to the podcast to discuss the first modern piece of literature to appear on the podcast: Shakespeare's Hamlet. A dark, introspective, sprawling drama, Hamlet is arguably Shakespeare's masterpiece, and certainly one of the best of the twelve tragedies he penned. Scott and Trent discuss how Hamlet remains vital and relevant even in contemporary culture, and how Shakespeare's incisive wit and rhetorical devices permeate the English language.
Despite his dense, layered verse and immense vocabulary -- scholars estimate Shakespeare used over 25,000 words -- Shakespeare wrote for a wide variety of people, commoners and kings alike, and found a way to weave language and story into plays that are accessible regardless of one's education or background. Many readers encountering Shakespeare for the first time are intimidated by the complexity of the language. However, as Trent argues, Shakespeare's plays are first and foremost meant to be seen, and good actors bring life and context to the language that help the audience understand the direction of the plot, the comportment of the characters, and their internal motivations. Any person attempting to read a play for the first time should see a good theatrical production, or, if that is not possible, watch an unabridged film adaptation. Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996) is a must-watch, full of excellent Shakespearean actors and popular film actors.
Brett Venoitte of the School Sucks Project returns for Part 2 of our interview discussing the problems with college admissions and the persistent myth that college is a sure path to financial success and career fulfillment. In the second half of the interview, Scott and Brett argue that the value of the college is on the decline, and that young people should pursue marketable skills rather than diplomas (or at least, in addition to diplomas).
Follow Brett Venoitte at the School Sucks Project and make sure to subscribe to his School Sucks Podcast while you're there!
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Scott Hambrick interviews podcaster, author, former test prep educator, and education contrarian Brett Veinoitte about the rapidly changing role of school and, particularly, secondary school. As the recent scandal involving celebrities paying bribes to obtain university admissions for their children has revealed, college has become so ingrained as a symbol of status and opportunity that an entire industry has sprung up to facilitate the admission of subpar students. Meanwhile, the costs of college steadily rise, in both dollars and time.
Brett offers a history of schooling, tracing the modern public school system we are familiar with back to the Prussian educational reforms in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The Prussian system groomed common-born children for military service by establishing free, taxpayer-supported schools with a basic curriculum of technical skills needed in a modernizing world (such as reading and writing). The curriculum attempted to impose a strong sense of national identity and a strict ethos of duty, sobriety and discipline. These traits linger in our contemporary school system -- the bells dividing class times into regular schedules, the teachers reprimanding students to remain silent until called upon. Even the hierarchy of the school resembles something militaristic, with approximately platoon-sized classrooms, led by teachers, grouped under assistant principals, themselves guided by a principal and her staff of advisors.
None of these features was implemented to develop critical thinkers possessed of the skills to challenge authorities, status quo, or paradigms. Yet, for a time the system worked, and produced a workforce more suitable to the factories, assembly lines, and schedules of the new industrial world. Now that this industrial world is undergoing rapid change once again, graduates find themselves without the skills to find meaningful work. This disconnect has extended to secondary education as well, and with the cost of college education rising to astronomical levels, the value of a degree has plummeted.
Nevertheless, the myth that college is a golden ticket to opportunity and prosperity persists, with very real costs to the young people that acquire debt and delay families in search of the golden ticket. Brett and Scott hope to change that through their businesses.
Follow Brett Venoitte at the School Sucks Project and make sure to subscribe to his School Sucks Podcast while you're there!
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Scott and Karl Schudt discuss what an Online Great Books seminar is like -- the experience, what it should be, and what it is not. Many people interested in reading the great books balk at the seminar aspect of OGB out of fear that they won't have anything useful to contribute, that they may not be smart or educated enough to participate, or perhaps because of the vulnerability of speaking in front of a group. Scott and Karl explain why the seminar experience is for anyone, why your voice and opinion matters and should be heard, and what to expect when you sign up for your first seminar.
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Scott and Online Great Books member John Syc, a therapist and LCSW from Hamden, CT, discuss the concept of authenticity in speech and discussion, and the various ways people sabotage their participation in discussions. Not only do people rob themselves of value with inauthentic speech, they also do disservice to the group. The Socratic model relies upon honest engagement in conversation, and learning to become vulnerable in voicing one's thoughts and opinions is an important aspect of discovery and learning.
Authenticity could be described as speaking your mind in a genuine manner, that is, expressing your thoughts in spite of the potential reactions of others. To dispense with PC culture, as it were. The seminars at Online Great Books are intended to provide a space for exploring and testing your values and ideas through discussion. Therefore participation in the discussion -- more importantly, genuine participation in the discussion -- is critical. The seminars rely on the idea of "learning through doing" and the seminar leaders explicitly act as guides rather than teachers. They serve as mediators and perhaps mentors, with the goal of helping you discover and hone your own ideas, no theirs.
Nevertheless, there are many inauthentic ways people participate in discussions. Perhaps the most common example is the devil's advocate, the person who takes a contrary stance. While the devil's advocate is an important role, one which both seminar leaders and participants will sometimes assume to challenge and hone the ideas of another, it is tempting to hide behind the position to avoid voicing a strong opinion of your own. Other people playing the devil's advocate may do so merely out of disagreeableness or combativeness, rather than a genuine attempt to challenge others for their growth. They misrepresent themselves, and thus alienate themselves from the group, having deprived the group of forming a real connection to them.
The silent participant is another offender. Saying nothing at all is better than saying something which might offend, the thinking goes. Or perhaps anxiety or self-esteem prevents them from voicing an opinion that may be challenged, attacked, or ignored. Either way they rob themselves of the value of the discussion, to explore their values and understand why they believe what they believe. Furthermore, they deprive the group of its lifeblood, discussion, and undermine the very thing they thought they would preserve by not speaking up in the first place.
That's not to say that silence can sometimes be authentic. Occasionally, you may not have anything to say, or may not have taken anything of value from the text, in which case playing the role of observer accurately represents your experience. If this is you, Scott encourages you to speak up and say that. Likely there are other group members who feel the same way, and stating your experience can spark conversation that explores why the group had the experience, and what that reveals about the text in question.
You can find out more about John and his therapy practice at: https://www.johnsyc.com
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Online Great Books seminar leader and former advertising executive Malachy Walsh joins the podcast again to discuss everyone's least favorite school subject -- composition. Many people dread writing, either because of grammar, a tenuous grasp of dialect, or simply because they are not sure what they have to say. Malachy has developed a writing course for OGB to help people write fluently and confidently, and, most importantly, with a purpose.
Malachy's writing education began in Catholic primary school, but was really informed by his experience in advertising. Early in his career he trained as one of the first "account planners" in North America, and faced the challenge of writing coherently about his clients goals and objectives.
In Malachy's course, students don't spend much time on writing per se. Instead they spend time learning to better formulate their thoughts using the Socratic method of asking questions. To Malachy, effective writing involves planting a question in the reader's mind which begs to be answered. Without the question, writing has no purpose. Indeed, Malachy's method assigns a job to the piece of writing. There are three basic types of "jobs" for writing:
- Conveying knowledge or information, answering the questions: who, what, why, where, and how?
- Persuasion, or explaining the value of things. Answering the question: what do people currently think, feel, or do, and what do I want them to think, feel, or do?
- Ceremonial or evocative, for creating emotional effect. This writing deals with drama and questions of conflict.
Brett McKay of Art of Manliness fame joins Online Great Books owner Scott Hambrick to discuss Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, a narrative poem best known by the titles of its three constituent parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
Dante's tale blends Christian theology and human reason, exploring the nature of sin and redemption. Virgil, the pre-Christian author of The Aeneid, serves as Dante's (the character) guide through the Hell and Purgatory as well as a symbol of human reason. Meanwhile, Dante's childhood crush and self-described "perfect woman" Beatrice guides him through Heaven. Along the way Dante the author paints a picture of Hell that informs modern depictions to this day: fire, brimstone, lurid and gory punishments.
You've heard her in the OGB staff seminar discussions, now she's joined the podcast to tell Scott her encounters with the Great Books. Marsha Enright developed a strong interest in education and the problems with modern public education at a young age. As a young woman she studied objectivism with followers of Ayn Rand in New York City in the 70's, occasionally discussing questions with Rand herself (who was in her 70's at the time). Later as a mother, dissatisfied with the schooling options available to her children, Marsha sought out Montessori schools in Chicago where she met a gifted and influential teacher. Together they founded their own Montessori academy in Beverly Hills/Morgan Park in southwest Chicago..
Since then, Marsha has furthered her lifelong interest in education by joining Online Great Books as a seminar leader. She has also developed an introductory reading course for new students at OGB aimed at helping them grapple with the abstractions of the sometimes difficult or obtuse texts on the reading list. Unfortunately many adults had traumatic experiences reading difficult and important texts in the classroom -- like Shakespeare in high school -- which puts them off reading for life. They feel that they aren't prepared, or that they aren't smart enough, for the kind of reading that OGB asks of its participants. So Marsha has developed a program to help readers learn to engage with more difficult texts, work through antiquated language (Marsha describes English as "a crazy car crash of languages"), and build a foundation of ideas that they can use to understand the complex concepts presented in works like Plato's Republic or Aristotle's Ethics. Throughout her endeavors, a passion for knowledge and guiding others to self-improvement shines bright.
Marsha is a regular in the roundtable discussions on the Great Books, so tune in to the recent episodes on Plato's Republic (#12-14) to hear more from her!
You can find Marsha online at:
- The Fountainhead Institute
- The Great Connections Leap Year -- for graduating high school students wishing to explore the world before committing to college, trade school, or other paths.
- Marsha also contributed an essay exploring what education would look like in a freer society to Kirsten Lombard's book Common Ground on Common Core
The Online Great Books crew wraps up their exploration of Plato's Republic in the third and final roundtable with Scott, Karl, Marsha, Malachy, and John. They grapple with the question of whether The Republic is a practical manual for government or really a thought experiment, performed out of a deep love for wisdom and reason.
Scott Hambrick and the OGB seminar leaders tackle the first five books of Plato's Republic, wrestling with Socrates' central question "what is justice?" and arguing whether Plato intended the Republic as a manual for government or political satire. Malachy Walsh leads the discussion.
In today’s episode Scott chats with fellow Great Books educator Adam Rose. Mr. Rose is a University of Chicago alum and, since 1993, an instructor for the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults offered by the University of Chicago Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies. The Basic Program is a four-year, non-credit course for adults, first established by Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler in 1946. The mission of the Basic Program is, first and foremost, to assist adults in their ongoing personal and civic self-development by facilitating critical, collaborative, first-hand engagement with great works of the mind. This is accomplished by reading the Great Books and discussing in seminars using the Socratic method.
In addition to his work with the Basic Program, Adam lectures on a number of topics related to the Great Books. He is a prolific writer as well, and a selection of his writings, lectures, and more can be found on his website: https://www.adamrose.com/home/about/
Our dear Reader-in-Chief, Scott Hambrick, appeared on the Canon Ball Podcast (an Agora Podcast Network show) to talk about Edmund Burke, Voltaire, and discuss their influence on thoughts about the French Revolution.
From the Canon Ball Podcast episode description:
Daniel from the Canon Ball is joined by Scott Hambrick from www.onlinegreatbooks.com for an intimate chat about Burke's thoughts on the French Revolution and Voltaire's reflections on the English!
Many thanks to Daniel for featuring us on the Canon Ball Podcast, and giving us permission to repost here!
Scott and the seminar leaders at Online Great Books discuss Book I of Plato's Republic. The central question posed by Socrates -- what is justice? -- is the focal point of Book I. Socrates discusses with three companions the nature of justice. Cephalus offers a definition of justice of that which owed. Polemarchus says justice is "the art which gives good to friends and evil to enemies." Thrasymachus proclaims "justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger."
Socratic dialogue, that is, the art of seeking the truth through questions and discussion -- famously demonstrated by Socrates -- lies at the heart of the Online Great Books community. Yet what made Socrates' approach work was his knack for asking good, probing, thought-provoking questions. So what is a good question anyway?
Scott and fellow reader Jim Furr discuss their ideas on what makes a good question. They both agree that, foremost, a good question is open-ended. It does not presuppose an answer or lead the conversant toward a particular idea. Asking an honest question is more difficult than it sounds! A good interlocutor -- the moderator of the small groups at Online Great Books -- asks good, honest questions and holds his group to the same standard, without attempting to teach or profess. As Scott says, the interlocutor is merely the first among equals in the discussion group.
Scott and Jim offer some good questions to ask yourself when approaching a piece of literature:
- Why do people continue to read this book? There are lots of books from all periods of human history, but what makes this book so important? For instance, why is the Iliad and the Odyssey so seminal in Greek literature, instead of Prometheus Bound?
- Why was this book written?
- What can we learn about human nature from reading this book?
- Has human nature changed since this book was written? Are people the same now as they were at the time of writing?
- How did this book change the course of thought in history?
These are just a few important questions to ponder whether you're picking up the Iliad for the first time, or you're several books deep in to the Great Books progression.
Scott interviews Online Great Books seminar leader and former ad-man Malachy Walsh about his Classical education and his long career in advertising during the fertile "Mad Men" period of the industry in the late 60's through the 70's.
Malachy has dedicated his life to learning and literature. Educated at a Jesuit school at Georgetown, he had undergrad exposure to Greek, Latin, philosophy, math, science, and of course the foundational texts of the Western canon. Facing down the Vietnam War as a young college student in the Sixties, Malachy pursued a PhD in English at the Univesity of Chicago to avoid going to war, and to dive deeper into his love for literature. He eventually realized the life of an academic involved a lot of toil, long, dark hours in the library, and scholarly articles -- without a lot of reward -- so he abandoned his dissertation for a career in the burgeoning field of advertising.
In the ad world he met a lot of similar folks - literary critics, writers, and other creatives - and began working on many classic ad campaigns including Kellog's Tony the Tiger and the U.S. Marine's famous slogan "The Few. The Proud. The Brave. The Marines." As his career progressed he moved into creative strategy, where he was tasked with learning the audience for various products and their motivations for using the product: their desires, their drive to maintain a certain image, and the language they used to communicate what they liked and didn't like. He found that Socratic dialogue worked best when meeting with focus groups -- small groups of consumers advertisers would canvas to learn more about how products were perceived -- and it was important to ask good questions about consumers wants, rather than to convince them to like a certain product.-
Now retired at the age of 71, Malachy's lessons from advertising still inform his study and teaching of the Great Books. His mission in retirement is to lead others to engage with the Western canon, and help them build their minds through reading and discussion. He leads seminars for his home group based out of Mount Carmel church in Chicago as well as for Online Great Books. As with his focus groups, he insists on not teaching or pushing his own agenda, but asking incisive questions to challenge new lines of thinking in the readers' minds.
Scott interviews attorney, former Marine, autodidact, and lover of classics Quintus Curtius (his nomme de guerre) about his life passion - translating classic works of Latin. Quintus has translated six major books including Cicero's On Dutiesand Sallast's The Conspiracy of Cataline and The War of Jugurtha. He has also written extensively about philosophy, linguistics, travel, and many other topics on his blog. Notably, Quintus is not an academic, yet he has dedicated years of hard study to learning and translating Latin. He is the embodiment of what we strive for at Online Great Books, a man seeking to better himself and gain deeper understanding of the world by engaging in hard, enriching things.
You can find Quintus Curtius and his books and articles at https://qcurtius.com.
He is a man who, in this day and age, needs no introduction. Dr. Jordan Peterson joined the Online Great Books podcast to share his thoughts on the Great Books and the importance of our mission to get people to read and discuss the greatest works of literature.
As Dr. Peterson advises in rule #9 of his 12 Rules for Life, "assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don't." The rule can easily be applied to reading as well as listening. In order to live a good life, that is, to avoid a life of suffering and evil, we must be able to critically think about our world and communicate our thoughts and beliefs to ourselves and others. One of mankind's unique tools for this kind of work is a capacity for reason. That reason, however, must be earned through study, critical thought, reflection, and discussion. We're not born with a command of it. Difficult books, like the Western Canon that we keep harping on about, are the portal.
Karl Schudt joins us again to talk about the Great Books and why we undertake this long and sometimes difficult journey to read them, ponder them, and discuss them. Karl is one of the seminar leaders at Online Great Books, and helped write some of the guidelines and materials for leading groups through the book progression. As a philosophy professor, Karl would frequently prod his students, in Socratic fashion, about why they attended his class, or university in general. While many inevitably answered "to learn," and a brave few "because it's on my schedule," Karl would push them to follow the line of questioning to it's root. Why do you need to satisfy your schedule? So you can get a degree and get a job? Why do you want a job? To make money? Why do you want money? To get a nice house and a car? Why do you want a house and a car? Etc, etc. Ultimately it boils down to some version of wanting to live a "good" life, some form of seeking happiness.
What is a good life, though? And what is happiness, exactly? These are the BIG questions, and the very same questions that the Great Books attempt to tackle. As Scott likes to say, these are the books written by the best minds to have ever grappled with these questions, and while they may not hold the answers, they are the best resources we have. More importantly, reading these books gives us a window to examine our lives, and understand WHY we believe the things we do, and WHY we do the things we do. As Socrates is recorded as saying, "the unexamined life is not worth living."
Karl likes to point out that this quote continues: "for a man." "The unexamined life is not worth living for a man," which is to say, humans are unique in their necessity and desire to examine their lives. That's at the core of why we do this: to live an examined life, as we were meant to.
Our very own Karl Schudt and Emmet Penney, seminar leaders at Online Great Books, joined the ReConsider podcast on May 21, 2018 to discuss three great philosophers and how they still have influence and relevance hundreds, even thousands of years later. The three philosophers chosen for the discussion were Plato, Machiavelli, and Karl Marx.
From the ReConsider episode description:
"Today we're joined by Emmet and Karl of OnlineGreatBooks.com to discuss why a bunch of dead thinkers are still hyper-relevant today. We talk about their impact on society and politics, as well as make a case for why they should still be read if we want to understand the world around us, and ourselves. The three philosophers that go under the microscope: Plato, Machiavelli, and Marx."
Many thanks to the ReConsider crew for featuring us on the podcast, and for giving us permission to repost here!
Trent and Hambrick discuss Aeschylus' "Prometheus Bound."
Thoughts and questions about the book.
- Prometheus gives humanity “hope” Consider the significance of this to human beings.
- Is it right or wrong to oppose ultimate power?
- Can man judge the world by his own ethical standards? If so, who or what is the arbiter?
- Can human autonomy and divine rule by reconciled?
- Prometheus has been compared to Job, in the Bible. Job famously complained of his situation, but never defied God, Prometheus does. Which is the better path?
- Notice the personification of human attributes in Might and Violence as characters.
- Violence says nothing. Is there any significance to this omission?
Scott Hambrick and a group of the Online Great Books seminar leaders tackle Plato's The Meno, a short but endlessly deep work attempting to unearth the meaning - or even existence - of virtue. Written as a Socratic dialogue between Socrates and Meno, a young Thessalian noble, the Meno is both provocative and frustratingly inconclusive.
Virtue comes from the Greek arete, meaning "excellence" or more generally, "fitness for purpose." Thus, to arrive at an understanding of virtue, one must first understand the nature and purpose of man. Modern thinking often leans toward objective, scientific descriptions of things, i.e. describing what a thing is. The Meno pushes us to not just think about what man is, but what man should be.
The group ponders what a society built on Socratic dialogue might look like. On matters of justice, modern society often pushes for action -- what we must do to fix a (perceived) problem. The Socratic society might first question whether there is a problem, and, more importantly, whether action would change or fix a problem anyway.