Who was M. Regulus? (And why don’t we care?)
In prep for my classes next semester, I picked up The City of God today and started what will have to a be a very fast read. It’s been a while since I was in Augustine so I was a...
Plato’s “Republic” in Aristotle’s “Politics”
In the third book of Aristotle’s Politics, he sets forth his ideal government. In order to find the best one, he informs the reader that he will exposit and reject several theories by other prominent philosophers. He begins, naturally, with...
Gaudeamus Igitur…….
Along with 500 other Biola students, I am a recent college graduate. Having been told that I am part of Christianity’s “best hope” for the future all weekend long, I have been convinced of one thing: the ability to impact...
Free from politics
Jim (Matt’s brother) writes: But then you’ve got films like On the Waterfront, which is political, entertaining, and artistic at the same time. (It also has one of the most sympathetic, perhaps most realistic Hollywood portrayals of a man of...
Hitler as Aesthetic
Check out the interesting book review brought to us by Books and Culture. The book reviewed is a Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics in which Frederic Spotts argues that the “will to power” and aesthetic sensibility of Hitler are...
Quentin Tarantino
I just went on a Quentin Tarantino kick, catching up on his most recent films: Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), and Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004). Before I saw these three films I was convinced that I...
Subordinate Complexity
Everyone creates. So everyone must (or should) care how to create well. From writing, to making images by photography or painting or drawing, to speaking, to planning one’s day, we are all MAKING. How do we create well? It seems...
Philosophical Writing as an Artform
I recommend Ralph McInerny’s very short Rhyme and Reason: St. Thomas and Modes of Discourse. It’s the Marquette University Aquinas Lecture for 1981. I’m thinking about it today in relation to literary criticism (a field in which I am less...
Response to Selby
A few thoughts in response to Andrew: Remember that a large percent of college students are at public institutions. (Does anyone know whether a majority are?) Although these schoos still have tuition, costs are highly subsidized by the government. Furthermore,...
Required Education: It Lasts Too Long
In 1575 Michel de Montaigne said, “The boy we would breed has a great deal less time to spare; he owes but the first fifteen or sixteen years of his life to education; the remainder is due to action”. We...