One of the oldest and most exhausted questions in the history of philosophy is why Plato found it necessary and expedient to deport the poets from his perfect society in The Republic. It’s a question many have hypothesized about although, perhaps, unsatisfactorily. One of the 20th century’s great classicists, Eric A. Havelock, considered the expulsion of the poets in his … [Read more...] about Questioning Doubt and the Expulsion of the Poets
Citizen
Putting the Liberal back into Democracy
On a recent panel discussion at conference for the Media Ecology Association, I was challenged to answer a question concerning the role of traditional, liberal arts in an increasingly untraditional and scientific world. Where the liberal arts once sought to provide an education that creates freethinking, rational citizens, who use their vote to improve society, now the liberal … [Read more...] about Putting the Liberal back into Democracy
Hektor, The Father
I remember the moment I knew the kind of father I wanted to be. As I read through hundreds of lines of the Iliad in my first year at university, I read about the champion of Troy: Hektor. Homer describes him often with his bronze war helm, shimmering in the sunlight. The same helmet frightened his son as he came to greet his lovely wife and young son atop the tower at Ilion in … [Read more...] about Hektor, The Father
Lifeworld
This started as a piece about student loans, aged as an art-history expose, and ends, predictably, with supplication. I am currently 75,000 dollars deep in a hole called student loans. A bit like Hades, with compounding interest playing the role of Sisyphus, full of defeat. Where to go? Is there an escape? That $75,000 hole was offered to me as an 18 year-old. Stupid and … [Read more...] about Lifeworld
Unraveled
What is past is prologue and must be read carefully if we are to understand the present. It’s almost passe to compare the unraveling of the Roman Republic with our current political malaise, our internecine fighting, and our ceaseless arguments. The fact is, regardless of historical era, people are easily misled by others. Regardless of their claims, it is self interest that … [Read more...] about Unraveled