Online Great Books Podcast

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. In addition to his work with the Basic Program, Adam is a prolific writer. 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.  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 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.

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 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.

#1- Intellectual Linear Progression talks Homer's "The Iliad"

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.

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, discuss them, and talk about them.

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.

#2- OnlineGreatBooks.com talks Aeschylus' "Prometheus Bound"

Scott Hambrick, Karl Schudt, and one of the Online Great Books reading groups 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.