Online Great Books Podcast

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? Use the discount OGBPODCAST to save 25% on enrollment at Online Great Books!

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!