New Humanists

Send us a textDoes Plato, and philosophy more generally, belong in schools? In a lecture, professor and Davenant Institute VP Colin Redemer suggests that Plato is too dangerous to be allowed into classical schools. Jonathan and Ryan take a look at this lecture and at the response it received, focusing on esoteric writing, reason versus revelation, and the Platonic-Christian-American synthesis.The Davenant Institute's Reforming Classical Education: https://davenantinstitute.org/reforming-classical-educationAustin Hoffman's Awkward Family Dinner: A Review of Reforming Classical Education: https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2023/02/awkward-family-dinner-a-review-of-reforming-classical-education/Colin Redemer's Revisiting Platonic Education: The Ever Shareable Feast: https://adfontesjournal.com/web-exclusives/revisiting-platonic-education-the-ever-sharable-feast/Leo Strauss's Persecution and the Art of Writing: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780226777115Plato's Theages: https://amzn.to/3UE4DRlT.S. Eliot's Second Thoughts About Humanism: https://muse.jhu.edu/document/408New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textIrving Babbitt was the architect of New Humanism. He was also T.S. Eliot's mentor at Harvard. But in 1928, the newly Anglican Eliot's essay criticizing his old mentor's humanistic project was published, which provoked a terse, and sharp, rebuke from Babbitt. What is the relationship between traditional religion and humanistic learning? Can humanism provide society with the standards needed for democratic life? In this episode, we take a look at Babbitt's and Eliot's writings on the subject.T.S. Eliot's The Humanism of Irving Babbitt: https://muse.jhu.edu/document/374T.S. Eliot's Second Thoughts About Humanism: https://muse.jhu.edu/document/408Irving Babbitt's Democracy and Leadership: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780913966556Jay Parini's Irving Babbitt Revisited: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3856831The Davenant Institute's Reforming Classical Education: https://davenantinstitute.org/reforming-classical-educationT.S. Eliot's Little Gidding: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/history/winter/w3206/edit/tseliotlittlegidding.htmlNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textThe duel between the Horatii brothers and the Curiatii brothers seemed to settle the Roman-Alban dispute and give Rome authority over Alba. But wily Mettius Fufetius has a trick or two up his sleeve. Meanwhile, the one surviving Horatius brother strikes down his sister in cold blood, an incident Jacques-Louis David drew but never ended up painting. The civilized three-on-three duel now threatens to give way to an all-out war of extermination between Rome and Alba. This is the sixth episode of "No Republic Was Ever Greater," a podcast series examining the rise of the Roman Empire through the work of Livy and Machiavelli. Livy's Ab Urbe Condita: https://amzn.to/3gYwtbhMachiavelli's Discourses on Livy: https://amzn.to/3NtNBSjFustel de Coulanges's La Cité Antique (French): https://amzn.to/3yzATuZFustel de Coulanges's The Ancient City (English): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780648690542Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_the_HoratiiNicolas Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_the_Sabine_Women#/media/File:L'Enl%C3%A8vement_des_Sabines_%E2%80%93_Nicolas_Poussin_%E2%80%93_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre,_INV_7290_%E2%80%93_Q3110586.jpgArlette Clavet's Unpublished Studies for 'The Oath of the Horatii': https://www.jstor.org/stable/1552932Corneille's Horace: https://amzn.to/41zF1IyNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textAfter the long peace of Numa's reign, Rome gets a new king, even more ferocious than Romulus: Tullus Hostilius. As soon as he comes to power, he begins looking for a way to start a war (while keeping a good conscience about it). This is the fifth episode of "No Republic Was Ever Greater," a podcast series examining the rise of the Roman Empire through the work of Livy and Machiavelli. Livy's Ab Urbe Condita: https://amzn.to/3gYwtbhMachiavelli's Discourses on Livy: https://amzn.to/3NtNBSjFustel de Coulanges's La Cité Antique (French): https://amzn.to/3yzATuZFustel de Coulanges's The Ancient City (English): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780648690542Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780140449235J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780547928210Hesiod's Theogony: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199538317Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_the_HoratiiNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textAbraham Lincoln spent less than 1 year of his life going to school. Nevertheless, he became a lawyer, a surveyor, and one of the greatest statesmen in American history. He also carried on correspondence with one of the country's leading Shakespearean actors about the relative merits of different plays and speeches in Shakespeare's dramatic oeuvre. In no speech is the self-educated Lincoln's close attention to the Bard more in evidence than in his political comeback speech, the Peoria Address denouncing the Kansas-Nebraska Act. What do the veiled Shakespearean references in that speech reveal about Lincoln and the crisis that slavery posed to free government?Abraham Lincoln's Peoria Speech: https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/peoriaspeech.htmTed J. Richards's Lincoln and Shakespeare at Peoria: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10457097.2021.1983355?journalCode=vpps20Lewis E. Lehrman's Lincoln at Peoria: https://amzn.to/3WXKW6pLord Charnwood's Abraham Lincoln: A Biography: https://amzn.to/3wXmTdwFolger Shakespeare Library's Hamlet: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780743477123Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69379/an-essay-on-criticismHarry Jaffa's Crisis of the House Divided: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780226391182Harry Jaffa's A New Birth of Freedom: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781538114322John Channing Briggs's Lincoln's Speeches Reconsidered: https://amzn.to/3xnDyqVDiana Schaub's His Greatest Speeches: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781250763457New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textWhen Romulus dies, the city of Rome is riven by ethnic conflict between Romans and Sabines, and class conflict between senators and plebeians. The city cannot agree on its next king; an interregnum ensues. The stalemate is eventually resolved in favor of Numa Pompilius, who is crowned king of Rome in a mysterious, mystical ceremony which almost seems like a human sacrifice. This is the fourth episode of "No Republic Was Ever Greater," a podcast series examining the rise of the Roman Empire through the work of Livy and Machiavelli. Livy's Ab Urbe Condita: https://amzn.to/3gYwtbhMachiavelli's Discourses on Livy: https://amzn.to/3NtNBSjRené Girard's Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780804722155Plato's Republic: https://amzn.to/3H2XOU1New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textJohn Milton's clarion call to educators to "repair the ruins of our first parents" has inspired countless teachers and parents in the classical education movement and beyond. But is Milton really the classical education ally he appears to be? In "On Education" he pays lip service to grammar, logic, and rhetoric - the three components of the Trivium - but he also disparages scholasticism, ignores metaphysics, and deplores medieval education. Join Jonathan and Ryan as they discuss Milton's education manifesto.Richard M. Gamble’s The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnOJohn Milton's Of Education: https://milton.host.dartmouth.edu/reading_room/of_education/text.shtmlJohann Heinrich Alsted's Loci Communes: https://digitale.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vd17/content/titleinfo/5175418Jan Comenius' Orbis Pictus: https://amzn.to/3vQb08AHans H. Ørberg's Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata: https://amzn.to/3hoLz7VNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textGiambattista Vico was a Renaissance Man after the Renaissance, but he was largely forgotten for centuries. As a professor of rhetoric, he often had the occasion to speak and write about the education of the young. We take a look at some of his orations on the topic, which are a mine of profound insight. Vico has some complaints that will sound very familiar, like, "Parents all just want their kids to become lawyers or doctors and get rich."Richard M. Gamble’s The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnONew Humanists episode on A.G. Sertillanges: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/me-an-intellectual-episode-xxvi/id1570296135?i=1000568461907New Humanists episode on Donald Phillip Verene: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-humane-education-episode-iv/id1570296135?i=1000529006912Donald Phillip Verene's History of Philosophy: https://amzn.to/3HK7zYaNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textAfter reading Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, a member of the French National Assembly wrote to Burke, asking for more of his analysis on the revolution then underway. In reply, Burke wrote a long letter which included a sustained attack on the preeminent philosopher of the revolution: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This analysis identifies that at the heart of the uprising in France lies an attempt to totally transform education - and in particular, its role in forming norms around sexual behavior.Richard M. Gamble’s The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnORichard Price's A Discourse on the Love of Our Country: https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/price-a-discourse-on-the-love-of-our-countryEdmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199539024Edmund Burke's Letter to a Member of the National Assembly: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15700/15700-h/15700-h.htm#MEMBER_OF_THE_NATIONAL_ASSEMBLYC.S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780060652944Rémi Brague's God as a Gentleman: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/02/god-as-a-gentlemanNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textWhat if you gathered a bunch of friends, went out to the desert of Arizona, and built the greatest city that the world had ever seen? That is what Romulus does, and what Livy chronicles (except it's not in Arizona). We explore the challenges a founder faces in a startup city, how to fill it with people, and how to unify the inhabitants into one, cohesive people.Livy's Ab Urbe Condita: https://amzn.to/3gYwtbhMachiavelli's Discourses on Livy: https://amzn.to/3NtNBSjWilliam Golding's Lord of the Flies: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780399501487Fustel de Coulanges's La Cité Antique (French): https://amzn.to/3yzATuZFustel de Coulanges's The Ancient City (English): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780648690542Saint Augustine's City of God: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780140448948New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com