Tag Archives: liberal education

Don’t Be A Barbarian

Posted on October 13, 2013 by marklangley

Liberal education is the ordinary process by which ladies and gentlemen are formed. Without it one will always remain a barbarian. Now if you are a barbarian please don’t take this as a put down. I am proud to count barbarians … Continue reading →

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Anaxagoras on Liberal Education

Posted on March 10, 2013 by marklangley

“Other things have a part of everything, but mind is unlimited and self-ruling and is mixed with nothing, but is itself alone by itself….” Anaxagoras, the great pre-Socratic philosopher who, Aristotle says, was like a sober man among drunkards was the … Continue reading →

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The first Characteristic of Wisdom

Posted on December 28, 2012 by marklangley

Speaking of wisdom, perhaps it would be good to review four characteristics that will help us to distinguish the kind of knowledge that it is. I do but merely transcribe from the fading memory of a certain lecture these humble … Continue reading →

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The Curse of Liberal Education… Continued

Posted on August 18, 2012 by marklangley

As much as I have always loved liberal education, even I will admit that it does have a fairly obvious downside. I call this downside “the curse of liberal education.” What is this curse? Quite simply, liberal education arouses the … Continue reading →

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The phrase “Catholic Education” is a redundancy.

Posted on July 28, 2012 by marklangley

The cultivation of the intellect is a Catholic enterprise. All education, insofar as it is authentic education, is Catholic. And therefore, when we speak about the Catholic principles of education we are, in truth, speaking about nothing other than the … Continue reading →

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One World in Common

Posted on March 12, 2012 by marklangley

The waking have one world in common, whereas each sleeper turns away to a private world of his own. I think I need to write a song with that title. Sounds like a perfect song for some sort of world … Continue reading →

Posted in classical education, education, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Cave Dwellers

Posted on March 10, 2012 by marklangley

All of these people are cave dwellers. They live in the gloomy cave that Socrates describes in Book VII of The Republic (see http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html). They are all looking at the wall in front of them upon which there are shadows … Continue reading →

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Why Study Latin?

Posted on February 25, 2012 by marklangley

This week marked the 50th anniversary of Pope Blessed John XXIII’s Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientiae DE LATINITATIS STUDIO PROVEHENDO – On the Promotion of the study of Latin- This document is absolutely wonderful. I love it! Pope John XXIII is … Continue reading →

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The Three Catharses

Posted on February 16, 2012 by marklangley

Our current endeavor is to discuss how it is that liberal education frees a person from slavery, and even more specifically how it frees a person from the slavery to passion. In chapter 6 of the Poetics, Aristotle gives us … Continue reading →

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A division of the four kinds of slavery from which Liberal education frees us.

Posted on February 2, 2012 by marklangley

I have already made the claim that a liberal education is an education that frees a person from something and it also frees a person for something. At present we are only speaking about what it frees a person from. … Continue reading →

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