These lessons include books seven through ten of the Aeneid. We are now into the second half of this epic, which is as much like the Iliad as the first half was like the Odyssey: famous warriors boasting and battling until they fall, their armor ringing around them, while the gods watch and interfere, seeking their own advantage. The parallels between the books that I noted myself or that Wes Callihan reveals help make these lessons truly intriguing. Let me note a few. Continue reading Great Books Challenge Lessons 7-8
Category Archives: Classical Education
Great Books Challenge Lessons 5-6
Books four through six of the Aeneid are some of the most fascinating and memorable of this epic tale! In these chapters we read of the tragedy of Dido, the funeral games of Achises, and the journey of Aeneas into the underworld. Wes Callihan once again brings to light many practical lessons and interesting insights from these stories, and I look forward to each new lesson from Old Western Culture, wondering what I will learn next.
Who said this about rhetoric?
“And this skill he will not attain without a great deal of trouble, which a good man ought to undergo, not for the sake of speaking and acting before men, but in order that he may be able to say what is acceptable to God and always to act acceptably to Him as far as in him lies.”
Logic as a moral imperative
When we claim that a false statement is true or that a true statement is false, this is a moral wrong, called lying. But if we refuse to draw the proper conclusion of a valid argument, I do not know of a similar verb in English, a word that will make clear the ethical nature of such bad reasoning. But that it can be an ethical issue seems undeniable. This appears to be the failing of the Jewish leaders in John 5:39-40, who refused to accept that Jesus was the Christ, and of those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness in Romans 1, who are said to be “without understanding.”
Great Books Challenge Lessons 1-4
I have had the honor of being friends with Wes Callihan for nearly thirty years. I actually studied Classical Rhetoric under him in 1989 at the fledgling New St. Andrews, when that now thriving liberal arts college was just a night school meeting in a neighbor’s attic. I have admired his teaching ability from that day to this: his rich knowledge of history, his infectious love for the classics (especially Homer), and his skill in transmitting some of that knowledge and love to his pupils. Consequently, it is a true delight to be once again his student as I work through this Old Western Culture
video course on the Aeneid.
Why Learn Rhetoric?
The skills learned in rhetoric include gathering scattered particulars of knowledge into a coherent whole, organizing them into a useful synthesis, and then communicating that knowledge and understanding effectively in order to benefit others. Given this, rhetoric teaches us on a small scale how to approach everything in our daily lives with wisdom.
The Philosopher and the Apostle
Aristotle presents the general line of argument “That if it is possible for one of a pair of contraries to be or happen, then it is possible for the other: e.g. if a man can be cured, he can also fall ill; for any two contraries are equally possible, in so far as they are contraries” (Rhetoric II.19).
I was wondering if anyone would really argued this way, when I recalled an argument from Paul about the resurrection: “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:21-22).
Paul either knows his Aristotle, or Aristotle knows how people think.
Logic in the Trenches
“God has commanded all men everywhere to repent.” Logic allows us to finish the syllogism: “You are a man. Therefore, you must repent.” A denial of logic is thus a denial of law.
Logic glossaries now available
Great Books Challenge
Hi, lovers of the classics! I have accepted the Great Books challenge for parents by Roman Roads Media. I will be reading Virgil’s Aeneid, watching the lectures by Wes Callihan, and doing the assignments. As I blog through the lessons, you can all keep me accountable. Join me, and take advantage of the free curriculum offered to those who complete it. Watch for my first post soon!