Dec 28, 2021Founders of the RaceI’m in the process of updating an old online English translation of Heliodorus for a class I’m teaching. I’m updating the 19C translation of Rowland Smith (available via Project Gutenberg). Mainly, this involves removing commas and making multiple sentences out of long, rambling prose. One interesting passage, however, occurs in…2 min read2 min read
Dec 10, 2021Books, they’re Gr-r-reat!Humanities, Great Books, Classical Education, Liberal Arts — Edit: a few days after I wrote this, Louis Menand wrote his own review of Great Book and Montás in the New Yorker (link). It is, as one would expect, better than what I wrote here, which is more about my personal estrangement from the Great-Books pedagogy. Reading through the…Great Books9 min readGreat Books9 min read
Nov 28, 2021College Parrhēsiaπαρρησίη belongs to freedom, but discerning the right moment (τοῦ καιροῦ) is risky. — attributed to Democritus (D344 (Loeb, p.314)=226 D-K=Stob.3.13.47) — Challenged by Socrates to demonstrate that aretē can be taught, Protagoras launches into a myth on the origins of the species (Plat. Protrag. 320c-323a). Epimetheus, shortsighted Titan that he is, forgot to provide humanity with a means of protection, and so Prometheus stole fire and technical wisdom for them. Yet…Free Speech10 min readFree Speech10 min read
Oct 19, 2021Thoughts on GradingInspired by having to turn in midterm grades. “I would teach for free; you have to pay me to give grades.” — Me, not true, but it feels that way at times. Someone new to the North American system might be shocked at the amount of grading. Nearly every course…Education9 min readEducation9 min read
Oct 2, 2021What’s Wrong With Being A Humanist?I occasionally use the label “humanist” to describe myself. This behavior sets me apart from most professors of humanities, according to a recent article in Antigone Journal by Eric Adler: It is one of the many oddities of contemporary academic life that few humanities professors would deem themselves humanists. This…Humanism10 min readHumanism10 min read
Jun 14, 2021Summary of Roots: Tradition, Identity, MemoryMaurizio Bettini is well known among classicists. His important scholarship applying anthropological methods to Ancient Rome has been translated into English, and he has been the Sather Lecturer at UC Berkeley (2018). His public scholarship, however, seems less well known among anglophone classicists. Germany and France are better served with…8 min read8 min read
Apr 3, 2021Let’s Not Be Political: Notes on Marks’ Conservative Case for Liberal EducationThis was originally going to be a different post comparing Marks’ book with Hayot’s Humanist Reason. Although it would have made a pretty good review essay in NYRB (as if they’d publish me!), it proved unwieldy for a blog post. What follows, then, are some moderately connected thoughts about Johnathan…Conservatism14 min readConservatism14 min read
Mar 13, 2021Reactionary Ideas, Anti-blackness, & Historismus in the FAZ Op-EdThis post explores a few features of the contemporary discussion about classics by analyzing Jonas Grethlein (JG)’s opinion piece in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Let me make a few disclaimers before I start. (1) I am approaching the essay as symptomatic of common intellectual features. I am neither interested nor…Classics9 min readClassics9 min read
Mar 10, 2021Notes on Baddiel, Jews Don’t CountPublished in February 2021 for the Times Literary Supplement by HarperCollins, Jew’s Don’t Count is a short polemic directed primarily at progressives in the UK. Baddiel draws attention, through various arguments and anecdotes, to the ways that many leftists dismiss antisemitism as less important than other types of racism. I…Anti Semitism7 min readAnti Semitism7 min read
Mar 3, 2021An SCS Classics Guide to Tweeting?Two years ago, I started this blog to comment on an SCS statement about social media and anonymity. In that post, I pointed out how it seemed to be a reaction to a blog post critical of Mary Beard. To be clear, Beard is not to blame if I say…Classics4 min readClassics4 min read
