Plato 23

Behind this type of play, though, is a genuine longing for beauty—a desire not only to appreciate the beautiful things one has seen or read or heard, but also to…

AI is the culmination of an ideological fantasy of elite control, woven into the very infrastructure of commonplace media technologies. When it gets used to talking to us, we may…

Though the metaphor sounds alarmist, an unimaginable tsunami is barreling down on a complacent world. We may have time to adjust, who knows?

Christian Platonism’s affirmation that we are spiritual beings who will outlive this current life, in one manner or another, lends us powerful impetus to reconsider what it means to spend…

Even in the midst of this sad era of cold, objective ambition, the possibility of grateful participation in the cosmic life of creation remains for each of us.

In my elder, more invulnerable years, when the Untied States had finally established a formal E. Unibus Pluram, I was appointed by lot to assume the position of SAT (Self-Actualizing…

Christian monastic pioneers saw that books left on the windowsill are more likely to make an impression on those outside than on those within.

Among the legion of unjustly forgotten historical figures there’s an eccentric soldier and failed composer named Captain Tobias Hume.  Unless you play the viola da gamba or you’re fond of Polish…

In “Lying,” the late Richard Wilbur diagnoses one of our age’s endemic ills with the paradoxical phrase “fierce velleity.” For those of us who don’t use “velleity” every day, the…

Jordan Wales has recently gifted the conservative movement a sober and justly-timed critique of Richard Spencer and the alt-right. Unfortunately, much of the analysis of Spencer and the movement Spencer…

“Then education is the craft concerned with doing this very thing, this turning around, and with how the soul can most easily and effectively be made to do it.” Plato,…

“Then shall we carelessly allow the children to hear any old stories…?” Plato, Republic Summer is a time for stories. There is a great tradition of taking stories seriously, even,…

What can Plato teach us about and in the modern multiversity?

“It’s no easy task—indeed it’s very difficult—to realize that in every soul there is an instrument that is purified and rekindled by such subjects [liberal studies] when it has been…

“Imitations practiced from youth become part of nature and settle into habits of gesture, voice, and thought.” Plato, Republic III Plato showed great concern about how people move and use…

“It is the greatest good for a man to discuss virtue every day and those other things about which you hear me conversing and testing myself and others…” Socrates, The…

“But when children play the right games from the beginning and absorb lawfulness from music and poetry, it follows them in everything and fosters their growth…” Socrates, in Plato’s Republic,…

If you haven’t read Euthyphro, then you should. If you have read it, then you should read it again.

"Intellectual" and "Disinterested," as we use them, are new words. I "prefer" old words: Scholar, Monk, Contemplative, Lover of Wisdom.

What is this thing we call “socialization” and why is there a perception that this is best achieved in the classroom and thwarted by homeschooling?

Teaching Wendell Berry to students today isn't a thankless task, but the victories are small and far between (which, one might say, is all the best victories always are).

Kearneysville, WV. The health care bill has passed the Senate, but it is yet to be seen if the House and the Senate can agree on a bill to send…

Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. Imagine human beings brought up from childhood in a cave, bound fast with their heads all facing one direction. On the wall before them they see only…