Category: Analects

Analects of the Core #178: David Ferry on Storms

February 7, 2013 at 5:47 pm

In view of the coming storm tomorrow, the Core would like to remind everyone to remain calm and intellectual. To aid this process, here is a sample from David Ferry’s Epic of Gilgamesh (studied in CC101), on the relevant topic of storms: “In the early hours of the next morning dawning there was the noise of [...]

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Analects of the Core #177: Jane Austen on Reading

January 23, 2013 at 3:08 pm

Relating to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which is studied this semester by CC 202, here is today’s analect: I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if [...]

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Analects of the Core #176: Michel de Montaigne on Fear

January 16, 2013 at 12:15 pm

The Core wishes students and faculty a very fruitful and enjoyable New Year and semester, and welcomes everyone back to the trials and tribulations of intellectual life. To boost students’ courage for the coming months, and instill some Core spirit, here is today’s analect: “A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.”

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Analects of the Core #175: Crime and Punishment

December 14, 2012 at 1:07 pm

Relating to the work of CC202, here is the next analect, from Dostoevski: The candlestick had long since burned low in the twisted candlestick, dimly lighting the poverty-stricken room and murderer and the harlot who had come together so strangely to read the eternal book.

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Analects of the Core #174: Cervantes on Sleep

December 14, 2012 at 12:56 pm

Dedicated to all sleep-deprived Core students and faculty preparing their battlements for the approaching finals’ week, and relating to the work of CC201, here is today’s analect from Cervantes’ Don Quixote: All I know is that while I’m asleep, I’m never afraid, and I have no hopes, no struggles, no glories — and bless the man [...]

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Analects of the Core #173: Political Writings

December 7, 2012 at 2:56 pm

Relating to temperance, and the work of John Locke studied in CC203, here is today’s analect: For esteem and reputation being a sort of moral strength, whereby a man is enabled to do, as it were, by an augmented force, that which others, of equal natural parts and natural power, cannot do without it; he [...]

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Analects of the Core #172: The Odyssey

December 7, 2012 at 2:45 pm

As a tribute to all sleep-deprived Core students and faculty near the semester’s end, here is today’s analect in celebration of Sleep’s regenerative power: A man in a distant field, no hearthfires near, will hide a fresh brand in his bed of embers to keep a spark alive for the next day; so in the [...]

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Analects of the Core #171: Life Ascending

December 5, 2012 at 1:00 pm

Expanding further on the works studied in CC106, here is the next analect from Nick Lane’s Life Ascending: The Great Inventions of Evolution: We may not enjoy the fact much, but we’ve recognized since the early 1920′s that going moderately hungry prolongs life. It’s called calorie restriction. Rats fed a balanced diet, but with about [...]

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Analects of the Core #170: Collapse

December 5, 2012 at 12:43 pm

From a book that sometimes plays a part in CC106, Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, here is today’s analect: The Greenland Norse did succeed in creating a unique form of European society, and in surviving for 450 years as Europe’s most remote outpost. We modern Americans should not be too quick [...]

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Analects of the Core #169: Discourse on Method and Meditations

November 29, 2012 at 5:28 pm

Relating to the reading that the students of CC201 have done on Descartes’ work, here is today’s analect: Although in approaching the flame I feel heat, and even though in approaching it a little too closely I feel pain, there is still no reason that can convince me that there is some quality in the [...]

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