Category: Core Lecturers

Six Quotes on Democracy

Prof. Samons: “How would Plato describe America? We are primed for tyranny.” “Plato would be so appalled by the television and internet that he would commend us for keeping it together this long.” Prof. Esposito: “Plato wants to know what Sophocles is trying to teach us in Ajax or Hecuba. It is not quite clear […]

Six Quotes: Hall on Plato and Math

“I went back to all the advice I’ve been given about talking to a big group, and they said I have to tell a joke. I don’t know many jokes and all the ones I do know are math jokes. [. . . ] That was a joke.” “Math trains you to see what is […]

Six Quotes: Fried on Plato

“Socrates is proposing radical censorship so the young receive the right message from a very young age.” “The best soul will be ruled by reason or calculation. Justice is when each part of the soul — calculating, spiritedness, and desire — is minding its own business.” “Can you know about politics in the same way […]

Six Quotes: Roochnik on Plato

“Is” is the simplest word in the English language and yet it is the hardest to understand in The Republic. Intelligible reality, what we think with our minds, is more real than the individual instances we attribute to our reality. What is clear about American politics, whether you are Democrat or Republican, is that knowledge […]

Six Quotes: Samons on Ancient Greece

“Triremes were built to kill. You can’t have fun on a trireme. You can’t water-ski behind one. You can’t hold an afternoon BBQ on one. You can’t do anything but kill on a trireme.” “Why did the Athenians beat the Persians? Because the Persians showed up to the wars with wicker shields. Wicker. The Persians […]

Six Quotes: Kleiner on the Acropolis

“When you go into the Acropolis, why are all the great buildings off to the left? In the archaic day there was the greatest temple erected right before you. This was the temple the Persians burned down and which prompted Pericles and the Athenians to rebuild.” “Despite the agony on the centaur’s face, the whole […]

Six Quotes: Esposito on Homer

“Isn’t it amazing that the first major work of western civilization — Gilgamesh — depicts the destruction of a human city?” “Menelaus is about to kill Helen, but (smart lady), she bares her breast to him, and he throws his sword down. Some things never change.” “Calypso’s name means concealment and while Odysseus is with […]

Six Quotes: Damrosch on Exodus

“Think of the Bible as Woody Allen’s recipe for chicken salad.” “The drama of this epic is that at every moment God gives them what they need, and the next moment, they fuck up again.” “Law is the emotional center of Exodus. The stories exist as the frame FOR the law.” “Aaron should be like […]

Six Quotes: Knust on Genesis

“We can think of Genesis, not as a book with a beginning and an end, but rather as an archive.” “God’s covenant with Noah is one-sided. God does not ask for anything in return but he makes a rule that no one is to kill each other but the covenant is not dependent on the […]

Formichelli introducing Corgan on Machiavelli

Last Tuesday, Prof. Michael Corgan delivered a lecture to the students of CC201: The Renaissance, on the topic of The Prince by Machiavelli. To provide context for his lecture in the intellectual arc of the course, Prof. Jennifer Formichelli introduced Prof. Corgan with the following remarks. Last week Professor Ricks made a salient distinction between […]