Category: Great Ideas

Tao in the Core

We had a brief Taoist chat in CAS 119 this morning. Where else but the Core office? A summer student had stopped by, asking for directions to the ISSO office. We directed him to his destination, and he thanked us, but as he turned to leave he noticed the framed calligraphy painting on the wall. […]

Honoring our first crop of Core Honors awardees

Join us in congratulating the first crop of Core Honors awardees, in this the first year eligible students applied to take advantage of the Honors opportunity. Work for Honors allows students who are willing to commit extra time and effort to achieving a higher level of command of the material and techniques addressed in Core […]

Analects of Core: Tate on Dante

“We think of Dante as a poet who concentrated and defended the medieval order. The medieval order evidently did not want to be concentrated and defended by a poet, for the works of Dante were publicly burnt by Pope John XXII.” Source: “The Translation of Poetry”, a lecture delivered by Allen Tate in 1970 at […]

Why you should read Dante

Dante’sDivine Comedy is one of CC 102’s most memorable reads towards the end of the semester. It follows a similar epic poetry format seen inThe OdysseyorThe Aeneid, but with a twist. The famous Italian poet creates his own world through his 14,000 line epic separated into three books. He brings in characters we might recognize […]

Roman leadership for business today

Imagine Julius Caesar running a modern day business class. Despite the ridiculous punishments imposed on students who might not have used the right font on their essays, we have to believe: he would probably come up with some GREAT leadership initiatives. He ruled a mighty state! So it’s not crazy to think that students nowadays […]

What’s great about Goethe?

That Goethe is being read as part of CC202 speaks to his profound impact on literature. A writer whose works mimicked his life (or perhaps the opposite), Goethe felt a longing, a hiraeth perhaps, for something truehe wanted experience for experiences sake. Yet, can it be recounted when Goethe was last mentioned outside of the […]

For the Love of Dog!

The following post was originally published on the BU Culture Shock blog. Read Emmy Parks post, God is a Canine. Emmy lands on a conclusion that Id like to start with: What is God spelled backwards? Dog. God is with us, anyways. God is a dog. God is a dog. Or, ratherand here Id like […]

from In Defense of Literacy

Snug within the book-bricked walls of a University, it may not seem that literacy is under threat. However, there is a great tradition of humanisticcommentators taking on the role of reminder to bid us keep in mind that literacy in its broadest conception is not just about the ability to decipher meaning out of written […]

Why Criminal Justice Isn’t Just

“Justice” is something of a buzz word in the Core: what it means, how it should be administered, and what constitutes a crime are just a few of the topics that are addressed by writers like Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, and Dante. For the most part, these great thinkers propose systems wherein criminals are punished retroactively […]

Have It Your Way: Cheeseburgers and Moral Responsility

Here at the Core, we spend a great deal of time examining a wide range of perspectives on morality, returning semester after semester to examine questions such as “how do we define right and wrong?” and even “do right and wrong really exist?” As we explore these ethical questions through the lenses of science, literature, […]