Of Great Minds (and
then the rest of us.)
There is a book, and then there is a book worth reading.
James V. Schall penned such a book, “Another Sort of
Learning,” and in it quotes from another infamous author (in short circles) the
following thoughts:
“ Teachers themselves are pupils and must be pupils…but
there must be teachers who are not pupils less we have an infinite regress.”
What has been spoken here is of infinite worth to the
initiated, yet nonsense to the non. To explain then the thoughts of Mr. Schall
and Mr. Strauss it is (I think,) necessary to explain the Great Books in all
their grandeur since the Great Books is what I would like to discuss.
A grand conversation spanning centuries of thought in
fifty-eight volumes no less, a lifetime of reading, with pleasure, those minds
that shaped our Western culture. Of course, not all of us have the time, yet,
surprisingly we might- given enough incentive. So pull up a chair and pour a
glass of wine and let me entertain your particular conscience with what I
consider along with the publishers of such a grand work, to be the thoughts of
mankind that shaped nations not the least of which is ours.
It begins with a little known notion of freedom. Freedom to
express oneself without reprisal. Freedom from coercion and this nonsense of
the politically correct. Freedom, as it is known in a true society is one free
from constraint, no matter what he profess. As long as the common good is not
harmed. But the Great Books have a way of hampering that notion with the added
caveat that to know the truth will set you free. See Socrates in Plato’s
Republic and in the apology to Crito, both part of the series mentioned.
Here we allow ourselves to be fully human, to experience the
Divine while living short of the glory of the professed. We get the sense that
those who have gone before retain what they saw and share that with the world
at large. We are now in the company of giants, both great and small. What is
the best way to see the world? It is to ride on the shoulders of giants. There
you see what might have been missed due to your stature. It is a way to see
through to the truth of things. It is knowledge that ultimately brings truth to
bear upon life.
In knowledge we find strength. Yet it is curious that
(according to professor Schall,) the two greatest teachers, Christ and
Socrates, wrote no books at all. They were written about but never wrote. Words
that is, yet their knowledge was writ large against the backdrop of the world
to come and the world that is, now, ever present- ever new. Such is the humble
beginnings of the Great Books.
A world ever
changing and ever new but so steeped in the traditions that we hold dear as to
never gain the privilege of being antiquated to the realm of knowledge once
known but ever so unwanted. It is knowledge sought that makes us knowing
beings, and the Great Books do just that, teach- and admonish to a degree that
you no longer need one to understand them.
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