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Online Great Books Podcast

Jul 31, 2019

If you don't believe in anything, how can you make meaningful art?

Scott and Dr. Karl Schudt discuss their first encounter with philosopher-novelist Iris Murdoch. Her essay "Against Dryness" addresses that question, along with the ideas and forces that brought that question about.

Looking at art and of literature,...


Jul 24, 2019

Scott and Dr. Karl Schudt discuss Walker Percy's essay on how preconceived ideas about experiences cause us to overlook their essence.

Why do so many people surrender their experiences of things to the way others want those people to experience them?

How do we get around Percy's "symbolic complex" of a book or a place,...


Jul 17, 2019

Plato's Seventh Letter has it all - history, politics, epistemology, pedagogy. And the complaints of an old man who has watched his life's work...fail?

Scott and Dr. Karl Schudt discuss the letter and the drama behind it, and then wrestle with the question of whether or not a lover of wisdom actually has the ability to...


Jul 10, 2019

In the second installment of the Moments miniseries, seminar leader Karl Schudt reflects on the capricious and tenuous nature of our current political environment. As Thucydides reminds us, extreme partisanship is nothing new: "reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal supporter... prudent...


Jul 3, 2019

Scott says it all the time -- if you can start your own Great Books  group at home, do it! There's nothing that can truly replace the camaraderie, the deep shared intellectual experiences, and the accountability of an in-person group. Several years ago Scott started his own Great Books group in the tradition set...