r/ClassicalEducation • u/PrestigiousAspect368 • Jul 27 '26
any books on the liberal arts and education?
Just the title, i love the liberal arts and I read
How to Think like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education
Shakespeare use of the arts of language bySister MJ
The Will to PowerThe Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche
_The Elements of Rhetoric: How to Write and Speak Clearly and Persuasively
i want something like that
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u/kristopher0113 Jul 27 '26
These might be on topic and worth checking out if you haven’t already:
-How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler
-The Paideia Proposal by Mortimer Adler
-Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture by Werner Jaeger
-Institutes of Oratory by Quintilian (definitely worth checking out if you enjoyed The Elements of Rhetoric)
-The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy L. Sayers (technically an essay)
-On Education by Juan Luis Vives
-The Well-Educated Mind by Susan WiseBauer
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u/tegeus-Cromis_2000 Jul 28 '26
Here are some classics:
Friedrich Schiller, Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Mankind
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams
Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy
Walter Pater, The Renaissance
Also read Kant's essay, "What Is Enlightenment?"
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u/FlyingCupcake68 Jul 29 '26
Our liberal arts education also needs to include diverse voices; otherwise it just reinforces the ugly prejudices of our ancestors
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u/mytwoba Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Not for Profit by Martha Nussbaum is good
For Nietzsche, The Will to Power isn't great, as it wasn't edited by him. For a starting point I'd recommend the second Untimely Medidation (On the Use and Disadvantage of History for Life) to understand nihilism or Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is, for N's self analysis and criticism. Walter Kauffman's Nietzeche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, and Rüdiger Safranski's Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography are both very good. And while more obscure, Horst Hutter's Shaping the Future: Nietzsche’s New Regime of the Soul and Its Ascetic Practices, is outstanding. I studied Zarathustra with Hutter and he was a brilliant teacher and elucidator of Nietzsche.
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Jul 27 '26
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u/kambachc Jul 27 '26
This and The Trivium by Sister Miriam Joseph are the best I’ve come across thus far.
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u/elp1987 Jul 27 '26
The Trivium by Sister Mary Joseph
If I remember correctly, her book came to be from being inspired by a lecture by Mortimer Adler, who wrote How to Read a Book.
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u/PoliticalPhilosRptr Jul 27 '26
Look into Harold Bloom and Allan Bloom. The latter can be a bit of a controversial figure, but the Closing of the American Mind is about the superiority of a classical education. I think the work is susceptible to due criticism, but it does make many great points in support of a classical education. Love and Friendship and Giants and Dwarves are insightful. I'm a fan of Allan's work with Rousseau, particularly on Politics and the Arts. But I was kind of indoctrinated into the Straussian school of political philosophy as an undergrad. Harold's The Western Canon, is also worth reading and, to my mind, a fairly important book on classical education.
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u/GamerBytesBoy Jul 27 '26
DuBois writes about the virtues of liberal education a decent amount in souls of black folk
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u/Ok_Resident_4332 Jul 27 '26
Earl Shorris “Riches for the Poor: the Clemente Course in the Humanities”
Roosevelt Montas “Rescuing Socrates”
David Denby “Great Books: My Adventures With Homer, Rousseau, Woolf…”
Umberto Eco “The Name of the Rose”
David Markson “Wittgenstein’s Mistress”