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James V. Schall, S.J., perhaps Georgetown's most beloved professor and one of the ten greatest Catholic intellectuals in American history according to the Catholic Hall of Fame, explores the rich intellectual tradition that has been preserved in the great books
of the West. Schall argues that the "book" is at the heart of a university. But what is a book and why is it so central to a liberal arts education? Do the so-called "great books" truly foster learning,
or do they perhaps lead students to skepticism by exposing them to great things too early?
As an essayist, professor and author Father Schall has written on classical and medieval political philosophy, natural law, Christian political philosophy, and the nature of liberal arts education. Amongst his many works are Reason, Revelation, and the Foundations of Political Philosophy; Another Sort of Learning; At the Limits of Political Philosophy; Jacques Maritain: The Philosopher in Society; The Modern Age; The Order of Things. Schall on college friends: http://www.thehoya.com/ On college life (and drinking): http://www.thehoya.com/ "Thus, if I am concerned about teaching or lecturing or grading, it is because I am most concerned about the highest things to which we are called, called by being attracted to them in our souls, which are themselves open to what is beyond us. Yet we want truth and love and wisdom to end in us, so that the kind of learning I am interested in always comes back, in these reflections, to that which calls us outside of ourselves, but only because there are things or truths about our lives which we should know and want to know." –James Schall, Another Sort of Learning |