tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59030599381537343212024-03-05T18:23:40.352-05:00History and Politics @ AUhistorypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.comBlogger309125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-60164364968832153092020-03-05T10:49:00.002-05:002020-03-05T10:49:24.228-05:00Oxford'<span style="font-family: inherit;">s Classics program recently proposed removing the study of Homer's <i>Iliad </i>and Virgil's <i>Aeneid</i>, according to <i><a href="https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2020/02/17/94749/">The Oxford Student</a>. </i>Dr. David West, Assistant Professor of History here at AU, weighs in on this c</span>ontroversial decision:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Oxford's Classics program is apparently planning not to make the study of Homer and Vergil compulsory anymore to... Classics majors. This means that the History and Political Science majors in my course this spring on Homer's <i>Iliad</i> and Vergil's <i>Aeneid</i> are getting a better education in the Classics than students of Latin and Greek at Oxford will going forward. Another victory for Ashbrook and Ashland University! Although students don't read these epics in the Greek or Latin original in this course, they do, nevertheless, read the epics, and engage with foundational ideas about honor, courage, heroism, warfare, political power, the nature and role of divine power in human life, the human passions, and the place of human beings in the cosmos. Homer and Vergil's poetic exploration of these themes has continuously elicited responses from the greatest minds of the Western tradition, from Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero to Dante, Milton, and Nietzsche. </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">
<span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Among the opponents of the plan to eliminate the Homer and Vergil requirement in Oxford's Classics program is an undergraduate who, in an interview with </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 14px;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Oxford Student, </span></i><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">stated the problem quite eloquently: "Removing Homer and Virgil would be a terrible and fatal mistake. {The proposal} would mean that firstly, Oxford would be producing Classicists who have never read Homer and never read Virgil, who are the central authors of the Classical tradition and most of Classical literature, in one way or another, looks back to Homer and interacts with the <i>Iliad</i>. Removing it would be a shame because Homer has been the foundation of the classical tradition since antiquity and it is impossible to understand what comes after him without studying him first..."</span></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
To learn more about AU's History and Political Science program, visit our <a href="https://www.ashland.edu/cas/departments/history-political-science-department">website</a>. AUHistory&PoliScihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03201880300863575252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-84241952236428915912019-11-11T15:09:00.000-05:002019-11-11T15:09:22.467-05:00AU in Costa Rica Information Meeting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihf0UIYetQgrq_AVBd0jZts66Hkm7Pc2Jrk6NEVhnA4opyUdXYP7bn4bT-_Y6cN8ngl8c4hzMb5hY999bN5cEGM1oTAzZeWBlmyjvXcWn9ccLGn4xMR0qpFNdIr9bElW0FFTK4p5m-Efpm/s1600/AU+in+Costa+Rica+Info+Meeting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihf0UIYetQgrq_AVBd0jZts66Hkm7Pc2Jrk6NEVhnA4opyUdXYP7bn4bT-_Y6cN8ngl8c4hzMb5hY999bN5cEGM1oTAzZeWBlmyjvXcWn9ccLGn4xMR0qpFNdIr9bElW0FFTK4p5m-Efpm/s640/AU+in+Costa+Rica+Info+Meeting.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />AUHistory&PoliScihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03201880300863575252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-5558410133687349412019-04-05T09:09:00.003-04:002019-04-05T09:09:53.049-04:00Best of Luck to Our Majors Presenting at 2019 URCA!The History and Political Science Department wishes its majors the best of luck as they present their work at the 2019 CAS Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (URCA) Symposium on Tuesday!<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;"><u>Kaitlyn Bailey</u></span>, </b>History, Political Science, & English major<br /><b>Topic</b>: Answering the Battle Cry of Freedom: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Call to Noble Action<br />
<div>
<i>The aim of Bailey's project is to understand the Civil War experience of Chamberlain, most known for defending Little Round Top at Gettysburg, through his own words. The center of this experience was what Chamberlain labeled the “call to noble action.” By understanding the call to noble action, one can better understand the experiences Chamberlain and his men had during the Civil War.</i></div>
<br /><b><span style="color: #351c75;"><u>Naomi Sims</u></span></b>, Political Science & Creative Writing major<br /><b>Topic:</b> The Relationship of Artificial Intelligence and Humanity: <i>Andy</i>, the Analysis of a Screenplay<br />
<div>
<i>In her presentation, Sims will explore AI through film as opposed to more formal academic mediums because film provokes thought and introspection by placing the viewer in the shoes of a character. She will discuss the possibility of AI wanting to be human rather than to destroy humanity. AI as human raises philosophical, moral, and political questions which she will seek to answer by creating a fictional world and exploring what those relationships could look like.</i></div>
<br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;"><u>Hendrick Stoops</u></span></b>, Political Science major<br /><b>Topic</b>: Power, Politics, & Public: The Sublime & Depraved Uses of Zeppelins in Germany<br />
<div>
<i>Stoops' study examines the political influences of and on Zeppelins, particularly in the Weimar and Nazi eras, in order to better understand their importance to the German people and government. He examines primary documents, and three particular ships covered in them, to highlight the links between Zeppelins and sociopolitical identity.</i></div>
<div>
<i> </i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i>More information about URCA, including full abstracts for each presentation, can be found on their <a href="http://ashlandurca.blogspot.com/">blog</a>. </div>
AUHistory&PoliScihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03201880300863575252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-40295817039240836542018-05-11T09:58:00.000-04:002018-05-11T09:58:18.219-04:00Democracy needs Education in Ideas<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>David Smith,</b> a lecturer in American history at Baylor University, wrote an interesting column for the <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/10/democracy-dies-materialism-us-risk" target="_blank">The Dallas Morning News</a> on May 11, 2018. Here's one way he puts the argument:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Unlike accounting,
marketing or computer programming, which are skills, human rights, a free
press and democratic government are ideas. Consequently, if
those who believe in democracy don't stay conversant with ideas and how they
should influence us, an appreciation of the subtleties that allow democracy to
work will dissolve. We're already seeing it every time we turn on the news.</span></blockquote>
Here's the whole column:<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Democracy Dies in Materialism and the U.S. is at Risk<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shortly after the inauguration of Donald Trump, in what amounted
to an ongoing editorial about his administration, <i>The</i> <i>Washington
Post</i> situated the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" right
below the paper's masthead. It's a bold pronouncement: not entirely
inaccurate, but one that falls far short of encompassing the broader threat to
the democratic order in the United States.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's more accurate to
say that democracy dies in materialism, by which I mean our utilitarian
attitude today that knowledge is rooted only in marketable skills. It changes
our perception of democracy from being a way to secure abstract rights and
liberties into a means by which we can have fewer limits on what we obtain,
measure each other by what we have and block those who disagree with us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A materialistic view
doesn't equip us to think deeply about human rights, civil rights, the role of
government or human flourishing. It cripples our ability to
think historically and critically, and so reinforces the tribalism that's already
transforming our politics into isolated echo chambers of certainty and
hostility. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As a teacher I see
this constantly. "I love history and I would major in it, but my parents
won't let me," is one of the saddest things a student has ever said to
me. What she meant was that she loved it and wanted to study it but
her parents insisted she get a degree that would get her a job.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I've heard it more
than once and it's emblematic of our current approach to
education: Skills — not the development of rational thought — are
what students are after. There's nothing wrong with making a good living,
but it's not the same as being educated. Wisdom and perspective, not skills, are
the antidote for what ails us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unlike accounting,
marketing or computer programming, which are skills, human rights, a free
press and democratic government are ideas. Consequently, if
those who believe in democracy don't stay conversant with ideas and how they
should influence us, an appreciation of the subtleties that allow democracy to
work will dissolve. We're already seeing it every time we turn on the news.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Abraham Lincoln
watched it dissolve in the early years of his presidency, but he understood
that the real foundation of the U.S. was an ideological enterprise, not a
material nuts-and-bolts one. For him, the Declaration of Independence was
a more important founding document than the Constitution, even
though that's what the inconclusive political fights leading up to the
Civil War had all been about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Declaration of
Independence by contrast was rooted in abstract ideas about rights, government
authority, power and liberties, and it provided the measure of what we ought to
do. As he stood at Gettysburg distilling for the crowd the reason they had to
keep fighting, Lincoln drew on this. "Four score and seven years
ago," he began, taking his listeners back to 1776, not 1787. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lincoln knew the only
thing that could bind the nation together was its "mystic chords of
memory," as he later put it, not any material well-being or the
Constitutional interpretation of the interstate commerce clause. But if I
tried to justify my history courses by invoking mystic chords of memory, I'd be
laughed out of most administrators' offices. I can't imagine the reaction
of that one students' parents if she were to inform them she wanted to spend
her four years at the university studying mystic chords of memory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's not that everyone
back in Lincoln's time went around talking about ideas seven days a
week. But for a nation with its roots in ideas, understanding both
our history and our present requires the ability to engage substantively with
them. To see rightly where we are now and to understand the
consequences of the choices we make requires us to measure our actions in light
of the ideas on which our country is based. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That seems like a
simple task. But our materialism makes it more difficult.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-32113007665418384612018-04-12T16:54:00.001-04:002018-04-12T16:54:42.776-04:00Advanced Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) DROP-IN SESSION<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC5hGiqbXLALOapQ8fPwdW0rW-bK3ChTUg6YZhtYMBWjLTKtPZVcV09y3P-vcWLxLMY_xaA7ry1VeR3QZp2W2EmMRBHXI4ea_JdGKxcW8hB8RnZiRRE7jeOKjyL5gDpWxrWlweyIT4e4rQ/s1600/ATIC+post+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="182" data-original-width="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC5hGiqbXLALOapQ8fPwdW0rW-bK3ChTUg6YZhtYMBWjLTKtPZVcV09y3P-vcWLxLMY_xaA7ry1VeR3QZp2W2EmMRBHXI4ea_JdGKxcW8hB8RnZiRRE7jeOKjyL5gDpWxrWlweyIT4e4rQ/s1600/ATIC+post+photo.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Learn more about ATIC at this “Come & Go” session.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Wednesday, April 18 from 1:30 – 3 p.m.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Ronk Lecture Hall, Schar College of Education</div>
<br />
ATIC offers 14-week in-residence internships near Dayton in either Intelligence to become an all-source intelligence analyst or Cyber Data Security to become a cybersecurity analyst<br />
<br />
During an internship at ATIC, you will:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Learn from leaders in the Intelligence community in organizations such as CIA, FBI, NSA, DEA.</li>
<li>Learn by doing, discovering and exploring cybersecurity and data analysis in an experiential learning environment.</li>
<li>Earn 12 semester hours of credit.</li>
<li>Be eligible for Secret or Top Secret Security Clearance.</li>
</ul>
<br />
www.ashland.edu/ATIC<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>BE CAREER READY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!</b></div>
Ashland University’s Partnership with the Advanced Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) opens doors for your career as either an Intelligence Analyst or as a Cyber Analyst.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Who can participate in the Intelligence Program?</b></u><br />
Students from many majors are needed in the Intelligence Community, for example majors in Criminal Justice, History/Political Science, Math, Computer Sciences, Natural Sciences, Accounting, Economics, Communication Studies, Foreign Languages, Psychology, Philosophy, English and others. Students must be 20 years of age, a U.S. citizen and have no felony convictions.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Who can participate in the Cyber Data Program?</u></b><br />
Most likely Computer Science or Information Systems majors or minors. Students must be 18 years of age, and complete a criminal background check. The benefits of an internship at ATIC continue after completion of the internship as ATIC staff helps expedite the process to get graduates on the job.<br />
<br />
<b><u>APPLICATION PROCEDURES</u></b><br />
Additional information and the approval form may be found on the College of Arts and Sciences pages at Ashland.edu/ATIC.AUHistory&PoliScihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03201880300863575252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-23027385781528786742018-04-05T09:45:00.002-04:002018-04-05T09:45:53.796-04:00Best of Luck to Our Majors Presenting at URCA!The History and Political Science Department wishes its following majors the best of luck as they present their work at the 2018 CAS Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium on Wednesday!<br />
<br />
<u><span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Rebecca Young</b>, Music & History major</span></u><br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
<i>alongside Drew Berlin, Samantha Eron, Gracie Fumic, Kendra Garver, Mia Kardotzke, Maya Rickard, Anna Rivero, and Corey Turpin</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>My Charming Mademoiselle from Act II of The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti</b></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"These students from Opera Workshop class in the music department will demonstrate their knowledge of classical vocal techniques, stage acting and modern music through the live performance of a scene from the opera The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti."</blockquote>
<br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><u><b>Dennis J Clark</b>, Political Science major</u></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Machiavellian Faith and Foundings </b></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The founding of a regime—one wholly new—represents the birth of new modes and orders under one who has risen from private citizen to prince. Niccolò Machiavelli discusses such foundings in chapter six of <i>The Prince</i>; he examines the actions and character of those who found new principalities at the highest level, those to whom he refers as “prophets”1: Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, and Theseus. I intend to outline how these princes are similar and where they differ in their actions, and what those similarities and differences reveal about what Machiavelli believes can be learned from the example of these men."</blockquote>
<br />
<b><u><span style="color: #351c75;">Sabrina Maristela</span></u></b><span style="color: #351c75;"><u>, Political Science, Spanish, & Philosophy major</u></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Machiavellian Faith and Foundings </b></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"John Milton’s <i>Paradise Lost</i> is an epic poem published in 1667 and revised in 1674 that explicates the “Fortunate Fall” of man...I examine a scene in Pandemonium in Book X after Eve’s temptation and man’s punishment to reveal the just nature of divine punishment and identify that the distinction between Hellish and Earthly punishments is a result of God’s omni-benevolence."</blockquote>
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<b><span style="color: #351c75;"><u>Jacquelyn Dambrosio</u></span></b><u><span style="color: #351c75;">, History & Political Science major</span></u><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Aristotle and Machiavelli on Fortune as a Means to Happiness</b></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"In my presentation, I will be comparing and contrasting Book One of Aristotle’s <i>Nicomachean Ethics</i> with chapter twenty-five of Machiavelli’s The Prince. I will be elaborating on their views of the importance of fortune in achieving the highest human goal."</blockquote>
<br />AUHistory&PoliScihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03201880300863575252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-66759993427726655362018-03-03T15:13:00.000-05:002018-03-03T15:13:27.756-05:00The Case for Majoring in the Liberal Arts - Once Again<div class="MsoNormal">
In "If You Want Your Child to Succeed, Don’t Sell Liberal Arts
Short," Michael Zinn, a creative strategist at Digital Surgeons, makes the case for the liberal arts. Among other things, he quotes Albert Einstein to the effect that the "value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is the whole column from the Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2018. p. A13: </div>
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<br /></div>
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Critical-thinking skills are useful in any profession, and
not all classes are obscurantist or politicized.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s college admissions season, and every parent is mulling
the perennial question: “What major will help my child get a good job?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Standard answers today invariably center on science,
technology, engineering and mathematics, often referred to as STEM. Given the skyrocketing
costs of higher education, parents and students alike can be forgiven for
viewing a college degree as a passport into the professional world, and STEM
majors are seen as the best route to professional success.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But my advice is to let your child know that a liberal-arts
degree can be a great launching pad for a career in just about any industry.
Majoring in philosophy, history or English literature will not consign a
graduate to a fate of perpetual unemployment. Far from it. I say this as a trained
classicist—yes, you can still study ancient Greek and Latin—who decided to make
a transition into the tech world.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I am far from alone. There are plenty of entrepreneurs,
techies and private-equity managers with liberal-arts degrees. Damon Horowitz,
a cofounder of the search engine Aardvark, holds a doctorate in philosophy.
Slack founder Stewart Butterfield and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman both earned
master’s degrees in philosophy. The startup where I work employs computer
programmers who studied musical composition and philosophy as undergraduates.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Throughout history it has been common for people to study
subjects with no immediate relationship to their intended professions. In
antiquity, education was intended to enrich students’ lives. Pragmatic benefits
such as rhetorical ability, logical reasoning and business skills were welcome
byproducts of a good education. The phrase “liberal arts” comes from the Latin
word liberalis, meaning “worthy of a free person.” A liberal-arts education
gives someone the freedom to participate fully in civic life.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The liberal arts are lately associated with esoteric areas
of study. It is true that there are professors teaching Homer, Shakespeare or
Jane Austen using dense, impenetrable jargon. I cannot follow most of what
those professors say. I doubt many can, even the students who obnoxiously nod
along. But professors who attempt to dress up or show off their learning by
employing dense, turgid language do their fields—and their students—a great
disservice.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The liberal arts are not the purview of a particular
ideology or political interest group. Though the liberal arts have cultivated a
reputation as a home for radical professors and “woke” students, rest assured
that plenty of liberal-arts teachers and majors are anything but activists. The
radicals get the headlines simply because their voices are the loudest. I
taught undergraduates while I was in graduate school. My students came in every
ideological and political stripe imaginable. Some were left-wing organizers while
others were staunch conservatives. I am happy to report that students of all
political persuasions were able to offer sharp insights on Virgil’s poetry.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Fields of study centered on philosophy, history, literature,
art and music help us appreciate the ambiguity of the world, which in turn
exercises our creative muscles. Liberal-arts courses don’t offer clearly
defined answers to questions. Rather, they nurture disagreement among students
and help them develop the ability to marshal cogent arguments in support of
defensible positions. The ability to express a viewpoint verbally and then
articulate it in writing is a skill that will serve graduates whether they are
pitching a business plan to a venture-capital firm or writing a report to
shareholders explaining why their portfolios took a hit last quarter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We should update the liberal arts to take into consideration
the realities of the modern world. Software permeates nearly everything. All
students, no matter their major, should develop a basic familiarity with coding
tool sets such as true-false statements, also called “Booleans,” and if-then or
conditional statements.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But coders gain, too, from studying the liberal arts. “The
value of an education in a liberal arts college,” said Albert Einstein, “is not
the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that
cannot be learned from textbooks.” Constructing arguments based on historical
evidence or studying rhetoric to improve one’s ability to persuade an audience
has obvious applications. Interdisciplinary approaches to solving problems are
crucial to addressing modern challenges such as cultivating relationships in an
increasingly digital world and creatively integrating new technologies into
different sectors of the economy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So when parents ask themselves “What course of study will
help my child get a job?” they shouldn’t think only about how the workforce
operates today but how it will operate 10 or 20 years down the road. Though no
one knows for sure exactly what the landscape will look like, we can be certain
that critical thinking will still have value. And in that world, so will a
liberal-arts degree.<o:p></o:p></div>
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historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-20483758168524638352018-03-03T15:02:00.002-05:002018-03-03T15:02:27.026-05:00Model Arab League 2017<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXyrxkVO2I605uyyB6GRMtKn6Fh98XpwAQY9GsWeYFsXnyZWgfL-ZgCisw0V0raVwcTKkdbJAchgfzu7_HsT2tjU3TjYPujjBg-LZ3cAGpoEvXRz6eE6Q2bmFUgFyPh8dYAoyQn_FzhJY/s1600/MAL+-+Feb+2017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXyrxkVO2I605uyyB6GRMtKn6Fh98XpwAQY9GsWeYFsXnyZWgfL-ZgCisw0V0raVwcTKkdbJAchgfzu7_HsT2tjU3TjYPujjBg-LZ3cAGpoEvXRz6eE6Q2bmFUgFyPh8dYAoyQn_FzhJY/s400/MAL+-+Feb+2017.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The delegation from the Department of History and Political Science to the 2018 Model Arab League competition at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio. Ashland represented Lebanon and were led by Dr. Greg McBrayer,historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-24740975120994249342018-02-05T14:57:00.000-05:002018-02-05T14:57:21.289-05:00Global Education Grant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfV0Z9Q7IZgqbseCLOaX43e4_xkp_lMEh2TcGz56uYpRxMDTh08fODSBijv6l5USjyrluCWdpo7h4h6qcPWxLPU1s2d75Vz3-88blQpbf_uyDwYE8NuRasviZsQKGeXEEzcxFlBQm0KWI/s1600/02.05.18+Canva+Global+Ed+Grant+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1281" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfV0Z9Q7IZgqbseCLOaX43e4_xkp_lMEh2TcGz56uYpRxMDTh08fODSBijv6l5USjyrluCWdpo7h4h6qcPWxLPU1s2d75Vz3-88blQpbf_uyDwYE8NuRasviZsQKGeXEEzcxFlBQm0KWI/s400/02.05.18+Canva+Global+Ed+Grant+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-35330194286510869832018-01-27T13:40:00.000-05:002018-01-27T13:40:29.260-05:00The use of Latin in the Civil War eraA recent article by Andrew Dinan in <i>The Classical Journal</i> (Vol 113, No. 2) argues that Latin was quite widely used in the United States during the Civil War. The article describes Latin poems, inscriptions, letters, and reports and essays. Among them is an inscription at a Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts that was designed "to express, though imperfectly, the gratitude felt to those of our countrymen who have given their lives to achieve the greatest moral and social results of modern times." The inscription nicely sums up the Civil War:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
AMERICA CONSERVATA<br />AFRICA LIBERATA<br />POPULO MAGNO ASSURGENTE<br />HEROUM SANGUINE FUSO</blockquote>
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<br />historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-87193502746098880142018-01-27T11:17:00.002-05:002018-01-27T11:17:41.163-05:00Anti-Slavery Manuscripts at the Boston Public Library<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is an opportunity to do some interesting work with primary sources in American history. The Boston Public Library is calling </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">for volunteers to help transcribe their extensive collection of handwritten correspondence between anti-slavery activists in the 19th century into texts that can be more easily read and researched by students, teachers, historians, and big data applications. See the website here: <a href="https://www.antislaverymanuscripts.org/?utm_source=asmlaunch" target="_blank">antislaverymanuscripts</a>.</span>historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-51902992368957104482018-01-23T15:50:00.001-05:002018-01-23T15:50:36.961-05:00South Korea Study Abroad Meeting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRG2YWMZaQ3GdYju09Rey4tuDTwr1Z0lrc6O_nBFQSOqccnJWwf0XX_HKzCe7Kjg1LPqY8OB1bxZaTwjq3JrjWlKd03iRoLtQCd0KCxwIVeV9xqFXOrn6gxQ3J-GrWwvLfRHHaOM_-61E/s1600/01.23.18+South+Korea+Info+Meeting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="858" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRG2YWMZaQ3GdYju09Rey4tuDTwr1Z0lrc6O_nBFQSOqccnJWwf0XX_HKzCe7Kjg1LPqY8OB1bxZaTwjq3JrjWlKd03iRoLtQCd0KCxwIVeV9xqFXOrn6gxQ3J-GrWwvLfRHHaOM_-61E/s640/01.23.18+South+Korea+Info+Meeting.jpg" width="375" /></a></div>
<br />historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-90759225397877209372018-01-18T21:15:00.001-05:002018-01-27T11:22:17.792-05:00The New LyceumA group of recently graduated History and Political Science majors and Ashbrook Scholars has started an interesting new online journal called <i>The New Lyceum. </i>They have already published quite a few good articles by current and former students on all kinds of cultural, political, moral, and historical topics. For a sample, try <a href="https://newlyceum.org/blog/2018/1/15/evil-in-defense-of-liberty-hbos-deadwood" target="_blank">this</a> nice analysis by Connor Murnane, of the Netflix series <i>Deadwood</i>. Peruse many others <a href="https://newlyceum.org/" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
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According to the website, <i>The New Lyceum</i><br />
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provides analysis of current issues that affect the body politic. It does so out of a belief that man is reasonable – he can come to understand truth through rational discourse." Expanding on this idea, the editors write that "Reason alone distinguishes Man from all other life. By the power of reason, he can discern truth. A natural byproduct of reason is disagreement. Civil disagreement leads to discourse that destroys poorly developed arguments and nurtures those arguments that lead to truth. Sadly, our culture has lost the ability to respectfully disagree. Some people only want to converse with those who think like they do. Others believe that to criticize another’s point of view is to attack their character and thus avoid serious discussions altogether. This has impoverished the political and cultural life of our country, and an effort to revive public discourse is necessary.</blockquote>
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The New Lyceum seeks to aid that revival. We will write on a wide variety of issues, and our authors may defend opposing sides on those issues. Our articles will be written as arguments. They will not belittle and will aim to persuade those who disagree.</blockquote>
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Nicely done Joey, Nick, Josh, and James! </div>
historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-49203982405745398252018-01-14T10:39:00.002-05:002018-01-14T10:39:50.970-05:00Prof. Sikkenga on Sabbatical <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQMzZw6s7CxGJ6kHaqvlQQnww6TwLCzdsK6jqMPZktg4KJ4tVBTYWopU66pySRaUDAblYZQ0Oa5utBC_EIpStidv9s0BK_n1pkJrzaynu95DZ63_-JNQ1Tk9fa4-hQu8b24zhE23ZdxDk/s1600/Lincoln%2527s+House+-+From+Jeff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQMzZw6s7CxGJ6kHaqvlQQnww6TwLCzdsK6jqMPZktg4KJ4tVBTYWopU66pySRaUDAblYZQ0Oa5utBC_EIpStidv9s0BK_n1pkJrzaynu95DZ63_-JNQ1Tk9fa4-hQu8b24zhE23ZdxDk/s320/Lincoln%2527s+House+-+From+Jeff.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Professor <b>Jeff Sikkenga</b> is spending his sabbatical this year in California. While driving across the country for two weeks, he and his family stopped at a number of historical sites, including Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois (see the photo) and Mark Twain's hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. Driving that far with kids in a crowded car renewed his appreciation of Hobbes' political thought. <div>
<br />During the fall he lived in Monterey and was a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This semester he is a visiting professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy in Malibu. While on leave, he is working on a book on John Locke's <i>A Letter Concerning Toleration </i>and finishing a revised second edition of <i>History of American Political Thought</i>, for which he wrote a chapter on the political thought of Barack Obama.</div>
historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-71864051219150983282017-12-18T13:08:00.000-05:002017-12-18T13:09:05.807-05:00Second Place Taylor Essay by Jackson Yenor<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">We Have Less Time Than We Think</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Let’s
assume that I will live to be 72 years old, the typical age of a male living in
the 21</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">st</sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> century. If I average sleeping one hour less than what is
recommended by a physician, I will spend at least 24 years of my life doing so.
Right off the bat, I am down 24 years before my life ends. 48 years to go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Babies do not develop memories until they are
around three years old. My first memory is following my father down the hallway
as he spoke of political philosophy to a graduate school friend. I was 3 years
old. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">45 years to go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">From
ages 6 to 18, I was in school. Let’s assume that I spent 7 hours at school and
3 hours doing sports and homework. If you subtract the 2 hours of actual
learning that took place in that time each day, I will have eaten up 4 years of
my conscious time in school doing things I did not want to do, and learning
things I did not want to learn (and this version of Jackson didn’t go to
college). 41 years to go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">I
have graduated high school. Let’s say I get a nice job. With weekends and
holidays subtracted, I will work 233 days out of the year for about 45 years. If
I work an 8 hour a day with 1 hour commute there and back, I will have spent 11
years of my life in the full consciousness of doing a job. I have 30 years to
go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">I
am a male who needs to tend to my hygiene. I will probably spend 2 hours a week
showering, brushing my teeth, shaving, and doing laundry. I will probably spend
another 3 hours shopping, getting gas, and running various errands. I will
spend another 2 hours a week using the restroom and washing my hands. I will
spend another 4 hours per week (not including any dinner with family and
friends) eating food alone. Lastly, while I am a healthy guy, I will probably
spend 4 days a year feeling sick and debilitated. A year of my life will be
spent in the misery of sickness. All in all, I will spend 6 years to keep
myself clean, fed, and remotely comfortable, without ever thinking much of
anything. 24 years to go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Given
these mostly average assumptions about my life as an American, I can look and
confidently say that I will have 24 years of uninterrupted consciousness to
spend time with family, friends, reading good books, even travelling. I have 24
years for the good things in life, for leisure. Not bad!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">But
it seems that we Americans have missed this point. The average American adult (and
for children, it is more) will absorb 5 hours of television, video games, and movies
each day. Once they turn 65, it will move up to 7 hours a day. All this taken
into account, nearly 10 years of life is spent around mediums of entertainment.
14 years to go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">The
average adult will also spend 4 hours a day on his phone. Generously assuming
that one of these daily hours was worthwhile, we are still spending 3 hours a
day in the course of our lifetime scrolling pointlessly through our phones,
snorting silent laughter, crushing infinite candy cubes, and observing with
envy the lives of people we have never met. 9 years to go. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">These
are all things that most Americans will do for most of their life, even if they
are decent. I am still not accounting for the thousands who think it worth
their free time to pursue in great excess the other base things of life. Next
time you think to waste a moment, think 9 years. Think that if you keep doing
the things you ought not to be doing, those experiences will pile onto one
another in great haste, without your input or control.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Perhaps
human beings must realize that, after the necessary things in life are set
aside, there is much less time than we think to develop our virtues, love our
family, and cherish our true friendships, and ultimately the amount of time our
minds we will have to do the things that are worthwhile is scarce, precious,
and fleeting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Next
time you reach for the remote control or open your iPhone, think 9 Years. It
might be all you really have.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-4504117936420543312017-12-05T10:49:00.001-05:002017-12-05T10:49:54.315-05:00Morgan Miller's Summer Internship at Acton Institute<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">This summer, <b>Morgan Miller</b> (Political Science and Philosophy double major and Ashbrook Scholar) did an internship at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She worked with the Programs and Education team whose main project was Acton University, a three day conference </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">with over 1,000 participants from 80 different countries. Here is how Morgan describes her work: "Before the start of Acton University, some of my duties included assigning course monitors to Acton University sessions, preparing course packets for the participants, and creating stipends for international and domestic fellowship students. After Acton University, I helped create reports ranging from 30 to 400 pages in length with the information gathered by the participants of the conference. The Acton Institute hosted many luncheons for the interns to discuss thinkers like Frederick Hayek and Abraham Kuyper. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUGAeQfQRA9xB3AdF2fDQsqT28uztapSNMwl-tagSMn2_nmrdPY4Jfpq1N-TTk6wDO_25Jn9h5P1QdKtk589ctcAYnVUaqYJmm9QwJh1_F5cH-yiIeCU2dkPDbUxSn12LXJ5Pw8Itcil0/s1600/Acton+Building.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1188" data-original-width="670" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUGAeQfQRA9xB3AdF2fDQsqT28uztapSNMwl-tagSMn2_nmrdPY4Jfpq1N-TTk6wDO_25Jn9h5P1QdKtk589ctcAYnVUaqYJmm9QwJh1_F5cH-yiIeCU2dkPDbUxSn12LXJ5Pw8Itcil0/s320/Acton+Building.jpg" width="180" /></a><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">"In the few months I worked for the Acton Institute as an intern, I was surrounded by like-minded people that pushed me to think seriously about the way I viewed the world--everyone was eager to have a discussion or provide materials to help me expand my understanding on a particular area of study. It was in these months at Acton that I began to realize the implications of man as created in the image of God endowed with creativity to flourish fully if given liberty and a free market. I believe that because of my time at the Acton Institute, I have a fuller understanding of why these principles are important as well as a deeper passion for defending them."</span></div>
historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-24951446512352658292017-12-05T10:38:00.000-05:002017-12-05T10:38:30.173-05:00Taylor Essay Award Winners<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Every semester Ashbrook Scholars compete in an essay writing competition. Authors chose their own topics and a first draft is critiqued in a writing seminar; winners are chosen from the revised versions. Below are the winners from the FA 2017 competition. Congratulations all! You can read the first place essay at the bottom of the page and in subsequent days, we'll add the second and third place essays. In the spring all the winning essays will be published in <i>Res Publica. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">First place: "The Good Catastrophe" by <b>Caleb Boyer</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Second place: "We Have Less Time Than We Think" by <b>Jackson Yenor</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Third Place: "Waiting for Change: It's Time to Abolish Tipping"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> by <b>Lucas </b></span><b style="font-family: inherit;">Trott</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Honorable Mention: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "Through the Lens of Mary" by <b style="background-color: transparent;">Morgan Miller</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "Contrasts in Community: Healing at Home by Looking Abroad" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> by <b>Dennis Clark </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">"In the </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1053605506" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204 , 204 , 204); font-family: inherit; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Midnight</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> of the Mind" by </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">Tyler MacQueen</b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Good Catastrophe</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">by Caleb Boyer</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Most
of us stopped reading fairy tales a long time ago. We often stop reading them
as we get older. At the least, we stop taking them seriously. When I say fairy
tales, I recall the fantastical stories written by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien,
and authors like them. Their writings are the noblest and most complete kind of
fairy tale, because they contain what Tolkien called “eucatastrophe” or, put
simply, the good catastrophe. This term represents the sudden turn of events in
a story which ensures the triumph of the good and the consolation of a happy
ending. In his essay </span><i style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">On Fairy-Stories</i><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">,
Tolkien claimed that such stories did not deny the existence of sorrow, failure,
or evil. On the contrary, the existence of evil only heightens the joy of the
good that is to prevail. However, fairy tales containing eucatastrophe did deny
“universal final defeat.” In the end, goodness and virtue win against all odds.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Then
we grow up. Experiencing the reality of our world has a way of invalidating our
hope in goodness, virtue, and happy endings. Eventually we disregard fairy
tales entirely and cease to believe in the existence of the good catastrophe. Instead
we desire stories that reside in moral grey areas with “complex” characters that
flippantly adhere to good and evil without consequence or redemption. We crave books,
movies, and television series that end in catastrophe and final defeat. We
argue that these stories are more valuable and relevant to our lives, because
they seek to accurately reflect our reality and reveal something true about who
and what we are as human beings. In actuality, we find these stories more
attractive than fairy tales, because they demand little of us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Stories that seek to reflect our
reality do not directly compel us to pursue virtue. At the most, stories of
ultimate final defeat, catastrophe, and moral tragedy may leave us displeased with
the state of our reality and humanity, but they neglect to aim our mind and
actions at something better. These stories leave us without a higher maxim of
virtue to work toward. Eventually, we become blind to virtue and goodness
itself, and we often prefer it this way. Human beings are complacent creatures
and averse to being told they are wrong. This inclination only becomes stronger
with age.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Fairy tales oppose our
complacency and challenge our fear of being wrong. In stories that contain the
good catastrophe, we discover an imagined reality and humanity that achieves a
happy ending through goodness and virtue. In comparison to this achievement, we
recognize the deficiencies of our own reality and humanity, and are convicted
to change. However, we prefer the absence of the good catastrophe and the
principle of virtue that it comprehends for the sake of complacency and pride.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">C.S. Lewis wrote, “Some day you
will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” Children possess a
characteristic that we often lose as we grow older. Due to their sense of
innocence and curiosity, children are not afraid of being wrong. Interestingly
enough, children are also incredibly creative. By their very nature, children
reveal an obvious truth: creativity, innovation, and true change require that
human beings risk being wrong and making mistakes. Children eventually lose
this capacity, because they are taught that being wrong is the worst thing you
can be. Our businesses, education systems, and fellow human beings stigmatize
mistakes. As a result, we no longer want to risk being wrong, and lose our
capacity for change and the pursuit of virtue. Perhaps someday we will be old
enough to risk being wrong again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">If we overcome our complacency and
fear of mistakes, we will recognize our desperate need for fairy tales. We
don’t need to be told who we are, because, in </span><i style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">reality</i><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">, deep down, we already know who we are. We need to be given
a glimpse of who we could and perhaps ought to be. We need fairy tales. We need
the good catastrophe.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">There is no doubt that fairy
tales give us stories and characters that comprehend a standard of goodness and
virtue we can never perfectly achieve, but that is the point.</span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> There is a Bonnie Tyler song
called “Holding Out for a Hero.” The second half of the chorus reads, “I’m
holding out for a hero ‘til the morning light/He’s gotta be sure/And it’s gotta
be soon/And he’s gotta be larger than life!” That last line is important. We
need heroes who are larger than ourselves and even larger than life itself. In
other words, the best and most virtuous heroes demand superiority and,
therefore, inequality. Unlike many of the fictional characters in literature
and entertainment today, true heroes are not one of us. They are better than
us. Establishing this distinction and, thus, maintaining the superiority that
it comprehends is essential to our perception of virtue and provides us with a
standard by which we may adjust and adorn our lives. Fairy tales have the
unique and almost exclusive capacity for giving us heroes who are always and
forever larger than life. If you will, fairy tales are the magic mirrors of our
reality. By them, we do not see a reflection of ourselves as we are, but rather
we are given a glimpse of the human beings we could become.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">However,
there is a catch: if we don’t believe in a reality where the good catastrophe
is possible, our struggle to be virtuous is meaningless. But how can we rationally
believe in a happy ending when the reality of our world appears to contradict
its existence? C.S. Lewis said, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in
this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for
another world.” Fairy tales challenge and inspire us to be virtuous. More
importantly, they suggest that we are made for something better. They all point
to the ultimate hope that burns within our hearts: that a happy ending is
certain and awaits us.</span></div>
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historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-53760414670904195502017-11-29T10:11:00.001-05:002017-11-29T10:11:56.433-05:00Dr. Paddags' Sabbatical UpdateWhile on sabbatical, Dr. Paddags has found a temporary home at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuettel, Germany, where he is a visiting scholar during the Fall 2017. The library has an extensive collection of works from the early modern period, including the 18th century. Also, it is famous for the Evangeliar of Henry the Lion, one of world's most precious books. For Dr. Paddags research at the library has been very productive, thanks to the excellent collection, the knowledgeable and helpful staff, and the various seminars and lectures held at the library. In particular, it was a joy to get a hold of some of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's works - first editions! Also, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing used to be the head librarian for some time and reading some of his letters (in German, Latin, but most of them in French) in the original has been another special treat. In the picture below you can see Dr. Paddags in front of the library's main entrance.<br />
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historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-28194819066882770112017-11-20T22:28:00.001-05:002017-11-20T22:29:22.152-05:00The Department gets more Interesting<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE6GKsNkZSxNUXvnJ5mLG0Rh7Llu_ANWPM-A-SbMmLHFJlJ0naZikvtCcjlo8yf-iXmP9HpdMxqk0koLbzdkSmYNiMCALbus6s3Ex1DdMyF8DXdySvypGMGIq0Cqxvv6EN0mBz6BcIf4g/s1600/Mean+Girls+Meme.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE6GKsNkZSxNUXvnJ5mLG0Rh7Llu_ANWPM-A-SbMmLHFJlJ0naZikvtCcjlo8yf-iXmP9HpdMxqk0koLbzdkSmYNiMCALbus6s3Ex1DdMyF8DXdySvypGMGIq0Cqxvv6EN0mBz6BcIf4g/s320/Mean+Girls+Meme.jpeg" width="180" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirNbSgqJxUZpwBKZiYQcyUJPfp-Y7XbYWprFtiU2IeUSGvnNWlIYPbA9kgDhG0nqstgPpf2dTU9YctB8mkpoK49Vbm45Q5oZkOjuykXn14Th-_sTYiq_ziuFFW4XKS3WAIHqirVTwox9Q/s1600/The+wolf+of+Andrews+meme.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="907" data-original-width="511" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirNbSgqJxUZpwBKZiYQcyUJPfp-Y7XbYWprFtiU2IeUSGvnNWlIYPbA9kgDhG0nqstgPpf2dTU9YctB8mkpoK49Vbm45Q5oZkOjuykXn14Th-_sTYiq_ziuFFW4XKS3WAIHqirVTwox9Q/s320/The+wolf+of+Andrews+meme.jpg" width="178" /></a></div>
historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-14411067173819986092017-11-18T21:33:00.003-05:002017-11-18T22:28:21.867-05:00Update from Brian Le in South Korea<b>Brian Le's </b>study abroad experience in South Korea is turning out to be more interesting perhaps than he expected. One of the two photos below shows him at an historical site in Seoul, and the other is a picture he took of a South Korean border guard in the DMZ between the South and the North; two North Korean border guards peer into the room through the window, trying to intimidate the visitors inside. <br />
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He also wrote this on Friday: "If you have not heard by now, a 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck the southeastern coast of South Korea with its epicenter a mere 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) away from my school on Wednesday afternoon. By Wednesday night, all of the international students had been moved to a nearby church where we rested and were fed. On Thursday morning, state officials inspected the buildings and declared all the dormitory buildings to be safe to enter, and Thursday night, we returned to our dorms. There is supposed news that a larger, magnitude 7-8 earthquake will hit, but only time will tell. Until then, the school has officially paused all campus activities and classes, to be resumed on December 4th, the last week of classes, and then finals week. My credits will still be viable, but in regards to what I will be doing in class those last two weeks, I have no idea. I wanted to let you and the other History/Poli-Sci professors and the Ashbrookers know that Jakson Kennedy and myself are safe, and that as of right now, I am taking advantage of our two week break to go to Seoul and obtain a visa to go to China and visit Beijing on an impromptu solo trip."<br />
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historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-48518381949028494042017-11-07T14:08:00.000-05:002017-11-07T14:08:11.094-05:00AU in Germany Information Meeting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-50822791428132329902017-10-30T22:57:00.002-04:002017-10-30T22:59:07.730-04:00Brian Kilmeade Lectures on Andrew Jackson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Brian Kilmeade,</b> the co-host of Fox and Friends and host of the nationally syndicated radio show, “The Brian Kilmeade Show”, will deliver the second <b>Peter W. Schramm Memorial Lecture</b> on Friday, November 3, 2017 at 7:30 PM, at the beautiful Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield, Ohio. The title of the lecture is "Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans." <br />
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Peter W. Schramm, was a long-time member of the Department of Political Science and Executive Director of the John M. Ashbrook Center. The Lecture is sponsored by Samuel H. and Maria Miller. </div>
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For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact<br />
Carrie Clever at <a href="mailto:cclever@ashbrook.org">cclever@ashbrook.org</a> or call toll-free <a href="tel:877-289-5411">877-289-5411</a>.<br />
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Brian has written 4 books, 3 of which were New York Times best sellers: ”The Games Do Count”, “It’s How You Play the Game” and more recently, “George Washington’s Secret Six” and “Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates” cowritten with Don Yaeger. His fifth book “Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans” is due out in the fall of 2017, again teaming up with Yaeger with the hope of mirroring their previous success.historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-2198177588815326292017-10-13T13:50:00.000-04:002017-10-13T13:50:01.008-04:00Introducing New Faculty: Gregory McBrayer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj2fK19Gzfzs8_LsbR0XvSgRYKM22qyNxSY3q1l7fy14YNySa_sMziURUxxAoI5H72IiLiNsClYKx4ruVLpqVH1RJlldDropZpxOem8v9ZcEtKRvEuFdO-ZyhswQLTGr3Y729j6AXlKh4/s1600/Greg+McBrayer.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj2fK19Gzfzs8_LsbR0XvSgRYKM22qyNxSY3q1l7fy14YNySa_sMziURUxxAoI5H72IiLiNsClYKx4ruVLpqVH1RJlldDropZpxOem8v9ZcEtKRvEuFdO-ZyhswQLTGr3Y729j6AXlKh4/s320/Greg+McBrayer.jpeg" width="179" /></a></div>
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The Department is extremely pleased to welcome three new faculty members this year. One of them is <b>Dr. </b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><b>Gregory A. McBrayer,</b> Assistant
Professor of political science and Director of the AU Core Curriculum (the others will be introduced in subsequent posts). Dr. McBrayer teaches courses in political philosophy
and international relations. Prior to Ashland, he taught at Morehead State University and </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Gettysburg College and </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">was a postdoctoral fellow at
Emory University. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">His research interests are primarily in Classical Political Thought with a s</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">econdary interest in Medieval Political Thought, especially Arabic or Islamic Political Thought. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">He has published articles in </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Interpretation: A Journal of Political
Philosophy</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> and </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Kentron: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Antique</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">, and reviews in a variety of professional journals. He is the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">author (with Mary Nichols and Denise
Schaeffer) of </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Plato’s Euthydemus </i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">(Focus, 2011) and is the editor of </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Xenophon:
The Shorter Writings </i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">(</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">forthcoming from </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Cornell University Press). </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Dr. McBrayer was educated at Emory University (B.A.), the University of Georgia (M.A.), and the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">University of Maryland (Ph.D.). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">An Air Force brat, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Dr. McBrayer </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">grew up all over the world, including Colorado
Springs, CO, and Berlin, Germany, when the Berlin Wall was still standing.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Some of his earliest reflections on politics
came from pondering this enormous edifice that separated peoples and, to his
mind, held citizens hostage by refusing to let them leave.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">But he’s always called Georgia home, and his
parents, sister, and extended family still reside there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Dr. McBrayer says that his interest in liberal education was
sparked in large part by accident. He
was fulfilling a humanities requirement by taking a class called “Classical
Political Thought,” and he can remember saying to himself, “This will be the
most boring class you take in college.” Instead, an outrageous claim made by the
philosopher Socrates in Plato’s dialogue <i>Protagoras</i>
that no one voluntarily does wrong left him at a loss, and he began his studies
of the liberal arts in earnest. His interest in precisely this question carried
all the way through to his doctoral studies: he wrote his dissertation on
Aristotle’s treatment of Socrates’s claim, often called the Socratic Paradox,
in the <i>Nicomachean Ethics</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Among his hobbies are working out, playing and watching baseball (he’s a big Braves fan), reading, writing,
and traveling.</span> </div>
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historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-15903013868374739292017-10-12T20:04:00.000-04:002017-10-12T20:04:02.883-04:00Return of the Polis, Starring History and Polsc FacultyDepartment Faculty and Ben Kunkel star in a new feature in the Star Wars series: "Return of the Polis." Here's the poster (created by a freshman Ashbrook Scholar, who has been studying Xenophon's <u>Education of Cyrus</u>). <br />
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historypolscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14807169965690108871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5903059938153734321.post-21222527046112985382017-10-06T11:56:00.002-04:002017-10-06T14:11:31.299-04:00Brian Le Studies Abroad in Seoul, South Korea<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Brian Le</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> is a History, Political Science, and International Political
Studies triple major (!), as well as an Ashbrook Scholar, who is studying abroad
this semester at Handong Global University in South Korea. He’s studying lots of American legal and
constitutional thought as well as Korean foreign policy and even some Chinese
political theory. Happily, he says that South
Koreans are less worried about North Korea than Americans seem to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He recently spent a
week in Seoul, where he visited gates and palaces from the Chosun (Joseon)
Dynasty, which ruled for five centuries from the late 14th Century until 1897. One of the nearby photos shows Brian at the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">inner gate to the throne plaza at the Gyeongbokgung Palace. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The large statue of a golden man is King Sejong
(the Great), the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty, who is credited with the
creation of the modern day Korean language and the Hangul alphabet. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Brian says he’s signed
up for a trip to the DMZ and will send pictures when that happens. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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