language
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On Listening
What immediate irony! Reading about listening. Indeed, we all tend to do far more reading, I suspect, than we do listening. That often we read poorly does not take away from the fact that we read continually. For a great many of us, the nature of work, study, and even distraction often involves a discernment…
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Language, Non-Existent Objects, and Semiotics
In the 19th and 20th centuries, a fever for scientific explanation of all phenomena gripped many an intellectual. Language, however, has proved resistant to the methods of modern science. Too many aspects of our experience prove irreducible to the empiriometric approach successful in disciplines such as chemistry or biology. This resistance vexes the reductionist’s mind.…
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How to Read Philosophy
Among the texts we pick up to read, some few will shape our thoughts and therefore our beliefs in ways much more profound than others. “No one opens a book on algebra with anxiety”, writes Brand Blanshard in his Philosophical Style, “as to whether the author is going to treat the binomial theorem roughly, or…
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The Ethics of New Terminology
In a famous set of scenes in the 2004 classic movie Mean Girls one of the main protagonists, Gretchen Wieners, attempts to introduce a novel expression into the discourse with her friends, insisting upon ending every conversation with the exclamation, “That is so fetch!” After failing to have the terminology catch on for so long,…
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Catherine Project: Spring 2024 Offerings
Our friends over at the Catherine Project have opened their submissions for Spring 2024 tutorial, reading group, and language tutorials! Their wide range of offerings cover many fascinating works and ideas: Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, political theory, novels, the work of Wendell Barry, Latin, Greek, the art of writing, and more. You can discover their catalog here…
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Announcing: Latin 2024
We are delighted to announce our Latin courses available in 2024. But… why Latin? Does the study of Latin—a language spoken by no people, no country, no nation today—offer us anything other than an affectation or the satisfaction of niche reading (or liturgical) interests? Do we gain anything from this language itself, or does it…
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Announcing: Trivium 2024
Education in the liberal arts has been neglected in modernity and, when not ignored, derided by the forces of ultramodern thought. The consequences of this dereliction are evident: even those who wish to know often know less than they would like and cannot express themselves as well as they ought. Fortunately, we can retrieve the…