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    The Classical Teacher - Winter 2020 PDF

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    Anton Huismeester

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 22
    Mant ai oiccsmunel ez leon one student at a time. Be AN tT nena aan WL n eats iy What Is a Classic? ] LB octatecrca A ccicoet) H ip Cire eave CONTEC) | Mir @ MEMORIA PRESS ame e evs tad DEKe):3 The Giant and thé Mite by Martin Cothran Eleanor argon’ The Lie Bako, IN there afar tal called “The Glan and the Mitt ithe story of something so big that it cannot be comprehended—and of something too small to be comprehended. ‘The size of the Giant was the first problem: There was once a Giant who was too big to be seen, ‘As he walked about he space between his legs was so {eat that nobody could see as far as from one side tothe ‘thera nd his head was so high in the sky that nobody's ‘eyes were strong enough to se the top of him, Not being able to take him in all at once:n obody therefore knew thatthe giant existed, ‘Then there was the problem of the size of the Mite: [At the same time, there was a Mite who was oo small tobeseen ...Agrain of sand was ikea menintain to him, andit would have taken him longer than his whole life to ‘walk aross a sixpence. So you can fancy what tiny bit he moved day today from the spot where he was orn, But he ‘himself never knew this Western civilization is like the Giant: Itis too big to be seen. It is such a great, universal, all- encompassing thing that to try to step out of it and look back on it objectively is, practically speaking, impossible. It is the air we breathe, the intellectual food we eat; itis everything we aspire to, and everything we fear. It is all we know and all we don't know. Itis the culture we took in with our mother's milk and took for granted until we became conscious of its existence at all. “The universe," says G. K. Chesterton," is the supreme example of a thing that is too obvious to be seen.” In a sense,W estern civilization is our universe. ‘Those who would criticize this cultural heritage (itis "racist" itis “sexist,” itis this or that) think they somehow stand outside it—over and above it in some position from which they can see all its contours and consequences. But they are living in the imperceptible shadow of the Western giant, mites too small to apprehend it. Letter from the Editor They think they have. o borrow a term from the philosopher Thomas Nagel,a " view from nowhere” But,a s Nagel himself points out,s uch a perspective does not exist. Anyone who pretends to rationall Western civilization must take his place inside it, since Western civilization is the birthplace of reason and criticism as we know it. The very acts of reason and criticism, in other words, are Western impulses, We can only criticize the West from the inside. The rest of Farjeon's story cannot bear the full weight of my analogy. She uses it to make a completely different point. Still, the figures of the Giant and the Mite perfectly illustrate our plight: As miites,t he Western giant is hard to see. So what do we do,w e mites,in the cause of understanding the giant whose shadow is cast over everything we say and do? When we look at the list of the great works of the West. t is hard not to despair. To be well-versed in even a small handful of them is a challenge that can take a lifetime of study. Thomas Aquinas once said,” The slightest knowledge of the greatest things is greater than the greatest knowledge of the slightest things.” ‘As modern people, we spend so much of our time on trivialities. What if we began spending our time on a few great things? This is the idea behind classical Christian education: to focus on the greatest thoughts, actions, and aspirations of a few great men and women. No one has ever fully encompassed the Western tradition, not even the greatest of Western thinkers, But the best of them have learned the most important things. We can at least do this. Itis all a mite can do. MemoriaPres o m THE CLASSICAL TEACHER CONTENT SS | wiscczoa PoC ROL PPS ant Via 2 Later from the Editor atin catean 62 Science dc Nature 16 Book Review: Medina Litenay by James Grote 68 Arithmetic &e Mach 18 Grek Pronunciation The Pedagogical Peinence yee Hey 28 Logic Is Not Math by Main Cavan POURS oe mae lelas 32. What sa Clase tyLaise omen Prima Latina & Supplements 40 ta Defense of Western Civilization by Man Cote I tamcuaane Supplements 48 Why Soady Western Civilization? by chant Sone 22 Latin Forms Series & Supplements 54 In Defense of Hospitality &e Seorytling: What I Learned fiom 24 Upper School Latin &¢ NLE Prep Guides Reading the Orig Ls aes 25 Grammar School Gree, Lavin and Grek Supplements (60 The Clas Eaton ofthe ounding Fahey ite Oatn & French 64 Literature 8c Westem Civilization by soup Pece 26 Fic Form Greek SICAL CORE CURRICULUM BA LOGIC & RHETORIC 4. Caiculum Packages Supplements 30 Traditional Logic Supplements 5 Read-Aloud Programs BL Ariod’s Mater Logic 34. Carticulum Map Yearly Outlook 31 Clasical Rhetoric & Supplements La EUSA aU Sy ART & MUSIC ‘Alphabet, Numbers, & Enichment 63 Art Posters, Art Cards, Creating Art, Music Appreciation, a Reding 8 Phonics Esploing Ameic's Musial Hesiage, Early Sacred Musi, Discovering Music 45° Spaling ef ea 46 New American Cursive RESOURCES: 47 Copybooks & Journals Pr i 17 Classical Education Resources PORTICO MT CCR NT TEEINIEMN 26° Memoria Pres Online Academy 27. Clasical Composition, IEW, & English Grammar 56 Literanare 59 Poctry Wy Henry IV;P art 1 50 Anna Karenina (<7 Renaissance and Reformation Times 5) A History of Medieval Europe w 2 AMERICAN / MODERN 38 American Saudis & Modern European History 39 Geography ‘A History of Europe in the Modem World». 30 Literary & Rhetorical Terms 2) COUNSSToN ASE TEN RTO Rasy Reader Class 50 D’Aulains' Gres Ms 8 Famous Men Sres Moder Biology en (Classical Composition VE BT sDesntly Mile Heri Encomium, Invective, & Comparison DVDs (27) 52. Clasial Literature & Supplements 67 Chrisian Seis Ou We Have Full-Year Curriculum Packages for Students with Special Needs KNOW? Visit SimplyClassical.com for information or to sign up for the Simply Classical Journal. Ce eee eer) MEMORIA PRES! Ceara ae ee ao Editor | Martin Gothran Ca gaa ONLINE ACADEMY Assistant Editor | Dayna Grant Graphic Designers | Aleen Delgado & Jessica Osborne MemoriaPre 16 BOO by Mar here are two kinds of books. The first treats a I particular subject, as it were, from the outside. It describes the thing—a historical person, a historical event, a philosophical subject—by telling you about it, by giving you the contours of the subject so that you can see it comprehensively from the outside. But occasionally you come across a book of a second kind,o ne that takes you inside a subject and helps you understand the perspective of, the very thing itis describing, Medieval Literacy: A Compendium of Medieval Knowledge with the Guidance of C. S. Lewis by James Grote is a book of the second kind. It describes the medievals by allowing you to see the world as a medieval person would have. ‘As modern people, our thoughts are bound by certain presuppositions, many of which we dontt even realize we have. One of them is that the newer a thing is, the better it must be. Old things are inherently inferior. Our chief belief is that of progress—that every new thing is an improvement on some old ‘one. The medievals believed the opposite of this: The older something was, the better it was. If something, was written in an old book, it was granted immediate authority, and the older the book, the better. Of course, both of these views are extreme. A medieval probably would have gained some balance Classical Core Curriculum SUPPLEMENTS Don't need an entire package? Lesson Plans by Subject $3.00 - $16.00 persue: Memoria Pres lesion plans by subjec allow you ro walor the ‘Glasical Core Garrculum to your own needs These plans scan our week-ar--glancelaous, scheduling the individual subjeas of each grade so you can mix and match as you need Latin Forms Series Mad & Odyssey oY Literature Y Geography Famous Men Series J Math & Science First Sart Reading AND MORE! OLED > ORD ‘hopes one wn lmotaen conten Book Reivew E in Cothran if he could have been exposed to the modern view. But just as certainly, a modern person would gain balance by being exposed to the medieval view. And there is no better book to provide counterbalance to our modern mindset than Medieval Literacy ‘The book contains sections on mythology, cosmology, psychology (in the ancient sense of the “study of the soul") the seven liberal arts, logic philosophy, and theology, as well as art and literature. Each. section begins with an introduction to the ‘medieval view of the topic with numerous quotes from medieval thinkers like Thomas Aquinas, as well as from modem writers such as Lewis and Chesterton. ‘The medievals were the masters of the diagram, and the book contains them in abundance. There are charts and lists analyzing the three views of nature (ancient, Christian, and post-Christian), Hesiod's Five Ages of Man, the various mythological figures, the celestial spheres of the Ptolemaic universe, Aristotle's Five Geographical Zones, Aquinas’ Three Kinds of Life, and Boethius' classification of music. This is a book you can read from front to back, or that you can peruse by opening up to a random page. Either way you will be informed, delighted, and equipped to see more clearly the ordered world in which we live. Don’ forget to check out Memoria Press Read-Aloud Programs on page 5. VOL. 1: Ancient Times pate) penta s1795 tok 3895 VOL2: The Middle Ager er) Searle ‘paperback $17.95 ‘The Story of the World eon $495 by Susan Wise Baer vous Time Susan Wise Bauer's The Sor ofthe om eer eae eoeee paperback $17.95 the time periods students study in our saiobook 549.95 (Casal Core Creal packages VOL 4: The Modern Age (9p. 4.15). These books make gest ‘esp supplemental summer reading! ect $1795 tek $5495 MemoriaPres 0 m 18 reek teachers find themselves in a difficult predicament in regard to the pronunciation of Greek. On one hand they have the option of teaching modern pronunciation (Demotic), and on the other, Erasmian. The primary difference between the two is in the pronunciation of vowels, but a few consonants differ as well. With Demotic pronunciation, used today in Greece and passed down from the medieval Byzantines, several of the letters and diphthongs—though they are represented by unique symbols in written Greek—are pronounced exactly the same. In the Erasmian system, every written symbol has a unique sound. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages, but for many good reasons the system developed by Desiderius Erasmus (so L Holley works for Mem q theology. After nine years of a Press as a Greek speci iter, and holds @ master Greek, he still has 3k Pronunt ation: Tr called the Erasmian system) is the best system of pronunciation for Greek students today. In 1267, Roger Bacon observed the dearth of Greck grammarians in Latin Christendom Knowledge of Greek had all but vanished on the continent, and Latin dominated the West. But providence would not leave Europe in such a wretched state for long, for just when Greek was lost, it was found. After Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, Greek-speaking Byzantine scholars (who used what we now call Demotic pronunciation) migrated into southern Europe, and Greek language and ideas began to populate academies of learning, spurred on by the persistent refrain of the Renaissance, ad fortes ("to the sources’), In the words of Erasmus, "Chiefly, one must hasten to the sources themselves, that is, to the Greeks and the ancients. But as scholars in the fifteenth century began to study the Greek classics, they realized that the sriaPres 0 m contemporary system of pronunciation imported by the Byzantines did not accurately represent the spelling of Greek words in the ancient Greek texts. For example, in the Demotic system several vowel sounds are pronounced as the single Greek vowel iota (which sounds like the i in "police’), a development that is known as Iotacism. The Greek words xaAoi and Kady, which have different meanings and spellings, are pronounced the same (kahlee). Demotic pronunciation, therefore, obscures the fine phonetic distinctions necessary for young students to learn Greek spelling—which is critically important to understanding Greek grammar. In response to this confusion, several scholars. in the sixteenth century tried to resurrect the older system of pronunciation that would make sense of ancient spelling, A Spanish humanist named Antonio of Lebrixa first instigated this movement in 1503 by suggesting, among other things, that eta was the long form of epsilon. Per his suggestion, eta would bbe pronounced like the ea in "break" instead of like the i in "police," as in the Demotie system, Then, in 1508, Aldus Manutius defended a humorous hypothesis about the pronunciation of fn, the noise that sheep make in Cratinus' Greek poetry. He reasoned that sheep were unlikely to be saying "vee vee," as they would be if using the Demotic pronunciation of Bn Bn, but rather the sheep probably blatted in the regular “bea bea" fashion, as was common in Cratinus’ day and ours), This pronunciation debate culminated in the publication of Erasmus’ Dialogus de recta latini graecique sermonis pronuntiatione ("A Dialogue Concerning the Correct Pronunciation of the Latin and Greek Languages’). Writing to the young sovereign Maximilian of Burgundy, the Dialogus is actually an overview of the ideal Renaissance education and the best pedagogical methods of instruction. According to Erasmus, a child of the Renaissance (and today) must learn to read the best literature in the two classical languages, Latin and Greek, but he must read it properly, as the ancients would have read it. To this end, he goes to great lengths to reconstruct the classical pronunciation of the ancient Greeks. 1-877-862-1097 ear Tae iin poli Concerned about the relative dryness of the material, Erasmus presents his treatise as a dialogue between a learned bear (representing himself) and a lion. The two unlikely friends discuss the education of the lion's cub. The bear explains that he learned pronunciation by forming a club that read and reread, ad nauseam, the complete works of Demosthenes, Plutarch, Thucydides, Homer, and Lucian, which is nothing less than a herculean task. The bear also references the ancient Greek grammarians and draws analogies from Dutch, German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish. An average bear, of course, might know only one of these languages, but this ‘was no average bear, you see—he had received a classical education. The lion and the bear go on to articulate a system of pronunciation that Erasmus thought mirrored that of the ancient Greeks. ‘The bear criticizes Pronunciation the tendency of 7 contemporary Greek speakers to conflate the pronunciation of vowels, and he devises a system that uses a different sound to represent each unique letter. He agrees with Quintilian’s formula that "words should be written as they are pronounced.” A system like this, the bear argues, helps the student avoid mixing up his letters, and so it has superior pedagogical value. At the end, the lion concludes, "Obviously the pronunciation must have been different in antiquity than in modern Greek.” Obviously. The Erasmian system possesses great heuristic value for the new Greek student, By using the system of Erasmus, students learn a pronunciation system that allows them to quickly memorize the spelling of words, which is a vital part of learning an inflected language. And when students begin to read the classical texts of Aesop and Sophocles, the Erasmian system will make better sense of the ‘words that they read. Finally, when students begin to recite the superlative Greek poets and quote the Greek of Matthew's Gospel, they will do so clearly, ‘without confusion or mistake. For good reason, then, Erasmian pronunciation is widely used in the academy today. Every student can learn Greek; Erasmus can help. Arto aren Greek Pronunt ation: The Pedagogia | Pertinene 19 I see my logic program listed in the math [Pine e eieine to—well,I'm not entirely sure what Ill do,b ut itwill probably be illogical Not that the people who make these catalogs are trying to make me mad, Im sure. They‘e just trying to sell my books, which should make me happy. So why does it bother me so much that people think logic is math? ‘Well, first ofall, because logic is not math, And, second,b ecause the fact that so many people think it is math is an indication of how much we are influenced by modern philosophy—and how far we have come from a classical Christian view of reality. ‘What catalogs are doing is putting logic books ‘where most modern people expect to find thom, and. most people expect to find them in the math section. This is, unfortunately, also where you will find logic in the curriculum of many classical schools. Martin Cothran isthe editor of The Classical Teacher and author of ‘Traditional Logic Books I I, Material Logi ul Classical Rhetoric. 28 Logic Is Not Math to view logic as mathematical rather than linguistic is partly due to the fact that the only exposure most people have to logic is a smaitering of modern symbolic logic in a high school or college math class. Indeed, when most people think of logic, they think almost exclusively of the modern symbolic system, because that is what most logic programs teach. If you pick up any popular college text, you will find that, although it includes a small section on traditional logic, most of the book is focused on modern symbolic logic. These books will cover the traditional system, but only as a sort of prolegomena to the modern systems of propositional and predicate calculus. ‘The difference between the two systems of logic is quite dramatic,a nd easy to see because of the modern system's prolific use of symbols, in addition to common modern fixtures such as truth tables and Venn diagrams, These things are almost entirely absent from the traditional system. MemoriaPres 0 m The question I want to ask and answer here is this: Iflogic is not math, then what is i?” The answer is that logic isa language art. Ibis the study of right reasoning, I cannot stress this point strongly enough. For classical ‘educators, this point is absolutely crucial because it will determine the very makeup of the curriculum, In the old listing of the liberal arts, there were two basic classes of subjects: the three language arts (the trivium) and the four math arts (the quadrivium) Logic was always considered to be the second of the language subjects, after grammar and before rhetoric. Grammar is the prerequisite for logic, since the ability to argue and reason rightly assumes the ability to communicate competently. And logic is the prerequisite for rhetoric, since logic is one of the three persuasive appeals: to the will (ethos—the appeal to the speaker's character), to the imagination (pathos—the appeal to the audience's emotions), and to the intellect (logos—the appeal to truth), ethos, pathos, and logos. THE RISE AND FALL OF MODERN LOGIC, In facts odern symbolic logic is the creation of modern philosophers (such as Bertrand Russell) and didn't even exist until the turn of the twentieth century. Russell and Alfred North Whitehead wrote a book called Principia Mathematica that attempted to create a logical calculus that could be used to solve scientific problems. To this was added “truth tables,” a procedure that purported to be able to resolve any meaningful statement into a set of symbols and. determine its truth value. ‘This was at a time when philosophers in the English world were experiencing science envy. They wanted their discipline to have the same objectivity and accuracy as the hard sciences. For these people Principia Mathematica became a sort of totem,a nd for many years it was required reading for English and American philosophy students, This waso f course,a d aunting task,s ince most students were not mathematically sophisticated (or patient) enough to even understand the bookww ith its complex technical formulas and turgid explanations. It helped give rise to the school of philosophy known as “logical positivism,” which claimed that the only meaningful statements were statements which could be scientifically verified, a belief that persisted into the late twentieth century. But 1-877-862-1097 prerequisite for rhetoric, since logic Oe Cea ihc eee en the close connection between modern logic and. philosophical positivism has turned into something, of a curse given the steep fall of positivism since the late twentieth century. Logical positivism was in one sense a victim of its own criterion, Its adherents believed that there were only two kinds of meaningful statements: logical statements that were true by definition (the ones we see in modern logic) and factual statements that could be empirically verified. Statements that were neither logical nor factual (like the statement "God exists,” which is neither true by definition nor empirically verifiable) were dismissed as meaningless. But the central criterion of logical positivism does not meet its own criterion. The statement "There were only two kinds of meaningful statements: logical statements and factual statements” is neither a logical nora factual statement, and is therefore meaningless. As these and other issues arose inside and outside the movement, confidence in the movement began toerode, and, along with it, the original basis for modern logic. LOGIC AS A LANGUAGE ART ‘Why should we feel under any obligation to cast our reasoning into mathematical terms in order to ape the sciences? Language can be just as objective and accurate in the qualitative realm as mathematics is in the quantitative realm. Mathematical symbolism can sometimes be more precise, but more often it is less accessible. ‘Most of the things in life that we need to analyze and argue about do not involve the application of science,a nd even those that do involve science still require a facility with language in order to think about and discuss mathematics and science. In actual discussion and debate we do not use ‘mathematical symbols:w e use language. And if we are going to demand anything of the system of logic ‘we want our students to use,w e ought to at least be able to demand that it be usable. The system of modern logic is useful in understanding how computers think,a nd it is an excellent preparation for computer programming ut outside these applications we need to remember that human beings are themselves not computers, nd they relate to one another through language. Logic Is Not Math 29 32 by-Louise Cowar ow do we recognize a classic? Tradition has Himisscests sro ae order that touch on matters of immense importance. They are not mere skilled works of whatever category;t hey establish a category of their own. In fact,w hen we examine those works that readers have agreed upon as classics, we find a surprisingly constant set of characteristics: 1. The classics not only exhibit distinguished style, fine artistry.a nd keen intellectb ut create whole Universes of imagination and thought. 2. They portray life as complex and many-sided, depicting both negative and positive aspects of human character in the process of discovering and testing, ‘enduring virtues, 3. They have a transforming effect on the reader's self-understanding 4, They invite and survive frequent rereadings. 5. They adapt themselves to various times and places and provide a sense of the shared life of humanity 6, They are considered classics by a sufficiently large number of people.e stablishing themselves with ‘common readers as well as qualified authorities. ‘And, finaly, their appeal endures over wide reaches of time Given the rigor of such standards, to calla recent work a classic would seem something of a prediction and a wager. The prediction is that the book so designated is of sufficient weight to take its place in the dialogue with other classics. The wager is that a large number of readers will find itimportant enough to keep ase Cen sere for muy ears the rade do and airman of th Elish Department at the University of Dal ad diel ofits Isitite of hip tude and es he ip of tomers rds, grants and priser. Tis ea ian excep ro the frou ttt the (Chasscs, and sprinted herewith permission jr Bakar Publishing Group. What Is a Clas @ alive. Strictly speaking, as we have indicated, there is no canon of great works, no set number of privileged texts, People themselves authorize the classies. And yet itis not by mere popular taste—by the bestseller list that they are established. True, books are kept alive by readers—discriminating, thoughtful readers who will not et a chosen book die but manage to keep it in the public eye. They recommend it to their friends, bring it into the educational curriculum, install it in institutional libraries, order it in bookstores, display it on their own shelves, read it to their children, But something more mysterious makes a work an integral part of the body of classics, however well-loved it may be. It must fitinto the preexisting body of works, effecting what T.S. Eliot has described as an alteration of the whole existing order. The past, he maintains, is altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past. The body of these masterworks thus shifts and. changes constantly in the course of time. Plato, who was passed over in the late medieval world in favor of his disciple Aristotle, became a dominant philosopher in the Renaissance; Thomas Aquinas, the learned founder of Scholasticism, has been in modern times largely relegated to seminaries; Francis Bacon has declined to the role of a minor eccentric. Even Shakespeare, now often described as the world’s sgteatest poet, has not always been considered a classic author; the eighteenth century decried his lack of taste and rewrote several of his plays. John Donne's lyrics lay neglected for two centuries before the twentieth century found in him a kindred troubled soul. John Milton's Paradise Lost was almost dethroned in the 1930s and 1940s, but its author's position is more secure now than before. Alexander Pope, whose greatness as a poet was unchallenged in the eighteenth century, has been in the twentieth virtually deposed. Herman Melville's Moby Dick encountered several generations of readers MemoriaPres 0 m who dismissed the novel entirely; not until the 19208 did it suddenly attain its full status in the curriculum, Vergills Aeneid seems, regrettably, to be losing some of its position in recent times. But the Iliad and the Odyssey hold their foremost place as firmly as when Plato cited. ‘Homer nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, or when, at the turn of the last century, most college students, read them in the Greek To place a contemporary writing among the classics, then, is to make a bold conjecture. That conjecture is, based on the judgment of a sufficiently large body of readers in current society who consider the work a masterpiece. But the book in question has to be worth their endorsement. All the popular acclaim in the world will not make a classic of a mediocre text. The masterpieces are not confined to their own peoples or to their own epochs. The organic order of literature that makes up the Western tradition exists essentially in a timeless realm, by which we mean a kind of communal memory. We could argue that, since the real existence of masterpieces is beyond time, we should not have to wait for time to make its judgment on newcomers. A recently published work might be seen by perceptive readers to take its place among its predecessors and to converse amicably with them. The sensitive reader should be able to judge. And remarkably enough, a surprising degree of agreement exists among literary people about twentieth-century classics. There is a strong agreement about the inclusion of such writers as Eliot, Yeats, Frost, Joyce, Faulkner, Solzhenitsyn, and numerous other recent authors whose ideas and images have already entered into that communally shared web we call culture, Why is it necessary for everyone to read the classics? Shouldn't only specialists spend their time on these texts, with other people devoting their 1-877-862-1097 efforts to particular interests of their own? Actually, it is precisely because these works are intended for all that they have become classics. They have been tried and tested and deemed valuable for the general culture—the way in which people live their lives. They have been found to enhance and elevate the consciousness of all sorts and conditions of people who study them, to lift their readers out of narrowness or provincialism into a wider vision of humanity. Further, they guard the truths of the human heart from the faddish half-truths of the day by straightening the mind and imagination and enabling their readers to judge for themselves. Ina word, they lead those who will follow into a perception of the fullness and complexity of reality But why in particular should followers of Christ be interested in the classics? Is Scripture not sufficient in itself for all occasions? What interest do Christians have in the propagation of the masterworks? The answer is this: Many of usin the contemporary world have been misled by the secularism of our epoch; we expect proof if we are to believe in the existence of a spiritual order. Our dry, reductionist reason leads us astray, so that we harden our hearts against the presence of the holy. Something apart from family or church must act as mediator, to restore our full humanity, to endow us with the imagination and the heart to believe. My serious encounter with Shakespeare and then with all the riches of the classics enabled me to see the splendor of Him who is at the center of the gospels, Ina time when our current culture is increasingly secular in its aims, one of the most important resources Christians possess is this large treasure trove of works that have already been assimilated by readers and commentators in the nearly two thousand years of Western Christendom. What is aClas @ 33 classical educators discussing the importance of our Western heritage and the obligation we & have of passing it on through the education of our children. The audience of homeschool parents frp oven ots ptaapat Pe listened attentively, and those of us on the panel! answered questions from the audience. But near the end of the question and answer period young black woman stood up. She explained that she had been about ten minutes late and had not heard the first part of the session, but, she said, she was appalled when she heard us defending Western civilization, She explained that, to her, Western civilization represents racism and oppression. The ensuing discussion seemed to resolve many of, her concerns but the fact that she thought this way about ur cultural heritage in the first place is significant Thave heard similar comments in other discussions among parents and teachers, Although Western civilization is still generally acknowledged as something to be valued and upheld, itis increasingly assailed for the misdeeds of Western people, misdeeds that, according to some, call Western civilization itself into question. But in order to criticize something, you have to know what it is, and it is doubtful most of the critics of the West could adequately tell you what itis. What cdo we mean by the expression "Western civilization"? Western civilization is the body of ideals and values deriving originally from the cultures of Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem, transformed and completed by Christianity ‘That Western people and nations have engaged in base behavior is undeniable. Abuse of power, corruption, hatred, racism, sexism, slavery—all have characterized Western societies at one time or another. These things, of course, have occurred in all cultures. But should any culture be viewed as simply the sum of its worst actions? Several years ago, [had a public disagreement with a prominent conservative blogger who had written a post titled, "No, America Is Not a Great Nation.” In my response, I said that {he} gives a litany of the bad things he thinks Americans are engaged in: moral relativism, abortion, gay marriage, pornography, sexual promiscuity, recreational looting, and illegal immigration. He is right that Americans do some really bad things— and lots of them. Some of them are even done in the name of America. But, just as he has gotten a good list cof symptoms, he lapses into a bad diagnosis, Martin Cothran isthe itor of The Classical Teaches and ator of ‘Traditional Logic Books I I, Material Lop nd Clasical Rhetoric. In Defene of Wet em Cilia tion LD Me COTHRAN Im fact, the disease metaphor is an apt one, since he is basically blaming the patient for his sickness. The blogger was engaged in reasoning that is typical of the critics of Western civilization. The problem is a failure to make a basic distinction: the distinction between people's acts and the principles and virtues they profess to uphold, ‘The distinction many critics of traditional American, culture (@ culture which is inherently Western) fail to make is between America as an ideal and America as a practical reality. Ifthe problem is the practical reality, it is not necessarily the fault of the ideal. In fact, the actions that critics often point to almost always involve a failure to live up to some ideal, and frequently the ' appeal to the very ideal of the civilization they are criticizing in order to criticize it. This question comes up in discussions about classical education, which studies the cultures of Athens and Rome. Some people point out that the Greeks and Romans did some pretty bad things. My response is always the same: We admire these cultures—and judge them—on the basis of their ideals, and our criticisms of them usually involve the failure of people to live up to their own ideals. We judge Rome on the basis of Rome, not on the basis of Romans. And we do the same with Greece and every other civilization, Why would we not do this with America—or Western civilization itself? What is wrong with America is Americans The problem with the argument that holds Western civilization responsible for acts that violate the very principles it upholds is not only that it is wrong, but that itis self-defeating By what standards do the self-professed critics of the West judge it? Do they judge it on the basis of the values and ideals they have learned from some other culture? If so, which culture is it? The traditional cultures of the East and those of many of the local cultures of the developing world were historically just as rife with racism and oppression, if not more so. ‘The fact is that the values by which its critics would bring Western civilization down are values they have derived from Western civilization itselt ‘Yes, Western nations engaged in slavery, but the movement that brought the institution of slavery down employed the criticisms and prescriptions of Western thinkers and writers. Oppressors often appeal to some principle they claim justifies their oppression, but they are then opposed by those who appeal to the same body of principles in defense of their freedom Only in the West were the ideals of freedom and equality held as a universal ideal in the light of which all actions were to be measured. The West In Defene of Wet em Cilia tion 44 42 has produced its share of despotism and oppression, but there has always been its own tradition of thought—going back to Athens and Jerusalem— from which to provide a court of appeal. ‘We see this self-critical impulse nowhere more conspicuously than in the Hebrews, whose most severe shortcomings can be found in—and judged by—their own sacred texts. ‘One way of seeing the universality of Western ideals is to look at those who challenged the evils in ‘which Western people often engaged. When Frederick Douglass sought to equip himself to argue the cause of abolition, he didn't find the weapons for this fight in some other civilization. He found a ready arsenal in Western civilization itself. Douglass’ owner had illegally taught him how to read, and when he was thirteen years old he managed to purchase a copy of The Columbian Orator, a collection of classic speeches edited by Caleb Bingham. ‘Douglass read the book, which contained the speeches not only of Americans like George Washington, a ee ier epee) CIVILIZATION IS TO EMPLOY IT. Benjamin Franklin, and William Pitt, but classical figures such as the Romans Cato and Cassius. One of Douglass’ favorites was Cicero, He read and memorized these speeches. And in doing so, he approximated what we today would call a "classical education.” He did not use this learning to attack the values of the country that had enslaved him. Far from. it. He did exactly the opposite: He "mastered his masters’ language” and held Americans to their own ideals of freedom and equality—the standards America had itself obtained from the Western culture that produced it. ‘And what of the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr? Did he revile the West as we hear some modern voices doing today? This list of required texts from the social philosophy course he taught at Morehouse College suggests not: ‘© CieitDisuboionce and Other Essays, by Henry David Thoreau, ‘© Republic, by Plato ‘+The Prince, by Niccold Machiavelli ‘The City of God, by Augustine of Hippo ‘© Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill In Defene of Wet ern Cilia tion ‘Second Treatise of Government, by John Locke Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes Politics, by Aristotle Critique of Practical Reason, by Immanuel Kant The Social Contract, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau ‘Summa Theologica, by Thomas Aquinas The Nicomachean Ethics, by Aristotle ‘These were the works that contained, in one form or another, the ideals of Western civilization: not only the cardinal virtues of prudence, tolerance, fortitude, and justice, but the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity. It was the same with another form of oppression: colonialism. The reason colonialism met its doom was because the values of the civilization the colonialists brought with them leaked out into the cultures they had colonized. The oppressors were found out through the very values of the oppressors themselves. ‘Sim6n Bolivar, the great liberator of Latin America from the yoke of Spanish control, was well-read in the works of Western history, and he appealed to them repeatedly in his case against the Spanish The thinkers who most influenced Gandhi, the great champion of Indian sovereignty, included Ruskin, Gibbon, Dickens, Tolstoy, and Plato. ‘America is also a primary example of this. The arguments of the founders were taken from the thoughts and writings of the British themselves, who, in turn, had imbibed them through the Greek and Roman works they had mastered, and through the Christianity by which they had received these works. The Declaration of Independence was explicit on this: The British were not only wrong; they were violating their own principles Western civilization can be appealed to to indict the actions of Western people, but not to indict Western civilization. To do so would be to saw off the very limb on which the critic sits. Ifyou want to indict a people for its injustice, that is perfectly appropriate—vital even. But, you can't indict the whole culture of a people by employing the very idea of justice held by the people you crit The only way to criticize Western civilization is, to employ it ‘Many Western people have violated their own principles. But the solution to our problems is not to reject the West. The solution is to go back to our own classical Christian tradition. To do otherwise will only leave us bereft of the means to our renewal MemoriaPres 0 m 48 SIMPLY CLASSICAL WHY STUDY WESTERN CIVILIZATION? by Cheryl Swope O= upon a time, when a person intended to learn about education, the words ‘Western civilization” did not offend him. ‘Today, for reasons that elude many of us, hearers now take offense at these words and the studies they embody. I witnessed this firsthand at a recent homeschooling convention in a room filled to its three hundred-seat capacity, as our Classical Education Panel fielded questions. As soon as one member of the panel described the content of classical education as "the great literature, music, art, and ideas of Western civilization,” a woman near the front of the room abruptly gathered her belongings and left our session, head held high all the way to the back door. We wondered if, tosoften our stance in pre-emptive avoidance of a growing animosity toward Western

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