A Genius on Genius

To find no contradiction in the union of the old and new, to contemplate the Ancient of Days and all his works with feelings as fresh as if all had then sprang forth at the first creative fiat, characterizes the mind that feels the riddle of the world and may help to unravel it. To [...]

What were you thinking, Mr. Coleridge?

I’m driving up to PA today for the Orthodox Classical Home Schooling Conference at Antiochian Village. Along the way I’m going to listen to some Louis Markos tapes from the Teaching Company in which he describes, in an introductory way, literary theory “From Plato to Post-Modernism.” I’m particularly interested in his lectures on Kant and [...]

Organic vs. Mechanical art

Works of art are created by artists who execute an art, thus producing an artifact. The artistic process is without doubt one of the greatest mysteries of existence, even in this 21st century: the Age of Reductionist Explanations. I quoted Samuel Taylor Coleridge a couple weeks ago in a passage where he mentioned two different [...]

Sympathetic Identification or Critical Analysis?

All learning is imitation, if only we understand what imitation is. All teaching, then, is either exemplifying or presenting what the student will imitate. This can apply to the classroom, but the truth is, we spend most of our active time teaching and learning anyway – or at least attempting to do so - so it would be [...]

Inside, Outside, Upside Down

You can live from the inside, or you can live from the outside. You can think from the inside, or you can think from the outside. You can read from the inside, or you can read from the outside. You can teach from the inside – but only if you live, think, and read from [...]