For those who would like to become more familiar with the classics, or, perhaps, understand more deeply the richness of the classics, you’re in luck! As part of my regular columns at TIC, I’ve covered Hesiod and Homer, and Pseudo-Apollodorus (among others). For Merion West, where I frequently freelance, I provided a five-part exposition on … Continue reading Reflections on the Greek Classics
Essays
Homer’s “Iliad”: From Strife to Love
Homer’s Iliad is the defining epic of Western literature. Its heroes live on in lure and our collective and individual consciousness. Most of Greek—and Roman literature—is indebted to the epic and its characters. Even modern English literature owes much to Homer’s monumental and heroic poem. Indeed, all Western literature owes to the wellspring of Homer. Even literary … Continue reading Homer’s “Iliad”: From Strife to Love
Plato’s “Symposium”: The Dramatic Trial of Love
Plato was a moralist. An ethicist. He was concerned with the primacy of action, of engagement, in a world that was deeply iconoclastic, barbarous, and savage. Love of wisdom allows for the creation of that space where ethical and loving life is possible. This means that eros must remain to any understanding of the self, world, and politeia. … Continue reading Plato’s “Symposium”: The Dramatic Trial of Love
Reflections on Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, statesman, and man of letters. He wrote numerous philosophical tracts and political treatises, as well as hundreds of letters. He happens to also be the subject of my current thesis on political aesthetics. I have made mention of him in various posts on politics and aesthetics here on … Continue reading Reflections on Edmund Burke
A Tale of Two Resurrections
“With a roar that sounded as if all the breath in France had been shaped into the detested word, the living sea rose, wave on wave, depth on depth, and overflowed the city to that point. Alarm-bells ringing, drums beating, the sea raging and thundering on its new beach, the attack begun.” Charles Dickens crafted … Continue reading A Tale of Two Resurrections
Aesthetics, Morality, Spirituality and the Ecological Crisis
Conservation is at the heart of conservatism. And the root of our contemporary ecological crisis is a careless, profligate mode of relating to the world; Francis Bacon would be proud of our current disposition as tormentors of nature. Conservatism’s stance toward the natural world, and the ecological crisis, sets it apart from the other philosophies … Continue reading Aesthetics, Morality, Spirituality and the Ecological Crisis
Geopolitical Struggle and the Rise of China
Thucydides famously described the Peloponnesian War; beneath the exoteric reading of the text there is a grand commentary on geopolitics. After all, Sparta was the land power and Athens the sea power. What is the relationship between sea power and imperialism? What is the relationship between land power and "autocracy"? In this essay, published at … Continue reading Geopolitical Struggle and the Rise of China
Reflections on Jordan Peterson’s “God”
In this essay of mine, published by Merion West, I offer an appraisal of Jordan Peterson’s religious beliefs and his statements concerning God. Going through biblical tradition, especially through the eyes of the Patristic Fathers of early Christianity, I argue that Peterson’s God is not as Gnostic and Jungian as it initially seems. In particular, … Continue reading Reflections on Jordan Peterson’s “God”
