9 20 453 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/fc43bfa6d48e57a010be6b8efde20d36.mp3 5a92cbd383782712a0224dea4560496d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data audio cassette Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:43:01 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Generalization Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered on November 1, 1974 by Samuel S. Kutler as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Recording is not complete. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kutler, Samuel S. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974-11-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a typescript of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Kutler_Samuel_1974-11-01 Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/87b35e3d407c47ade3299c81cfc53b01.mp3 bb9a2fd63fb225d5e3928df7584f14a4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data audio cassette Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:55:01 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "I think, therefore I am" Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered on October 22, 1971 by Samuel S. Kutler as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kutler, Samuel S. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971-10-22 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a typescript of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Kutler_Samuel_1971-10-22 Subject The topic of the resource Descartes, René, 1596-1650 Philosophy, Modern Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/23eb3675722e26220725fe45dd345ded.mp3 9b90224a9ee3cc40feb1c900284a90e8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data live YouTube webcast Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:59:!4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Double Duty: How to Live in the Cosmos of Plotinus Description An account of the resource Audio track from the video recording of a lecture delivered by Bill Pastille, Annapolis tutor on November 20, 2020 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Mr. Pastille describes his lecture: "We all act according to our conceptions of the world. Plotinus had an extraordinary conception of reality, namely, that the One generates the less unified Intellect, which in turn generates the even less unified Soul together with the phenomenal world. Plotinus often suggests that the task of human beings is to overcome our multiplicity, to turn away from the less unified and toward the more unified layers of reality. Yet he himself sometimes acted differently. For example, he taught, and he brought up children entrusted to his care, and he wrote—all actions that show a concern for the level of multiplicity on which we humans live. This lecture attempts to account for this apparent discrepancy in Plotinus’s ethics." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pastille, William Alfred, 1954- Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-11-20 Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Plotinus Soul Mysticism Wisdom Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Pastille_William_2020-11-20_Audio Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a typescript of my lecture available online." Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7354" title="Typescript">Typescript</a> <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7355" title="Video">Video</a> Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/aa576baadb7084e394ac78d911d4ceb8.mp4 de075e1bc636a0f5d343a28f7f4b260e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data live YouTube webcast Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Double Duty: How to Live in the Cosmos of Plotinus Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered by Bill Pastille, Annapolis tutor on November 20, 2020 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Mr. Pastille describes his lecture: "We all act according to our conceptions of the world. Plotinus had an extraordinary conception of reality, namely, that the One generates the less unified Intellect, which in turn generates the even less unified Soul together with the phenomenal world. Plotinus often suggests that the task of human beings is to overcome our multiplicity, to turn away from the less unified and toward the more unified layers of reality. Yet he himself sometimes acted differently. For example, he taught, and he brought up children entrusted to his care, and he wrote—all actions that show a concern for the level of multiplicity on which we humans live. This lecture attempts to account for this apparent discrepancy in Plotinus’s ethics." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pastille, William Alfred, 1954- Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-11-20 Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Plotinus Soul Mysticism Wisdom Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Pastille_William_2020-11-20 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a typescript of my lecture available online." Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7427" title="Audio">Audio</a> <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7354" title="Typescript">Typescript</a> Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/66ba0adb6335959cbf25ed8985ee14a1.pdf db2629e975d57447667df8322956de43 PDF Text Text Double Duty: How to Live in the Cosmos of Plotinus William Pastille A lecture delivered at St. John’s College November 20, 2020 When I started studying Plotinus more than thirty years ago, one of the first things that struck me about the scholarly literature was that everyone agreed Plotinus was both a philosopher and a mystic. It was also pretty apparent that no one found fault with Plotinus for being a philosopher, but some disparaged his mystical tendencies. I think that I can pass over what it means to be a philosopher. Everyone here has enough experience with philosophers to have some idea of what that means—and it has something to do with thinking. But what does it mean to be a mystic? There seems to be general agreement, as far as I can tell, that a mystic is someone who claims it is possible for a human being to contact, or even to experience union with, the source of all reality. If this is what it means to be a mystic, then it goes beyond thinking—at least beyond thinking as we normally conceive of it. Union with the source may be compatible with thinking, but the idea of actually becoming one with something else certainly seems to be different from thinking. There is more than enough evidence in Plotinus’s writings to prove that Plotinus is both a philosopher and a mystic. As far as philosophy goes, he himself insists that he is a follower of Plato. In fact, he goes so far as to say there is nothing that is not consonant with Plato’s teachings in his thinking. That may be an overstatement, but his world view is without doubt built upon Platonic foundations, such as the image of the Divided Line in the Republic and the structure of reality discussed in the Timaeus. Even a cursory reading of the Enneads quickly reveals, however, that Plotinus knows a great deal about all the ancient schools of philosophy, including the tenets of the greatest thinkers and the controversies among their followers. Plotinus is also quite knowledgeable about Aristotle and his differences with Plato. Where he is critical about Aristotle, he states his objections clearly. Where he agrees, he incorporates Aristotle’s thought into his own. This small account leaves little doubt about classifying Plotinus among the thinkers. He is certainly a philosopher—indeed, he is a great philosopher. As for his status as a mystic, that is just as certain. We need only listen to one passage from the sixth Ennead to know this. Here is Plotinus describing the experience of union with the source: And when the soul meets with this and it comes toward her, or rather, when it comes to light as something present, . . . and having seen it appear suddenly within her (for there is nothing between and they are no longer two, but both are one, . . . having sought this, she meets it as something present and looks at it instead of at herself; and she does not even take the time to see who it is that is looking (Plotinus, Enneads 6.7.34.8-22).1 Nothing could be more mystical than this description of becoming one with the source. The soul becomes so much more than itself that its sense of self disappears. There is no more separateness between itself and the source; distinction disappears; the soul does not even seem to know who it is any longer. 1 Unless otherwise noted, translations are the author’s. �So, Plotinus is both a philosopher and a mystic. He has a very intricate, well thought-out understanding of the nature of reality that requires difficult thinking to understand. This is his philosophy. But he also talks about transcendence of self through union with the source of being, and that would require the disappearance of the thinker, judging from the passage I just quoted. For how can a soul that no longer knows who it is be thinking? This is his mysticism. Now about the same time that I began studying Plotinus, I also fell in with the writings of the great philosophical scholar Pierre Hadot, from whom I became convinced about a suspicion I had long held concerning the ancient schools of philosophy. Hadot’s belief, which I share, is that all philosophical pursuits arise ultimately from a deep-seated desire to answer the question How should I live my life? This belief runs a bit counter to the old saw that philosophy begins in wonder. But the two ideas are not that far apart. If we are stunned by our ignorance in the face of the infinitely large and the infinitely small, as Pascal has it, the desire arises to know as much as we can about these infinities in which seem to be embedded. Each success on the path to knowledge may seem to be merely speculative or theoretical, involving only step-by-step progress in thinking. But each step is at the same time ethical. For every truth one comes to see, there is a corollary question that goes something like this: If this is the way things are, do I live in accordance with this truth? We avoid this question at our peril. To the extent that we live our lives in discord with the truth, we run the risk of having things turn out badly for us. And yet we all have our blind spots, our habitual actions that contradict what we know to be the truth. It seems that Aristotle was right about this: a habit once formed is difficult or impossible to change. Speculative knowledge does not seem to have the power to override ethical habits. Nevertheless, anyone who tries to work out a speculative philosophy that gives an account of the nature of reality cannot help but confront ethics eventually—if he is being honest with himself. If he really believes what he says about the way thing are, he would be a fool not to act in accordance with his beliefs, for things will not go well with him if he is actually right about the way things are. And in any case his own contradictory actions will continually provide evidence that things are not as he says they are. So, my question about Plotinus some three decades ago was this: What does Plotinus’s view of the world indicate about how human beings ought to live? And it was with the same question that I sat down a few years ago to begin the studies that led to this lecture. ***** To get started with this question, we first need to grasp the contours of Plotinus’s world view. It is, as he claims, largely Platonic, drawn mostly from the Timaeus and the Republic, combined with elements from the myths in the Phaedrus and the Meno. Plato’s Forms play a large role in Plotinus’s world view, as does the immaterial being that Plato calls Soul. According to Plotinus, the roots of the phenomenal world are found in the realm of the Forms and in the regions of Soul, as we shall soon see. Now any sketch of Plotinus’s world view must begin with the One, which he sometimes refers to simply as “there,” the furthest pole from where we find ourselves within the structure of reality— which is to say, in the phenomenal world, that is, “here.” So, what is the One? It is as Plato portrays it in his dialogue Parmenides. It is something that is utterly and unutterably unified—utterly in that it is completely simple, without parts or internal differentiation of any kind; unutterably because nothing that is said of it can possibly do it justice. This is not merely because it is beyond our capacity to comprehend but because its simplicity is Pastille, Double Duty 2 �incompatible with language itself, which is a thing with parts, as, for example, subject and predicate. That which must have parts cannot accurately reflect that which has no parts. Indeed, the problem goes even deeper than language. Language is a representation of dianoia, thinking something through. The successivity of this kind of thought is obviously at odds with the radical simplicity of the One, simply on the ground that dianoia is divided up into parts that come before and after. There is another kind of thinking, however, that may seem to be clear of this difficulty. Nous, the direct apprehension of a knowable object—like a tree or the idea of equality—seems to skip over the discursive element inherent in dianoia to get directly at the knowable object. But even this kind of thought is subject to an ineradicable dualism—the distinction between the knower and the thing known. So, it is not just language that is incapable of grasping the One, but even nous seems to be too diverse to get a handle on the ultimate, and ultimately simple, source of everything. If we are to get any further, then, we have to ignore this difficulty, as Plotinus himself does. We have to keep thinking about the One even though it is impossible to grasp it in thought. We have to keep asking questions despite the fact that even correct answers will not be able to get at the One itself. So, here is an opening question: How is it that there is anything else besides the One if the One itself is entirely simple, pure unity, excluding all difference and multiplicity? Plotinus’s answer to this question is that the One has a pure, undifferentiated internal activity that is beyond our comprehension because of our innate multiplicity. The intensity of that pure internal activity gives off an external activity that is not the proper activity of the One, but rather a likeness of it. How are we to understand this? Let me propose an image. The internal activity of a human being, the inner life, is accessible only to the individual. But the inner life throws off an external image that can be seen by others. One person’s movements and speech give off an impression of grace, another’s an impression of seriousness, another’s an impression of foolishness. This external image is certainly not the individual’s inner activity, but a secondary being emanating from that inner activity, a being real enough to be observed by others, real enough to become the source of motion in others who are attracted or repulsed by that image. It is a remarkable feature of this process that it requires no effort or outflow of energy on the part of the primary being beyond its innate inner activity. Of such cases Plotinus says that the original “remains” or “stays unaffected” by the external being that it throws off. In a similar way, the internal activity of the One gives off an external image of its internal activity. Plotinus calls this external image of the One Nous, that is Intellect or Understanding. ***** In trying to describe Intellect, I’m going to use an image that builds on the previous one but is even more fantastical. Think again of the external likeness thrown off by a human being. Now imagine that it takes on a more solid existence than we normally experience, like a shell surrounding the person whose inner activity throws it off. Now imagine the inner surface of that shell as a single giant retina focused on and seeing the person who is its source. Finally, imagine that this seeing shell is aware of itself looking at the source. Weird as this image is, it captures some significant aspects of Plotinus’s Intellect. This external image of the One is a Being, standing out from the source that it perceives. Its activity has the shape of thinking, namely, the shape of a perceiving, self-aware subject assimilating a perceived object to the best of its ability. That is why this secondary being is called Intellect. Pastille, Double Duty 3 �Now in assimilating the One from its distant perspective, Intellect knows itself to be different from the source it sees; but it also knows that it is the same, since, in its own oneness, it takes the One into itself through its seeing. And it recognizes some sort of Motion when it contemplates first itself and then its source; and this motion is mixed together with some sort of Rest when it does not think but merely looks upon its source. So, in the first rank of things that it thinks are the forms of Being, Sameness, Otherness, Motion, and Rest—the so-called “five greatest forms” mentioned in Plato’s Sophist. The interplay of its thinking on these greatest forms gives rise to all the forms that can possibly exist. In this regard, Plotinus’s Intellect is like Aristotle’s Prime Mover: it is thought thinking itself. I need to mention just two other aspects of Intellect for further reference. First, because it contains many Forms, Intellect is obviously multiple and variegated. Indeed, Plotinus calls it a “onemany” for this very reason. Second, this multiplicity is a defect or a falling away of the Intellect in comparison with its source, the hyper-unified One. An image is always lacking something that its source possesses, and it relies on the source to satisfy that need. In this case, Intellect needs the image of oneness that it borrows from the One to hold together its multiplicity. So much for Intellect, the second level of reality in Plotinus’s conception of the way things are. ***** Now we move on to the third and final level of reality in Plotinus’s system. The internal activity of Intellect, its self-contained thinking, throws off another external activity. Here I’m going to abandon the image of the self-aware retina. It would become much too unwieldy. Instead, I’m going to show you a visual image that tries to capture the relations among the levels of reality. Perhaps this drawing will provide some orientation while I describe the characteristics of this new being that is a likeness of Intellect, the being which Plotinus calls Soul. The first thing to notice about this drawing is that a portion of the area allotted to Soul falls within the area allotted to Intellect. This is a consequence of Intellect’s relative lack of unity in relation to its source. Intellect is not sufficiently unified to throw off its external activity entirely. Some of its image remains within, while most of it stands outside. That is to say, some aspect of Soul both images Intellect and at the same time is Intellect. This is a crucial element of Plotinus’s system, as we will see in a moment. Insofar as it is an image, Soul mirrors its source in many respects. I will mention only three of them. First, it images the thinking of its source. Second, it images the self-awareness of its source. Third, and most important here, it images the oneness of its source—which is to say that Soul’s oneness is even more deficient than the oneness of Intellect. Or, looking at it the other way round, it is even more multiple and variegated than its source. Its unity is so deficient, in fact, that its inner activity cannot throw off an external image of itself at all. Whatever imaging continues to occur in the system does so within Soul. There is no other level of reality. This decrease in oneness that is at the same time an increase in multiplicity affects Soul’s selfawareness and its thinking. Soul is distracted by its own variety and has difficulty focusing its thinking on its source. This same distractedness interferes with Soul’s ability to focus on its awareness of itself, on its attention to what it is doing. So, what is Soul? In short, it is a bit of Intellect together with everything else that exists besides the One and Intellect. The drawing situates the entire phenomenal world within the level of Soul. For Plotinus, everything in the phenomenal world is Soul, Soul expressing itself with the utmost variety in every possible way. It does this by bringing the forms it sees in its upper reaches—the area of overlap between Soul and Intellect in the drawing—into its lower reaches, where form is less at home because of the increased multiplicity of Soul. This is why the overlapping area on the Pastille, Double Duty 4 �drawing is crucial to Plotinus’s system: Soul could not transfer forms to its lower reaches if it were not in touch with them in its higher reaches. It is too complicated a topic to explain all the ways in which the phenomenal world—the “here” we humans inhabit—is a manifestation of Soul. But here is just the briefest outline. The highest reaches of Soul, as we’ve seen, consort with Intellect and the forms. At Soul’s very lowest end, on the other hand, it transmits the last possible vestige of form—the form of pure potentiality. This is the form of something that has no properties except a need for form, a continual striving to receive form. This is what Plotinus calls matter. The One Intellect Soul World Matter Fig. 1: The structure of reality according to Plotinus Pastille, Double Duty 5 �The entire phenomenal world, then, is the work of Soul endowing pure potentiality with form in order to satisfy matter’s ultimate neediness. This is true both for animate and inanimate objects. Whatever form a phenomenal object has—whether it be the complex living form of a human being or the simple shape of a rock—comes to it from Soul uniting forms with ultimately needy matter. ***** Now to complete our overview of Plotinus’s system, let’s look a bit more closely at the activity of Soul along its whole extent. We’ve already seen that Soul, as an image of Intellect, is more diversified than its source. Even in its upper reaches, where presumably it can borrow some unifying force from Intellect, it gets distracted from its thinking and its self-awareness by the variety within it. This distraction causes a reversal in the order of reality. Soul, the image of Intellect, loses its focus on its source and turns away from Intellect in the only other direction it can look, namely, toward itself. Attending now to its own multiplicities and capacities, it loses focus on its self-awareness and pays more attention to the many things within it. And this interest in the multiplicities is the phenomenal world—it is Soul looking toward its own variety and informing matter in every possible way. But the activity of informing matter is itself a further decrease in unity and a further increase in multiplicity. A phenomenal object of any kind is not pure form; it is form serving the neediness of matter. Unlike pure forms, these forms-with-matter are not entirely compatible. Nor are they completely subservient to the Soul that informs them because matter binds Soul through its intense, clutching need for form. The result in the phenomenal world is all sorts of random collisions and interdependencies among both inanimate and animate objects, accompanied by all sorts of misjudgments among animate objects as they try to navigate the confusing world around them. And this brings us to one final aspect of Plotinus’s reality that we need to consider, namely, our place in it, the situation of human beings. Obviously, we belong among the animate objects. So, as we have just mentioned, the Soul that informs us is bound by matter’s neediness and is further enmeshed in the network of collisions, interdependencies, and misjudgments that abound in the phenomenal world. Our attention to our own bodies and to external objects obstructs our thinking and self-awareness —so much so that it seems nearly impossible to free ourselves from the incessant demands the world makes on us. This is the situation of human beings as Plotinus sees it: we are Soul bound to matter in such a way that it hardly remembers itself, sunk into the phenomenal world with barely the dream of a memory of its actual lineage. For a brief summary of Plotinus’s system of reality, this has been rather long. But it presents just as much information as we need to address the question I started with and to give it a provisional answer. ***** Let us take up again the initial question, namely, What does Plotinus’s view of the world indicate about how human beings ought to live? The provisional answer is the one that first comes to the fore when we begin to study Plotinus, especially when one focuses on the passages we read here at St. John’s. Judging from those readings, we ought to live in such a way as to extricate ourselves from the bonds of the phenomenal world. We need to loosen the chains that shackle us to the dispersive and all-consuming distractions of the world around us. We need first to remember the Soul that we are, then turn back toward Intellect and to its original, the One. And then, having made the turn, we need to reach journey’s Pastille, Double Duty 6 �end in the ultimate meeting between our Soul and the source of all being, a meeting in which, as we heard before, “there is nothing between and they are no longer two, but both are one.” In short, we should live as mystics. We should spend our time turning inward, away from the phenomenal world, seeking the One within. We might well imagine that such a life consists largely of meditation and retirement from the world. It would be a life of interiority and withdrawal, a life of apparent self-absorption. Now Plotinus provides a lot of advice about how to carry out the meditative practice that may bring us back to our home in the One. There is, for example, this famous admonition in Plotinus’s first written work, On Beauty, where he is focusing on Beauty as a prominent characteristic of the One and everything that proceeds from the One, including the seeker, who can use his own beauty as point of contact with the Soul, the Intellect, and the One within. Go back into yourself and look. If you do not yet see yourself as beautiful, then be like a sculptor who, making a statue that is supposed to be beautiful, removes a part here and polishes a part there so that he makes the latter smooth and the former just right until he has given the statue a beautiful face. In the same way, you should remove superfluities and straighten things that are crooked, work on the things that are dark, making them bright, and not stop “working on your statue” [Plato, Phaedrus 252D7] until the divine splendor of virtue shines in you, until you see “Self-control enthroned on the holy seat” [Phaedrus 254B7]. . . . For the one who sees has a kinship with that which is seen, and he must make himself the same as it if he is to attain the sight. For no eye has ever seen the sun without becoming sunlike [Plato, Republic 508B3 and 509A1], nor could a soul ever see Beauty without becoming beautiful. You must first actually become wholly god-like and wholly beautiful if you intend to see god and Beauty (Enneads 1.6.9.8-342). Then, in the treatise called On the Good or the One, Plotinus goes on to say that this shaping of the beautiful inner statue is only the first step in the “seeing” that the seeker intends. The intimate contact within is not with a statue or an image, but with the One itself. The statue and the image are actually secondary visions, whereas the One itself is indeed not a vision, but another manner of seeing. It is self-transcendence, simplification, and surrender, an urging towards touch, a resting, concentration on alignment, if one is to have a vision of what is in the sanctum. If indeed someone looks in a different way then nothing is present to him (Enneads 6.9.11.20-25; Gerson, 897). I will not go on quoting Plotinus on this point but, as I say, there are many such indications in Plotinus’s writings that the inward, mystical turn is the path human beings should follow, the path that leads out of the darkened and darkening phenomenal world, the path that leads toward the light. It seems that the ethical inference from Plotinus’s beliefs about reality is that we should all become mystics, spending our time seeking unification with the inner source of our being. ***** Why then did I call this a provisional answer? Because there is something wrong here, something that goes back to my initial remarks on the thinker who does not act according to his beliefs about the structure of reality. The simple fact is that there seems to be a contradiction between Plotinus’s view of reality and his life. His view of reality indicates that a meditative, inward-focused life is the best life for human beings. But we know that Plotinus did not expend all his energies in that pursuit. Of course, we could say that this is just not possible. We could point out, as Aristotle does, that our situation in the phenomenal world makes it necessary to attend to matters that preclude the 2 Lloyd Gerson, ed., Plotinus: The Enneads (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 102. Pastille, Double Duty 7 �inward turn, like eating, sleeping, exercising, communicating, and so forth. Nevertheless, as Aristotle also suggests, it seems that our happiness depends on conceding as little as we must to our physical existence while spending as much time as possible in contemplation, just as Plotinus’s view of reality indicates. Now here’s the problem: Plotinus did not act that way. Of course, he meditated quite a bit, and this shows that he recognized the duty of turning inward that his view of reality implies. No doubt he also minimized concessions to the demands of physical existence. But we also know that he spent a great deal of time actively engaging with life in the here-and-now rather than meditating. Our evidence about this comes from the short biography of Plotinus written by his student Porphyry, who spent six years in constant contact with his teacher. Porphyry tells us, among other things, that Plotinus ran a school, or at least was a well-known teacher who was very much involved in dialogue with students and friends. We also know that Plotinus wrote the fifty-four treatises of the Enneads, and Porphyry tells us that Plotinus was not a thoughtless writer. He wrote with care and edited repeatedly with the aid of assistants, reconsidering his arguments with an eye to the individuals who were likely to read the texts. And, to add just one more example, Porphyry tells us that Plotinus looked after quite a few children who were placed in his care, providing for both their physical and their educational needs. Now we all know how much time and effort it takes to teach, to be a friend, to write carefully, and to raise children. Undertaking these tasks is a very different thing from making concessions to physical necessities. Plotinus did these things voluntarily. By choosing these outward-facing activities instead of the mystic path, Plotinus seemingly acted in opposition his own view of reality. The fact that these actions are altruistic or even compassionate may make them attractive to us, but it does not remove the contradiction. Plotinus willingly acted in violation of the duty to turn inward that his view of reality indicates is best for human beings. ***** At this point, I’m going to take a break from the course of the argument to insert a humiliating bit of personal biography. Think of it as an interlude. Or as comic relief. Anyway, here it is. This seeming contradiction actually bothered me for quite a while. In one of the many ways these things can happen, the bulk of my attention was captured by many other difficult and interesting Plotinian conundrums while this unresolved problem percolated under the surface. One day I was thinking about a quite unrelated issue and just ran out of steam. My mind went blank. And in the blankness, the little inner voice that enjoys bombarding us with critical remarks, piped up. “Well,” it said snidely, “what do you think is more likely—that Plotinus doesn’t know what he’s doing or that you missed something?” The question answered itself, but I was ashamed that it took me so long to get the point, especially since I have a lifetime of experience to teach me that I get things wrong far more often than I get things right. Once that had been settled, it was clear what I was missing. Plotinus was no fool. He was not the kind of thinker who could ignore the ethical implications of his own beliefs. So, there must be an aspect of Plotinus’s system that suggests a second duty in addition to the duty of the inward turn. I must have missed the element that motivated Plotinus’s engagement with the here-and-now. From that point on, the question I was dealing with was no longer just What does Plotinus’s view of the world indicate about how human beings ought to live? It became a more specific question, namely, How does the reality of Plotinus suggest a double duty of turning inward toward our source and of turning outward toward our world? ***** Pastille, Double Duty 8 �Having refocused the question, I soon realized that I had all along been noticing the traces of an answer without actually noticing them. As I looked at my notes in the margins of my copy of the Enneads, I found question marks near passages having to do with the outward turn. And after a while, I saw that Plotinus very often quoted (for instance, in Enneads 2.9.18.40, 3.4.2.1, 4.3.1.34, and 4.3.7.14) this line from Plato’s Phaedrus: “All Soul cares for what is without soul” (446B6). Of course, as we have already seen, Plotinus does not believe that there is anything in the phenomenal world that is, strictly speaking, without Soul. So, he puts his own spin on this passage when he says that “[Soul] comes here voluntarily and for the sake of its capacity and for the ordering of what is after it” (Enneads 4.8.5.26; italics mine). The first part of this passage reconfirms the way Soul reverses the order of source and image. As we said, Soul turns toward itself and away from its source, the Intellect, for the sake of exercising its own capacities. This turning away is, as Plotinus puts it, the “beginning of evils” for Soul (Enneads 5.1.1.4-5). The turn away brings Soul into the phenomenal world, where matter binds it. And this, as we have seen, is the reason why humans are duty-bound to make the mystic ascent. But the second part of the passage introduces a new element. Soul turns toward its own multiplicities and capacities not only for its own sake, but also “for the ordering of what is after it.” And that, I realized, was the missing piece. Soul, by informing matter’s neediness, transmits an image of oneness to “what is after it”—which is the whole phenomenal world. It is through Soul that the One’s ultimate unity reaches everything that exists in world “here.” To be sure, the oneness of rocks and microscopic dust particles may be extremely attenuated, but it is there by virtue of Soul’s donation of form to matter’s neediness. This additional element gives a double meaning to the Soul’s turning away from Intellect. Its turn toward itself, toward its own multiplicities and capacities, does indeed carry the mark of Lucifer’s sin, the sin of pride. Plotinus in fact calls Soul’s turn toward itself tolma, that is, audacity (Enneads 5.1.1.4-5). And as a consequence of its audacity, Soul conjoined with body suffers all the evils of being bound to matter—confusion, distorted judgment, forgetfulness of its source. But that same prideful turn also has a positive aspect. It is true that Soul cares more for itself than for its source. But this is still a caring. By giving form, and therefore order, to “what is after it,” Soul tends for the phenomenal world, taking care of its well-being to the extent that it is possible for matter-with-form to be well. Here ends the biographical interlude. Now that we know there are two duties in Plotinus’s reality, we need to get a bit clearer on what each duty entails. And finally, we need to consider the relationship between them in order to understand the practical aspects of fulfilling them in everyday life. ***** So, what does the centripetal duty, the mystical imperative, the inward turn demand of us? It requires that humans assimilate themselves to the One by moving toward the inner center of our being. This requires turning within, away from our life “here,” in order to break free of the confusing welter of the phenomenal world. Only in that way can we come to understand our true self and its true situation in the structure of reality. On the other hand, the centrifugal duty, the imperative for creating order, the outward turn is an imitation of Soul’s activity. It requires caring for this world and the beings within it by working to bring order to the confusion that runs rampant in phenomenal reality. The first issue to settle in the relationship between the two duties is the matter of priority. Are the inward and the outward turn coordinate or is there a subordination of one to the other? The answer to that question is pretty clear, at least on first approach. As embodied Souls, we are caught in the snares of matter and mistaken about the true structure of reality. Disordered Pastille, Double Duty 9 �ourselves, we are in no condition to bring order to the disorder around us. It would seem, in fact, that attempting to do so would only make things worse by injecting poor choices into the already discombobulated muddle, choices based on mistaken beliefs about the way things are. The inescapable conclusion seems to be that the centripetal duty is prior to the centrifugal one. We need to make the mystic turn first in order to clear up our mistaken thinking about the way things are. Only after finishing the journey to “there,” only after reuniting with the One, will we see clearly enough to care properly for the world in our lives “here.” This seems to be quite well expressed by Christ’s command, “first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). ***** The best way to see how this works is to examine the life of the sage—the person who has ascended to the One and therefore has complete clarity about “there” and “here” and the relationship between them. Progress in the ascent toward the One takes place through dedicated and intense work on the self. This is the sculpting of the inner statue mentioned earlier, and it has the look of self-absorption. It begins with training in the so-called “civic virtues,” the four cardinal virtues mentioned by Socrates in the Republic, namely, courage, temperance, justice, and prudence. By mastering these virtues, the sage-in-training brings order to the external side of his existence. He eventually reaches the point when no external danger or temptation or injustice or foolishness can impede his choices. But this is hardly enough. The civic virtues can be inculcated without imparting an understanding of why they are good beyond their utility for living “here.” They make us steadier, less at the whims of our emotions and mindless reflexes. They create inner resourcefulness and flexibility. They increase the sense that we are competent to meet all contingencies that humans can possibly manage or withstand. But they do not turn us within sufficiently to start the journey upward toward the One. The sage-in-training must use the stability of life gained by exercising the civic virtues to turn attention toward the life of the mind, for it is there that Soul touches us directly. Here the injunction to philosophy comes forward. By turning inward to one’s thinking, by gaining skill in dialectical reasoning, the aspirant increases the ability to focus on immaterial being and becomes comfortable with the motions of Soul in its higher reaches, where it mingles with the forms that are at home in the Intellect. But this too is not enough. Dianoetic activity, the thinking through of the multiple forms that present themselves for inspection in Soul’s higher reaches, is pleasant work for those who have ascended that far. But the pleasantness is a stumbling block to further progress. Dianoia leaves us dispersed. Reasoning at this level is still discursive, still tainted by the successivity that we see in language—not only the distinction between grammatical subject and object, but also the directional separation between premise and conclusion or ground and inference. So, the sage-in-training has to push thought to the end of dianoetic activity at the upper surface of the overlapping area in the figure where Soul and Intellect commingle—and then leap up into pure Intellect, where the thinker takes up the thing thought as an immediacy. This is pure nous, which knows the Forms intimately and without dissection, in a way that is something like our wordless, face-to-face immersion in a burgeoning landscape or a complex artwork. Having arrived at this point, the aspirant finds only one more hurdle to jump. Intellect retains the final separation that must be overcome, the manifest gap between the subject, the thinker, and the object, the thing thought. Intellect sees the One but is aware that it is not itself the One, that it lacks the fulness of its source. How does the sage leap over that last chasm? Pastille, Double Duty 10 �This is the mystical core of the mystical turn. It is the “self-transcendence, simplification, and surrender” that Plotinus speaks about in the passage I quoted earlier. Is this final leap something done by the sage or something suffered by him at the hands of the One? I’m afraid that nothing can be said about this because the ultimate unification extinguishes the distinction between agent and patient. And this is probably why this “experience”—though that is surely not even close to an adequate name for it—cannot be communicated by sages to other human beings. They can only point. It is up to others to travel in the direction of their outstretched fingers. Returning from the ascent to the One, the sage finds himself living in the phenomenal world “here.” But the sage is not like other human beings. The echo of self-disappearance in uniting with the One lives on in the sage, just as the echo of any life-altering experience may live on in regular humans. Those, for instance, who are shattered by experiences that shame them to their center and shock them out of their complacency may become different, more considerate people after their experience than they were before, even though the event may fade from their thoughts with time. For the sage, however, the event has effected a complete transformation—he has changed from a confused and dispersed dweller in the phenomenal world to a clear-sighted and fully integrated dweller in two worlds. The sage is a citizen of “there” and “here” who sees phenomenal reality in the light of eternal oneness. Such people, and only such people, are perfectly empowered to do the work of Soul in the midst of the phenomenal world. When they bring order, when they care for the world and all its beings, they bring the best order and care possible because they do not inject into the necessary disorder even more friction caused by erroneous beliefs about the nature of reality. Do such people actually exist? Perhaps Plotinus was one, or Christ, or Buddha. Or maybe they only exist in literature, like Diotima in Plato’s Symposium or Father Zosima in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. ***** Be that as it may, where does it leave the rest of humanity? Does the priority of the inward turn mean that everyone should be sculpting the inner statue unceasingly to the exclusion of all other activities except those that are absolutely necessary to sustain existence? Does everyone have to wait until they can achieve union with the One before taking the outward turn? Is it impossible to do Soul’s work of caring for the world without first becoming a full-fledged sage? I said just a moment ago that only sages are perfectly empowered to do the work of Soul. The structure of Plotinus’s reality makes that conclusion inescapable. But this does not mean that normal human beings cannot do the work of Soul as well. They just have to resign themselves to doing it imperfectly. They must understand that their efforts to care for the world and bring order to it will carry impurities owing to their ignorance. They must keep in mind that their very best efforts, and even their successes, will likely add some dissonance to the already dissonant phenomenal world— unless their efforts happen by chance to align with the true nature of reality. And such an alignment could only be by chance because regular humans don’t understand the true nature of reality. It would be like a Larissa-bound traveler journeying under a permanent eclipse of the sun who stumbles on the right road in the darkness and manages, despite the existence of many wrong turns, to stay on the main road all the way to town. In other words, it would be a rare, but not impossible, occurrence that would be all but unrepeatable because of the profound ignorance enveloping every move the traveler makes. An awareness of the dissonance attending the efforts of normal humans to care for the world is all the more important because the question I asked about waiting to become a sage before taking the outward turn is utterly contrafactual. The truth is that humans do not have the option of waiting for sagehood before they engage with the here-and-now. They are already and continually doing Soul’s work, whether they know it or not. Pastille, Double Duty 11 �As I said at the outset, we all act in accordance with our beliefs about how the world is. Every choice we make, every step we take in life is a co-creation of the matter-with-form around us and our beliefs about the nature of reality. In choosing to act one way or another, we invest phenomenal reality with the forms of our beliefs. Every human action brings form and order into phenomenal reality. Even abstaining from action is a choice based on one’s notion of reality. There is no waiting for sagehood before acting in the here-and-now. Waiting too is an act in the here-and-now. Given that humans do Soul’s work constantly, bringing order into the world in accordance with their understanding of reality, it makes all the difference whether they are aware of it. If they remain unaware, they will do the work badly, sowing disorder along with the flawed order they create. If, however, they become aware of what they are doing, they can begin to correct their views of reality, which in turn will result in less discord accompanying their engagements with the world. But this is to have already embarked on the inner journey. The first correction in one’s view of reality is the first chip at the inner statue. From this point on, the inward journey proceeds in a ratcheting motion. The improving person acts in the world and brings some order to it in accordance with his new view of reality. Then he turns inward to chip and polish his statue. Then he turns outward again to act, and it goes a bit better because his views are more aligned with reality. Then he turns within again for the next round of sculpting. And so on. So long as he never becomes complacent and never stops turning inward to work on his statue, his work in the world will be less disorderly and more in line with the care that Soul intends to take of phenomenal reality. Even if he never becomes a sage and can never do Soul’s work perfectly, such a self-sculptor would have improved the world by his inner exertions, although less aware humans may charge him with self-absorption. In fact, as Plotinus points out, the appearance of self-absorption is a misapprehension on the part of confused people. [T]he whole world would not bear a grudge against the part that achieved greater worth by being better ordered. For it also makes the whole more beautiful when it has become embellished with a greater worth. For a thing acquires this character when it is made to be the same as the whole and is, in a way, permitted to be like and be aligned with it, that something in it might also shine forth in the region where a human being is, too, like the stars in divine heaven (Enneads 3.2.14.22-25; Gerson, 266). ***** So, after this long excursion, we are finally in a position to give a comprehensive answer the original question, What does Plotinus’s view of the world indicate about how human beings ought to live? The answer is that reality imposes two duties on human beings. The first duty is to make the inward turn, to take the mystic path back toward the One, the source of all Being. This is the prior injunction, although many never heed it. The second duty is to care of the world and bring order to it as perfectly as possible. This is the posterior injunction, although its activity begins in us unawares long before we make the inner turn. While the life of the sage may not be attainable for most human beings, in Plotinus’s cosmos, everyone lives his or her best life by doing double duty. Pastille, Double Duty 12 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. 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Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Microsoft Word Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 12 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Double Duty: How to Live in the Cosmos of Plotinus Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered by Bill Pastille, Annapolis tutor, on November 20, 2020 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Mr. Pastille describes his lecture: "We all act according to our conceptions of the world. Plotinus had an extraordinary conception of reality, namely, that the One generates the less unified Intellect, which in turn generates the even less unified Soul together with the phenomenal world. Plotinus often suggests that the task of human beings is to overcome our multiplicity, to turn away from the less unified and toward the more unified layers of reality. Yet he himself sometimes acted differently. For example, he taught, and he brought up children entrusted to his care, and he wrote—all actions that show a concern for the level of multiplicity on which we humans live. This lecture attempts to account for this apparent discrepancy in Plotinus’s ethics." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pastille, William Alfred, 1954- Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-11-20 Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Plotinus Soul Mysticism Wisdom Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Pastille_William_2020-11-20_Typescript Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a typescript of my lecture available online." Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7427" title="Audio">Audio</a> <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7355" title="Video">Video</a> Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/05055287b50332b71a17bbcf1ead1f0c.mp4 9a5f334ad8c436bea1960e9794b8f7b3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Zoom video conference Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:38:48 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Looking in Freshman Lab I: A Path to Experiencing the Blossoming of Things? Description An account of the resource Video recording of two lectures delivered by Robert Druecker, Annapolis tutor on September 11 and 12, 2020 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. The lectures are the first in a three-part series on Freshman Lab. Mr. Druecker describes the lectures: "Part One gives a sense both of what students at the beginning of Freshman Laboratory read about looking at plants and of how they look at trees and other plants. Part Two considers one 'Big Picture' that they might paint, if they follow the guiding thread of the impulse-to-sprout, encountered in those first few classes." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Druecker, Robert Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-09-11 2020-09-12 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library; make typescript copies of my lecture available for archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832. Versuch die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu erklären Arber, Agnes, 1879-1960 Nicolaïdes, Kimon, 1892-1938 Ink painting, Chinese Buds Flowers Morphology Magnolias Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Druecker_Robert_2020-09-11 Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7629">Looking in Freshman Lab part I</a> (typescript) <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7627" title="Part II">Looking in Freshman Lab part II</a> (video) <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7628">Looking in Freshman Lab part II</a> (typescript) <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7630">Looking in Freshman Lab part III (typescript)</a> <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7682" title="Looking in Freshman Lab part III (video)">Looking in Freshman Lab part III (video)</a> Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/bd8bcf65749d37cf48b6b89ccf552814.mp4 3fed843f8fd66bd539d1828ee3ba209d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:44:40 Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data live YouTube webcast Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our Polity Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Macfarland, Joseph C. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-28 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a typescript of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Student-administrator relationships Polis (The Greek word) Education, Humanistic Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Macfarland_Joseph_2020-08-28 Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered on August 28, 2020 by Joseph Macfarland as part of the Formal Lecture Series. First formal lecture of the academic year, previously referred to as the "Dean's Lecture", but now called the "Christopher B. Nelson Lecture". Christopher B. Nelson Lecture Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/92e264d3fff03026d492ca413b8efa22.mp4 0796ba533b1f4b628b3db67aaedbdf1c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Zoom video conference Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:50:36 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Poverty in America Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered by Chris Arnade, Ph.D. on October 30, 2020, as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Dr. Arnade describes his lecture: "What costs do current political and economic forces impose on the worst off among us? We often hear of a divide between 'elites' and 'ordinary people,' but in what does this divide consist? Who are the leaders, and what guides their thinking? Who is left behind, and how do they describe their circumstances? Do ambition and achievement also leave behind certain forms of meaning and dignity? How are the current states of inequality created and preserved, and how are they harmful? How can and should voices from 'the back row' affect us?" Dr. Arnade left his career on Wall Street in 2008 and spent several years traveling in order to interview, photograph, and listen to poor communities around the US. He now works as a writer and photographer covering addiction and poverty in America. He is also the author of Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America. The lecture is introduced by Joe Macfarland. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Arnade, Chris Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-10-30 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a copy of my typescript available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Arnade_2020-10-30 Subject The topic of the resource Poverty--United States Drug abuse Documentary photography Homelessness--United States Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Macfarland, Joseph C. Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/ad640b97e9c2c7773ddcaa5e1a1f8f27.mp4 7159751b94d8319dfaf0122ebc52eb78 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data live YouTube webcast Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:55:09 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Becoming (A) Woman in La Princesse de Clèves Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered by Patricia Locke, Annapolis tutor on October 2, 2020, as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Ms. Locke describes her lecture: "Madame de Lafayette’s book, La Princesse de Clèves, is one of the earliest novels of psychological realism, while at the same time it offers us an idealized description of an historical milieu. Our protagonist must wend her way through the Valois court, find Mr. Right, and become (a) woman in order to deal with the twin challenges of love and death. I argue that Simone de Beauvoir’s famous sentence, 'one is not born, but becomes, woman,' is tested in this novel. Will young Mlle de Chartres learn how to be 'woman' through her education? Or will she be able to transcend her education through her experience of the passions of jealousy, fear, and grief to become 'a woman' of inimitable virtue?" Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Locke, Patricia M. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-10-02 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Locke_Patricia_2020-10-02_ac Subject The topic of the resource La Fayette, Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne), 1634-1693. Women--Identity Virtue in literature Marriage Love Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/56f8d8807022876529a5ba8518f2b928.mp4 21f0df538450f452466dc9e64a4c6d85 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Zoom video conference Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:49:35 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource God and Ostriches: Queer Birds in the Book of Job Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered by Ron Haflidson, Annapolis tutor, on September 25, 2020 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Mr. Haflidson offers this description for the lecture: "In the Book of Job, God and Job seem to disagree about ostriches. I use that disagreement as a means to explore Job’s spiritual crisis and God's response to it. This inquiry will involve numerous—often wondrous—facts about ostriches. The lecture presupposes no prior familiarity with the Book of Job (or ostriches)." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Haflidson, Ron Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-09-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Bible. Job Ostriches--Religious aspects Animal behavior Suffering--Religious aspects Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Haflidson_Ron_2020-09-25 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/63d610444809b3d985ee8ee236ba637c.mp4 0999cfedaae5515bfe4a4a3ccd344726 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Zoom video conference Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:58:30 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Great Books as a Tool for Liberating African Americans Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered by Anika Prather, Founder of The Living Water School, on September 18, 2020 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Dr. Prather offers this description for her lecture: "I will first review the history of how the Great Books or Classical studies have historically been instrumental in liberating African Americans and then I will connect that to current events and the importance of there being global citizens to fight this fight with our minds and hearts as MLK, Thurgood Marshall, John Lewis and so many others did, using the American documents and a deep understanding of them to hold our leadership accountable to the Constitution." Dr. Prather has spent many years as a teacher, director of education, and head of public and Christian schools. She writes about the history of classical education in the black community as well as the power of classics in the classroom. She is the founder of The Living Water School in Fort Washington, Maryland and teaches in the classics department at Howard University. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Prather, Anika Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-09-18 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Education, Humanistic African American women--Education Christian education Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Macfarland, Joseph C. Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Prather_Anika_2020-09-18 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/8554b921ed71d496c39adc83bf5d8afd.pdf 1409eee1facf648e3bb718a057e29258 PDF Text Text Dialectic, Virtue and Recollection in Plato's Meno* Laurence Berns The first thing that confronts the reader of a Platonic dialogue is its strange form. Philosophic writings, since Aristotle, usually take the form of treatises or essays. But dialogues present themselves as dramas, where actions are equally, or even sometimes more, important than what has been presented as spoken, where what is said must be understood in the light o·f what is done, and what is done must be understood in the light of what is said. Thus, the validity and meaning of the arguments presented in a dialogue must be worked out and qualified by the imaginative and logical exercise of working out the arguments implicit in the action. I. Opening Questions Plato's Meno opens with Meno confronting Socrates with what appears to be a fundamental question about virtue, that is, human excellence. The usual Socratic or Platonic preparation or context for the question is absent. That is, we are not told why Meno asks that question or why it is asked of Socrates. It does, however, appear that Meno is very interested in the question of how to acquire virtue, or at least how to acquire the benefits that a reputation for virtue might supply. But the latter question, why it is asked of Socrates, is not too difficult: Socrates does have a reputation for being exceptionally knowledgeable about the question of virtue: in Plato's, Republic, (358A ff.) Glaucon is speaking to Socrates: But the argument for justice, that it is better than injustice, I have never heard from anyone, as I would like to hear it. And I would like to hear it praised, itself for its very self. And I think that I can learn it from you, most of all. *The Anastaplo Works of the Mind Lecture, University of Chicago, 11 /15/2009, revised for the Homecoming Lecture at St. John's College, Annapolis, 9/24/201 O �Meno, from Thessaly visits the sophisticated metropolis Athens and asks the expert on virtue a "learned" question about the subject of his expertise. Socrates's response to the question is, on its face, outrageous. To Meno's surprise, he answers that wisdom must have emigrated from Athens to Thessaly, because if anyone in Athens should be asked such a question he would laugh about being thought capable of answering it, and would insist that, "I happen not to know at all what that thing virtue itself is." The truth of that assertion by Socrates would seem to depend on the acceptance of his supremely high standard for what "to know" might be. At any rate, he does seem to be very knowledgeable about everything that has been said about virtue, e.g. Justice-Republic, Courage-Laches, Moderation-Charmides, Knowledge-Theaetetus, et al. Socrates claims to share the poverty of the rest of the Athenians: "How could I know what sort of thing something is [for example, whether virtue is teachable], if I do not know what [virtue] is?" Socrates turns Meno's more practical question, about how something is acquired, into a theoretical inquiry about what the thing Meno is asking about is. What is it about Meno's question that could provoke such a response? Does Socrates already know that Meno's character is as questionable, as Xenophon reports it to be in his Anabasis? 1 This dialogue tells us nothing about Meno's later history. We are left by Plato to deduce Meno's character from what he says and does in this dialogue. The opening question is: Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue is something teachable? Or is it not teachable, but something that comes from practice? Or is it something neither from practice nor from learning, but comes to human beings by nature, or in some other way? 1 Xenophon, Anabasis, II. vi. 21-29. 2 �If "learning" in this question is only considered as the other side of teaching we are given three distinct alternatives as to what the source of virtue might be. If they can be separated, we have four, with one indeterminate possibility: teaching, or practice, or learning, or nature; they all exhibit themselves throughout the dialogue, either by their presence or by their conspicuous absence. The "some other way" may be an anticipation of the answer, "by divine dispensation", with which the dialogue ends. If, as it seems to me, Socrates knew that, as far as human character is concerned, nature provides the capacities, teaching and/or learning set forth the ends, the goals, implicit in the natural capacities, and practice develops the habits that enable one to actualize or defeat those goals. Divine dispensation could be a replacement for nature as the source of the original capacities. Meno's question, then, erroneously disjoins, as separated alternatives, factors that can only be properly understood as interrelated parts functioning together in the unified whole of human development. Socrates' seemingly outrageous response could then be seen as the beginning of an attempt to help Meno get sight of the whole that he has unwittingly dismantled. The vast question of the relations of parts to the wholes that they are parts of manifests itself, but not explicitly, at the very beginning and throughout the whole of this dialogue. II. Dialectic Since this dialogue is a dramatic dialogue and not a narrated dialogue like the Republic, our only access to the action of the dialogue is through the mode of the discussion itself. We are not altogether at a loss, however, in this matter, for Socrates has explicitly characterized that mode as dialectical. But if, being friends as both I and you are now, ... [we] should want to have a discussion with one another, then surely a somehow more gentle and more dialectical way of answering is required. And it is perhaps more dialectical to answer not only �with the truth, but also through those things which he who is being questioned could agree that he knows. (Speech 82 2 [75C-D]) But dialectical means a variety of interrelated things in the Platonic writings. The word is derived from the Greek dialegein, to converse, to discuss. The word dia, connected to the word for two, duo, in composite words like this, signifies connections between two or more separated things. It is a linking prefix. Consider the Greek word diabainein. The word bainein means to walk. When you prefix dia to it, it means to cross a bridge. The dia links the two sides of a bridge. The word logos, part of the word dialoqos (dialogue, a noun connected with the adjective dialectical) means a number of things: some primary meanings are speech, meaning and reckoning. Dialectical then does often mean gentle and friendly conversation, where the interlocutors accommodate themselves to, and try to understand each other's views, in contrast to unfriendly and contentious conversation. Dialectic in this personal sense suggests that the meaning of what is being said is to be understood primarily with reference to the characters and capacities of the speakers including their limitations or talents. If the situation, or the character, or capacity of an interlocutor makes theoretical questioning no longer appropriate, the conscientious dialectician can aim at furthering some salutary opinion or belief, some communal agreement that could be beneficial for society as a whole. This form of dialectic frequently appears, as in the case of the Meno, near the end of a dialogue. Aristotle, in his discussion of dialectical reasoning, in the first chapter of his Topics, distinguishes dialectical reasoning from the most perfect form of reasoning, demonstrative reasoning. Demonstration reasons from premises that are "true and primary". The types of persons holding those premises need not be mentioned 2 The translations, notes and speech numbers referred to are those to be found in Plato's Meno, translated with annotations by George Anastaplo and Laurence Berns, (Focus Publishing, R. Pullins Co., Newburyport, MA: 2004). 4 �because the premises produce conviction or belief "through themselves". But dialectical premises, it seems, require reference to those holding them. Dialectical premises are generally accepted opinions (endoxa) "held by all people, most people, or by the wise, and of these, all of the wise, or most of the wise, or the most notable and illustrious of the wise. " 3 Here, in dialectic, where even true and primary premises might be subject to question, reference to the kind of people holding the premises is appropriate. In this personal sense, for example, Plato's treatment of moderation in the Republic can be called dialectical. 4 It ascends from how moderation exists in all, or rather most, people, as control over one's desires, pleasures and pains with respect to food, drink and sexual satisfaction, to its highest and most rare form as a beautiful harmony of cooperating and interpenetrating powers of the soul, each power functioning smoothly as it was naturally meant to function. It should not come as a surprise that Plato's treatment of dialectic is itself dialectical: it is certainly spoken about in a number of different ways in the dialogues. In the Republic, dialegesthai and dialektike, both usually translated as dialectic, refer to that highest form of inquiry by which reason (logos) ascends from sense perception, experience, opinion and what is changeable and opinable, to seek what is purely intelligible, knowable and unchangeable, that is, the forms, or ideas, what each thing is, its very being (ousia), and finally to the governing principle of the whole (literally, of the fil!, to pan. 5118). Aristotle, Plato's foremost student, put this last point as follows: "Dialectic . . . being investigative, has a way to the principles of all pursuits, (all methods, methodon). " 5 3 One is almost tempted to add, "or by all of the most notable, or most of the most notable, or the very most notable of the most notable; or ... etc." 4 See the note on Speeches 26 and 28 [73A-B], and Republic, 3890-E and 4300-4328. 5 Topics, 101 b2-4 �These two meanings of dialectical, the personal and the theoretical, come together when two or more friends are genuinely disposed through discussion to seek an adequate response to a serious "What is ... ?" question, like, "What is virtue?" 6 Or, if a response is not forthcoming, they can search for a better understanding of the question itself, by refining it. 7 In Plato's Cratylus (390C) the dialectician is referred to as one who knows how to ask and to answer questions. But sometimes these two modes of dialectic can be at cross purposes. Socrates, from the beginning of the dialogue up to Speech 354 [86C], has been trying to get Meno to seriously address the question, "What is virtue?". Meno, in Speech 355 [86C-D], reverts, as if nothing had happened during the intervening discussion, to his opening question (with two important omissions). 8 At this point, Socrates, by dialectically accommodating himself to being "ruled" by Meno, gives up trying to engage Meno in the ways of the higher dialectic, adopting instead what he calls a "hypothetical" approach. Something similar happened earlier in the discussions of shape and color. Socrates seeks definitions rooted in our primary experience of the things defined, but Meno finds such definitions too simple. 9 Socrates dialectically accommodates himself to Meno by producing an overgeneral, fancy, materialist ("Empedoclean") definition of color that undialectically ignores the primary experience, the primary cognition, from which any definition of color, or definition of the object of sight, would have to begin, that is, looking. Just before giving up on Meno, Socrates invites him to join with him in putting into practice what has just been exhibited in the Slave Boy scene 10 But, one might 6 See note for Speech 194 [81 E]. Leo Strauss uses the word "zetetic", seeking or searching (from the Greek verb, zetein), to describe the fundamental characteristic of Socratic philosophizing. On Tyranny, Victor Gourevitch and Michael S. Roth, eds. (New York: The Free Press/Macmillan, 1991), p. 196. 8 To use Biblical language, this speech, an important turning point, could be regarded as Meno's Fall. He repeats his opening question leaving out the two things he needs most: learning and practice. 9 See Plato's Sophist, 243A-B. 10 Speech 354, [86C]. 7 6 �object, in the entire Slave Boy episode no "What is ... ?" question is ever raised. How then does the Slave Boy scene relate to the higher dialectic? Both the mode of presentation and the subject-matter of the Slave Boy scene put a premium on looking, looking inside one's self and looking outside at what one can learn only by looking. The Slave Boy scene is an exhibition for Meno's sake of how one can be prepared --here with the aid of a master teacher-- for higher dialectic. The preparation consists of an honest, careful and critical review of what one thinks one knows, in order to come to understand what one does not know. One cannot understand that one does not know without understanding what one does not know. Mathematical illustrations have been traditionally, and are here, models of clarity and precision. The Boy enthusiastically swears when he fully realizes that he does not know from "what sort of line" the eight-foot squared area comes to be. 11 Socrates remarks to Meno and even more to us: "For now he, not knowing, can even carry on the search gladly ... do you think that before he would have tried to seek for or to learn that which he thought he knew while he did not know --before he fell down into perplexity and want and came to believe that he did not know, and longed to know?" 12 - But Meno, although he acquiesces politely, does not seem to see what Socrates is getting at. His vanity may not allow him to become a slave of learning. Ill. Eidos Socrates' major complaint with Meno's different accounts of virtue is that Meno continually gives him swarms of many different virtues, and not that "one and the same form (eidos) through which they are virtues, and upon which one would somehow do well to focus one's gaze." 13 After Meno introduces the ability to acquire 11 Speech 275 [84A] Speeches 282 and 284 [848-C] 13 Speech 16 [72C].Eidos is often translated as "form" or "idea". It is also sometimes translated as "class", as "character" and as "pattern". The elementary meaning of the word is "looks", that by which someone or something is recognized as being who or what he, she or it is. It is connected to the verb eidenai, "to know", the original meaning of which is "to have seen". 12 7 �wealth into the virtues, Socrates characterizes Meno's enumerations of the different virtues, like justice, moderation and piety, as breaking up or changing the whole of virtue into small coin, pieces of small change. This whole, as eidos, as class character, constitutes the whole class of virtues, and each virtue as what it is, according to Socrates; but what kind of whole are we being urged to think of? The old tried and true, natural, if not even childlike, method would be to try to reason to the less known from what seems to be better known. Are justice, moderation, courage, piety and wisdom related to virtue as small change is to gold coin; or as two, three, four and five, are related to number; or as the different kinds of bees are related to their hive; or as the different classes of human beings are related to political society as a whole; or as the organs of a living body are related to the whole living body? Is "virtue" by itself the organism of the different virtues? There is one passage in the dialogue that seems to favor the organismic model. In Speech 112 [77A-B] Socrates urges Meno to tell him what virtue is, "leaving it whole and healthy." While "health" as an analogous term can apply to a number of things, its primary reference is to an animal organism. Aristotle, who appears to be more practical than Plato, approves of Gorgias' and Meno's way of enumerating the virtues. 14 But Aristotle too indicates, near the end of his treatment of courage in the Nicomachean Ethics, (1117b9-13), that no particular virtue possessed in isolation from the other virtues fully deserves the name "virtue": "the more a man possesses virtue in its entirety (ten areten pasan), and the more happy he is, the more will he be pained by death; for life is most worth living for such a man." How does the elementary notion of "sensible looks" become transmuted by Plato and Aristotle into the idea of "intelligible (noetic) looks"? It has something to do with the fact that that by virtue of which a being is what it is, is also that by virtue of which it belongs to a class. When we say, "This is a dog.", we also mean, "This belongs to the class of dogs." What gives a being its character has the attribute of a class character. See Republic, Books VI and VII. 14 See Politics, 1259b21 .-1260b 7, especially 1260a25-28. �There are Platonic dialogues devoted to different virtues, such as Justice-the Republic, Moderation-the Charmides, Courage-the Laches, and Piety-the Euthyphro,. The organismic hypothesis might help account for why none of these inquiries by itself is said to be successful. IV. Cloaking Unknowns As Knowns In Speech 172 [798-C] Socrates tells Meno that "when you were requested by me to talk about virtue as a whole, you fell far short of saying what it is, but you declared that every action is a virtue whenever it is done with some piece of virtue, just as if you had said what the whole, virtue, is and it was immediately recognized by me, even if you were to change it into pieces of small change. " 15 But, Jacob Klein argues, in commenting on these passages, 16 that what Meno is charged with doing (see italics in the previous sentence) is what we all do every time we express an opinion about someone possessing or not possessing some particular virtue. To hold an opinion about that which is under consideration means to take-or, at worst, to pretend to take-the zetoumenon [the thing sought], the "unknown," as if it were "known." To test an opinion means to follow it up through necessary consequences until a patent absurdity (a "contradiction") or something incontrovertibly true comes int6 sight. 17 Klein's use of the mathematical term "unknown" alludes to what he has described (on p. 83 of the same text) as the "analytic" tradition of ancient mathematics, where 15 See Speeches 152-166 [78C-79A (especially Speeches 161 [78E] and 164 and165 [78E79A]. 16 Jacob Klein, A Commentary on Plato's Meno,. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1965), p. 84. 17 Klein adds, "Depending on whether the former or the latter happens, the opinion is either refuted or vindicated. To vindicate (or verify) an opinion means to transform a zetoumenon into an homologoumenon, into something one has to agree to, to transform the hitherto 'unknown' into a truth now indeed 'known.' However seldom, if ever, such vindicating occurs in a Platonic dialogue, the 'dialectical' process, which is 'analytical' in its very conception and structure, tends toward that end." 9 �proofs begin by assuming that one already has the unknown being sought, the zetoumenon, and then, by following up the necessary consequences of that assumption, one either arrives at a contradiction, proving the impossibility of the assumption, or one arrives at some agreed upon truth which establishes the truth of the assumption. "All mathematics today is an outgrowth of this ['analytic'] tradition," Klein says. He alludes to, among other things, the ubiquitous x of algebra. A very simple example: What is the number that multiplied by two equals six? Let us assume that we have it and call it x. Therefore 2x = 3. = 6. Divide both sides by 2, then x Three is the number. But not only modern mathematics, the argument goes, but all testing of opinions, including the testing of opinions in the dialectical process of a Platonic dialogue, follows some such analytic procedure. This bears on the consideration of wholes and their parts as follows: Generally, any opinion on any subject can be understood to catch some "partially" true aspect of the subject under investigation. This means that, however mistaken each of us may be about that subject as a "whole," we are talking together about "the same thing" or, at least, are making an effort to talk about "the same thing." ... But that, in turn, indicates a common, if usually hidden, ground along which the conversation proceeds and where the "whole" is really "located." This "back-ground" is the zetoumenon [thing sought] and its continuing presence manifests itself in our ability to opine, that is, to cloak what remains "unknown" with the guise of the "known." The dialectical-analytic process thus tends indeed through "parts" toward a "whole." That is why it is not at all impossible to talk about "properties" of something of which we do not know what it is. 18 The continuing presence, then, often inexplicit, of a background idea of "the same thing" holding the conversation together manifests itself in dialectical differences of opinion, each interlocutor is arguing about that which he or she does not fully know, assuming the "unknown" as if it were known. If those who converse are genuinely 18 See Speech 2 (71 B) of Plato's Meno, and Klein, A Commentary on Plato's Meno, p. 85. 10 �interested in getting to the truth of the matter, and if each presents evidence and arguments that make sense, they may come to see that the oppositions they find indicate that they have not been talking about the same thing. The "cloaking" process of opining had at first kept them from seeing, but then made it possible for them to see, that they had been talking about different things. Through the saving grace of the principle of non-contradiction, the oppositions are resolved by distinctions, and opinions move closer to knowledge. 19 If, as Klein argues, Socrates misrepresents, in this and other dialogues, the illegitimacy of our ordinary use of "cloaked" eidetic unknown wholes in order to talk about properties of particulars participating in them, his primary motive would seem to be to open up the question "as to what underlies our ordinary speaking and thinking" on any subject, "as a precondition for looking at the 'wholeness' of things." Does the Slave Boy scene exhibit what it purports to exhibit, that all so-called teaching is really recollecting? It appears that Socrates simply gives, or "teaches," the Boy the sought-for line. The scene does exhibit a perfectly natural series of errors, brought out and clarified by a master teacher. The clarification of those natural errors, as errors, also exhibits how one can come to learn, and to benefit from learning, what one does not know. In this simpler case, at least, the question is answered: the Boy does move from false opinions to a true opinion about the soughtfor line. 20 Meno had complained before the Slave Boy episode (Speech 179 [79 E-80 B]) that Socrates, unlike anyone he has ever spoken with, numbs him both in soul and mouth, so that he is not able to join him in his search for whatever virtue is. Meno, to forestall being recruited into the search, presents in the form of questions an argument that he thinks is beautiful which would undermine any such Socratic 19 See Plato's Republic, 430E-431A, especially 436B-441C. · 20 See Speeches 322-332 [858-D]. 11 �search. 21 To rescue his kind of searching from Menonic oblivion, Socrates introduces his recollection story. V. The Whole and the Surface He claims to have heard -Meno is much more attentive to things heard than to things seen- the story "from both men and women wise about things divine," from priests and priestesses and divine poets "able to give an account (loqon) of those things they have taken in hand." What they say is that the human soul is immortal, it appears to die and be born again many times, but is never destroyed. Because it is immortal, has been born many times and "has seen all things ... there is nothing it has not learned and therefore is able to recollect 22 , about virtue and about other things, which it already knew before." Since part of that time it was without a body and sense organs, that seeing cannot simply be seeing in the normal sense; presumably it was some kind of seeing with the mind's eye. "Inasmuch as all nature is akin (or, connected in kinship, synqenous) and the soul has learned all things, there is nothing to prevent someone who recollects (which people call learning) one thing only from discovering all other things, so long as he is brave and does not grow tired of seeking." Since all nature is connected (syn-) -in kinship (-genous) "every bit the soul recollects can be understood as a 'part' of a 'whole'."23 The implication is that that whole is an ordered and knowable whole, the knowable whole. We spoke earlier of the description, in the Republic, of the ultimate or highest object of dialectic being knowledge of the governing principle (archen) of the whole: the recollection story of the Meno, then, points to the ultimate object of, the ultimate zetoumenon. thing sought, by, our natural inclination to know. To know a whole means to know its parts, and to know how those parts fit together to make a whole. 21 • See Speeches 185-188 [80D-81A]. 22 "Remembering", mnesis, is distinguished from "reminding", or "recollecting", anamnesis. Prefixing ana- to the ordinary word for memory or remembering suggests setting out to recall, or to bring something back up to memory. 23 Jacob Klein, A Commentary on Plato's Meno, p. 96. 12 �But if the whole of any particular subject is only a part of the all-comprehensive whole, one cannot have full and perfect knowledge of any particular subject without knowledge of the all-comprehensive whole that it fits into. In any literal sense this is not possible. What then could Plato mean by philosophy, and what is he recommending to us upon reading the Meno? Do not opinions, different opinions, about the ultimate thing sought, zetoumenon, shape or influence the ways we go about seeking knowledge of those parts of the whole that we think we can learn, the different "sciences?" Is the governing principle of the whole corporeal, mathematical, noetic (an object of intellect), organic, or something else ---or all or a few of these together? Seeking to understand fundamental problems, or alternatives, is not solely a theoretical matter. Theory and practice come together as one seeks to understand the principles shaping one's own most cherished opinions. One simple and straightforward consequence of holding to the recollection doctrine is that anyone seeking to discover what virtue is should first look inside oneself, to examine just what it is that one thinks one knows. It may seem immodest, Leo Strauss once remarked, to speak about "all objects of human knowledge," but "we all really have opinions -and sometimes very strong opinions-- about all objects of human knowledge, and it is perhaps better to confess that to oneself and to try to clarify that than just to leave it at the amiable appearance of modesty." Socratic philosophy, then, would be zetetic, 24 ready to seek; openly skeptical in the original sense of the word skeptical: that original sense is derived from the words skopein and skeptesthai, to look carefully, which occur many times in this dialogue. To be a skeptic in this sense of the word is to be a thoughtful "looker." A zetetic skeptic, then, is a thoughtful "looker" seeking and searching for the truth, including the truth about the unavoidable, but elusive, principle or principles governing the whole. 24 See Plato's Meno, cited in note 1, the notes for speeches 12 [72A] and 194 [81 E], pp. 50 and 61. �Speaking generally from what relates to human cognition, the whole and its parts becomes accessible to us through sense experience as sensible heterogeneity: its intelligible (or noetic) underpinnings through intellection as noetic heterogeneity and through counting and mathematics as noetic or dianoetic homogeneity. Sensible heterogeneity refers to the things we all know, dogs, cats, trees, tables, human beings, men women, etc.: they come in different kinds. Noetic or dianoetic homogeneity refers to numbers, that is, multitudes of units or monads of the same kind: if we want to count seats, or humans, or men, or women in this room, we have to specify first the kind of unit we are using in our count. Both of these modes of cognition, sensible heterogeneity and dianoetic heterogeneity, presuppose divisions into, and relations between, different kinds, or classes, or to use the Platonic Greek term, different eide, that is, they presuppose noetic heterogeneity. I will quote Leo Strauss to sum this up: The "what is" questions point to "essences," to "essential" differences -to the fact that the whole consists of parts which are heterogeneous, not merely sensibly (like fire, air, water and earth) but noetically: to understand the whole means to understand the "What" of each of these parts, of these classes of beings, and how they are linked with one another. Such understanding cannot be the reduction of one heterogeneous class to others or to any cause or causes other than the class itself; the class, or the class character, is the cause par excellence. Socrates conceived of his turn to the "what is" questions as a turn, or return, to sanity, to "common sense": while the roots of the whole are hidden, the whole manifestly consists of heterogeneous parts. One may say, that according to Socrates the things which are "first in themselves" are somehow "first for us"; the things which are "first in themselves" are in a manner, but necessarily, revealed in men's opinions. 25 25 Leo Strauss, The City And Man,(Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1964), p. 19, and Jacob Klein, Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra, (Cambridge & London: The M. I. T. Press, 1968), pp. 89-91. 14 �I find it comforting, comforting, but also puzzling, that with all these unusual expressions we have been talking about the "surface" of things. What might be called the sentence of Leo Strauss is about that surface. It goes as follows: "The problem inherent in the surface of things, and only in the surface of things, is the heart of things." 26 I have found it instructive to think about how Strauss leads up to that sentence. It is from his book Thoughts on Machiavelli27: We shall not shock anyone, we shall merely expose ourselves to good-natured or at any rate harmless ridicule, if we profess ourselves inclined to the old-fashioned and simple opinion according to which Machiavelli was a teacher of evil. Strauss then lists nine examples of Machiavelli's "maxims of public and private gangsterism." The central one is: "not virtue, but the prudent use of virtue and vice leads to happiness". Such maxims were said to be devilish. Strauss goes on: To recognize the diabolical character of Machiavelli's thought would mean to recognize in it a perverted nobility of a very high order. [He refers to Marlowe's remark that according to Machiavelli, 'there is no sin but ignorance.' and then goes on:] Not the contempt for the simple opinion, nor the disregard of it, but the considerate ascent from it leads to the core of Machiavelli's thought. There is no surer protection against the understanding of anything than taking for granted or otherwise despising the obvious and the surface. I leave you repeating once again, the final sentence of that statement: "The problem inherent in the surface of things, and only in the surface of things, is the heart of things." 26 27 Thoughts on Machiavelli, (The Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois: 1958), p. 13. The Introduction, p. 9. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. 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Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. 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Title A name given to the resource Dialectic, virtue and recollection in Plato's Meno Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered on September 24, 2010 by Laurence Berns as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Berns, Laurence, 1928- Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010-09-24 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Language A language of the resource English Relation A related resource <a href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/6850" target="_blank" title="Typescript" rel="noreferrer noopener">Typescript</a> Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/13c0d724bd950b776f4f7cb344538d06.mp3 724ef86fc8938f57def92f2b3bed901a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data wav Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:54:03 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Justice in Aristotle’s Ethics Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered by Mitzi Lee, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder, on February 7, 2020 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Dr. Lee offers this description for her lecture: "What kind of a virtue is justice, and how does it differ from the other virtues, according to Aristotle? I shall argue that, for Aristotle, justice is fundamentally concerned with bringing about just outcomes and states of affairs." Dr. Lee has been at the University of Colorado at Boulder since 2005. She specializes in ancient Greek philosophy. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lee, Mi-Kyoung Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-02-07 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audio recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Aristotle. Nicomachean ethics Justice Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Lee_Mitzi_2020-02-07 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/fa16d7096db6ebc206f05779755ce843.mp3 d8c94f9ed2229b6d17b6bb4f85f531a0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data wav Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:47:13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Vergil's Aeneid and Augustine's Confessions: Reading, Writing, Being Human (Steiner Lecture) Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered by Sarah Ruden, author, poet, and visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, on January 17, 2020, as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Dr. Ruden describes her lecture topic as: “talking about the great book as a means for both readers and writers to regain some sense of the individual self in a modern society--that is, one in which power has become distant, inexorable, and incomprehensible. Vergil and Augustine were creatures of early modernity, and their struggles for self-expression and communication have interesting and inspiring commonalities.” Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ruden, Sarah Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-01-17 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audio recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Virgil. Aeneis Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430. Confessiones Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ruden_Sarah_2020-01-17 Friday night lecture Steiner lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/043ca474ab123a106b9b22d5e5460e90.mp3 a54cd1121f8a3b02e180e5f9b7a597df Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data wav Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:10:07 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Jerusalem and Athens: The Family Drama in the Bible and Greek Thought Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered by Ronna Burger, Professor of Philosophy at Tulane University, on November 8, 2019 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Burger describes her lecture topic as follows: "The family is a central concern for the Bible as well as for Greek poetry and philosophy. But there seems to be an important difference in the problem on which each tradition focuses. The dominant theme of the Book of Genesis is the rivalry of brothers (or sisters)—from Cain's fratricide to the attempted fratricide by Joseph's brothers. In Greek thought, on the other hand, the dominant theme is the “Oedipal” relationship of the son to the father (and mother)—from Hesiod's Theogony to Aristophanes' Clouds, Plato's Euthyphro and the tyrannical soul in Book IX of the Republic, with its allusion to Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus. What is the significance of these differing perspectives on the principal problem of the family? Does the contrast shed light on the larger issue of Jerusalem and Athens?" Burger is introduced by Tutor Jason Tipton. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Burger, Ronna, 1947- Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-11-08 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audio recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Dysfunctional families in the Bible Philosophy, Ancient Poetry, Ancient Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Burger_Ronna_2019-11-08 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/44add5aaeec8dd8ed7de1fc23b2d3134.mp3 eee89888219825187b981fe45752fa07 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data wav Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:06:58 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered by Arthur Melzer, Professor at Michigan State University, on November 1, 2019 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Melzer describes his lecture topic as follows: "Is it true that most philosophers prior to 1800 concealed their true opinions behind a veneer of conventional pieties? What is the empirical evidence for this claim? What motives could have led so many philosophers to engage in such strange behavior? And why does this strike mainstream scholars today as preposterous?" Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Melzer, Arthur M. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-11-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audio recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Secrecy Philosophy--History Censorship Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Melzer_Arthur_2019-11-01 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/993ba75205ca43af9a3731594c500704.mp3 6a334e6495b5110ada7652a722905b5c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data wav Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:47:24 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Pursuit of Happiness: Four French Thinkers on Our Restless Quest for Contentment Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered by Benjamin Storey, Associate Professor, Department of Politics and International Affairs, and Co-Director of the Tocqueville Program at Furman University, on October 18, 2019 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. The introduction to Storey's lecture was not recorded. Storey describes his lecture topic as follows: "In 1840, Alexis de Tocqueville famously observed that Americans are 'restless in the midst of their well-being'—strangely uneasy even as they enjoy unprecedented prosperity. This talk will consider the long French tradition of thinking about restlessness that lies behind that observation. It will begin by showing how the great essayist Michel de Montaigne seeks to quiet our restlessness by teaching us a new way of pursuing happiness, a way of life distinguished by the central place it accords to the modern virtues of skepticism, authenticity, and nonchalance. Turning next to Pascal and Rousseau, the paper will consider their separate and distinctive critiques of the Montaignean pursuit of happiness, which, in their view, deepens the very restlessness it is intended to palliate. The paper will conclude with a consideration of Tocqueville’s analysis of American politics in the light of his insight into the psychological unease of the American citizen, and an argument for how we might pursue happiness better by reconsidering some of the assumptions of modern skepticism from which we began." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Storey, Benjamin Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-10-18 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audio recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859 Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778 Pascal, Blaise, 1623-1662 Happiness Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Storey, Benjamin 10-18-2019 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a6bd816dd6d27c9fe8dc893b608baf1b.mp3 bfe59ea6511231a8a9630d8a1f7895b3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data wav Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:56:06 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hegel on Reason in History Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered by Mark Alznauer, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University, on September 20, 2019 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Alznauer describes his lecture topic as follows: "Hegel says that the only presupposition that the philosopher brings to history is the simple thought of reason, that reason rules the world. In this lecture, I will compare Hegel’s philosophical histories (of the state, art, religion, and philosophy) to more empirical approaches, paying particular attention to the conceptual form of Hegel’s histories." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Alznauer, Mark Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-09-20 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audio recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831 History--Philosophy Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Alznauer_Mark_2019-09-20 Alumni Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a6aeec4018399afe1e0c4484b56ccabd.mp3 d1a5fe93723d18c3f6bacb707f2e3f31 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts. For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a>. Click on <a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data wav Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 50:33 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Philosophic Anthropology and the Emergence of Liberal Constitutionalism Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered by Michael Zuckert, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, on September 13, 2019 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Zuckert describes his lecture topic as follows: "Constitution Day is intended to honor and cogitate on the Constitution. My talk focuses not so much on the constitution itself but on constitutionalism. To a large degree, I maintain, constitutionalism is a product of developments in political philosophy, especially in the realm of philosophic anthropology. In my lecture I explore the underpinnings of the theory of human nature that supported constitutionalism of the sort the American Constitution embodies." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Zuckert, Michael P., 1942- Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-09-13 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audio recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Zuckert_Michael_2019-09-13 Subject The topic of the resource Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679 Locke, John, 1632-1704 Friday night lecture