1
20
584
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/b633069f0d5f0635203c8ee6df3499e0.mp3
98e68b365986b7705dc4a452a1e5d3af
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.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google 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.)
00:50:20
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 Horses of Achilles
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture delivered on September 9, 2016 by Robert Charles Abbott, Jr. as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Abbott, Robert Charles, Jr.
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
2016-09-09
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 make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audio recording of my lecture available online. Make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a copy of my typescript 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
Abbott_Robert_2016-09-09
Relation
A related resource
<a title="Typescript" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/1139">Typescript</a>
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d54631506289d9a51f59be2922391da5.pdf
b8980e4108eb2b058d456bb17fce181b
PDF Text
Text
THE HORSES OF ACHILLES
At the end of the Nineteenth Book of the Iliad, Achilles readies himself to avenge
the death of Patrocles. He puts on the armor of Hephaestus, mounts the chariot behind his
two immortal horses, and calls on them in a terrible voice:
Xanthos and Balios, far-famed sons of Podarge!
Take care to return your charioteer in another way
to the company of the Danaans once we quit the field:
do not leave me there dead, as you did Patrocles.
The goddess Hera then gives one of the horses a prodigious, an unheard of gift: the power
to speak. Xanthos claims he and his brother, Balios, were not to blame for the death of
Patrocles, and though they will bring Achilles safely home this time, his death is not far off.
The Furies take back Xanthos’ voice as quickly as it was given. Achilles is deeply shaken by
this ominous reply to his insult, but states his intention to return to the war, and drives the
chariot on.
Xanthos never speaks before this, nor does he or any other animal in the Iliad ever
do so again. In order to understand the significance of this momentary suspension in the
rule of the cosmos we must acquaint ourselves with the nature of those horses who
participated in the Trojan War and the deathless horses of Achilles in particular. Not being
an expert in horsemanship myself, I will permit a few others to guide us, chief among them
Xenophon, the Athenian soldier and friend of Socrates. The lecture is in five parts.
Part One: The Horses
The horses of the Iliad, unlike the dogs who lurk at its edges, are full participants in the war.
Just like human warriors, they are sensitive to boredom, terror, and honor, though they
perceive each in their own equine way. When the Trojans have taken the field, and their
campfires are scattered across it, innumerable and brilliant as the stars, their horses watch
through the endless hours of night for the return of dawn, just as their masters do
(VIII.564). Horses, also like men, can be more or less used to war, as when the newly
arrived Thracian horses are too frightened to walk on the bodies of their masters. And
horses, like men, are capable of overcoming even great weariness and reluctance when
persuaded. Antilochus delivers himself of a complicated speech in the midst of the chariot
race at the end of the poem, calling on his horses with a rhetorical sophistication we might
think appropriate only for human listeners, though he demonstrates thereby the close bond
between warriors and horses, and their sensitivity to honor (XXIII.400).
A fast horse is life. As it did for Nestor, a chariot can rescue the exhausted hero and
carry him to safety (VIII.85). It can also take him where he is needed most. From the
height of the chariot a spear can be thrown or a comrade spotted (IV.306). Not to have
one’s horses nearby can mean death, as it did for Agastrophos, whom Homer calls a fool for
leaving his chariot team with a henchman (XI.340). Dolon, the impetuous Trojan spy,
names the horses of Achilles as the high price for his dangerous night raid into the Greek
camp (X.320). He does not acquire them, and the book ends with Odysseus and Diomedes
�The Horses of Achilles
St. John’s College
Robert C. Abbott Jr.
September 9th, 2016
stealing the horses of King Rhesus, an ally of the Trojans. This strategically unimportant
and morally questionable raid is a symbolic journey into the dark underworld of the battle
to steal something as precious as daylight—hope for the successful outcome of the war.
It is as if the theft of these snow-white horses secures the sunrise, and the book ends with
the bloody, triumphant heroes bathing in the dawn-drenched waters of the sea.
The horses of Achilles did not always belong to him. Poseidon gave them to his
father, Peleus, and he gave them to Achilles when he sailed for Troy. Their father is
Zephyrus—the West Wind, and their mother, Podarge—a harpy (XVI.148). The harpies, or
more literally, “Snatchers,” are winged spirits of the storm, blamed for sudden or
unexplained disappearances. Zephyrus by contrast, is the obliging wind who comes at
Achilles’ request to kindle the funeral pyre of Patrocles. As with many mythological pairings,
these progenitors are opposites but akin: Zephyrus generously comes from afar to help hide
the body of Patrocles in fire, Podarge makes mortals disappear with ill will. The horses are
as swift as their parents, though their names do not reveal this extraordinary inheritance.
Xanthos and Balios refer simply to the color of their coats: Bay and Dapple.
The chariot of Achilles is also drawn by a third horse, Pedasos, who is mortal.
His name is revealing. It is probably derived from the verb πεδάω, to bind with fetters, and
Pedasos would mean something like, “Fettered,” or more figuratively, “Trained.” One also
hears the verb πηδάω in his name, which means, to leap or bound. Both these meanings are
revelatory of his own duel nature: he is bound to the earth by his mortality, but he rises
above his natural station to run with the immortal horses.
Pedasos is killed by a spear which pierces his shoulder, and Automedon hurriedly
cuts him free from the chariot in the chaos of battle. His is a harbinger of Patrocles’ own
death, a mortal severed from godlike Achilles. When Pedasos dies, he screams, and just like
any of the other heroes in the Iliad, blows his life’s breath from his mouth.
No horse can be handled without skill, but the immortal horses require an altogether
formidable rider. Just as a great hero like Achilles is jealous of his freedom to act as he sees
fit, inflexibly proud of his peerless excellence, and easily offended by discourtesy, there is
something correspondingly perilous in the temperaments of Xanthos and Balios. Odysseus
and Apollo agree they are, “difficult horses to ride” (X.401, XVII.76). And being difficult is
not the same as being wild or unbroken. A certain kind of horse might well refuse to be
ridden by an inferior rider, just as a certain kind of person might refuse to be commanded by
an inferior king.
There are other similarities between Achilles and his horses besides their prideful
unwillingness to be led by any but the most excellent guides. Both are accounted in the
catalogue of ships to be the best among the Greeks (II.770). When Achilles finally returns
to the field of battle, he attains the cosmic proportions this ranking promised: his eyes burn
like fire, he shines like the madness-inducing Dog Star, his shield depicts the entire earth,
and he is drawn by immortal horses, swift as the wind. By this time in the poem, Pedasos
and Patrocles are dead; nothing remains to remind him of his human heritage, only Xanthos’
prophecy of his imminent death. The likeness between Achilles and the immortal horses
is in no way better exemplified than at the funerary games. Neither participates. They stand
apart and mourn.
2
�The Horses of Achilles
St. John’s College
Robert C. Abbott Jr.
September 9th, 2016
Part Two: The Charioteer
The immortal horses are more difficult to ride than any other, though it is not to
Achilles their mastery belongs, but rather, to Patrocles (XVII.475). He is their beloved
charioteer (ἡνίοχος), a word which applies peculiarly to him, the greatest charioteer for the
greatest warrior (XXIII.280). Achilles, while watching the funeral games, remembers him
this way:
But I stay here at the side, and my single-foot horses stay with me;
such is the high glory of the charioteer they have lost,
the gentle one, who so many times anointed their manes with
soft olive oil, after he had washed them in shining water.
As Pandaros says to Aeneas, horses carry better the horseman they know best (V.230). “To
know” in this sense entails profound trust and understanding. He goes on to say it is the
longed for voice of the charioteer that calms the terror battle brings on, not the rider’s skill
with the mechanical apparatus of the chariot.
Hector speaks to his own horses with this intent to calm and encourage. He asks
they repay in battle all the care his wife, Andromache, gave them in peace (VIII.185). There
is a likeness between Hector’s speech and Achilles’ insult: Hector demands his horses repay
the special kindness Andromache showed them, just as Achilles accuses his horses of
unjustly not repaying the kindness of Patrocles. In both addresses Patrocles and
Andromache are the horses’ caretakers whose memory should inspire them to excellence.
This is not the only time Patrocles has been implicitly compared to a woman.
In Book Nine, Phoenix tells Achilles an only apparently rambling story meant to
convince him to return to the battle before the Greeks are driven into the sea. It becomes
clear he is not primarily addressing Achilles. Patrocles’ name means “glory of the father,”
and the wife of the angry, recalcitrant hero in Phoenix’s story is Kleopatra, its feminine
equivalent. In the story, Kleopatra is the only person who can persuade her husband,
Meleager, to give up his anger and save the city, just as Patrocles might be the only person
who can convince Achilles to save the Greeks. Gentle and masterful charioteer that he is,
he might be able to persuade spirited Achilles, just as Kleopatra did her husband.
The epithet with which Achilles addresses Patrocles after he has agreed to let him go
into battle is ἱπποκέλευθος. This word is used only three times in the Iliad and exclusively to
characterize Patrocles. It distinguishes his horsemanship from the Trojans’, who are often
referred to as ἱπποδάμοιων, “breakers of horses.” Ἱππόδαμος is derived from the word for
horse, ἳππος, and the verb δαμάζω, which means “to break in, tame; (in mid.) to control
(horses); to bring into subjection (political or matrimonial); to wear out or exhaust; to curb
or restrain; to overcome, overpower, to put an end to, to destroy.” Although the lexicon
suggests this wide-ranging word means something like “bring into order” when it refers to
horses, in its broader sense it hints at the forceful means by which this is accomplished, as
well as the permanent circumstances which ensure the obedience of the horse. The Trojans
do have their horses under control, but rather in the way Xerxes controls his army: always
under threat of the lash.
Patrocles’ epithet, ἱπποκέλευθος on the other hand, has a very different range of
meaning. Its root appears to be κέλευθος, which means “way, road, or path,” and so one
Homeric lexicon defines ἱπποκέλευθος as “one who fares with horses,” while another
suggests, “making the road on a chariot, chariot-fighter.” Lattimore translates it as “rider of
3
�The Horses of Achilles
St. John’s College
Robert C. Abbott Jr.
September 9th, 2016
horses,” and “lord of horses,” the latter of which nicely captures a verbal echo from the verb
κελεῦω, which has the primary meaning, “to command persons, order, bid, enjoin,
give orders or injunctions.” Secondarily, it means “to bid, exhort, charge, urge, recommend,
counsel, invite.” These two resonances in his epithet—κέλευθος and κελεῦω—imply that
Patrocles’ relationship to horses is not one of breaking them to his will, but rather, of
commanding them, as one might command a fellow warrior capable of understanding and
assent. In his horsemanship, the horse is taken to be a thinking being capable of persuasion
and with which one can go somewhere together. Patrocles is ἱπποκέλευθος because he
follows the way of the horse. In the Trojan epithet, ἱππόδαμος, the horse always remains a
potential enemy, defeated, never moving beyond its subjection.
I will turn to Xenophon and a few other horse trainers to show that this
difference—between force and persuasion—is a fundamental concept in horse training, and
that anyone who would fare with horses must make a decision regarding it. The distinction
reaches to the depths of the conflict portrayed in the Iliad.
While Xenophon recommends many means of training the horse one might call
forceful, he is very clear, the final end of horsemanship is for the horse to act always of its
own free will. He means this to be true most of all when the horse is asked to do more
dangerous things than it would ever do in the wild. This is a simple but difficult thought to
accept. How can a rider ride a horse unless it is the rider’s will which rules? Here is
Xenophon in his own words:
For what a horse does under constraint, […] he does without
understanding, and with no more grace than a dancer would show if he
was whipped and goaded. Under such treatment horse and man alike will
do much more that is ugly than graceful. No, a horse must make the
most graceful and brilliant appearance in all respects of his own will with the
help of aids. (The Art of Horsemanship XI.4)
A more modern inheritor of Xenophon’s tradition writes, “The thing you are trying to help
the horse do is to use his own mind. You are trying to present something and then let him
figure out how to get there.” That was the trainer Tom Dorrance on horsemanship, or,
perhaps, on education generally. Dorrance also talks about those riders who don’t “get in
the way of” their horse (p. 17, True Unity: Willing Communication between Horse and Human).
According to these teachers, true horsemanship is not forcing the horse to act, but rather,
allowing the horse to do what he or she is capable of and wills for itself. “You need to be
the horse’s master, but him not the slave, but rather your willing partner.” (p. 51, Dorrance)
Dorrance sums up the relationship between horse and rider as a “true unity of willing
communication,” and later, to be clear he is not describing a monstrous melding of horse
and man, he calls this state of unity, “togetherness.” (p. 11, Dorrance)
We can properly estimate the horsemanship of Patrocles by noting what it enables
him to do with the horses. It is not always true that actions are revelatory of the powers
which enabled them. Mere force, after all, can induce great and terrible effects all on its
own. But in this case, the action in question is so extraordinary that we can look to it as a
true indication of his skill. In order to understand its significance, we must remember the
precarious situation the Greeks find themselves in without Achilles. Nestor proposes a plan
to make up for his absence. First, they will gather and bury their dead in a collective funeral
pyre. Then they will construct a wall, fronted by a moat, lined with wooden stakes meant to
impede and impale the expected Trojan assault. The project will transform the Greeks’
4
�The Horses of Achilles
St. John’s College
Robert C. Abbott Jr.
September 9th, 2016
piratical encampment into a more permanently defensible fort, but also anchor them even
more firmly in their defensive position. The buried warriors are meant to protect them from
their enemies just as much as the wall and moat (VII.327). One might recall the body of
Oedipus buried at Colonus to defend Athens from invasion, or the Spartan theft of Orestes’
bones to ensure their conquest of Arcadia (Herodotus, Inquiries I.67). The Greek
encampment is founded on and preoccupied with the dead, the dark, and past grievances;
Troy is the city of life, and the forgetful forgiveness of Paris’ calamitous theft of Helen; it is
the city of Apollo. In the twilight between Greek darkness and Trojan light lies the plain of
war, the place of heroic action.
When Patrocles finally rides out in defense of his comrades, he turns the tide of the
battle and drives the Trojan flood back into this plain. Many are crushed in the panicked
retreat or trapped in the dust-choked ditch. Patrocles drives the horses straight towards this
grisly chasm, heedless of the danger, and vaults it in one death-defying spring (XVI.380).
Xenophon says in The Cavalry Commander, if it is true a man should wish to fly, then he
should learn to ride a horse, as it is that activity which most closely resembles it (viii.6). This
astonishing physical feat is itself only a mark of an even greater spiritual one. The leap of
Patrocles affirms that though human life may only be safe behind a barrier founded on the
memory of those who have gone before us, it is possible to leap into the living present and
act. While the leap shows us what Patrocles and the horses were capable of, their reaction to
his death reveals the great love which made it possible.
Part Three: The Grave
After the horses hear Patrocles has been killed, they stand still as gravestones and
weep. The verb (πυθέσθην, from πεύθομαι, XVII.427) emphasizes that they do not simply
witness, but hear of and understand what has happened. Patrocles᾽ death is described
elliptically. He falls “in the dust,” (ἐν κονίῃσι) and the horses mimic his collapse by trailing
the full length of their manes in the muck of the battlefield. Their desecration of themselves
anticipates the fate of his dead body, soon to be returned to the earth. The horses bow their
heads to the earth, their tears flow to the ground, and they stand fixed (ἔμπεδον) as a
gravestone. “Ἔμπεδον” recalls the name, Pedasos, the mortal horse whose name means
“fettered,” or as we might hear it now, “earthbound.” Without Patrocles to guide them, the
immortal horses are rooted to the earth, like their dead comrade.
The horses are compared to a gravestone not only because they are still, but because
their immobility means something, in the way a gravestone does. It means they have lost, or
are willing to give up, that essential part of themselves—their speed—out of love for
Patrocles. Rather than run away from his death, in body or in mind, they remain with him.
The word for remain here, μένει, might remind us of the link Socrates makes between
“remaining” and “remembering” in the Meno. The heroes of the Iliad long for immortality in
the form of undying fame and they fear forgetful oblivion. When the carnage Achilles
wreaks is so great the river Scamander rises from his bed in indignation, Achilles fears not
only he will drown, but that he will be forgotten in the depths without a fixed grave marker
to remember him by (XXI.315). Patrocles will not be so forgotten. Homer’s simile makes
the horses’ eloquent immobility his memorial.
Homer notes that the grave in the simile is for either a lord or a lady. This seemingly
inexplicable addition suggests the horses mourn Patrocles as if he were both man and
woman, which is appropriate, given his dual nature. On the one hand, he is the horses’
5
�The Horses of Achilles
St. John’s College
Robert C. Abbott Jr.
September 9th, 2016
gentle charioteer, he sets the bread on the table when the embassy comes to persuade
Achilles, he comforts Briseis when she is first brought to the Greek camp, and he is
compared to Andromache and Kleopatra. On the other hand, he is a great warrior, eager for
glory, the best of the Myrmidons. He kills more warriors in the field than anyone else in the
poem, more than Achilles and Hector combined. The grave of Patrocles is the grave of
mankind, without regard for gender.
One might think after hearing their careless laughter at the end of Book One the
immortals have no cause to mourn, but we see this is not so. Zeus himself weeps tears of
blood when his son Sarpedon dies, and the mourning of the horses gives the king of the
gods another occasion to contemplate the sorrow of immortality (XVI.459). He asks
himself: why did we give you to a mortal man, the most wretched creature on earth? Their
mourning shows that the immortal horses were not made to serve mortals unwillingly, as
Poseidon and Apollo served King Laomedon in building the walls of Troy (VII.445).
Rather, the horses mourn Patrocles for the same reason Zeus mourned Sarpedon: they have
lost, he whom they loved.
The horses refuse to leave Patrocles’ body. Automedon uses every kind of
persuasion: he beats them, he threatens them with a sharp whip, and he pleads with them.
Their refusal is both a testament to their love as well as an indication that the bond which
permitted the great leap over the barrier does not yet extend to Automedon. The epithet
ἱπποκέλευθος implied that the horsemanship of Patrocles depended on persuasion and
willing assent. Without it, the horses are not moved by words, either threatening or pleasing,
nor can they be forced from their place. Their power cannot be harnessed by a mere
breaker of horses.
Hector notices the famous team standing by the body of Patrocles and hopes to add
them to the spoil of Achilles’ armor. Zeus emphatically denies him this. Rather than force
them to return to the ships, however, he puts great strength into their knees so they are
themselves able to overcome their grief and rescue Automedon. When Xanthus and his
brother later stand accused of desertion, he does not tell Achilles it was Zeus who aided
them or that their first reaction to his death was to stay and weep for Patrocles. But we
know that the true reason they left the battlefield was because Zeus gave them the strength
to, just as we know that the true cause of their staying was their love for Patrocles.
Part Four: Justice
We are now in a position to appreciate the depth of Achilles’ insult I recounted at
the beginning of this lecture. His scornful request that the horses make sure to return him
safely back to camp as they did not do for Patrocles insinuates, that when he needed them
most, they failed in their trust. It is as if Achilles sees in their desertion a bitter reminder of
his own abandonment of the army. Without Patrocles, Achilles does not believe in the
willing compliance of the horses, or his power to persuade them. His command is
undermined by its irony: if the horses abandoned Patrocles, why should they not abandon
him as well?
The seriousness of his insult catches the attention of an equally serious power in the
cosmos. That it is the queen of the gods who gives Xanthos the power to speak marks this
occasion as significant in more than the world of horsemanship. Whenever a god acts in the
way Hera does here, their sphere of responsibility has been violated. And a god always and
tirelessly protects that for which it is responsible. Hera gives Xanthos the power to speak
6
�The Horses of Achilles
St. John’s College
Robert C. Abbott Jr.
September 9th, 2016
so he can correct Achilles’ unjust insult. Why this should be any of Hera’s concern is made
clearer by looking to the sorts of things that move her to anger and to action.
Hera is the last word of Book One, just as anger is its first. This is an ominous
intimation of her violent and vocal opposition to the will of Zeus. She is the goddess of the
“reckless word” (VIII.210, 461), and—like Achilles—is often angry. Unlike Athena, she
cannot control her rage, but pours it out in speech. (IV.25) She urges Achilles to call the
many-voiced assembly in Book One. She does this not only to save her warriors from the
arrows of Apollo, but also because of her care for that aspect of just redress which calls for
an accusation to be heard in public. The first and barest aspect of all justice, including its
cruder form in vengeance, is the vocalization “No!” The first word of the Iliad is μῆνιν—
wrath, but the first sound—and the Iliad is a poem one is meant to hear—the first sound is
μή—the negative particle of refusal—no, I will not. The Iliad is replete with negation:
Agamemnon says no, I will not return your daughter; Helen says no, I will not go to bed with
him yet again; Achilles says no, I will not fight. Without the power to protest what has been
said or done, there can be no balanced reconsideration, no appeal to what should have been,
and no fair judgment. The Iliad, by beginning with the momentary vocalization, “No!”
indicates it is a poem with justice, and the possibility for justice, at its heart.
Xanthos’ decisive “no” gives a sharp correction to Achilles’ insult, and although it
cannot reestablish that harmony of horse and rider which existed prior to the death of
Patrocles, his speech does make clear the parameters within which the horses are acting.
Xanthos states that not they but the gods and fate were the causes (ἄιτιοι) of Patrocles’
death, and thereby indicates that one of Patrocles’ killers is the god Apollo and beyond
Achilles’ reach. Xanthos also says it was not through slowness or irresponsibility he and his
brother failed to return their charioteer; they were both capable and willing. Achilles should
not blame the instruments available to him but look to the true causes.
Achilles addresses the horses as “famed sons of the harpy Podarge,” but Xanthos
boasts that he and his brother could run with the West Wind, their more benevolent father.
The supplemented genealogy reminds Achilles that the horses do more than bring death,
they can rescue their rider as well. Their speed is an image of their immortality, which they
can momentarily share with the charioteer they carry. Immediately after his boast, Xanthos
says, but you (αλλά τοι) are destined to be overpowered by a god and a man, as if to say that
even swift Achilles will one day be outrun by death. The phrase Homer uses for
“overpowered” is ἶφι δαμῆναι, “overmastered by force,” and cannot but recall the epithet
ἱππόδαμος, “horse-breaker,” which shares a root, δαμαζω. The horses are too swift to be
mastered, but Achilles will fall prey to force and to death.
What the content of Xanthos’ speech reveals is that the immortal horses could not
have been forced to do anything. Their love for Patrocles was not hampered by indecision,
laziness, poor-timing, weakness, ignorance, or any of the vices which usually keep us from
living up to our noblest form. And the highest form of horsemanship demands that we
believe the horse is in every way capable of and willing to attain the perfection proper to it.
Achilles fails to believe this myth. What he assumes, instead, when he insults the horses, is
that they did not wish to save Patrocles, that their bond of willing communication was a
pretense which shattered at his death. He fails to believe there was anything more than force
at work between them, so when the wielder of that force died, the horses deserted him.
What the fact of Xanthos’ speech reveals to Achilles is that it was not simply force
which guided the horses, but an unbroken, silent communication between horse and
charioteer. The horses have always been able to speak, but only to the right listener. It took Hera’s gift
7
�The Horses of Achilles
St. John’s College
Robert C. Abbott Jr.
September 9th, 2016
to make their voices discernible to Achilles, and to us. This is the meaning of her gift: it is
not a magical or supernatural event, except in so far as it is the revelation of a deep truth.
Hera gives Xanthos the power to speak, but it is the Furies who take it away again
just as suddenly. This makes some immediate sense: a speaking animal is outside the bounds
of nature. But the Furies are more than guardians of order simply. If we can see what their
sphere of responsibility is in the poem, we can explain why they take Xanthos’ voice. But
saying they “take” it is misleading. Rather, Hera and the Furies appear on the scene to
protect that for which they are responsible, and they work together to repair the damage
done by Achilles’ insult.
We know three chief characteristics of the Furies. First, in Book Fifteen we learn
they side with the elder, even among the gods (XV.205). This includes not only the elder
born among siblings, but parents; in other words, they side with who or what came first, or,
put in another way, they side with chronological origins, not consequences, often to the
detriment of who or what follows from them. Phoenix is punished by the Furies for
sleeping with his father’s favorite concubine and thereby dishonoring him (IX.455) and
Athena claims the Furies punish Ares for opposing his mother’s will by assisting the Trojans
(XXI.410). The Furies also punish those who break oaths, that is, those who act as if their
own past promises do not matter in the future (III.278). Finally, we know the special
responsibility of the Furies is to avenge the dead, those who by virtue of fully existing only in
the past can no longer effect the justice due them in the present (XIX.260). In this way, the
Furies are, like Hera, deeply concerned with justice—the way things should be—which can
only be achieved by remembering distant origins in the present. The special responsibility of
the Furies is the honoring of the past in the present, and they punish those crimes which
might disrupt that orderly reverence.
The Furies permit Xanthos to speak because the kind of crime he is accused of
would, if he were guilty of it, demand their punishment. Achilles’ insult has, as it were,
called them up from Hell by claiming that Xanthos and his brother carelessly forgot their
bond with Patrocles and left him behind on the battlefield. The truth, rather, is they
remained with him in mind and body (μένει), and the essence of their relationship with him
in life was an active holding together of origin and consequence, command and response.
The horses were mindful of Patrocles, as he was of them. An audible voice is superfluous in
such a subtle relationship, so the Furies take it away to return Xanthos to his true nature.
Part Five: The Soul
In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates says the soul is like a chariot drawn by two horses—
one, beautiful and high-minded, the other, passionate and dark. They are led by a charioteer,
whose difficult task it is to put these hostile comrades through their psychic paces. Like
Plato, Homer also gives us images of human life constructed out of chariots and horses. It
is these images and not their explication we should remember. I have given you one
possible explication, and only of a single moment, but the living jewel that is the poem can
be turned and seen in a different light. Achilles the warrior, Patrocles the charioteer,
immortal Xanthos and Balios, and mortal Pedasos: they make up an image of the mortal and
immortal bound in friendship—the single-footed, discontinuous thunder of the horses’
hooves harmonizing with the swift, never-ending revolution of the chariot’s wheels. Like
Plato’s, this image evolves. The great leap over the trench becomes the perfect stillness of
the mourning horses; the quiet horsemanship of Patrocles gives way to Achilles’ wrathful
8
�The Horses of Achilles
St. John’s College
Robert C. Abbott Jr.
September 9th, 2016
accusation. And the nightmare image of immortal horses dragging a dead human around the
walls of a sacred city shows a form of life in which Wrath has triumphed and immortal
beings are made to dishonor the shameful weakness of the mortal body.
How are we to understand the immortal horses as elements of an image portraying
the human condition? In other words, what are they to us? The field of Troy is far away
and we no longer hear the voices of the gods whispering over our shoulders, so it may
surprise you to learn there are now in your possession, powers very much like the immortal
horses of Achilles. They were given to you, in one way, by your parents, and in a more
mysterious way, by the gods. They are immortal in the sense that they currently belong to
you, but they recur infinitely in other beings, indifferent to your specific quiddity—what
makes you you. They have a life of their own which will persist long after you have ceased to
be. We do not each possess all of them, though among humans, the inheritance is usually
the same for each of us. Over the ages they have taken various forms, been given many
names, and been counted in different ways: Vision, Touch, the Powers to Move and to
Remain, the Power to Make Another Like Yourself. These are only a few of those who
stand in the Pantheon, though Aristotle insisted that for all their apparent diversity they are
united by one underlying name and desire—soul. The greatest of all the powers he named
νοῦς, or Mind—the power to remake yourself in the image of the world and thereby know
it.
It is true there is no perfectly convincing reason I can give you to think of these
powers as divine gifts—immortal, difficult to master, and not entirely under your control. It
would appear, after all, that you can command these willing servants as you like. They can
be made to turn this way and that, to carry you out of danger, to take you where you want to
go. But perhaps after considering the horsemanship of Patrocles and the mistake of
Achilles, you may reconsider your presumption to think of them as mere instruments and
see them as powers in their own right. You may also remember that these gifts were not
given to you whole and entire, but their use had to be learned through practice, though it is
very easy to forget with what care your mother and father taught you to master the art of
standing, or the long, dark millennia Nature required to train matter into the intricate shape
of an eye. These gifts call for our respect, even our awe, though you may answer that call
how you like. Ἱπποκέλευθος Πάτροκλος answered his horses in a particular way and leapt
the barrier between life and death. There was a harmony between them which hummed
along the web of harness and reins, yoke, bridle, and bit. It was not a conversation you
could hear, but it was a physical manifestation of the λόγος. One of the purposes of your
education here is to train those powers you have been given. They have a logic of their own
which you learn to understand and develop. Seeing, after all, is not as easy as opening your
eyes, and thinking may not be simply putting two and two together.
One might well grow nervous when someone takes mastery to be an educational
touchstone, especially at a college where lectures are by no means the rule. But staying
undecided on the role of true authority risks two serious mistakes—and by true authority I
mean the kind demonstrated in Patrocles’ horsemanship. The first mistake is simply not to
like authority-talk at all. But this is a tacit denial of one of the most fundamental features of
human experience: the astonishing way cause leads to effect, as it so evidently does in our
universe. Time and again, collision determines trajectory, seed blossoms into flower,
and conclusion follows flawlessly upon premise. How do we explain these cosmic
concatenations without first acknowledging that one thing leads another? Another way to
go wrong in thinking about authority is to go so far as to decide it is such a good in itself
9
�The Horses of Achilles
St. John’s College
Robert C. Abbott Jr.
September 9th, 2016
that the whole purpose of education is to subject all one’s powers to the sovereign self.
Sometimes this is mistakenly called freedom. But to what end does the self have all these
gifts at its disposal? Authority alone cannot decide what to do with its powers; it must
consult the powers themselves for direction. Education enables us to acquaint ourselves
with those we possess, to understand their purposes and the way they strengthen or interfere
with each other, and to give them rein to act.
It may not be immediately clear to you what would be different if you believed that
the everyday activities of your existence—eating, looking around, picking things up, tracing
the shape of a magnolia leaf, perhaps—were manifestations of immortal powers given into
your temporary care. And, of course, I cannot, and would not be interested in convincing
you this is necessarily the case. For one thing, the mere shift in your intellectual
commitments would not be enough. You would have to live with the myth, forge a bond
entirely your own in the intermediate space between you and those immortal powers you’ve
been given. That space between is where you cultivate what is uniquely you. Patrocles lives
with the myth that the horses are immortal: the cultivation of his unique bond with them is
based on it. I call it a myth not to disparage it, but to indicate its power to change your life
merely by thinking about it. That is what a myth is: a story you live with, and by letting it repattern your life, a story you live in. As far as he knows, Hector has mortal horses; no one
could convince him otherwise. His myth is different, diminished, and because of its
limitations, he is unable to do with his horses what Patrocles could.
The last word of the Iliad is a now familiar epithet, there used of Hector, ἰππόδαμος.
Hector is a supreme breaker of horses, but when his chariot approaches the black maw
which separates the Greek camp from the Trojan plain, his horses start back in fear, and
even though there are four of them to Patrocles’ three, they are unable to leap its terrifying
distance (XII.50). There is no explicit mention in the Iliad of the defeat of Troy by the
Trojan horse—it is, after all, an Odyssean ruse which wins the war—but the failure of
Hector’s horses to leap the gulf intimates that in spite of their celebrated horsemanship,
a horse will be the downfall of the Trojans. Apart from a clever trick, what does the image
of the wooden horse tell us about the nature of the Trojan failure? We could say the Trojans
were deceived by the Greeks, or, that they did not understand what they were seeing. Their
deception was in truth a failure of horsemanship: they did not see those powers Wisdom had
hidden within the horse.
The excellence of the horses of Achilles is that they need not fear death. They can
outrun it or leap over it. But we, in the end, cannot. Like Pedasos, one day we will each take
a spear to the shoulder and trade our life away. I believe it is a good thing for mortals to
hate death. As a wise person once said, it is by the strength of the soul’s desire for
immortality—for deathlessness—that its health is measured. Immortality is just another way
of saying, being there for it, always, and perfectly. What would Achilles give to be there in the
light of the sun for one more day? —to watch it touch the world, touch the faces of those he
loved? We hear in the Odyssey he would give a great deal, perhaps more than he can afford
to and still remain himself. The desire to remain in the delineating light of day is not only
for the sake of remaining with others, but for remaining our selves. Self-preservation, no
matter how coarsely interpreted, is the spirit’s insistence on the integrity of those clear
boundaries of flesh and blood which outline animal individuality against the indeterminate
many. What are the immortal powers Aristotle enumerates but manifestations of the soul’s
desire to become and be forever itself, immortal and ageless?
10
�The Horses of Achilles
St. John’s College
Robert C. Abbott Jr.
September 9th, 2016
So it is good to desire immortality and to shun death. But Socrates suggests in the Phaedo it
is wise, though very difficult, to learn the art of dying well; that is, to yoke and then unyoke,
when the time comes, the mortal and the immortal parts of us. In a Homeric formulation,
we should learn to put the reins of the immortal horses into the hands of Patrocles.
One of the immortal gifts given to us is the power to speak, and this is perhaps the
most difficult gift to accept, as we often identify our voice as uniquely and always our own.
Your voice is what you try to develop in writing or find through political participation. But
the opening line of the Iliad reminds us that in its highest form, language speaks through us.
Ἄειδε θεά! Sing, Muse! Language is never simply a personal expression; if it were, we
would not know what each other was saying or care we were trying to say it. This does not
mean Homer or we never say what we mean, only that meaning is difficult to achieve. Your
voice is what your breath becomes when you mean something by it, and it takes time and
mastery to effect the full transformation from living life to meaning it. The alchemical
conversion of your breath into your voice is implicit in the Homeric word ψυχή. Ψυχή is
that warm, feather-light quickening at your nose and mouth, a mortal incarnation of the
bright, endless air which spills down from Olympus into the mortal world. We say it means
life’s-breath or soul. It is what flies out of the mouth or a spear wound at death, never to
return. There is, though, a way for it to leave the human body behind without killing it.
Speaking transforms the soul—gives it wings—so it may leap safely past that most animal
and mortal part of us—the sharp barrier of our teeth—and in some proximate way, as the
Voice, experience an immortality and fellowship known only to the gods.
11
�
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.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google 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.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
11 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
The Horses of Achilles
Description
An account of the resource
Typescript of a lecture delivered on September 9, 2016 by Robert Charles Abbott, Jr. as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Abbott, Robert Charles, Jr.
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
2016-09-09
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 make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audio recording of my lecture available online. Make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a copy of my typescript available online."
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Relation
A related resource
<a title="Audio recording" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/1078">Audio recording</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Greek
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Abbott_Robert_2016-09-09_Typescript
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/bad9abe42857f1e4121517789ff6bb55.mp3
d914b7626f917bc0763ea5e014756e31
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
St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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.)
00:49:27
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 horses of Achilles
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture given on September 7, 2018 by Robert Charles Abbott, Jr. as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Abbott, Robert Charles, Jr.
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
Santa Fe, NM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-09-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library 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
Subject
The topic of the resource
Homer. Iliad
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Abbott, 2018-09
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/b8d786333e983f58333efdeff8582d49.mp3
40e1e93149b81a12337c341f36b99653
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
St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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
m4a
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
01:09:12
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/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tutor Panel on “Freshman Laboratory and the Laboratory’s Place in the Liberal Arts"
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a tutor panel given by Judith Adam, Seth Appelbaum, Grant Franks, Eric Poppele and Ahmed Siddiqi on September 9, 2022 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "Because it attempts to engage directly with the natural world and the question of Nature, Freshman Laboratory is possibly the most radical of beginnings that we make in our studies at St. John’s. Tutors will discuss some of the first themes of Freshman Laboratory and its challenging readings (looking, classification, causes), how these themes help us to approach and come to know the natural world, and how such beginnings might relate to our extended study of Science throughout the laboratory program at St. John’s."
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Adam, Judith
Appelbaum, Seth
Franks, Grant H.
Poppele, Eric Hunter
Siddiqi, Ahmed
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
Santa Fe, NM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022-09-09
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library 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
Subject
The topic of the resource
Freshman Laboratory
The St. John's Program
Liberal Arts Education
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SF_AdamJ_et_al_Tutor_Panel_on_Freshman_Laboratory_2022-09-09
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/b001a2f2b7b74611dc13ec6ddbd102b1.mp3
c4c184abddb7d52e4a362a2c4bf177bd
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
St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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
m4a
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
01:08:26
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
Time, Eternity, and the ‘Tyranny of History’ in Islamic Philosophy
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture given by Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad on September 28, 2022 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "An examination of the problem of time and eternity in the context of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) and the problems and paradoxes raised by this in Islamic philosophy. This is a long-standing debate not only in Islam but in other religious traditions which cultivated philosophy as well, especially the Christian and the Jewish traditions. The classic example of this debate in Islam is the famous exchange between Ibn Rushd (d. 595 H/1198 CE) and al-Ghazālī (d. 505 H/1111 CE). The latter is well-known to Western students of philosophy, but developments since that time remain virtually unknown to the Western world. We will take the exchange between Ibn Rushd and al-Ghazālī as our point of departure and examine the roots of the question before Islam as well as examine its development after Ibn Rushd and al-Ghazālī in the profoundly original doctrine of “non-temporal origination” formulated by Mīr Dāmād. The question also continues among Muslim scholars in modern times and a few examples will be offered."
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ahmad, Saiyad Nizamuddin, 1966-
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
Santa Fe, NM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022-09-28
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library 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
Subject
The topic of the resource
Islamic philosophy
Time
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SF_AhmadS_Time_Eternity_and_the_Tyranny_of_History_2022-09-28
Friday night lecture
-
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.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google 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/6f5838a4143c141032ad43f9dae5d28e.mp3
921dc75f0c76015ab13faf37cde2a9c5
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
St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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.)
01:01:41
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
Arithmetic as a liberal art
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a tutor panel discussion with Seth Appelbaum, Janet Dougherty, Jacques Duvoisin, Topi Heikkerö, and Nicholas Starr held on March 30, 2018 as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series. Moderated by Raoni Padui.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Appelbaum, Seth
Dougherty, Janet
Duvoisin, Jacques Antoine
Heikkerö, Topi, 1970-
Starr, Nicholas C.
Padui, Raoni
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
Santa Fe, NM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library 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
Subject
The topic of the resource
Arithmetic
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
20014432
Friday night lecture
-
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.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google 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. <br /><br />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?" <br /><br />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 <em>Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America</em>.<br /><br />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/e1ef6fd389ee345e357ec83a536c893d.mp3
388f50bef43301a52c8a84df75224298
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
St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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
m4a
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:47:23
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
Wallace Stevens and Our Redemption Through Poetry
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Lin Atnip on September 29, 2023 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: “After one has abandoned a belief in god, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life’s redemption.” — So writes Wallace Stevens, a giant of American modernist poetry, in one of his aphoristic “adagia.” In this lecture we will attempt to understand what he meant, or might have meant, in this odd and perhaps disturbing formulation. What is the role of poetry in our contemporary world, at turns banal and catastrophe-ridden? We will seek our answer through consideration of some of Stevens’ other prose writings and, of course, his poetry -- and maybe, if successful, find a little redemption."
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Atnip, Lindsay
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
Santa Fe, NM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2023-09-29
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library 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
Subject
The topic of the resource
Stevens, Wallace, 1879-1955
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SF_AtnipL_Wallace_Stevens_and_Our_Redemption_Through_Poetry_2023-09-29
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/09d445d4c340b491804f6270b5df13d9.mp3
b5ea8525613c5445bfbe30b94897a392
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
St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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
CD
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:59:49
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
What is a Q.E.F.? Reflections on the nature of geometrical making
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture given on May 6, 2016 by Michael Augros as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Augros, Michael
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
Santa Fe, NM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-05-06
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library 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
Subject
The topic of the resource
Euclid. Elements.
Language
A language of the resource
English
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/e553d77c227b743eed847bbe38d4704c.mp3
e1e55650b68017acf147c0834d00b31d
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
St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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.)
00:44:39
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
"Deeds of balanced vengeance" and the end of The Iliad
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture given on October 26, 2018 by Emily Austin as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Austin, Emily
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
Santa Fe, NM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-10-26
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library 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
Subject
The topic of the resource
Homer. Iliad
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Austin, 2018-10
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/8328da4088ea650921343f9d358b9b13.pdf
16029ff8fa292404c2559956e1b15f94
PDF Text
Text
Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
Dante
and
the
Hero’s
Quest
for
Healing
I
want
to
talk
about
a
very
old
kind
of
story.
Or
rather,
I
should
say,
the
only
kind
of
story
–
the
hero’s
quest.
Tonight
we
will
discuss
the
hero’s
quest
in
ancient
and
modern
literature
using
examples
from
mythology,
Homer’s
Odyssey,
Virgil’s
Aeneid,
Dante’s
Inferno,
and
finally
my
own
novel,
The
End
of
Healing.
My
lecture
will
consider
how
each
of
these
stories—and
for
that
matter
every
good
story—involves
a
process
of
healing,
both
for
the
broken
world
in
which
the
hero
finds
himself
and
for
the
hero
personally.
These
stories
all
resonate
for
us
because
we
all
identify
with
the
hero
and
we
are
all
on
a
quest
for
healing.
By
way
of
apology,
first
let
me
first
make
clear
that
throughout
this
lecture,
despite
my
use
of
mostly
masculine
examples
of
heroes,
I
use
the
word
hero
without
reference
to
gender.
Although
some
hero
archetypes
are
most
commonly
associated
with
male
gender
and
some
with
female
gender—the
Oedipus
complex
has
its
corollary
in
the
Electra
complex—all
of
the
hero
archetypes
we
will
discuss
tonight
can
manifest
in
either
gender.
Second,
let
me
acknowledge
that
my
observations
today
are
derivative.
I
give
thanks
to
my
tutors
of
ancient
and
modern
times
who
have
authored
me
and
my
work.
Among
my
authors
I
particularly
give
thanks
to
the
departed
St.
John’s
College
tutors
Chaninah
Maschler
who
gave
me
her
love
of
biology
and
the
old
testament,
Michael
Littleton
whose
Purgatorio
preceptorial
I
attended
over
30
years
ago,
and
Jacob
Klein;
to
the
very
present
Joe
Sachs,
whose
Don
Quixote
preceptorial
was
one
of
the
best
of
all
time;
to
all
my
great
tutors
at
St.
John’s
College,
especially
Jon
Tuck,
Marilyn
Higuera,
John
White,
Peter
Kalkavage,
Elliott
Zuckerman,
Jon
Lenkowski,
Eva
Brann,
Ed
Sparrow,
and
Winfree
Smith;
and
to
all
the
authors
of
the
great
books
we
will
discuss
tonight
that
still
serve
as
some
of
our
greatest
guides
through
the
world’s
darkness.
Thank
you
for
giving
me
the
opportunity
to
talk
with
you
about
some
of
my
favorite
stories.
This
lecture
will
have
4
main
parts.
First,
I
will
give
an
overview
of
the
framework
for
the
archetypal
hero’s
journey
as
described
by
Joseph
Campbell,
Carl
Jung,
and
others.
Second,
I
will
apply
that
framework
to
Dante’s
Commedia
to
help
us
understand
how
the
hero’s
journey
involves
a
process
of
healing.
Third,
we
will
delve
deeper
into
the
past
to
examine
some
of
the
earlier
hero
myths
that
influenced
Dante’s
work,
focusing
especially
on
the
Odyssey
and
Aeneid,
to
see
what
these
works
tell
us
about
the
hero’s
healing
journey.
Lastly,
we
will
move
to
the
future
to
examine
what
all
this
has
to
do
with
health
care
and
the
quest
for
healing
in
today’s
world.
Part
1:
The
Hero’s
Journey
The
ancient
pattern
of
the
hero’s
quest
was
well
described
by
Joseph
Campbell
in
his
seminal
work
The
Hero
with
a
Thousand
Faces
in
1949.1
He
revealed
that
this
ancient
story
pattern
resonates
because
it
draws
on
ancient
unconscious
archetypes
described
by
Carl
Jung
and
others.
Campbell
and
Jung
described
how
the
outward
journey
of
the
hero
reflects
a
parallel
inner
journey.
In
great
stories,
both
the
outward
and
inward
journeys
occur
simultaneously
and
complement
and
reinforce
one
another.
The
diagram
below
1
Joseph
Campbell,
The
Hero
with
a
Thousand
Faces,
Pantheon
Books,
1949
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
provides
an
overview
of
the
typical
components
and
order
of
a
hero’s
journey
story.
In
a
famous
memo
to
executives
at
Walt
Disney
Pictures
in
1985,
Christopher
Vogler
described
how
this
classical
hero
myth
lies
behind
all
great
stories,
screenplays
and
movies.
Christopher
Vogler,
http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm
By
way
of
example,
let’s
briefly
consider
one
of
my
favorite
woman-‐child
heroes,
Dorothy
in
The
Wizard
of
Oz.
Dorothy
begins
her
story
in
the
ordinary
world.
She
is
called
to
adventure
when
Miss
Gulch
attempts
to
kidnap
her
beloved
Toto.
But
when
she
meets
Professor
Marvel
she
begins
to
realize
that
the
ordinary
world
may
not
be
exactly
as
it
appears.
Even
though
Professor
Marvel
serves
as
a
good
mentor
to
Dorothy,
in
the
beginning
we
are
left
to
wonder
whether
he
is
a
true
healer,
or
is
he,
as
she
later
claims,
just
“…a
very
bad
man!”
She
attempts
to
refuse
the
call
and
run
back
to
her
Auntie
Em’s
house
in
Kansas
but
ends
up
crossing
the
threshold
into
another
world
where
she
encounters
difficult
tests,
discovers
three
wonderful
allies,
and
faces
dangerous
enemies.
Then
Dorothy
faces
the
seemingly
impossible
task
of
killing
the
Wicked
Witch
of
the
West.
She
and
her
friends
approach
the
Witch’s
castle,
the
place
they
most
dread,
and
she
undergoes
an
agonizing
ordeal
in
which
she
is
captured
and
condemned
to
death,
only
to
be
saved
in
the
very
last
instant
before
the
hourglass
runs
out.
She
then
seizes
the
sword,
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
or
in
this
case
a
bucket
of
water,
kills
the
witch
and
then
begins
on
the
road
back
to
Kansas.
When
she
finally
reawakens
there
she
has
a
new
perspective
and
power
that
allows
her
to
truly
see
and
understand
the
ordinary
world
in
a
way
she
never
could
have
imagined
before.
That
in
a
nutshell
is
a
description
of
the
hero’s
journey
and
it
has
been
well
described.
What
has
been
less
well
described
is
how
this
classic
hero’s
myth
always
involves
a
process
of
healing
or
movement
toward
wholeness
for
both
the
hero
and
the
broken
world
he
inhabits.
This
is
what
we
are
going
to
talk
about
today,
and
we
will
use
as
our
primary
guide,
Dante
Alighieri,
and
his
divine
hero
myth,
La
Commedia.
Part
2:
La
Divina
Commedia
If
hero
journey
stories
are
the
stories
that
resonate
most
with
humans,
it
goes
to
follow
that
these
stories
portray
the
most
important
spiritual
steps
for
humans
in
their
path
to
wholeness,
in
their
work
to
grow.
These
stories
teach
us
that
the
greatest
growth
for
humans
comes
from
discovering
a
healing
path
through
agony
and
despair.
So
it
is
fitting
that
Dante’s
comedy
begins
in
a
dark
wood.
Nel
mezzo
del
cammin
di
nostra
vita
Mi
ritrovai
per
una
selva
oscura,
ché
la
diritta
via
era
smarrita.
Inferno,
I,
1-‐3
“In
the
middle
of
the
journey
of
our
life,
I
found
myself
in
a
dark
wood
where
the
straight
way
was
lost.”
In
the
Commedia,
we
are
not
told
how
Dante
became
lost,
yet
every
one
of
his
readers
in
his
time
knew
his
story.
Dante’s
early
dream
was
to
play
a
major
role
in
the
government
of
his
city-‐state
of
Florence,
at
that
time,
perhaps
the
greatest
republic
in
world.
In
fact,
strong
lines
of
evidence
suggest
that
he
became
a
physician
and
member
of
the
“Arte
dei
medici
e
speziali"
(The
Guild
of
Physicians
and
Apothecaries)
in
Florence
in
1296
because
of
Florentine
law
requiring
enrollment
in
one
of
the
guilds
as
a
prerequisite
for
election
to
local
government
office.
From
Dante’s
early
writings
we
know
that
he
dreamed
of
helping
to
create
in
Florence
a
new
Jerusalem.
And
in
1301,
700
years
ago,
his
dream
appeared
to
be
realized.
He
was
elected
as
one
of
the
six
magistrates,
the
highest
office,
of
his
beloved
city
of
Florence.
He
had
already
served
his
fair
city
for
some
five
years
as
a
devoted
statesman,
and
had
finally
reached
what
he
thought
was
the
pinnacle
of
his
career.
As
a
city
magistrate
he
had
the
opportunity
to
make
a
real
difference
for
good,
to
foster
peace
and
justice,
and
support
a
Renaissance
in
Florence
such
as
the
world
had
never
known.
But
he
became
embroiled
in
unforeseen
political
intrigue.
After
only
a
year
as
magistrate,
he
was
exiled
from
his
home,
never
to
return
again.
At
age
37,
he
suddenly
found
himself
despised
and
homeless,
notwithstanding
his
devotion
to
the
city
of
Florence
and
his
non-‐partisan
efforts
on
its
behalf.
And
that
is
where
the
Divine
Comedy
begins–in
his
unfathomable
despair.
His
dark
wood
is
the
ordinary
world
and
the
entire
Commedia
is
devoted
to
his
finding
his
way
out.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
For
that
he
requires
a
mentor
and
guide
and
everyone
knows
that
Dante
is
led
by
Virgil,
just
as
Virgil
was
guided
by
Homer;
as
Aeneas
was
guided
by
Venus
the
goddess
of
love;
as
Homer’s
Odysseus
was
guided
by
Pallas
Athena.
When
Virgil
first
introduces
himself
to
Dante
he
immediately
challenges
him
with
a
call
to
adventure.
Poeta
fui,
e
cantai
di
quell
giusto
figliuol
d’Anchise
che
venne
di
Troia,
poi
che
‘l
superbo
Ilïón
fu
combusto.
Ma
tu
perché
ritorni
a
tanta
noia?
Inferno,
I,
73-‐76
He
says:
“Poet
I
was,
and
I
sang
of
the
just
son
of
Anchises
that
came
from
Troy,
after
proud
Ilium
was
burnt
to
the
ground.
But
why
are
you
turning
back
to
all
that
misery
[or
boredom]?”
Virgil
appears,
as
all
mentors
do,
in
just
the
right
moment
to
guide
Dante
not
back
into
the
misery,
the
“dark
wood,”
of
the
ordinary
world,
but
rather
to
guide
him
into
an
extraordinary
world
of
forms
and
meaning
that
undergird
and
ultimately
can
help
restore
the
ordinary
world.
Dante
is
overwhelmed
by
this
meeting,
and
responds:
O
de
li
altri
poeti
onore
e
lume,
Vagliami
‘l
lungo
studio
e
‘l
grande
amore
Che
m’ha
fatto
cercar
lo
luo
volume.
Tu
se’
lo
mio
maestro
e
‘l
mio
autore,
Inferno,
I,
82-‐85
“O
of
the
other
poets
our
honor
and
light,
value
my
long
study
and
the
great
love
that
has
made
me
search
your
volume.
You
are
my
teacher
and
my
author.”
Regarding
the
meeting
of
Dante
with
the
author
of
The
Aeneid
let
me
state
the
obvious.
The
reason
that
Virgil
is
able
to
serve
as
Dante’s
guide
is
because
he
has
been
there
before.
Virgil
has
seen
and
understands
every
type
of
sin
or
misstep
that
Dante
will
encounter
in
the
Inferno.
For
he
has
taken
his
Aeneas
there
before
and
provides
the
description
of
the
underworld
that
is
the
foundation
of
Dante
the
author’s
description.
Furthermore,
Dante
recognizes
Virgil
as
his
author—that
Virgil
made
him
what
he
is.
Dante
recognizes
that
his
love
of
Virgil’s
work
has
also
made
him
an
author
and
has
prepared
him
to
tell
his
own
story.
And
Dante’s
protagonist
must
be
guided
by
Virgil
because
Virgil’s
Aeneid
was
Dante’s
guide
to
the
underworld.
What
Dante
has
come
to
understand
about
the
underworld,
has
largely
come
through
Virgil’s
instruction.
Still,
Dante
must
screw
up
his
courage
when
it
is
his
turn
to
crossing
the
threshold
into
hell.
This
most
famous
of
all
cantos
begins
with
the
famous
words:
“Per
me
si
va
ne
la
città
dolente,
per
me
si
va
ne
l'etterno
dolore,
per
me
si
va
tra
la
perduta
gente.
Giustizia
mosse
il
mio
alto
fattore;
fecemi
la
divina
podestate,
la
somma
sapïenza
e
'l
primo
amore.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
Dinanzi
a
me
non
fuor
cose
create
se
non
etterne,
e
io
etterno
duro.
Lasciate
ogne
speranza,
voi
ch'intrate."
THROUGH
ME
THE
WAY
TO
THE
CITY
OF
WOE,
THROUGH
ME
THE
WAY
TO
EVERLASTING
PAIN,
THROUGH
ME
THE
WAY
AMONG
THE
LOST.
JUSTICE
MOVED
MY
MAKER
ON
HIGH.
DIVINE
POWER
MADE
ME,
WISDOM
SUPREME,
AND
PRIMAL
LOVE.
BEFORE
ME
NOTHING
WAS
BUT
THINGS
ETERNAL,
AND
ETERNAL
I
ENDURE.
ABANDON
ALL
HOPE,
YOU
WHO
ENTER
HERE.
Inferno,
3,
1-‐9
These
are
the
horrifying
words
Dante
sees
inscribed
over
the
entrance
to
hell.
Of
note,
he
is
one
of
the
few,
including
Jesus
of
Nazareth
whose
hero
myth
is
well
known
to
all,
who
is
able
to
pass
through
this
gate
without
abandoning
all
hope.
After
passing
through
the
gates
of
hell,
Dante’s
instruction
begins
in
earnest.
He
explores
every
inch
of
the
nine
levels
of
hell
that
Virgil
describes
only
in
passing
in
his
Aeneid.
In
Dante’s
hell,
just
as
in
Virgil’s
Tartarus,
every
punishment
is
perfectly
suited
to
the
crime.
For
Dante,
exploring
the
levels
of
hell
involves
a
process
of
diagnosis.
He
is
able
to
fully
understand
the
reasons
for
the
brokenness
of
the
world
by
uncovering
the
sources
of
human
suffering
and
understanding
the
nature
and
types
of
human
missteps,
or
sins,
that
have
led
to
this
brokenness.
As
shown
in
the
schematic
of
Dante’s
hell
by
Mandelbaum
below,
he
places
mistakes
of
over-‐indulgence
at
the
highest
levels,
errors
of
violence
in
the
middle,
and
fraud
in
the
bottom.
Dante
saw
the
misuse
of
the
intellect
or
the
mind
to
deceive
others
as
the
very
worst
kind
of
human
error.
At
the
bottom
of
his
hell
he
places
treachery—first
treason
against
family,
then
country,
and
last
of
all
treason
against
our
natural
lord
and
master,
against
God.
In
Dante’s
Inferno
all
the
types
of
human
missteps
are
catalogued—every
single
one.
His
catalogue
of
sin
is
comprehensive.
Every
type
of
mistake
or
temptation
is
considered,
so
at
some
level,
there
is
no
completely
new
story
that
can
be
told
after
the
Commedia.
Every
story
deals
with
one
or
another
of
these
human
mistakes
or
near
mistakes.
For
Dante,
encountering
each
type
of
mistake
and
seeing
its
consequence
is
a
harsh
and
bitter
reminder
of
his
own
missteps
and
the
consequences
of
those
missteps
for
others.
So,
his
descent
is
an
ever
worsening
trial
of
pain
and
suffering
as
Dante
discovers
the
consequences
of
misguided
action
in
the
afterlife.
Like
much
of
the
first
half
of
the
Odyssey
and
of
the
Aeneid,
much
of
the
Inferno
is
filled
with
the
protagonist’s
tears
and
internal
suffering.
For
Dante,
this
process
is
one
of
diagnosis
(understanding
the
condition)
that
is
his
first
step
toward
healing.
Let
me
also
note,
that
after
his
exile
from
his
beloved
homeland,
it
does
his
heart
good
to
see
many
of
his
worst
enemies
in
life,
finally
paying
for
their
crimes.
For
him,
seeing
justice
done
in
the
afterlife
begins
the
process
of
healing.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
Mandelbaum
Diagram
of
the
Inferno2
Dante’s
rebirth
occurs
when
he
passes
through
the
very
bottom
of
hell,
the
poles
of
the
world
are
reversed,
and
Dante
thinks
“they
are
heading
back
to
hell”
(Inferno
34,
81).
It
is
only
then
that
he
and
his
beloved
guide
Virgil
are
able
to
“ascend...to
see
again
the
stars”
(Inferno
34,
136-‐139).
2
From
THE
DIVINE
COMEDY
OF
DANTE
ALIGHIERI:
INFERNO
by
Allen
Mandelbaum,
,
Illustration
by
Barry
Moser,
copyright
©
1980
by
Allen
Mandelbaum,
Bantam
Books,
a
division
of
Random
House,
Inc.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
So
you
notice
that
Dante
in
the
Inferno
has
not
yet
“seized
the
sword.”
Indeed,
he
has
only
barely
passed
through
his
own
rebirth
when
the
first
story
ends.
Of
course
the
story
does
not
end
here.
Dante’s
healing
is
just
begun.
When
Purgatorio
begins
diagnosis
is
no
longer
the
focus,
but
rather
purification.
Once
hell
is
abandoned,
the
Purgatorio
lays
out
the
disciplined
path
that
Dante
suggests
that
our
souls
require
for
healing.
As
Dante
and
Virgil
climb
the
mountain
of
purgatory,
Dante
learns
how
practice
of
good
habits
can
lead
to
virtue
and
health.
On
each
level
of
purgatory
the
same
errors
encountered
in
hell
are
met
one
by
one.
The
only
difference
is
that
the
people
in
purgatory
work
to
overcome
them.
In
purgatory,
Dante
is
to
undergo
a
stepwise
process
of
purification
and
rebirth
when
he
arrives
at
the
top
of
mount
purgatory
in
the
earthly
paradise
or
Eden.
Near
the
bottom
of
purgatory,
seven
“P”s
are
traced
on
Dante’s
forehead,
standing
for
the
deadly
peccata
[sins]
that
weigh
him
down
and
keep
him
from
paradise.
As
Dante
struggles
up
the
mountain,
the
marks
are
cleansed
from
his
forehead
one
by
one.
The
following
texts
from
the
Purgatorio
describe
this
cleansing
process
as
a
kind
of
healing.
“Seek
only
that
the
five
wounds
healed
by
being
painful
soon
may
be
closed
up,
as
the
other
two
already
are.”
(XV,
79-‐81)
“But,
to
soothe
you
and
to
grant
your
wish,
here
is
Statius.
I
call
on
him,
I
beg
him,
to
be
the
healer
of
your
wounds.”
(XXV,
28-‐30)
“With
such
treatment
and
with
just
such
diet
must
the
last
of
all
the
wounds
be
healed.”
(XXV,
138-‐139)
“Keep
your
munificence
alive
in
me,
so
that
my
soul,
which
you
have
healed,
may
please
you
when
it
leaves
its
mortal
frame.”
(XXXI,
88-‐90)
As
a
result
of
this
process
of
being
freed
from
the
burden
of
these
wounds,
Dante
“feels
so
light
as
to
be
able
to
soar
into
the
heavens.”
In
his
last
words
of
the
Purgatorio
he
exclaims:
“I
came
forth…renovated,
even
as
new
trees
renewed
with
new
foliage,
pure
and
ready
to
rise
to
the
stars.”
(XXXIII,
143-‐145)
Dante’s
conclusion
to
the
Purgatorio
reminds
us
that
the
ancient
Greek
word
“phusis”,
from
which
the
word
physician
is
derived,
means
growth.
The
true
physician
is
the
one
who
stimulates
growth.
And
in
purgatory
growth
is
stimulated
through
the
practice
of
healthy
habits,
confronting
and
overcoming
the
temptations
and
errors
of
our
lives.
It
seems
natural
to
ask
at
this
point
whether
Dante’s
poetry
doesn’t
stimulate
growth
in
precisely
the
way
of
a
good
physician.
Surely
this
is
Dante’s
aim.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
Part
3:
Resonance
of
the
Inferno
with
earlier
hero
stories
Let
me
now
turn
to
the
earlier
hero
myths
that
influenced
Dante’s
work,
focusing
especially
on
the
Odyssey
and
Aeneid,
to
see
what
these
works
tell
us
about
the
hero’s
healing
journey.
These
hero
stories
particularly
resonate
with
Dante
and
show
some
of
the
many
ways
to
tell
the
story
of
the
hero’s
quest.
The
Aeneid
is
an
homage
to
the
Odyssey
as
La
Commedia
is
an
homage
to
The
Aeneid.
Both
stories
feature
a
journey
to
the
underworld
in
their
centers
and
each
hero
has
a
sibyl
guide,
and
in
the
underworld
each
hero
seeks
to
come
to
terms
with
their
past
and
gain
vision
of
their
path
into
the
future.
As
it
is
for
Dante
in
the
Commedia,
rebirth
and
enlightenment
occur
for
both
Odysseus
and
Aeneas
in
the
underworld,
in
the
most
desperate
place
of
all.
Healing
occurs
through
their
contact
with
the
hidden
Cthonic
underworld,
and
both
involve
a
seer,
Sibyl,
oracle
helper,
who
serves
as
a
guide
to
the
navel
of
the
world,
the
place
of
their
rebirth.
For
both
Odysseus
and
Aeneas,
like
Dante,
the
ordinary
world
is
a
broken
world
from
which
they
would
prefer
to
hide
and
escape.
Both
Odysseus
and
Aeneas
seek
to
escape
their
broken
world,
Odysseus
with
the
divine
Kalypso,
and
Aeneas
with
his
beloved
Dido,
but
both
find
themselves
unable
to
forget
their
past
and
fated
future.
Like
the
Athenians
in
the
time
of
Theseus
who
didn’t
want
to
admit
that
it
was
wrong
for
their
children
to
be
sacrificed
to
the
Minotaur,
none
of
our
heroes
want
to
face
the
horror
embedded
in
the
ordinary
world,
but
they
are
compelled
to
do
so.
All
of
three
of
these
hero
myths
involve
reluctant
heroes
who
are
forced
to
confront
the
pain
in
their
ordinary
world.
Dante
is
accused
of
graft
and
exiled
from
his
beloved
world
of
Florence
forever.
Odysseus,
the
wounded
warrior,
must
confront
and
recover
from
the
horrors
of
war
and
his
guilt
over
abandoning
his
family
and
losing
all
of
his
crew
one
by
one.
Aeneas’
ordinary
world
is
burnt
to
the
ground
and
destroyed
forever.
So
we
can
rightly
wonder
on
this
day
of
9–11
as
we
ponder
the
place
where
the
twin
towers
once
stood.
How
can
such
wastelands
provide
grounds
for
healing
and
lead
to
rebirth?
Dante
clearly
has
more
regard
for
pious
Aeneas,
led
by
the
goddess
of
love
Venus
who
serves
as
his
mentor,
than
he
has
for
Odysseus,
whom
he
punishes
as
a
smooth-‐tongued
false
counselor
or
rhetorician
in
the
realm
of
fraud.
Yet
even
though
Virgil’s
Aeneid
is
more
directly
related
to
Dante’s
story,
please
give
me
leave
to
reverse
courses
and
turn
to
the
older
story
of
Odysseus
first,
as
it
will
help
us
better
interpret
The
Aeneid.
Odysseus’
homecoming
story
begins
not
with
Odysseus—we
are
only
are
told
that
he
is
stranded
on
Kalypso’s
isle,
despondent,
unfit,
and
without
hope
of
ever
returning
home
again.
The
Odyssey
begins
with
Athena’s
plan
to
save
him,
and
the
call
to
adventure
of
his
son
Telemachus.
Athena
recognizes
Odysseus’
critical
need
for
his
family
to
help
him
achieve
his
homecoming.
And
it
is
Pallas
Athena,
the
goddess
of
wisdom
who
serves
as
Odysseus’
mentor.
For
the
first
four
books
of
the
Odyssey
Odysseus
himself
is
strangely
absent.
Instead
we
are
occupied
with
Athena
disguising
herself
as
Odysseus’
wise
old
friend
Mentor
and
the
early
books
primarily
deal
with
her
serving
as
a
guide
and
mentor
to
his
son,
not
to
Odysseus
himself.
Meanwhile
Odysseus’
ordinary
world
is
living
with
the
immortal
Kalypso
in
indolence
and
pleasure.
And
yet
we
learn
that
he
spends
most
of
his
days
in
mourning,
homesickness,
and
grief.
His
world
on
a
fantasy
island
with
Kalypso
is
a
perfect
world,
but
it
is
a
world
he
cannot
accept.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
Finally
in
Book
V,
Odysseus
leaves
the
island
of
Kalypso
where
he
has
lived
8
years
in
the
company
of
the
immortal
goddess.
After
18
days
at
sea
on
his
raft
he
is
finally
within
sight
of
Phaiákian
land.
But
Poseidon
conjurs
a
storm
that
completely
destroys
his
raft.
The
storm
strips
him
of
his
clothes
and
for
two
days
and
nights
he
is
cast
about
the
sea
holding
on
to
the
single
beam
remaining
from
his
raft.
On
the
dawn
of
the
third
day
the
sea
calms
and
he
swims
for
the
shore.
With
the
help
of
the
gods
avoids
the
crashing
breakers
of
the
rocky
coast
of
the
island
of
Skeria
and
finds
a
river
inlet
where
he
can
make
his
way
ashore.
He
drags
himself
between
twin
bushes
of
olive
from
one
stem—one
wild
and
one
cultivated—where
he
falls
into
an
exhausted
sleep.
As
Kathryn
Davis
notes,3
the
twin
olive
bush
has
two
meanings.
First,
it
serves
as
a
sign
of
Athena,
evoking
the
myth
that
she
brought
the
cultivated
olive
to
Greece
but
that
it
had
to
be
grafted
onto
wild
stock
to
thrive.
Second,
the
olive
prefigures
Odysseus’
homecoming
(for
both
him
and
us)
and
it
allows
him
the
opportunity
to
remake
his
olive
tree
bed
as
part
of
his
work
of
recovery.
The
next
day,
the
naked
Odysseus
is
discovered
by
the
king’s
daughter
Nausikaa
who
has
gone
to
the
river
with
her
handmaids
to
wash
clothes.
There
on
the
shore,
Odysseus
appears
reborn
like
a
naked
babe
and
he
is
clothed
and
fed
and
brought
back
to
the
Phaiákian
king
and
queen.
Thus,
within
the
first
story
of
the
Odyssey,
Odysseus
experiences
his
rebirth
on
the
shores
of
the
land
of
the
Phaiákians.
But
closer
reading
suggests
that
his
death
and
rebirth
begin,
are
centered
on,
and
derive
from
his
experience
in
the
underworld.
Odysseus’
journey
to
the
underworld
is
told
as
a
story
within
a
story,
in
his
Homeric
telling
of
his
own
story
to
the
Phaiákian
people.
He
tells
the
story
of
his
death
soon
after
his
rebirth
on
the
beach,
after
he
has
barely
survived
another
near
death
experience,
his
near
drowning
on
his
desperate
attempt
to
return
home.
With
the
Phaiákian’s
he
becomes
a
storyteller
and
his
healing,
recovery,
growth
(Gr.
Phusis)
rapidly
progresses.
The
middle
half
of
the
Odyssey
consists
not
of
an
impartial
story
of
Odysseus’
return,
but
rather
of
Odysseus’
telling
of
his
own
story.
Odysseus
–must
tell
his
story
to
heal.
This
is
reminiscent
of
the
primary
healing
modality
employed
by
the
wounded
warrior’s
project
for
American
soldiers
with
post-‐traumatic
stress
disorder
(PTSD)
returning
from
the
Middle
East.
For
those
who
can
heal,
sharing
their
story
is
a
key
part
of
healing
for
those
returning
home
from
the
horrors
of
war.
Odysseus
is
able
to
return
to
the
ordinary
world
by
helping
to
change
it,
by
sharing
his
accumulated
wisdom,
by
telling
his
story.
The
reader
has
to
wonder,
along
with
the
king
and
queen,
whether
or
not
he
is
a
reliable
historian,
or
whether
he
is
simply
pitching
the
story
for
his
own
gain.
Regardless,
there
can
be
no
doubt
that
it
is
in
telling
his
story
that
Odysseus
begins
to
regain
his
health.
Within
this
story
within
the
story
of
the
Odyssey,
in
the
very
center
and
crux
of
the
poem,
his
death
and
the
beginning
of
his
rebirth
is
revealed.
His
journey
to
the
underworld
occurs
some
10
years
after
Odysseus
has
left
home,
when
he
is
most
desperate
to
return.
The
witch-‐healer
or
goddess
φαρμακεία
(Gr.)
Kirke
finally
gives
him
leave,
but
informs
him
that
3
Kathryn Davis, The Olive Tree and “the idea of order” in the Odyssey, Accessed July 8, 2015 at
http://www.udallas.edu/documents/pdf/braniff/kathryndavis.pdf.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
he
first
must
perform
one
more
task.
Here
is
their
conversation,
as
related
by
Odysseus,
when
he
begs
to
leave
and
receives
the
darkest
news
imaginable:
“Son
of
Laertes
and
the
gods
of
old,
Odysseus,
master
mariner
and
soldier,
you
shall
not
stay
here
longer
in
my
house
against
your
will;
but
home
you
may
not
go
unless
you
take
a
strange
way
round
and
come
to
the
cold
bones
of
Death
and
pale
Persephone.
You
shall
hear
prophecy
from
the
rapt
shade
of
blind
Teiresias
of
Thebes,
forever
charged
with
reason
even
among
the
dead…”
At
this
I
felt
a
weight
like
a
stone
within
me,
and
moaning,
pressed
my
length
against
the
bed,
with
no
desire
to
see
the
daylight
more.
But
when
I
had
wept
and
tossed
and
had
my
fill
of
despair,
at
last
I
answered
her:
“Kirke,
who
pilots
me
on
this
journey?
No
man
has
ever
sailed
to
the
land
of
Death.”
Odyssey,
Book
X
Her
answer
is
that
the
spirit
of
Teiresias
will
be
his
guide.
And
thus,
following
Kirke’s
instructions
he
is
met
by
Teiresias
in
Hades
who
gives
him
a
dark
prophecy
regarding
his
most
difficult
return.
Odysseus
is
told
that
“anguish
lies
ahead”
and
that
he
can
only
hope
for
a
rapid
return
through
“denial
of
yourself,
restraint
of
shipmates.”
And
of
course
in
this
latter
goal
we
know
that
Odysseus
fails
and
as
prophesied
all
his
shipmates
are
then
lost.
Then
in
the
depths
of
Hades
Odysseus
sees
his
mother
who
has
died
in
his
absence
.
She
asks
him
painful
questions
about
his
absence
and
all
that
he
has
left
behind,
and
then
finally
she
tells
him
the
cause
of
her
own
death
while
he
was
gone:
“So
I
too
pined
away,
so
doom
befell
me,…
not
that
illness
overtook
me–no
true
illness
wasting
the
body
to
undo
the
spirit;
only
my
loneliness
for
you,
Odysseus,
for
your
kind
heart
and
counsel,
gentle
Odysseus,
took
my
life
away.”
This
is
when
he
seeks
to
embrace
her,
three
times,
and
is
unable,
her
shadow
sifting
through
his
hands.
Not
only
is
he
responsible
for
her
death,
she
evokes
a
past
that
he
can
never
recover.
And
at
this
point
he
doubts
that
he
can
ever
recover
his
past
kindness
and
gentleness
that
only
his
mother
seems
to
remember.
This
recognition
of
the
depth
of
his
loss
is
both
his
greatest
point
of
pain
and
the
true
beginning
of
his
rebirth
and
his
process
of
healing.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
Let
me
now
turn
briefly
to
Aeneas.
As
we
discussed,
Aeneas’
mentor
is
Venus,
the
goddess
of
love,
and
he
also
has
a
very
similar
excursion
into
the
underworld
in
the
very
center
of
The
Aeneid.
Similarly,
this
journey
to
the
underworld
serves
as
perhaps
the
most
moving
part
of
his
story.
Like
Odysseus,
he
is
similarly
guided
by
a
seer,
the
Cumaean
Sibyl.
In
Hades
Aeneas
also
seeks
to
embrace
his
ancestor
three
times,
but
in
this
case
it
is
his
father,
Anchises
that
he
seeks
to
embrace.
As
Jacob
Klein
notes,
the
story
runs
both
reverse
and
inverse—father,
not
mother,
guided
by
love,
not
wisdom—yet
still
it
is
at
heart
a
hero’s
quest,
and
follows
the
basic
pattern
we
previously
described.
Here
Virgil
describes
their
emotional
meeting:
“And
have
you
come
at
last,
and
has
the
pious
love
that
your
father
waited
for
defeated
the
difficulty
of
the
journey?
Son,
can
I
look
at
your
face,
hear,
and
return
familiar
accents?...”
Then
he:
“My
father,
it
was
your
sad
image,
so
often
come,
that
urged
me
to
these
thresholds.
My
ships
are
moored
on
the
Tyrrhenian.
O
father,
let
me
hold
your
right
hand
fast,
do
not
withdraw
from
my
embrace.”
His
face
was
wet
with
weeping
as
he
spoke.
Three
times
he
tried
to
throw
his
arms
around
Anchises’
neck;
and
three
times
the
Shade
escaped
from
that
vain
clasp—like
light
winds,
or
most
like
swift
dreams.
The
Aeneid,
Book
VI,
908-‐927
He
similarly
has
to
let
go
of
his
past,
and
toward
that
end,
his
father
shows
him
not
the
heroes
of
the
past
in
Hades,
but
rather
his
hero
warrior
descendants
of
the
future
who
will
found
the
city
of
Rome.
With
this
bright
but
difficult
future
in
mind,
Aeneas
leaves
Hades
with
a
new
hope
for
a
path
to
a
better
future.
And
many
of
you
will
remember,
after
seeing
this
vision
of
the
future,
he
and
the
Sibyl
pass
through
the
polished
ivory
gate
of
Sleep
which
Virgil
calls
the
“way
the
Spirits
send
false
dreams”—the
same
gate
of
“dreams
of
glimmering
illusion,
[and]
fantasies”
(Odyssey,
Book
19,
532-‐533)
from
which
Penelope
suspected
her
dream
of
Odysseus’
return
most
likely
came.
Virgil
leaves
all
to
wonder
whether
Aeneas’
hope
for
a
great
and
just
Rome
is
a
false
hope
that
will
never
come
to
pass.
As
Jacob
Klein
the
late
Annapolis
tutor
and
Dean
so
elegantly
has
shown
in
his
essay
“The
Myth
of
Virgil’s
Aeneid,4
Virgil’s
story
of
Aeneas
is
a
retelling
of
The
Odyssey,
written
as
the
reverse
and
inverse
of
Homer’s
story
of
Odysseus.
The
Aeneid
mirrors
The
Iliad
and
The
Odyssey
together,
told
in
reverse.
Like
The
Odyssey,
The
Aeneid
is
a
homecoming/recovery
story,
but
it
ends
with
the
wrath
of
Aeneas
just
as
The
Iliad
begins
with
the
wrath
of
Achilles.
As
Jacob
Klein
points
out,
The
Aeneid
ends
with
a
Trojan
war
raging
in
reverse
4
Jacob
Klein,
The
Myth
of
Virgil’s
Aeneid,
from
Jacob
Klein:
Lectures
and
Essays,
Ed.
R
Williamson
and
E.
Zuckerman,
St.
John’s
College
Press,
Annapolis,
MD:
1985
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
order
and
“This
time
it
will
end
with
the
victory
of
Aeneas,
the
new
Hector,
over
Turnus,
the
new
Achilles.”
And
after
this
victory
there
will
be
a
final
reconciliation
between
the
Trojans
and
Latins
and
all
the
warring
gods
that
represent
them.
Thus,
The
Aeneid
ends
with
the
dawn
of
a
new
golden
age
in
which
Rome
is
born
and
through
war
brings
the
dream
of
new
golden
age
of
peace.
Aeneas
story
is
a
story
of
the
recovery
of
Aeneas
and
the
restoration
of
his
world,
of
a
better
and
just
world,
of
Troy
reborn
as
Rome.
Part
4:
9–11
and
“The
Waste
Land”
of
modern
healthcare
So
what
does
all
this
have
to
do
with
healthcare
and
our
modern
quest
for
healing?
Through
these
stories
we
have
seen
that
the
hero’s
quest
always
begins
with
the
discovery
by
the
hero
that
the
world
is
upside
down
and
needs
to
be
restored.
So
my
novel,
The
End
of
Healing,
begins
with
its
protagonist,
the
young
Dr.
Don
Newman,
discovering
himself
in
a
very
dark
place.
In
the
first
part
of
our
new
millennium,
precisely
700
years
after
Dante
Alighieri
painful
awakening,
Dr.
Newman
finds
himself
in
a
broken
world.
The
End
of
Healing
begins
when
Dr.
Newman
is
awoken
in
the
middle
of
a
night
on
call
to
put
an
intravenous
line
in
the
neck
of
a
dying
woman
who
can’t
talk
because
a
recent
massive
stroke
from
which
she
will
never
recover.
He
knows
his
patient
doesn’t
want
an
intravenous
line
and
that
it
won’t
really
help
her
get
better.
Here
is
a
bit
of
their
encounter
after
Dr.
Newman
has
prepped
and
draped
Mrs.
Bellamy
before
putting
in
the
unwanted
IV:
For
a
quiet
moment
she
was
just
a
neck.
He
numbed
the
skin
with
a
bee
sting
of
lidocaine,
studied
the
anatomical
landmarks
to
find
the
right
spot,
and
stabbed
her
neck
with
the
three-‐inch
needle.
She
screamed
beneath
the
drape.
Dark
blood
shot
from
the
hub
of
the
hypodermic.
He
passed
a
long
stiff
wire
through
the
needle
into
the
jugular
vein
and
deep
into
her
body.
The
pager
started
screeching
again
but
he
couldn’t
reach
under
his
gown
to
turn
it
off.
A
voice
in
his
head
whispered
the
oath
he
had
taken
at
the
beginning
and
again
at
the
end
of
medical
school:
and
at
least
I
will
do
no
harm.
Bullshit!
Harm
is
my
business.
How
could
any
good
ever
come
out
of
what
I’m
doing
here
to
Sibyl
Bellamy?
His
bloody
gloved
fingers
worked
to
thread
the
Silastic
tubing
over
the
wire,
through
her
soft
skin,
and
down
to
the
first
chamber
of
her
heart.
Sibyl
Bellamy
began
to
whimper.
Out
of
nowhere,
water
filled
his
eyes
and
blurred
his
vision.
What
was
this?
It
wasn’t
like
him
to
become
emotional
while
dealing
with
a
patient,
and
he
bristled
with
irritation
at
the
sudden
unprofessional
display.
He
blinked
hard,
hoping
the
nurse
didn’t
notice
the
single
drop
that
spilled
from
the
corner
of
his
eye
and
trailed
across
his
cheek
and
around
his
mouth
to
balance
on
the
tip
of
his
chin.
Mrs.
Bellamy
had
once
been
a
beautiful
woman.
Something
about
her
reminded
him
of
his
own
mother.
Momma
was
gone
now,
and
he
had
done
nothing
to
help
her,
either.
As
he
struggled
to
suture
the
line
into
place,
the
tear
dropped
off
his
chin.
It
landed
on
the
sterile
blue
drape
and
spread
into
a
dark
circle
over
Sibyl
Bellamy’s
heart.
The
End
of
Healing,
Chapter
1,
The
Dark
Ward
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
A
patient
helps
him
to
see
to
his
horror
that
far
from
following
his
oath
to
“at
least
do
no
harm”
that
“harm
has
become
his
business.”
This
is
a
near
universal
experience
among
young
would-‐be
healers,
that
at
some
point
early
in
their
career
they
realize
that
they
have
entered
a
powerful
industry
that
does
not
always
place
the
interest
of
the
patient
first,
and
that
they
themselves
have
participated
in
the
business
of
harm.
Then
he
meets
his
mentor,
Dr.
Gil
Sampson,
who
encourages
him
to
cross
a
threshold,
to
forsake
plans
for
a
lucrative
career
in
cardiology,
and
instead
embark
on
a
dubious
quest
to
“Follow
the
money”
to
better
understand
the
true
ends
of
the
healthcare
industry
today.
Dr.
Sampson
and
Dr.
Newman’s
fellow
students
in
his
Oxford
style
graduate
program
in
Health
System
change
assist
him
in
this
quest
and
force
him
to
see
things
he
finds
horrifying
and
which
challenge
his
cherished
identity
as
a
healer.
Soon
after
beginning
his
Ivy
League
graduate
program
he
is
sorely
tested.
On
September
11,
2001
Don
and
his
fellow
students
are
sitting
in
their
college’s
coffee
shop,
a
place
that
looks
a
lot
like
the
St.
John’s
College
coffee
shop
beneath
McDowell
Hall,
when
the
planes
hit:
Don
had
been
drinking
coffee
in
The
Down
Under,
one
eye
on
the
morning
news
and
the
other
on
his
seminar
reading,
when
the
television
showed
the
first
plane
slamming
into
the
side
of
the
South
Tower.
He
assumed
the
pilot
had
veered
off
course
or
had
mechanical
problems—a
terrible
freak
accident—and
went
back
to
his
reading.
Just
after
nine
o’clock,
a
student
in
the
coffee
shop
screamed,
“Oh,
my
God!”
The
panic
in
her
voice
caused
Don
to
look
at
the
screen
just
as
a
second
jet
slammed
into
the
North
Tower.
Boiling
orange
flames
exploded
from
all
four
sides
of
several
floors.
Glittering
glass
and
metal
showered
the
streets
below,
and
billowing
black
smoke
poured
out
of
the
jagged,
gaping
holes
in
the
gleaming
towers.
Everything
changed
in
that
moment.
The
concern
in
the
room
turned
to
palpable
fear
and
everyone
was
now
riveted
to
the
news.
Some
were
crying;
others
were
desperately
dialing
their
cell
phones….The
South
Tower
crumbled
first,
just
before
ten
o’clock.
The
giant
building
collapsed
in
slow
motion.
It
started
with
a
barely
noticeable
shudder
and
a
slight
sagging
that
warped
the
skyscraper’s
straight
lines.
The
people
up
on
the
roof
hoping
in
vain
for
a
helicopter
rescue
must
have
felt
the
steel
beams
give
up
beneath
them
as
the
floors
began
to
collapse,
accelerating
to
a
machine
gun
staccato.
Puffs
of
smoke
shot
out
from
between
the
floors
with
each
percussion,
and
gray-‐brown
clouds
of
dust
began
to
rise
and
swell.
The
interminable
fall
ended
with
a
huge
belch
as
the
floors
slammed
to
the
ground.
The
building
exhaled
its
last
breath—a
thick,
rolling
cloud
of
dust
and
debris
that
advanced
from
the
heap
and
engulfed
everything
in
its
path.
The
fall
of
the
North
Tower
thirty
minutes
later
was
predictable
and
right
on
time.
In
spite
of
that,
a
steady
stream
of
fearless
firemen
filed
into
the
building
right
up
to
the
very
end.
The
End
of
Healing,
Chapter
7,
The
Waste
Land
He
quickly
discovers
what
anyone
who
has
eyes
to
see,
can
see—that
as
horrible
as
the
attack
on
the
Twin
Towers
was—the
world
of
modern
healthcare
is
far
worse.
To
his
dismay
he
learns
that
over
100,000
Americans
are
killed
by
medical
mistakes
in
hospitals
every
year—
the
equivalent
of
a
jumbo
jet
crashing
every
day!
That
makes
healthcare
far
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
and
away
the
number
one
cause
of
accidental
death
in
the
U.S.
And
he
discovers
that
healthcare
providers
generally
get
paid
more
when
they
make
mistakes.
That
some
100
million
people
worldwide
are
killed,
maimed,
or
seriously
injured
by
medical
mistakes
every
10
years,
more
than
have
ever
been
killed
in
any
war
in
the
history
of
time
in
a
similar
period.
And
as
he
“follows
the
money”
with
his
professor’s
guidance,
he
realizes
that
the
costs
of
the
American
high-‐tech,
hospital-‐focused
healthcare
approach
are
unsupportable.
He
sees
that
healthcare
is
already
consuming
20%
of
the
American
economy
and
it
is
hungry
for
more.
Even
when
the
novel
is
set,
in
2001,
he
sees
that
the
average
family
of
four
is
spending
(or
is
having
spent
on
their
behalf)
over
$20,000
per
year
and
the
average
Medicare
age
family
of
two
is
spending
over
$40,000
per
year,
amounts
that
most
American
families
can
ill
afford.
As
he
searches
to
understand
how
and
why
this
untenable
situation—this
broken
world—has
developed,
he
discovers,
beneath
the
surface
of
his
ordinary
medical
world,
a
powerful
healthcare
industrial
complex
seemingly
bent
on
trading
people’s
health
for
profit.
Don
and
his
fellow
students
begin
a
comprehensive
investigation
of
each
of
the
major
healthcare
industries
and
the
organizations
and
individuals
that
collude
with
them
in
the
quest
for
profit.
As
young
Dr.
Newman
struggles
to
find
a
framework
to
help
him
understand
the
broken
world
of
modern
healthcare
he
turns
to
Dante.
As
Virgil
look
to
Homer
and
Dante
looked
to
Virgil,
so
Dr.
Newman
looks
to
Dante
for
guidance.
His
Italian
mother
had
introduced
him
to
La
Divina
Commedia
as
a
boy
and
he
inherited
her
treasured
antique
copy.
He
turns
to
that
book
as
a
graduate
student
in
his
search
for
answers.
And
his
inherited
facsimile
edition
of
the
Commedia
contains
the
earliest
known
illustrations
of
the
Comedy
drawn
by
the
famous
Renaissance
artist
Botticelli.
Here
is
Botticelli’s
depiction
of
the
levels
of
Dante’s
Inferno.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
In
The
End
of
Healing,
Dr.
Newman
discovers
that
Dante’s
representation
of
the
moral
organization
of
the
universe
is
a
perfect
ethical
framework
for
understanding
modern
medicine.
In
a
flash
of
inspiration,
Don
realizes
that
the
levels
of
healthcare
hell
he
has
been
exploring
with
Dr.
Sampson
in
their
seminar
correspond
perfectly
with
the
levels
in
Dante’s
Inferno.
He
discovers
that
for
every
ethical
misstep,
mistake,
or
error
that
Dante
catalogued
there
is
a
corresponding
mistake
in
modern
healthcare.
He
discovers
that
the
way
humans
can
go
wrong
really
have
not
changed
that
much
in
the
last
700
years.
So
like
Dante,
he
begins
to
catalog
the
errors
in
modern
healthcare
and
to
use
Botticelli’s
drawing
as
his
guide.
He
realizes
that
these
errors
in
health
system
organization
have
consequences
in
terms
of
money
spent,
lives
saved,
and
lives
lost
and
he
begins
to
record
these
consequences
in
his
own
version
of
Botticelli’s
diagram
in
his
journal.
He
works
night
after
night
reviewing
the
literature,
calculating
and
filling
in
the
money
spent,
lives
saved
and
lives
lost
in
every
sector
of
the
healthcare
industry.
And
here
is
what
he
discovers.
Diagram
of
Healthcare
Hell5
5
From
The
End
of
Healing
by
Jim
Bailey,
Illustration
by
Joel
Hilgenberg,
copyright
©
2014
by
The
Healthy
City.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
In
his
journey
into
the
hell
of
the
ordinary
medical
world
Don
discovers
that
the
priorities
of
our
healthcare
system
are
completely
upside
down–and
that
this
has
horrible
consequences
for
the
people
who
depend
on
and
need
good
health
care
for
themselves
and
their
families.
In
The
End
of
Healing,
Don
and
his
colleagues
see
the
victims
of
disorganized
healthcare
up
close,
they
share
the
stories
of
the
unnecessary
suffering
they
have
witnessed,
and
they
understand
the
reasons
for
the
diseases
and
premature
deaths
of
these
innocent
people.
What
Don
discovers
through
his
journey
is
that
where
Americans
spend
the
most—on
hyped
care,
procedures,
and
hospital
care—they
get
the
least,
the
fewest
lives
are
saved,
and
the
most
lives
are
lost
from
medical
errors,
adverse
events,
and
complications.
And
where
Americans
spend
the
least
is
where
the
true
high-‐value
care
lies,
care
that
has
the
potential
to
not
only
save
far
more
lives
but
also
to
help
bring
abundant
life
to
the
people
of
America.
This
is
the
reality
of
modern
medicine
in
the
United
States,
where
it
is
currently
estimated
that
$800
billion
or
one-‐third
of
the
total
$2.4
trillion
U.S.
healthcare
budget
is
wasted
on
potentially
harmful
activities
activities
that
do
little
or
nothing
to
promote
health.6,7
So
tonight
I
have
shared
the
beginning
of
the
story
of
a
new
hero
who
perhaps
can
help
us
confront
one
of
the
greatest
social
ills
of
our
time,
the
unconscionable
waste
of
lives
and
resources
on
a
broken
healthcare
system.
Perhaps
Dr.
Don
Newman’s
search,
like
Dante’s,
Aeneas’,
and
Odysseus’
before
him
can
guide
us
to
the
nature
of
true
healing
and
help
us
discover
true
healing
for
ourselves
and
our
families.
His
work
and
our
work
is
simple—to
reclaim
and
restore
our
upside-‐down
healthcare
system.
All
we
have
to
do
is
to
turn
the
system
right-‐side
up—right-‐side
health
care
and
reclaim
the
well.
All
that
is
required
is
to
move
the
money
from
wasteful
sectors
and
industries
where
it
does
harm
to
where
it
can
do
good
through
primary
care
and
prevention.
This
task
would
be
easy
if
only
every
bit
of
that
waste
were
not
someone’s
profit.
So
this
process
of
transformation
will
require
heroes.
Through
Dr.
Newman’s
story
we
learn
that
high-‐value
health
care
starts
with
each
of
us
and
our
values.
Before
we
can
hope
to
demand
high-‐value
health
care
we
have
to
know
what
high-‐value
health
care
is
and
how
we
can
find
it.
We
must
ask
ourselves
what
health
care
is
truly
most
valuable
and
discern
the
answer.
Through
The
End
of
Healing
the
reader
can
accompany
Dr.
Don
Newman
and
participate
in
that
process
of
painful
discernment.
That
is
the
healing
journey
that
young
Dr.
Don
Newman
bids
us
to
join
in—a
quest
to
seek
the
path
through
our
broken
healthcare
system
to
reclaim
the
well
and
the
narrow
path
to
true
healing.
6
Orzag
PR,
Statement
to
the
Committee
on
the
Budget,
U.S.
House
of
Representatives,
Increasing
the
Value
of
Federal
Spending
on
Health
Care,
July
16,
2008.
Available
at:
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/41717;
Accessed
9/10/15.
7
Kelly
R,
Where
can
$700
billion
in
waste
be
cut
annually
from
the
U.S.
healthcare
system?
Thomson
Reuters,
October
2009,
Available
at:
http://www.ncrponline.org/PDFs/2009/Thomson_Reuters_White_Paper_on_Healthcare_
Waste.pdf;
Accessed
9/10/15.
�Jim
Bailey
St.
John’s
College,
Annapolis,
MD
Friday
Night
Lecture,
September
11,
2015
This
call
to
adventure
issued
by
The
End
of
Healing
is
not
unlike
the
call
issued
by
Dante
through
his
Divine
Comedy
to
examine
our
ordinary
world
and
reclaim
it,
or
the
call
of
Virgil
through
his
Aeneid
to
look
for
and
help
build
a
true
and
just
Pax
Romana.
Nor
is
it
far
from
Homer’s
call
to
Odysseus
to
remember
what
is
truly
important
and
to
strive
for
a
new
homecoming
and
restore
his
broken
household.
Let
us
look
for
Odysseus’s
reclaimed
homeland,
Aeneas’
reborn
Trojan
empire,
Dante’s
hoped
for
new
Jerusalem,
and
accept
the
call
to
adventure
to
go
with
young
Dr.
Newman
and
find
the
path
to
the
healthy
city
of
our
dreams.
And
perhaps
in
the
process,
like
Odysseus,
Aeneas,
and
Dante
before
us,
we
can
pass
through
the
darkness
and
be
reborn,
reclaim
the
well,
and
resurrect
our
better
selves.
�
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.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google 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.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
16 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
Dante and the hero's quest for healing
Description
An account of the resource
Typescript of a lecture delivered on September 11, 2015 by Jim Bailey as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bailey, James E.
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
2015-09-11
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 make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audio recording of my lecture available online. Make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a copy of my typescript available online."
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Bib # 82891
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/02c2060d67ead06fb17bb4cfc0ad2ea2.mp3
b5a5c005ba2e44f484ee925bc2de0385
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.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google 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
compact disc
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:39:58
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
The habit of violence
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture delivered on January 10, 1959 by Stringfellow Barr as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Barr, Stringfellow, 1897-1982
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
1959-01-10
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this recording.
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
lec Barr 1959-01-10
Friday night lecture
Presidents
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6a1b20d3ba7a20849c8e5ff60c756cab.mp3
1a12542a2e6b5eecb3bdfd3ed66a6f16
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
St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
1:53:30
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
Constitution Day Panel Discussion: Grutter v. Bollinger
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of an online panel discussion with Benjamin Baum, Caroline Randall, Piér Quintana, Cesar Cervantes, Martha Franks, Guillermo Bleichmar, and Walter Sterling on September 16, 2020 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office provided this description of the event: "For our annual event recognizing Constitution Day, this Wednesday afternoon a panel of faculty and staff will lead a discussion on (excerpts from) the landmark Supreme Court case, Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), in which, writing for the majority, Sandra Day O'Connor articulates a constitutional framework for, and surveys public policy surrounding, considerations of race and student diversity in the context of college admissions. This case underlies the more recent rulings in Fisher v. University of Texas (2013, 2016). For those who wish to attend, you may find a review of encyclopedia entries or journalistic reporting on the case (and related cases such as Fisher) sufficient. But the entire case can be found here: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/539/306 (among other places)."
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Baum, Benjamin
Randall, Caroline
Quintana, Piér
Cervantes, Cesar
Franks, Martha
Bleichmar, Guillermo
Sterling, Walter
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
Santa Fe, NM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-09-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available.
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
Education
Supreme Court
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SF_BaumB_et_al_Constitution_Day_Panel_Grutter_v_Bollinger_2020-09-16
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/5dc058c6cfef0128419bc15f29965c81.mp3
9b63842d0917bebd51394ff605511fc0
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.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google 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.)
00:57:42
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/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LEC_Beall_James_2015-12-04_ac
Title
A name given to the resource
Leibniz's Monadology and the Philosophical Foundations of Non-Locality in Quantum Mechanics
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture delivered on December 4, 2015, by James Beall as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Beall, J. H. (James Howard), 1945-
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
2015-12-04
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 in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audio 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
sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
mp3
Relation
A related resource
<a title="Typescript" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/319">Typescript</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von, 1646-1716
Quantum theory
Bell's theorem
Language
A language of the resource
English
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/bf94435e925d7dfea916df54baf5f55f.pdf
b3bf5b245bf7f902f20d5ed703221a39
PDF Text
Text
Leibniz's Monadology and the Philosophical Foundations of Non-locality in
Quantum Mechanics.
by
J.H. Beall
St. John's College
Annapolis, Maryland
Abstract:
One of the most troubling aspects of our understanding of modern physics, generally, and quantum
mechanics, specifically, is the concept of “non-locality.” Non-locality appears in an entire class of
experiments, including the so-called “two-slit” experiment. In these, particles and “quanta” of light can
be emitted and absorbed individually. Yet in the way these particles or quanta traverse the space and
time between emission and absorption, they appear to behave not as point particles, but as though they
were distributed throughout the entire spatial volume and temporal extent of the experiment. That the
phenomenon of non-locality has recently been corroborated over macroscopic distances of the order of
10 kilometers makes these effects all the more remarkable.
In this lecture, I shall review the experiments and arguments that have led to an acceptance of nonlocality in modern physics, and will suggest that the concept of space and time that this understanding
implies is consistent with Leibniz's Monadology, wherein our ideas of space and time are
fundamentally different from those given to us by our intuitions.
�Outline of Lecture:
1. Leibniz's Monadology
Principle of sufficient reason
Leibniz-Clark Correspondence
Leibniz and Newton
2. Quantum Mechanics: An Eternal, Golden Braid
Einstein's paper on the photoelectric effect
Rutherford, Bohr, de Broglie, and Heisenberg: an eternal golden braid
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
Einstein, Padolski, and Rosen's response to Heisenberg and Bohr
3. Bell's Theorem (or Bell's Inequality)
Bell's work at CERN
a synopsis of Bell's inequality via entangled particles
Bell's untimely death
Henry Pierce Stapp's paper on Bell's Theorem and it's implications
three reasonable demands: locality, causality, and individuality
must abandon one of the three
best option: abandon locality
Experimental foundation:
Stern-Gerlach correlation experiments
and more recent experiments with quanta of light
Professor Carol Alley's indignation
What is the Speed of Quantum Information?” 18 km, 10,000 times speed of light.
“
4. Like shadows on a Cave Wall: Leibniz's ideas of “space” as a kind of answer to the problem of nonlocality
5. Concluding remarks
The coherence of mind—The Emporer's New Mind: Roger Penrose on the unity of cognition
The commonality of experience
The problem and promise of entanglement
�1. Leibniz's Monadology
Principle of sufficient reason
Leibniz-Clark Correspondence
Leibniz and Newton
Leibniz's writings on the philosophical, mathematical, and natural sciences represent a coherent, if
somewhat surprising whole. Nowhere is this more clearly illustrated than in the Monadology, the
Discourse of Metaphysics, and the Leibniz-Clark correspondence.
Leibniz begins with the view of God as a maker, a being who makes the world the best possible.
Part and parcel with this view of the world is Leibniz's Principle of Sufficient Reason. It goes
something like this: one monad can only be different from another because of its different character or
qualities. I'll use a modern idea of a monad to illustrate this: an elementary particle like an electron. I
hope my choice will become plausible a bit later when we start the discussion of quantum mechanics.
Is one electron the same as another? If so, if there is NO difference between “this electron” and “that
electron”, then they would be the same, since by the Principle of Sufficient Reason they cannot be
distinguished. But my simply pointing to them is an indication of the differences. “This electron” IS
different from that one, because it has an explicitly different representation that is indicated by my
pointing at them. If I were to insist on a Cartesian representation of this difference, I can make a threedimensional coordinate system with a particular origin and three orthogonal axes, labeled x, y, and z.
Numbering these axes, I can locate “this” electron and distinguish it from “that” electron by the use of
three numbers, x1, y1, and z1, and x2, y2, and z2. I can then say that I have a representation of each of
these two electrons as different, given these two sets of three numbers. I can even represent their
separation of this electron from that electron by a three-dimensional version of the Pythagorean
theorem.
Leibniz makes this explicit several places in his works. For example, in the essay, “On Nature Itself
(pp 164 – 165), he states in arguing against Descartes' reliance on geometry in physics. Given such an
identity or similarity between objects,
… not even an angel could find any difference between its states at different times, nor have any
evidence for discerning whether the enclosed sphere is at rest or revolves, and what law of
motion it follows....Even if those who have not penetrated these matters deeply enough may not
have noticed this, it ought to be accepted as certain that such consequences are alien to the
nature and order of things, and that nowhere are there things perfectly similar (which is among
my [Leibniz's] new and important axioms). (Leibniz's essay, On Nature Itself, paragraph 13)
Of course, electrons have other properties as well: charge, mass, angular momentum (they seem to
spin like tops), magnetic moment (they act like tiny bar-magnets), velocity, momentum, and kinetic
energy, among other things. Each of these qualities or characteristics can also be represented by a
series of numbers or “coordinate expression.” I've always fancied that in a very formal sense an
electron or any other elementary particle (had Leibniz known about them) could be represented as an
aggregation of numbers (or coordinate expressions) related to another monad. This other monad could
also be represented in a similar way. By the Principle of Sufficient Reason, some of these coordinate
expressions are different from the coordinate expressions of all other monads.
The other thing to mention about monads is their unity. They are “simple.” They do not have parts.
�According to Leibniz, they represent a unity of different properties, much like a geometric point that is
the nexus of many geometric lines. Leibniz states that:
Everything is full in nature... And since everything is connected because of the plenitude of the
world, and since each body acts on every other body, more or less, in proportion to its distance,
and is itself affected by the other through reaction, it follows that each monad is a living mirror
or a mirror endowed with internal action, which represents the universe from its own point of
view and is as ordered as the universe itself. Leibniz, Principles of Nature and Grace, Based
on Reason, paragraph 3.
Some even have the property of being “be-souled.” So look around you. According to Leibniz, you
are sitting among a reasonably large group of monads, each of which is capable of noticing you and
regarding you as separate, individual “beings.”
There is one final thing about monads (among their many interesting properties) that bears on our
discussion of quantum mechanics. As Leibniz says, tt another point, in the Monadology:
The monads have no windows through which something can enter or leave. (Monadology,
paragraph 7)
Monads have no “windows.” Yet each monad is a representation to a greater or lesser extent of
everything else in the Universe because it is linked to all other monads by means of its relation to God.
That is, each monad is a reflection of the entire Universe precisely because it is in some way a
projection of a part of God. The debt Leibniz owes to Plato's Republic for this concept (note that I did
not say image) is nowhere directly acknowledged by Leibniz, but it is manifest. The one quarrel
Leibniz would have with my associating him with the image of the Cave in the Socratic dialog is
simply that it is an image as opposed to something that dwells in the understanding. For Leibniz's God
is, at least to my thinking, a Mathematician, and He, like Dedekind, holds that mathematics has no need
of geometry.
In this conception, then, there is a profound similarity between all of our connections with one another
and with the physical, social, and moral world.
It seems clear, therefore, that Leibniz does not think that space has an actual existence. As he states
explicitly,
As for my own opinion, I have said more than once that I hold space to be something relative,
as time is, that I hold it to be an order of coexistences, as time is an order of successions.
(Letters to Clark, Leibniz's Third Paper, Paragraph 4)
This is radically at odds with Newton's Principia, wherein Newton seems to deduce the existence of
absolute space from the existence of absolute (i.e, accelerated) motion. For Newton, space is the
“sensorium of God.”
Let us ponder this for a moment. For Newton, space has an existence. We can look out into the space
before us and hold it in our minds as something, even though we can (as Kant does) in our imaginations
remove all of its contents from the space that holds it. What is left over is space, be it a cubic
centimeter in front of us or volume 100,000 parsecs on a side.
�When Leibniz sees this emptiness, he views it as an actual metaphysical void, something that not even
God can relate to. As such, it is an abomination. Leibniz cannot accept a thing that God cannot act
upon, and the idea of an actual void is such a thing. Since God must be able to act on all creation, a
genuine metaphysical void cannot exist. This is one of the reasons why the Leibniz-Clark
correspondence (Clark was taking Newton's part) makes little headway to change the authors' minds.
The grounds of the conversation are radically different.
It is a worthy anecdote to relate that Leibniz and Newton never acknowledged the other's invention of
the differential and integral calculus. And it is helpful to note that Newton's development of the
calculus relies on geometrical constructions, while Leibniz's relies on an evolution of Descartes'
algebra. Is it true that Leibniz uses sketches of curves and lines for his derivations, in part because we
are visual creatures, but Leibniz's derivations do seem to be less reliant on images of extension.
Thus, for Leibniz, extension has no actual existence. What we interpret as extension, as space, is a
representation given to us by God. It is very likely that the same is true for time in Leibniz's
metaphysics. This separation is like a three-dimensional Pythagorean theorem whose terms are given to
us. What we interpret as a spatial extension is a coordinate interval that we call space, just as temporal
separation is a coordinate expression that we call time. What separates us, what we interpret as
distance, is just a shadow on a Cave wall caused by our origin within a common light. What separates
us from the amber light of ages past is an equivalent coordinate expression whose regularity is provided
by God.
I cannot resist at this point recalling for you the yarn in the Odyssey when the hero is among the
Phaeacians, and Homer brings us back from the story Odysseus is telling into Alkinoos and Arete's
palace hall with it's feast and polished stone floors and torchlight. The momentum of that telescoping
does not stop there, but places us back firmly into the present where we realize that we are reading
words two thousand years old about a story that is a thousand years distant even from that remote past.
Like Leibniz's God, Homer has linked us to the ages, and three millennia are as nought.
One other element of Leibniz's philosophy will prove useful later: Leibniz directly addresses the
problem of a Deity that weaves out our destiny to construct the best of all possible worlds. This Deity
knows everything we are capable of doing, knows all of our potentialities, and further, knows all of our
past.
And since every present state of a simple substance is a natural consequence of its preceding
state, the present is pregnant with the future (Monadology, paragraph 22).
Thus, the “Demon” in Laplace's Essay on a Theory of Probability takes its tack from Leibniz. Laplace
says explicitly:
We ought then to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its anterior state and as
the cause of the one which is to follow. Given for one instant an intelligence which could
comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated and the respective situation of the beings
who compose it -- an intelligence sufficiently vast to submit these data to analysis-it would
embrace in the same formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of
the lightest atom; for it, nothing would be uncertain and the future, as the past, would be
present to its eyes. (Laplace, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities, ch II)
Leibniz seems to recognize the determinism of such a God, but sidesteps the troublesome argument of
�the lack of free will by claiming that God knows all possible predicates of our being, and so chooses
the path which we would follow anyway!
I regard the foregoing comments about Leibniz's Monadology as a preamble to our discussion of the
problem of non-locality in quantum mechanics, especially as the concept of non-locality has been
articulated by interpretations of the work of John Bell, an elementary particle theorist who worked at
CERN before his untimely death in the Fall of 1990. But first, I shall try to provide some background
on the landscape in which Bell developed his certifiably famous theorem.
2. An Eternal, Golden Braid: Quantum Mechanics in Rutherford, Bohr, de Broglie, Heisenberg,
and Einstein
Einstein's paper on the photoelectric effect
Rutherford, Bohr, de Broglie, and Heisenberg: an eternal golden braid
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
Einstein, Padolski, and Rosen's response to Heisenberg and Bohr
It is surprising at first gloss that of the four papers Einstein published in 1905, the one for which he was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics was not one of the following:
The one on Special Relativity, entitled “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”.
Annalen der Physik 17 (1905): 891-921;
nor the one entitled
“Does the Inertia of a Body Depend upon its Energy Content?” (the famous E=mc2
paper), in Annalen der Physik 18 (1905);
nor the one on Brownian motion, entitled
“On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the
Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat.” in Annalen der Physik 17 (1905): 549-560.
As an aside, it is worthy of note that this is the 100th anniversary of the publication of the 1915 paper on
General Relativity, and the 150th anniversary of Maxwell's publication of his theory of light as
electromagnetic waves.
The actual phrasing from the Nobel Prize Committee was “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and
especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." The so-called “photoelectric effect”
paper has a curious title: “Concerning an Heuristic Point of View Toward the Emission and
Transformation of Light.” It was also published in Annalen der Physik 17 (1905): 132-148. It was one
which marked the beginnings of what is now called Quantum Mechanics.
In the paper, Einstein characterizes the wave theory of light in the following manner:
...the energy of a beam of light from a point source (according to Maxwell's theory of light or,
more generally, according to any wave theory) is continuously spread over an ever increasing
volume.
In the next paragraph, Einstein notes that
The wave theory of light, which operates with continuous spatial functions, has worked well in
the representation of purely optical phenomena and will probably never be replaced by any
other theory.
�But in the next paragraph, he states that
It seems to me that the observations associated with blackbody radiation, fluorescence, the
production of cathode rays by ultraviolet light, and other related phenomena connected with the
emission and transformation of light … are more readily understood if one assumes that the
energy of light is discontinuously distributed in space. In accordance with the assumption to be
considered here, the energy of a light ray spreading out from a point source is not continuously
distributed over increasing space but consists of a finite number of energy quanta which are
localized at points in space, which move without dividing, and which can only be produced and
absorbed as complete units.
On the one hand, Einstein allows for a “wave theory” like Maxwell's waves in a luminiferous aether
wherein the light it transmitted, reflected, and refracted. He “heuristically” considers light to be a
particle during light's emission from and absorption into material bodies. It is perhaps ironic that
Einstein was never able to reconcile his conception of the dual nature of light with the equivalent, dual
character of particles as both material bodies and waves, a solution posed by de Broglie to provide an
explanation of Bohr's model for the energy levels of the hydrogen atom.
Of course, this entire “braid” began with efforts to apply models from classical physics that explain
everything from cannonballs to asteroids to planets to the very small structures within matter such as
atoms and elementary particles via Galileo, Thomson, Millikan, and Rutherford.
By way of a truncated outline of the argument, Bohr used the existence of hydrogen spectral lines and
the contemporary work by Planck to explain so-called Blackbody radiation. Planck made the
hypothesis that discrete oscillators in matter had only certain fundamental modes with which they could
vibrate. He asserted that these oscillators were in equilibrium with the thermal radiation from matter
with a particular temperature, and thus explained blackbody radiation. Bohr wondered what the
“Planck oscillators” could be, since the classical picture of an orbiting charge holds that it should
radiate continuously. He hypothesized that his atom settled into quasi-stationary states and emitted and
absorbed radiation during transitions from one energy level to another.
It is likely that everyone in the audience is familiar with Bohr's model from high school science classes
and many popular lectures and books on the subject of science. You Seniors are in the process of
completing this sequence of papers.
In fact, the Bohr model has become a commonplace picture of the atom. But such familiarity hides the
utter strangeness of the concept. The atom is stable for a while, and then is excited or de-excited by the
absorption or emission of light at a specific frequency. These energy levels are Bohr's answer to why
the spectra of light from certain gases contains only certain frequencies. If you sprinkle salt onto the
logs in your fireplace, the resultant light is a brilliant yellow. That yellow light contains only certain
frequencies, frequencies that are as much an indication of the presence of the sodium in salt as your
finger prints are of you as an individual person. We know the constitution of stars precisely because of
this line-spectrum identification of elements, stars that can be hundreds or thousands of light years
distant.
The strangeness of the idea of the Bohr atom bothered de Broglie, who reasoned by a kind of symmetry
derived from Einstein's photoelectric effect paper (wherein light can have a particulate nature, as well
as a wave-like nature) that particles could perhaps have both a discrete nature and also a wave-like
nature. In an immensely clever argument (he won the Nobel Prize for it), de Broglie argued that one
�can calculate the “wavelength” of a particle by assigning it a specific momentum, which implies that it
has an energy. That energy can be used to calculate a characteristic wavelength, E = hν = hc/λ. It is a
stunning triumph for so simple an argument that the wavelengths thus calculated for an electron in the
Bohr orbits for hydrogen is exactly the circumference of the quasi-stationary orbits for electrons in the
hydrogen atom. So the electrons are not exactly particles when they are inside the atom. They also
have wave-like qualities.
Schroedinger was a young assistant professor when de Broglie published his astonishing idea. I have it
on good authority that Schroedinger was assigned the task of giving the journal club lecture at his
university the next week. It's a bit like these Friday night lectures, but less formal and typically they
are on a week-day afternoon. The assignment was something like, “Take a look at de Broglie's paper
and give us a synopsis of it at the journal club next Tuesday.”
Schroedinger had a ski trip planned for that weekend (Friday through Sunday, apparently). Being the
persistent soul that he was, he took a copy of de Broglie's paper and a book on solutions to differential
equations in various coordinate systems (rectilinear, cylindrical, and spherical) with him on the ski trip.
The short version of the story is that he didn't get much skiing done, but he came back well on the way
of inventing wave mechanics, an explanation for the energy levels of atoms as kind of standing waves
in space. His “eureka” moment came when he said to his bewildered ski companions, “I have just fit
the energy levels of the hydrogen atom in a way you would not believe!” The standing waves were
similar to the three-dimensional oscillations of sound waves in a concert hall. But standing waves of
what?
I believe Schroedinger originally thought of the standing waves as waves of charge density. The
electron has wave-like qualities à la de Broglie, and it has charge, so it would make sense as an
extension of de Broglie's hypothesis. But electrons have discrete charges when they are measured by
Millikan in his famous oil-drop experiment. How come we never see fractional charges?
Schroedinger's description of electrons (or any elementary particle, for that matter) was that they are
aggregations of waves that reinforce in a certain region and cancel out everywhere else. This makes
sense in explaining the energy levels of a hydrogen atom, but causes other conceptual problems.
First slide (the Cat – on title page)
Schroedinger's description of a particle as an aggregation of waves of some sort caused Heisenberg to
analyze the behavior of such particles when we try to measure them. If we try to localize the particle as
we do in the act of measurement, we confine it to a narrower region in space. That means we add up
more and more waves. Each wave has a slightly different speed. Schroedinger needed these different
speeds for different wavelengths in order to get the “wave-packet” to behave like a particle. But that
means that the momentum of the particle becomes less certain over time, since, in order to localize the
particle, we need to add more wavelengths, and adding more wavelengths means the velocity (and
therefore the momentum) become more uncertain.
�Slide 2: Slide of wave addition to produce wave-packet goes here
There is actually a calculable limit to the uncertainty in the momentum times the uncertainty in the
position of a particle. It is greater than or equal to Planck's constant. This is of course the Heisenberg
Uncertainty Relation. It says that there is a fundamental, and not simply an experimental, limit to our
knowledge of the location of a particle and its momentum.
Slide 3: Slide of single slit diffraction and its relation to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
�A particularly helpful illustration of the Heisenberg derivation (and one that will be useful to us later in
this lecture can be had by looking at single-slit diffraction of a plane wave. The wave can be a wave of
light, an elementary particle like an electron, or even a water wave. If it originates from a far-distant
source, the wave is essentially a series of parallel troughs and peaks with its propagation direction
perpendicular to those troughs and peaks. When we allow it to approach a screen so that the peaks and
troughs (as seen from above) are parallel to the screen, we can watch the interaction of the barrier with
the oncoming waves. If there is an opening in the barrier that is of the same order as the wavelength of
the waves, a fraction of the waves can pass the barrier. When this happens, a part of the wave front
gets through the barrier, but for some fraction of the waves, the direction of the waves is changed
because of the wavesfront's interference with itself. This interference produces a dispersion of the
wave front that gives its velocity a vertical component. It is important to note what has happened here.
We have limited the wavefront in the vertical direction to a x that is essentially the width of the slit. It
has produced a dispersion in the velocity of the wave in the vertical direction, a v.
In Schroedinger's terms, this dispersion in the velocity of the wave in the vertical direction (that is, in
the same direction as the opening of the slit) is an uncertainty in the velocity. If we consider the wave
as representing the motion of a particle, then the localization of the particle within a delta x produces an
uncertainty in the momentum of the particle of order delta p. This illustration is not entirely fanciful.
In fact, Heisenberg uses it as one of his derivations of the Heisenberg Uncertainty relation.
Furthermore, the smaller the slit, that is, the smaller the uncertainty in position, the greater the
uncertainty in the momentum.
This has led to no end of problems in interpretation. One example of this is the fact that elementary
particles (be they electrons, protons, or photons), when emitted from a source and directed toward a
screen or grid whose spacings are the same size as the wavelengths of the elementary particles, will
show a diffraction pattern on a screen downstream from slits. For the sake of clarity, we will consider
only photons, although the discussion could as well apply to any elementary particle, including
neutrons, protons, electrons, etc.
Let a stream of photons set forth across the chaotic gulf toward a screen. Imagine this as like a scene
from Milton's Paradise Lost as Satan launches himself across the chasm between hell and paradise.
These photons are transmitted and diffracted as though they are electromagnetic waves. When they
reach two slits in the screen, the waves interfere with one another so that there is a very specific pattern
of light and dark lines on the screen downstream from the slits called a “two-slit” pattern.
�Slide 4: Slide on single-slit vs. double-slit pattern here
Suppose we turn down the intensity of the light. Let us make the light exceedingly dim, so that when
we look at the screen or detector, we find only one cell on the screen illuminated or exposed (you
remember photographic film, I trust?) at a time.
Slide 5: Low Light/Flux level slide goes here
What happens next is remarkable. This figure shows the buildup over time of electrons in a two slit
experiment at very low flux levels. We see one quantum at a time arriving . As we watch, the
�diffraction pattern begins to develop. We see the characteristic two-slit pattern. But we have allowed
only one quantum (in this case, electrons) to be emitted at a time. How can we possibly get a two-slit
pattern. Such an experimental apparatus exists. The results from it behave exactly as I have said.
Apparently, the individual light or particle quantum goes through both slits at once. It is spread out
over the entire space of the experimental screen (or more properly, the experimental volume) and then
excites only one element of the detector. If this seems quixotic to you, it is. It is known as “the
problem of measurement” in the vernacular of Shady Bend. The wave function (remember all those
waves adding up to produce the wave packet) is spread out even for a single particle or quantum of
light. The moment before it hits the detector screen, it is everywhere on the screen. At the next instant,
it collapses into a single point. This is known as the “collapse of the wave function.” The collapse is
apparently instantaneous. If these are material particles or quanta of light, they sort themselves into a
single area on the screen instantaneously.
There were many objections to this explanation, not the least of which was that it violates causality.
The wave-packet description of the two-slit experiment requires that the waves instantly collapse to a
single point, after having, a moment in time before, occupied the whole of the experiment.
Bohr and Heisenberg made noble efforts to resolve this apparent contradiction by supposing that the
wave function description of elementary particles was merely a calculation of likelihood or probability.
Since probability is only a likelihood, the collapse of the wave function is merely the result of a
measurement. And like any measurement, once it occurs, the answer is always, “Yes. That's what
happened!”
Einstein would have none of it. His famous quote, “God does not play dice!”, about the so-called
Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics was an indication of his objection to the probability
interpretation of the Psi-function. In his view, there was an underlying causal relation between the
elements of the experiments and their outcomes that was not represented by quantum mechanics (QM).
Yet QM is a remarkably successful theoretical method.
In a paper in response to the probability interpretation of QM, Einstein, Podolski and Rosen (EPR) tried
to show that the uncertainty relation developed by Heisenberg was flawed, and that some variations of
the single or two slit experiment would give an inroad into figuring out precisely what the momentum
and position of the particle would be. One of the thought experiments proposed to measure the
momentum transferred to the screen by the impact of the particle, This (by conservation of
momentum) would allow the particle momentum to be measured exactly, while the position would be
localized to the region within the slit. But when one took into account the uncertainty in the position of
the screen, the Heisenberg Uncertainty limit returned.
A variant of one of the thought experiments used two particles that interacted prior to the slit, and then
had one transfer its momentum to one screen while another's position was determined independently.
Again, by conservation of momentum the second particle's momentum and its position were to be
determined beyond the Heisenberg limit. Each response to EPR by Heisenberg and Bohr led EPR to a
further amplifications of the experimental apparatus. While the correspondence in the scientific
literature led many to accept the Copenhagen Interpretation and the Heisenberg Uncertainty limit,
Einstein was never able to believe the probabilistic nature of Bohr and Heisenberg's interpretation.
Yet the alternative to a probabilistic interpretation was an instantaneous collapse of a physical wave
function. This instantaneous collapse would clearly exceed the speed of light, and thus render it
�difficult to accept, since the limiting speed of the transfer of information in Special Relativity is the
velocity of light. This is one of the fundamental hypotheses of Special Relativity.
This led John Bell to a further analysis of the two slit experiment, and the theoretical development of
Bell's Theorem (or Bell's Inequality), which has allowed many experimental test of locality, causality,
and the predictions of quantum mechanics. It appears to contradict Einstein's hopes for a “hidden
variable” theory, wherein true causality would be returned to the world. Apparently, this is not to be
realized.
�3. Bell's Theorem (or Bell's Inequality)
Bell's work at CERN
a synopsis of Bell's inequality via entangled particles
Bell's untimely death
Henry Pierce Stapp's paper on Bell's Theorem and it's implications
three reasonable demands: locality, causality, and individuality
must abandon one of the three
best option: abandon locality
Experimental foundation:
Stern-Gerlach correlation experiments
and more recent experiments with quanta of light
Professor Carol Alley's indignation
But how does this happen? Bell's theorem is essentially a test of whether or not two particles, once
they interact, can be separated enough so that their states do not influence one another. Remarkably, it
is posed in such a way that it can be implemented as an experimental test.
Schroedinger called this phenomenon, wherein the wave function of two particles becomes joined by
their interaction, an “entanglement” of the wave functions of the particles. And you recall that all
particles have a wave function description that guides or governs their behavior.
This hypothesis bears on EPR's paper. To reiterate, if two particles interact, then the momentum of one
could be determined by inference due to measuring the momentum of the other, since the momentum of
the pair has to be conserved. At the same time, the position of the first particle, for which we inferred
the momentum, could be accurately measured for its position as long as the pair were sufficiently far
apart. Thus, the momentum and position of a particle could be measured at a precision which violated
the Heisenberg uncertainty limit. At this point, EPR could claim that the Heisenberg Uncertainty
relation was merely a practical limit, and that there was some underlying, governing relation which we
simply needed to find, some sort of “hidden variable” that really determined the evolution of the
system.
J.S. Bell was sympathetic to EPR's view. His theorem (called variously Bell's Theorem or Bell's
Inequality) was an attempt to establish whether or not EPR's hypothesis could be tested experimentally.
The experimental setup is remarkably simple, but not trivial. Two particles would be allowed to
interact, to become “entangled,” and then would separate and go off in opposite directions. After a
time, the particles would each be measured to determine their properties. As with the EPR paper, the
hypothesis that their states could no longer interact would produce one result, whereas the hypothesis
that their states were still entangled when they were measured would produce another result.
The next figure shows the results of one of the experimental tests of Bell's Theorem, in this case the
orientation of the polarization of photons measured by two separated systems. The red (straight) line
shows the limit of a “local, realistic” hypothesis, that is, that the results are uncorrelated. Any
experimental result below the diagonal red line indicates a correlation (that is, an entanglement)
between distant particles and their experimental apparatuses. Perhaps most important, the results
predicted by QM show a very close agreement with the data!
In some later experimental tests, groups have tried to estimate the speed of the transmission of the
correlations by changing slightly the timing of the setting of the measuring apparatuses. In a groundbreaking paper entitled “What is the Speed of Quantum Information,” the result of a measurement
�conducted at CERN is that the correlations happen at a velocity at least 10,000 times the speed of light
over a distance of 18 kilometers. I say “at least” because the electronics of the experimental setup
could not measure a faster correlation. So for all intents and purposes, this speed is a lower limit. The
correlations occur effectively instantaneously.
What are we to make of such results? Henry Pierce Stapp's paper, entitled “The S-Matrix Interpretation
of Quantum Theory”, provides a highly recommended discussion of Bell's Theorem, despite the
imposing title. But by way of a friendly warning, it's best to read Section X, Ontological Problems, and
Appendix B, World View, first to get a bit of orientation.
To give you some idea of Stapp's take on Bell's Theorem, I quote from his paper at a point just after he
shows a concise proof of that theorem.
A conclusion that can be drawn from this theorem is that the demands of causality, locality, and
individuality cannot be simultaneously maintained in the description of nature. Causality
demands contingent predictions; locality demands local causes of localized results; individuality
demands specification of individual results, not merely their probabilities.
For a more readable proof of the theorem, Nick Herbert's article, “Quantum Reality” and his account at
http://quantumtantra.com/bell2.html, and in N. Herbert, Am Jour Phys 43, 315 (1975) and in N.
Herbert, New Scientist 111, 41 (1986).
�Slide 6: Bell's Theorem results.
As Stapp puts it:
I can see only three ways out of the problem posed by Bell's theorem.
1. The first is to accept, with Everett, the idea that human observers are cognizant only of
individual branches of the full reality of the world: The full physical world would contain a
superposition of a myriad of interconnected physical worlds of the kind we know. An
individual observer would be personally aware of only one response of a macroscopic
measuring device, but a full account of reality would include all the other possible outcomes on
an equal footing, though perhaps with unequal “weights.”
�2. The second way out is to accept that nature is basically highly nonlocal, in the sense that
correlations exist that violently contradict – even at the macroscopic level – the usual ideas of
the space-time propagation of information. The intuitive idea of the physical distinctness of
physically well-separated macroscopic objects then becomes open to question. And the
intuitive idea of space itself is placed in jeopardy. For space is intimately connected to the
space-time relationships that are naturally expressed in terms of it. If there are, between farapart microscopic events, large instantaneous connections that do not respect spatial separation,
then the significance of space would seem to arise only from the statistical relationships that do
respect it.
3. The third way out is to deny that measurements that “could have been performed, but were
not,” would have had definite results if they had been performed. This way out seems, at first,
to be closest to the spirit of the Copenhagen interpretation. However, it seems to contradict the
idea of indeterminism, which is also an important element of the spirit of the Copenhagen
interpretation. (Henry Pierce Stapp, 1971, Physics Review D, Vol. 3, no. 6, pp 1303-1320).
Some comments are clearly in order here. The third option Stapp articulates bears remarkable
similarities to Laplace's Demon or Leibniz's God as architects of the best of all possible worlds. In that
instantiation of reality, what we choose is exactly what we will. But what we will as a predicate of our
being is completely known by the Deity and determined by it.
The first option is known as Stapp's “many-worlds” interpretation. That option is often mentioned in
the same breath as Schroedinger's Cat.
Slide 7: Picture of Schroedinger's Cat here:
In that interpretation, as Stapp says, the cat is both alive and dead in the multiply unfolding universe of
outcomes. Each point where the quantum hits the screen represents a starting point for a separate
future.
As an interesting aside, we have some hopes of conducting Bell's Theorem type experiments here at St.
John's in a room in the basement appropriately called the Quantum Lab. But of course, no cats will be
allowed therein.
Most people find the second option, non-locality, most “appealing,” if that is the right phrase.
�In the case of the first experimental measurements, conducted with two low-energy neutrons colliding;
then recoiling down separate arms of a vacuum line; and finally having their angular momenta
determined by a Stern-Gerlach apparatus (I will spare you the details), there were (some thirty or forty
years ago) five measurements, four of which agreed with Bell's inequality. Since then, all of the
experimental tests of Bell's theorem have confirmed it.
To emphasize how surprising this has been, I recall a conversation I had with Professor Carol Alley at
the University of Maryland when I was a graduate student there. He is a famous experimental
physicist, one who used a laser to measure the distance to the Moon from a site near Goddard Space
Flight Center during one of the Apollo Lunar Landing missions. As we talked about Bell's theorem,
and it's apparent experimental corroboration, standing in the hallway in the Physics Building at the
University of Maryland, he was clearly quite perplexed that there was any corroboration of the
inequality. As we spoke, his voice was getting louder and louder. Finally, I said to him, “Professor
Alley, you realize that you are shouting at me?” He laughed and said, “Well, it's certainly not you that
I'm shouting at, Jim. It's the idea of this result!”
Left with the options Stapp articulated, which would you abandon: causality, locality, or individuality.
You cannot have all three! Most people, faced with these options, give up locality.
4. Like shadows on a Cave Wall: Leibniz's ideas of “space” as a kind of answer to the problem
of non-locality
It is time to recall one of the things I am attempting in this lecture: to use Leibniz's conceptions of
space and time in the Monadology as a metaphysical foundation for the idea of no-locality in quantum
mechanics.
Let us reiterate the properties of monads. Monads are singular. That is, they have many properties, but
no parts. They have no windows. All their impressions and reflections of the Cosmos come through
their reflection and articulation of the Deity, which they represent in a small part.
Finally, it is likely, based on the experimental results of Bell's Theorem, that our intuitions of space and
time are far removed from the way the Universe actually is.
5. Concluding remarks
The coherence of mind - The Emporer's New Mind: Roger Penrose on the unity of cognition
The commonality of experience
The problem and promise of entanglement
I conclude this lecture with two principal points and some speculations.
First, it was many years ago that Roger Penrose in a book called The Emporer's New Mind, tried to
explain the coherence of mind by the physical effects of non-locality on a relatively small scale – the
electrochemical and quantum mechanical processes in the human brain (cats, also, most likely, since
Penrose is fond of cats). This coherence would require entanglement of the prior physical states of
these electrochemical wave fronts, but this does not seem terribly surprising.
Second, entanglement does not depend simply or perhaps even necessarily on proximity. At a fairly
formal level, entanglement depends on interaction. The entanglement of cognitive processes with the
�experiential world might be sufficient to explain the commonality of experience, a term which I coin
here in this essay, especially given that the correlations persist over manifestly macroscopic differences.
This bears, quite generally, on our ideas of culture, also. As an example, think of how easy or difficult
it can be to change ones entire conception of the world via a single conversation. I thank Mr. William
Braithwaite for the suggestion.
The concept of non-locality thus articulated can extend far beyond the possibility of common
experience to the possibility of kindredness with our common weal. We might not, actually, be
separate spheres, hoping to connect, hoping to touch and know the World. Like shadows on a Cave
Wall, both we as individuals and the rest of the sensible world could actually be sprung from a common
light.
Finally, and this is a bit more speculative, but hardly original, the entire evolution of the history of the
Cosmos has involved some pretty heavy entanglement. We now call it the Big Bang.
This brings us to a further point regarding Leibniz's Deity. God might not have simply said, “Let there
be Light.” God might have actually been that light.
Thank you.
Jim Beall
St. John's College
Annapolis
December 4th, 2015
�
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.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google 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.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
19 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
Leibniz's Monadology and the Philosophical Foundations of Non-Locality in Quantum Mechanics
Description
An account of the resource
Typescript of a lecture delivered on December 4, 2015, by James Beall as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Beall, J. H. (James Howard), 1945-
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
2015-12-04
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 make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audio recording of my lecture available online. Make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a copy of my typescript available online."
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Bib # 83339
Relation
A related resource
<a title="Audio recording" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/258">Audio recording</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von, 1646-1716
Quantum theory
Bell's theorem
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/c053028bbf641b5b0450513ddcc24d63.pdf
d76082df4a139ff2536318d76bc16819
PDF Text
Text
������������������������������������������������
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
St. John's College Lecture Transcripts—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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 at the Santa Fe, NM campus.
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
paper
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
37 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
The axiomatic drama of classical physics
Description
An account of the resource
Transcript of a lecture given on December 11, 1981 by Charles Bell at St. John's College in Santa Fe.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bell, Charles G. (Charles Greenleaf), 1916-2010.
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
Santa Fe, NM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1981-12-11
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library has been given permission to include this item in its collections.
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
Physics
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
24000020
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/48680d0f9a3323a5ed61a08f821844a3.pdf
5a419c7fdc264de9ca6db20c25d5f820
PDF Text
Text
�����������������������
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
St. John's College Lecture Transcripts—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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 at the Santa Fe, NM campus.
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
paper
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
21 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
Shakespeare : (the phoenix and the turtle)
Description
An account of the resource
Transcript of a lecture given in the fall of 1964 by Charles Bell.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bell, Charles G. (Charles Greenleaf), 1916-2010.
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
Santa Fe, NM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1964
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library has been given permission to add this item to its collections.
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
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
24000021
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/e9ef6709017d7f99e6d7e5182c5d0e38.pdf
902c1ec671bd415e52ed8ed021f29445
PDF Text
Text
����������������������
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
St. John's College Lecture Transcripts—Santa Fe
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Santa Fe, NM
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 at the Santa Fe, NM campus.
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
paper
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
22 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
Satanic math
Description
An account of the resource
Transcript of a lecture given by Charles Bell.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bell, Charles G. (Charles Greenleaf), 1916-2010.
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
Santa Fe, NM
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library has been given permission to add this item to its collections.
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
Mathematics
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
24000022
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/32d77ec78240e4de991cd212908d7d62.mp3
0501e171bd517860577a06d8d0f99641
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.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google 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.)
00:54:27
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
Nietzsche contra Wagner, Wagner contra Nietzsche
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture delivered by Karol Berger on February 15, 2019 as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Berger, Karol, 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
2019-02-15
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 make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. 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
Berger_Karol_2019-02-15
Friday night lecture
Deprecated: Directive 'allow_url_include' is deprecated in Unknown on line 0