Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Some things classical

As I projected earlier this week, I have been looking at the classics in a number of podcasts. Notably, this was BBC's In Our Time about Aristotle's views on politics. In stead of waiting to wrap my mind around a full review, I'd rather mention it here right now, before this cast falls out of the feed (which is expected to happen in the next 24 hours or so). Go and get that podcast. It gives so much insight in how our political thinking started off.

Once you are into going to the roots, there are two more sources to point to. First of all, from Aristotle, inevitably one points back to Plato and from him to Socrates. A long time ago Socrates was on In Our Time, which can be heard on the stream, but still available is Philosophy Bites. The philosopher McCabe is explaining the Socratic Method, which still has so much standing in our thinking today.

Why not dig into the Greeks altogether. This can be done with a free course from Yale, which can be downloaded, but strangely, is not available on podcast. I have done the earliest lectures, so little is to be said yet. We have covered the Minoans and Myceneans as well as the dark age and Homer afterwards.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Anne--
Another great podcast about Aristotle (and Plato) is Brian Walker's UCLA class in political theory (http://www.oid.ucla.edu/webcasts/courses/2006-2007/2007winter/polisci10-1). Lectures 2-7 are about the ancient Greeks.
-- Dara

Anne the Man said...

Hey Thanks Dara,

This reminds me to look at UCLA again. And you have given me a podcast to start with

Anne