About this episode
Send a textLiberal education is for the man of leisure: Either a gentleman engaged in politics, or a philosopher engaged in contemplation. What role, then, can liberal learning have in a mass democracy? In the lecture "Liberal Education and Responsibility," the political theorist Leo Strauss defends his statement that "Liberal education is the ladder by which we try to ascend from mass democracy to democracy as originally meant. Liberal education is the necessary endavor to found an aristocracy within democratic mass society." Along the way, he also discusses religious education, the distinction between the gentleman and the philosopher, and the insufficiency of the great books movement. Wyoming Catholic College professor Pavlos Papadopoulos rejoins the podcast for another dive into Strauss.Leo Strauss's Liberal Education and Responsibility: https://archive.org/details/LeoStraussOnLiberalEducation/Strauss-LiberalEducationResponsibility/NH episode on Leo Strauss's What Is Liberal Education?: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/18277048-big-bad-leo-strauss-feat-pavlos-papadopoulos-episode-ciAllan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781451683202Jonathan Swift's The Battle of the Books: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781507890530Mark A. Noll's The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780802882042Greg Lukianoff's and Jonathan Haidt's The Coddling of the American Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780735224919Pete Hegseth's and David Goodwin's Battle for the American Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780063215054Robert R. Reilly's The Closing of the Muslim Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781610170024Allan Bloom's translation of The Republic of Plato: https://amzn.to/49ZMPIsAlexis De Tocqueville's Democracy in America (trans. Harvey Mansfield): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780226805368Cicero's Pro Archia Poeta: https://amzn.to/4buKd7WC.S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780060652944Josef Pieper's Leisure The Basis of Culture: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781586172565New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com