In The Republic, the greatest bit of political thought ever written, Plato asks us all, “What is Justice?” 

In The Republic, we read that justice could be giving people what is theirs, the rule of the many, that which the strongest demand, and more.  People have wrestled with this text and the problems it presents for thousands of years. We still don’t REALLY know how one “does justice.” I think we do know that justice comes into play in every single human interaction. 

Writer’s Block? Try The Gadfly Method By Katie King  How To Channel the Gadfly. Experiencing Writer's Block? Need a Disruptor? Then Bite In.    Before sitting down to write, address the following questions:  What's a “big” question about the text that interests you and why? In order to answer that question, what are 3-5 questions [...]

Behind the ‘Moments’ Series By Katie King  A How-To Guide: Weaving Narrative Writing with The Great Books  What Is It?  These short, 5-minute reads are personal reflections and editorials from our staff and seminar leaders on some aspect of the books that they have been reading and discussing in seminars. As seminar leaders, they are [...]

Here at Online Great Books, we have a problem. Sometimes, people do not attend their seminar. They keep paying and they keep receiving their books, but they don’t show up for the weekly seminar. This is problematic. Not only because they aren’t getting full value for their membership, but because the other members of their seminar are not getting full value.

I fell asleep reading Herodotus last week. I awoke in his study in Halicarnassus. He’s wide-eyed, insistent, takes me by the hand, and leads me into his study. Once there, he gets me a cup of tea. I’m more of a coffee guy, but it’s good tea. Herodotus shows me to a seat in between two precarious piles of scrolls.

Resentment: The Power of the People By Ben McAllister  Every era has a defining anxiety. Today, we live in an era of technological anxiety. We ask ourselves questions like: What are smartphones doing to us? Is social media making us miserable? Will automation lead to mass unemployment? We’ve been asking these kinds of questions since [...]

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Rereading By Alex Fader “In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away. …You have a much better chance of understanding [the Great Book] on a second reading, [...]

An Invitation to Narrative By Steven Roberts  Steven Roberts has been a member of Online Great Books for a little under a year now. Steven graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a degree in Classical Piano Performance and is attending St. Vladimir’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York starting this August. Living on Long Island, he [...]

Books as Friends?

There’s a definite logic to the old saying that we can be measured by the company we keep. One thing that makes us feel good and even a little proud about reading Great Books is that we are keeping great company.  Of course, there’s a downside of the maxim: when we compare ourselves to the Great Thinkers, they can make us feel like zhlubs. Still, we enjoy “standing on the shoulders of giants”.”

Euripides’ Medea: Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil (Spoiler Alert!) By Karl Schudt, Seminar Host  I hate Medea. It’s so good. I hate reading that play. If you haven’t read it, you should stop reading right now.     Ok. If you are still here, I need not worry about ruining the play for you. Medea kills [...]