Our Mission at Online Great Books
By Karl Schudt, Seminar Host
At Online Great Books, we are on a mission. We believe that:
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All people need to be strong. Strong of mind and body.
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Becoming strong in any way requires dedicated, sustained work.
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The gradual work of building strength requires resistance. At Online Great Books, that resistance comes in the form of the Great Books of the Western tradition.
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Like in physical training, when educating ourselves, we all start wherever we currently are and improve our performance little by little. We are all sufficient for the work required of self-betterment.
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Our minds and the books are all we need to increase our understanding of the world. The only prerequisite for the Great Books is the choice to take on the challenge of reading the texts that, in either their acceptance or rejection, gave us the ideas that shaped the world we live in today and that will shape the world in the future.
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Our goal isn’t PERFECT understanding. Our goal is to move from a state of less understanding to one of more understanding.
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When we start at the beginning, with Homer, the ideas and stories scaffold on each other. Following intellectual linear progression makes increasing understanding easier.
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Close reading, increased understanding, and continually growing reading comprehension are all best obtained in Seminar. In discussing the books and ideas with others, we take action on what we read. When we take action on what we have read, we begin to be changed by it.
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Reading and discussing the Great Books with like-minded folk is FUN.