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Mar 15, 2023

Is a Great Books Education for Everyone?


Hibbs

Thomas Hibbs

​Thomas Hibbs is currently J. Newton Rayzor Sr. Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, where he is also dean emeritus.

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Ubaydullah Evans

Ubaydullah Evans

Guest Host

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Is a Great Books Education for Everyone?

Philosopher Thomas Hibbs and host Ubaydullah Evans explore one of the most repeated objections to the universal benefits of a liberal arts education.

“One thing that is true of [the Great Books] list is that you cannot… think that it is a unified, monolithic view of the truth. Hobbes and Machiavelli disagree vehemently with Plato, right? There's some continuity there, but Aquinas does not agree with David Hume, who is an atheist. So, at a minimum, an honest reading of that tradition is an introduction not to a monolithic unified conception of what the truth is, but to a series of important debates.”

—Thomas Hibbs

Recommended

“The Egalitarian Objection to Liberal Education,” Thomas Hibbs, Renovatio

Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, Danielle Allen (Liveright, 2015)

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