Category: Great Ideas
We’re excited that you’ve joined the conversation! At HMU, we want to continue the great authors’ conversations in a contemporary context, and this blog will help us do that. We look back to Aristotle and the early philosophers who used reason and discourse to gain wisdom and now we endeavor to do the same every day.
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November 24, 2023 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. Each fall, Great Books San Francisco hosts a Poetry Weekend. And if there’s one thing that I’m grateful for in this world, it’s poetry. I love to attend this event because of its hybrid nature. The first day is filled with reading and …
November 17, 2023 Thanks to Chad Greene, a 2023 Fellowship in Ideas recipient, for today’s blog. Of the classes I teach at my community college, the closest to a Great Books class is a course called “Masterpieces of World Literature” that the English department offers every fall. In this class I ask students to …
Classics and Comics: Ancient Content – and Advice – in a Modern Form Read More »
October 6, 2023 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. I recently attended a conference in which the speaker mentioned that, despite all of humanity’s vast resources, there has been no visible or recognizable increase in human wisdom. The speaker desired proof of some growth in wisdom which would demonstrate that, over time, …
May 27, 2022 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. In order to continue with my investigations of Artificial Intelligence (AI), I am looking into historical understandings of the mind. Mind is also one of the great ideas, so obviously there has been a lot of research, discussion, and theorizing about what it …
May 13, 2022 Thanks to 2022 Fellow in Ideas, David Yamada, for today’s post. Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz As the humanities and social sciences face core threats fueled by higher education budget cuts and political divisions, they are conventionally defended on vocational and practical grounds. The …
April 29, 2022 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. Humans try to make sense of things. Is this a noble or foolhardy pursuit? In her book, In June the Labyrinth, poet Cynthia Hogue writes, “the labyrinth is not a maze but a singular way/ to strike ‘the profoundest chord’/ across aspire” (in …
March 11, 2022 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. Last week marked the end of HMU’s Winter Film Series. I cannot express how much I love this series. If you were unable to join us, never fear, we will host another film series next winter. In the meantime, the following thoughts resulted …
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Film Discussion Read More »
June 11, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. When looking through the Syntopicon under “F,” I find Family, Fate, and Form. Yet, the more I think about it, I want to find Forgiveness. Merriam-Webster defines “forgive” as: to cease to feel resentment against; to give up resentment or requital; to grant …
April 23, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. The universal nature of our coursework at Harrison Middleton University is part of its appeal. Sometimes aligning two things that seem very distinct can actually illustrate interesting connections. This was the case with the readings for our most recent public discussion, the April …
March 5, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. The Great Books Foundation recently hosted a virtual Great Books Chicago (in place of the usual in-person Great Books Chicago). Beauty was the topic of discussion. I gained wonderful perspectives from the weekend and so, today’s blog attempts to address a number of …
