Category: Justice
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 3, 2023 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. The October Quarterly Discussion merged two chapters from The Prince by Machiavelli with a chapter from Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Of prime interest was the focus on the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus. Machiavelli presents him as a champion of …
September 8, 2023 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. If it’s been awhile since you have read Machiavelli’s The Prince, you might consider reading an excerpt with us this fall. We will examine two chapters of it in the October Quarterly Discussion. (Reach out to Alissa at as****@hm*.edu for more information). I …
February 18, 2022 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. In Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 film Rashomon few facts can be established. As with most murder mysteries, the viewer sees a tangled web of evidence unfold before them. Unlike most murder mysteries, the audience begins to assume the role of judge and jury. Though …
January 28, 2022 Thanks to Rebecca L. Thacker, a 2021 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post. As we enter the new year, as per usual the media is filled with “year-in-review” articles and listicles: the year’s best books, tv, movies, and music, the top ten highlights of 2021, those we’ve lost in 2021. The …
August 13, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. “Witchery works to scare people, to make them fear growth. But it [growth] has always been necessary, and more than ever now, it is. Otherwise we won’t make it. We won’t survive. That’s what the witchery is counting on: that we will cling …
July 30, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. In the History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides spends a few pages describing a conflict between the island of Melos and the Athenian superpower. After the unsuccessful attempt at diplomacy, the Athenians surround the island. The story ends with the Athenians annihilating the …
July 23, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. Harrison Middleton University’s July Quarterly Discussion revolved around ideas of justice. We focused on two pieces of literature, one excerpt from Thucydides and the other a letter written by Simón Bolívar. Both pieces introduce ideas of justice which deserve a second look in …
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 …
April 9, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. Today’s post is a brief look at translation and word choice in Thucydides. Both small sections from The History of the Peloponnesian War, Book IV, Chapter XII, furnish a glimpse of the author’s opinion. Though Thucydides set out to write a history of …
February 7, 2020 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. “If this war is to be forgotten, I ask in the name of all/ things sacred what shall men remember?” ~ Frederick Douglass Since Natasha Trethewey chose this quote to introduce her poem “Native Guard,” I also begin with it. As the centerpiece …
