The Ralston College Podcast

Mari Otsu joins Stephen Blackwood for a deeply personal conversation about her journey through the wounds of materialism, ideology, and spiritual forgetting, and her return to the soul through the beauty of the humanities. Reflecting on her years at NYU and the Grand Central Atelier, Mari speaks of a longing that nothing in the modern, politicized worldview could satisfy, and how she found healing in therapy, classical painting, and, most profoundly, the living philosophical community of Ralston College. Engaging with the works of Plotinus, Boethius, and Dante, she discovered a path of purification and ascent that restored her sense of meaning and inspired her to share these treasures with others. This conversation explores the roots of today’s meaning crisis and the redemptive power of beauty, thought, and imagination to heal the soul. Subscribe to receive the latest Ralston College updates at www.ralston.ac/sign-up. Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Plotinus’ Enneads Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy Augustine’s Confessions Plato Dante’s Divine Comedy Monique Wittig’s The Straight Mind Chapters 00:00 - Introduction 01:29 - Conversation Begins 02:18 - About Mari 6:00 - Βrief Review of Mari’s time at Ralston 8:00 - Mari’s Descent into Anguish and Fragmentation 15:20 - The Ideological Component: NYU 23:30 - Leaving Blame Behind 27:20 - Fear as a Symptom of a Spiritual Pathology 29:00 - The Role of Therapy and Right Relationship 34:00 - The Power of Art 44:16 - Moving from Beauty to Contemplation 46:51 - Beginning at Ralston 1:00:00 - Plotinus Moving Beyond Beauty 1:08:00 - Wrapping It All Up 01:11:01 - Exit Music and Fade  

Ralston College presents a lecture by Dr Jason Pedicone, distinguished scholar and classicist and the co-founder and President of the Paideia Institute. In this rich and compelling address, Dr Pedicone introduces the subject of philology - the study of language in its historical context - before embarking on a historical tour of philological interventions – times when people have decided to pay particularly close attention to language for societal, historical or technological reasons. Our tour takes us from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds of Plato and Pisistratus through Charlemagne, Valla, Erasmus, Nietzsche and up to the present day and the inexorable rise of AI. For the latest Ralston College updates visit: www.ralston.ac/sign-up.   Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: C.S Lewis Plato Suetonius Pisistratus Homer - The Iliad; The Odyssey Aristophanes of Byzantium Aristarchus of Samothrace Callimachus of Cyrene Quintus Ennius Livius Andronicus St. Boniface Jerome Charlemagne Alcuin of York Boniface Lorenzo Valla Desiderius Erasmus - Novum Instrumentum Omne Nietzsche - The Birth of Tragedy Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff - Philology of the Future Friedrich August Wolf - Prolegomena ad Homerum Derrida Plato - The Phaedrus Roland Barthes - The Death of the Author Wilhelm von Humboldt Heidegger - Being and Time Camus Shakespeare Marsilio Ficino Nick Bostrum - Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World Ray Kurzweil  

Ralston College presents a talk by Christopher Snook, Lecturer in the Department of Classics at Dalhousie University, on St. Augustine’s great autobiographical text The Confessions. This talk offers a detailed walk through of Books VII and VIII of Augustine’s text in light of Augustine’s “abiding preoccupation with the nature of the created order.”  Snook explores how Augustine absorbed the  insights of Platonist philosophers like Plotinus and Porphyry but also moved beyond them as he sought a more embodied account of the nature of the human person. Augustine’s own conversion stresses the importance of encountering models for life and reveals the centrality of the incarnate Logos to the Christian understandings of self-realization. This lecture was delivered on January 9th, 2025 at Ralston College’s Savannah campus during the third term of the MA in the Humanities program. Support Ralston College’s mission to revive the conditions of a free and flourishing culture. Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Dante, The Divine Comedy Cicero, Hortensius T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock St. Ambrose Plotinus Porphyry Gaius Marius Victorinus Plato, The Republic Virgil, The Aeneid  Iamblichus Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol St. Anthony the Great John Scotus Eriugena Anselm of Canterbury Martin Luther Rene Decartes  

Douglas Murray, revered cultural critic and author, delivers the highlight of Ralston College’s symposium of “Renewal and Renaissance,” a lecture exploring the theme of cultural reconstruction. Delivered from one of the beautiful, stately galleries of Savannah’s Telfair Academy, the audience is treated to an intimate address that is both deeply moving and inspiring of hope. Murray’s talk begins with the sober reflection that civilizations are mortal and share the fragility of life. He recounts how the loss of confidence experienced after the catastrophes of the World Wars led to the development of modernism, postmodernism and finally deconstructionism. The lecture then takes a more optimistic turn as Murray confidently asserts that after decades of deconstruction, especially in the field of higher education, we are now entering an era of reconstruction. He explains how this process of cultural renewal can come about through both the opportunities afforded by technology and the process of going back into the great literary treasures of the past, finding our place amongst these works and adding to them. Murray shares his love of books, describing himself as “not only a bibliophile but something of a bibliomaniac,” and expresses how literature, and especially poetry, can ground us in the world and make us feel that we are never alone for we will always have “friends on the shelves.” Traversing through Byron, Gnedich, Stoppard, Auden and Heaney, Murray recounts three powerful stories that reveal the lengths certain individuals will go to recover, preserve and transmit our cultural treasures. The talk was followed by a captivating Q&A session which ranged from the current status of poetry to the topics of writing, war and human nature. As part of the stirring introduction to the lecture from Stephen Blackwood, President of Ralston College, soprano Kristi Bryson performed Handel’s Lascia ch’io pianga, accompanied on the piano by Ralston alumna and fellow, Olivia Jensen. A splendid performance showcasing perfectly the ability of culture to transcend the difficulties of life through the power of beauty. A reminder for us all of exactly what it is that we are seeking to preserve and renew. Mr Murray's books, including his most recent, are available here: https://douglasmurray.net. To watch the first conversation of the day—the roundtable from the Ralston College Renewal and Renaissance Symposium, featuring multiple speakers discussing the future of education, culture, and human flourishing—click here.

In February 2025, Ralston College hosted a landmark symposium in Savannah, Georgia, bringing together leading thinkers, artists, educators, and students for a searching conversation about the renewal of our shared culture. Over the course of a wide-ranging roundtable, speakers explored the collapse of higher education, the need for sacred space, the conditions for reawakening beauty and truth, the integral importance of literature, music and architecture, and the crucial role of the young in rebuilding a meaningful culture that can inspire and endure. This conversation is not an academic exercise in abstraction. It is the practical work of preservation—of remembering what the world has forgotten, and of laying foundations for what must come next. The roster of speakers is as follows: Stephen Blackwood: Why we are on the verge of renaissance James Orr: Why America is ready for change David Butterfield: Why colleges are the institutions to build James Hankins: Why the Italian Renaissance emerged Joseph Conlon: Why learning languages is essential Gregg Hurwitz: Why literature must resonate outside academia Jonathan Pageau: Why renewal requires in-person, communal remembrance Samuel Andreyev: Why music needs to know its tradition to thrive Christian Sottile: Why we need beautiful architecture Mari Otsu: Why Ralston College was the place that changed my life Authors, Artists, and Works Mentioned in this Episode:  Sir Isaac Newton Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Friedrich Hölderlin’s Patmos Martin Heidegger John of Patmos, a figure traditionally identified with John the Apostle or John the Evangelist Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam The Cambridge Five Sir Niall Ferguson Saint Benedict of Nursia Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Charlemagne Alcuin of York Walter de Merton Gaius Marius Marcus Tullius Cicero Paradiso – the third and final part of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy Francesco Petrarca Cola di Rienzo Richard Wagner’s opera Rienzi Livy (Titus Livius) Homer Plato Plutarch “JD Vance States the Obvious About Ordo Amoris” – in First Things, by James Orr Pythagoras Plato’s dialogue Phaedrus Charles Dickens Alfred Hitchcock William Shakespeare Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BCE – 17 CE), known as Ovid Albert Camus – The Stranger James M. Cain – The Postman Always Rings Twice Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment Edgar Allan Poe Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray Michelangelo Buonarroti Pope Julius II The Bible Ezra Pound, quote from ABC of Reading (1934) Professor Jeffrey Eley Mark C. McDonald The Medici Family Gian Giorgio Trissino Andrea Palladio Otto Wagner The Black Paintings (Las Pinturas Negras) by Francisco Goya Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio Peter Paul Rubens  

“Why We Tell Stories” is a discussion between Greg Hurwitz & Jonathan Pageau which took place on January 31, 2025. In this exchange, two prominent professionals in creative fields discuss the place of passion, productivity, and integrity in the context of their careers, and offer insights which range from guiding, general principles to concrete, practical advice. Over the course of their discussion with each other and with the students, they field questions about the artistic process; about the public attention they’ve received for their work; about the lessons they’ve learned; and about their impression of Ralston College and its place in a broader context of cultural and educational renewal.  This event was part of Ralston College’s Career and Life conversations, a series of informal Friday-afternoon discussions for students enrolled in the MA in the Humanities. To apply to this program, please visit our website: www.ralston.ac/apply. Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Aristotle Dante Alighieri DC Comics’ Batman series The Book of Genesis Jordan B. Peterson Stephen King William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929) Rashomon (1950; dir. Akira Kurosawa) Marcel Duchamp, “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2” (1912)  Sigmund Freud Carl Rogers Jackson Pollock Pablo Picasso Lucile Ball Groucho Marx Sammy Davis Jr. James Patterson John Grisham  Dr James Orr Dr Douglas Hedley Douglas Murray Ben Shapiro William Shakespeare Dan Brown, The DaVinci Code Hamilton: An American Musical  Harry Potter series  William Goldman  

“The Enduring Consolation of Philosophy” is the keynote lecture delivered by Dr Stephen Blackwood at the 2024 Symposium of Medieval and Renaissance studies. In this talk, commemorating the 1500th anniversary of Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy, Dr Blackwood shows why this work is more relevant than ever. After takinging stock of the “meaning crisis” and our dire need for depth, Dr Blackwood meditates on the first great insight of the Consolation: that the remedies of the self must emerge from the self. The complex and intricate structures and patterns of Boethius’ work are powerful, beautiful, and therapeutic precisely because its harmonies reflect the reality of both the world and the world within. Both the order of the cosmos and the order of the self unfold, for the reader of the Consolation, by way of the book’s carefully calibrated pedagogical dimension. Its therapies for the soul consist of tenderness and tough love alike, because the sight, insight, and assent that it seeks to instill cannot be induced by any other means. Instead, the liberating power of consciousness to which this work so insistently points depends on the innate freedom that we all possess—the very freedom to which the example of Boethius endures, to this day, as a singular witness. Learn more at www.ralston.ac. Authors, Artists, and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy, H. F. Stewart & E. K. Rand, trans. (Loeb, 1918) Alfred the Great, King of the Anglo-Saxons Geoffrey Chaucer Dante Alighieri Saint Thomas Aquinas Sir Thomas More Queen Elizabeth I C. S. Lewis Pope Benedict XVI Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning Peter Abelard Plato, Timaeus Gospel of John Saint Augustine of Hippo Robert Crouse Aristotle  

In this intimate question and answer session, conducted in March 2024 with the students enrolled in Ralston College’s MA in the Humanities, the world-renowned psychiatrist, philosopher, and literary scholar Iain McGilchrist explores topics that animate the collective intellectual life of Ralston’s student body.  Answering questions that range from the metaphysical heights of theology, liturgy, and religious life to the tangible depths of scientific inquiry and medical progress, Dr McGhilchrist challenges his interlocutors to think deeper about the relationship between mind and matter, science and religion, and, ultimately, humanity and the divine.  Authors, Artists, and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Iain McGilchrist, The Matter with Things Albert Einstein Aristotle Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Meister Eckhart John Donne George Herbert Thomas Traherne Rumi Henry Moore Blaise Pascal St. Augustine William Shakespeare, King Lear; The Merchant of Venice; Hamlet; The Tempest Metrodorus of Lampsacus  Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling G.W.F. Hegel Alwyn Lishman St. Francis of Assisi  Plotinus Thomas Edison St. Gregory of Nyssa Carl Jung Glenn Gould  

In his final Sophia Lecture, “Finitude and the Infinite,” Dr Iain McGilchrist grapples with the vital role that the imagination plays in the perception of reality, and what this power can disclose about reality itself. He shows that imagination has the capacity to make contact with an illimitable, irreducible, and inexhaustible world, one that presents itself to us under the aspects of finitude and infinitude. Beginning with the English Romantic poets, McGilchrist shows how these artists resisted the habits of perception that can be associated with the brain’s left hemisphere. This part of the brain is adept at rendering, representing, and modeling, but it does so at the cost of simplifying whatever it constructs. Poets like Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, and Blake strove to remove the film of familiarity from their vision. For them, imagination was the power that made intuitive connections and integrative “leaps,” giving access to a richer, unbounded reality not subject to the strictures of reductive categories. In dialogue with physicists, philosophers, and mathematicians, McGilchrist ultimately shows how the vision of the world offered by the Romantic poets lays claim to the infinite and the eternal. For these artists, eternity is “adverbial”: it is a way of being, a manner, and a modality. McGilchrist convincingly shows us that we, too, can decline to see the world through categories that are measurable, predictable, and countable—but finally lifeless; like the poets whom he takes as his main interlocutors in this lecture, we can, instead, open ourselves to reality’s boundless, vital, and infinite character. Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: William Wordsworth - Preface to the Lyrical Ballads Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Biographia Literaria Percy Bysshe Shelley - A Defence of Poetry Max Scheler William Blake Richard Feynman James A. Shapiro Denis Diderot Barbara McClintock William James Albert Einstein Leonhard Euler William Wilson Morgan Richard Feynman The Ancient of Days (William Blake, 1794, watercolor etching) Nicholas of Cusa - De Docta Ignorantia Jason Padgett Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Galileo Galilei David Hilbert Henri Bergson Richard Wagner Isaac Luria - Lurianic Kabbalah Edward Nelson Alfred North Whitehead Eugène Minkowski Heraclitus Jordan Peterson Zeno of Elea John Milton John Keats Jorge Luis Borges Martin Heidegger Tao-te Ching William Blake - “The Tyger” Emily Dickinson Marianne Moore Robert Browning - “Two in the Campagna” Bhagavad Gita Peter Cook John Polkinghorne Mary Midgley René Descartes Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling J. B. S. Haldane Lee Smolin Eugene Koonin Hildegard of Bingen - The Choirs of Angels Christ Pantocrator and Signs of the Zodiac C. S. Lewis Johannes Kepler Jesus

In his second Sophia Lecture, Dr Iain McGilchrist gives a bracing, counterintuitive account of the fundamental categories of our experience of the world. McGilchrist shows how fundamental binaries—such as stasis and motion, simplicity and complexity, order and randomness, and even straight lines and curves—do not occur in nature in ways that conform to our assumptions about an inert, independent, and predictable universe. Drawing from disciplines as disparate as physics, mathematics, biology and art, McGilchrist shows that asymmetry is not simply a principle of vitality, harmony, and beauty. McGilchrist argues that asymmetry is primary, a reality that is prior to symmetry and which forms the basis of the very symmetries in nature and the arts to which it gives rise. The dynamism which results from the drive to balance and to resist balance is at the root of the vigor of natural systems, the beauty that they embody, and which the arts then reflect. With examples ranging from the elegance of the golden ratio to the structure of the human brain, McGilchrist’s lecture offers a fresh perspective on the nature of patterns in complex systems and human creations. His work invites us to search for wholeness, harmony, and connection from a set of starting points which are as surprising as they are fruitful; as always, he challenges us to see our world in new—and newly unified—ways. Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Johann Sebastian Bach John Donne - “Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth’s imagin’d corners” Gerard Manley Hopkins - “Carrion Comfort” Werner Heisenberg - Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations with Einstein, Planck, Dirac, Bohr, and Other Physicists of Our Time Alexander Pope - “The Rape of the Lock” Iain McGilchrist - The Master and his Emissary Pierre Curie Chien-Shiung Wu Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder Aesop Heraclitus Democritus Leonardo da Vinci Louis Pasteur Rong Li & Bruce Bowerman - “Symmetry breaking in biology” Arthur Koestler Aristotle Oliver Sacks Thomas Holstein Tim Crow Onur Güntürkün Jane Clark & Daniel Simons (Christopher Chabris) - Gorillas in Our Midst Jonathan Rowson Alastair McIntosh Richard Dawkins Nikolaj Nikolaenko Luciano Laurana Giorgio Martini - Ideal City Raphael - The School of Athens Andrea Palladio William Blake - “The Tyger” Theodosius II Christ Pantocrator Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel John P. McGovern William Osler William Alwyn Lishman William Shakespeare - King Lear John Cleese Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Sir Roger Scruton

This lecture, like the very essence of Ralston College’s mission, explores the profound interplay between division and union—a relationship that illuminates the nature of wholeness itself.  Dr Iain McGilchrist delves into the insight that the whole is far more than the sum of its parts; it is a dynamic synthesis, a living interplay that transcends reductionism. Drawing on analogies from music, nature, and the human brain, McGilchrist reveals the delicate harmony between separation and connection, a truth exemplified most vividly in the brain’s two hemispheres. Here, division and union are not adversaries but partners, each essential to the vitality of the other, enabling the brain to function as a unified and life-giving organ of thought and perception. Such a model reflects the very spirit of Ralston College’s aim to unify what modernity has fractured—the intellectual and the spiritual, the individual and the communal, the ancient and the urgent. The lecture also engages with the concept of emergence, a phenomenon where systems reveal qualities and capacities far beyond what their components alone could predict. Ultimately, McGilchrist’s argument aligns with the vision of this College: that division and union are not contradictory but complementary forces, driving the renewal of meaning and vitality. It is through this synthesis, through holding the tension between opposites, that true wholeness and innovation emerge—a principle as foundational to the functioning of the human brain as it is to the regeneration of our civilization. Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Pythagoras: 00:09:02:20 Heraclitus: 00:21:34:04 Goethe: 00:23:14:21 Whitehead: 00:24:36:18 Robert Rosen: 00:27:08:02 Rowan Williams: 00:28:44:05 Vesalius: 00:29:37:01 Camillo Golgi: 00:35:14:22 Santiago Ramon y Cajal: 00:35:47:05

A conversation between Dr Iain McGilchrist, neuropsychiatrist, philosopher, and literary critic, and Dr Stephen Blackwood, President of Ralston College, on the occasion of Dr McGilchrist’s March 2024 visit to Savannah to deliver Ralston College’s annual Sophia Lectures. Dr McGilchrist discusses his experience spending time with Ralston College students, his reasons for accepting the College’s invitation to deliver the Sophia lectures, and the necessity of leisure for deep thought. Applications for Ralston College’s MA in the Humanities program are now open.  Apply now.    

The second part of a conversation between the renowned literary scholar and psychiatrist Dr Iain McGilchrist and Ralston College president Dr Stephen Blackwood about Dr McGilchrist’s remarkable educational trajectory. In this episode, Dr Iain McGilchrist explains how he left his successful career as a literary scholar to pursue training as a psychiatrist and how his combined study of literature, philosophy, and neuroscience informed his later academic work, including his books The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (Yale University Press, 2009) and The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World (Perspectiva, 2021). List of people referenced in this episode: Ted Hughes William Wordsworth Samuel Johnson John Boswell Laurence Sterne William Shakespeare Oliver Sacks John Cutting Louis Sass Jan Zwicky Robert Bringhurst Erwin Schrödinger Martin Heidegger Max Planck Niels Bohr Michael Levin

A conversation between Dr Iain McGilchrist, the renowned polymath, and Dr Stephen Blackwood, President of Ralston College, about Dr McGilchrist’s formative experiences at Winchester College, the prestigious British public school, and his subsequent training as a literary critic at Oxford University and his appointment as a Fellow at All Souls. Drs McGilchrist and Blackwood emphasize the vital role of freedom, friendship, and the expectation of excellence in providing students with an authentic education. This conversation was recorded during Dr McGilchrist’s visit to Ralston College in March 2024 to deliver The Sophia lectures for the 2023-24 academic year. List of People Mentioned in the Episode:  Cicero George Herbert John Donne John Clare Guido d’Arezzo Alexander Pope Freeman Dyson Gerard Manley Hopkins Friedrich Schelling G.W.F. Hegel John Bayley  Christopher Tolkien John Milton Edmund Spenser  William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge  Georg Chritoph Lichtenberg Derek Parfit Thomas Hardy Oliver Sacks Roger Scruton   

Ralston College presents a talk by Christopher Snook, Lecturer in the Department of Classics at Dalhousie University, on the influence of Dante’s Purgatorio on two of T.S. Eliot’s most important works: The Waste Land and Four Quartets. Mr Snook attends, in particular, to how Eliot’s treatment of fragments represents at once both a departure from and a return to medieval understandings of the whole. This medieval understanding is evidenced in the “manifold articulation” of particulars within the architecture of the Gothic cathedral, the literary shape of the Divine Comedy, and the logical structure of the Summa Theologicae. Mr Snook’s lecture was given in the final term of the 2023-24 year of Ralston College’s MA in Humanities program, which focused on the concept of the Whole.    Applications are now open for the upcoming year of the MA in the Humanities program, which will focus on the theme of Fellowship. Apply now.    Authors, Artists, and Works Mentioned in this Episode:    Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologicae René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Charles Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life”  T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men” T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot Dante, The Divine Comedy  T. S. Eliot, The Family Reunion Ezra Pound William Shakespeare, Macbeth John Donne, “No Man is an Island”  Charles Baudelaire, “À une passante” William Shakespeare, The Tempest  George Herbert  Nicene Creed  Augustine, Confessions  Charles Williams Filippo Tommaso Marinetti  Franz Kafka, “Before the Law” (from The Trial)  Freidrich Schlegel  Pascal, Pensées  Michel de Montaigne  Plato, Republic   

Ralston College presents a talk by Christopher Snook, Lecturer in the Department of Classics at Dalhousie University, on T.S. Eliot’s modernist masterpiece The Waste Land. The lecture explores the personal, historical, and literary contexts of Eliot’s poem. Through an engagement with the Western tradition that is simultaneously rich and fragmented, The Waste Land confronts cultural and personal crises that have atrophied both memory and desire. Snook finds in Eliot’s work a mournful modernism that serves as a serious and searching rejoinder to the more frivolous and enervated responses present in some modernist schools, most notably Dadaism. This lecture was delivered on April 15th, 2024 at Ralston College’s Savannah campus, during the final term of the second year of the MA in the Humanities Program. Applications are now open for next year’s MA program. Full scholarships are available. https://www.ralston.ac/apply Mentioned in this episdoe:  T. S. Eliot “The Waste Land”The DialKathleen RaineVirgil, AeneidEliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”Eliot, “Tradition and Individual Talent”Eliot, The Family Reunion Henri BergsonBertrand Russell Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s RoomLeonard WoolfEzra PoundJames Joyce, Ulysses Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Oswald Spengler, Decline and Fall of the West Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past Claude McCay, Harlem Shadows August Strindberg Neo-impressionism Cubism Dadaism Surrealism Futurism Taxi Driver (film) Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, War, the World’s Only Hygiene Hugo Ball, Dada Manifesto “That Shakespearian Rag” William Shakespeare, Hamlet World War I Henry James F. H. Varley Punic Wars Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy The Tempest Modernism Collage Pablo Picasso Georges BraqueMarcel Duchamp, Nude Descending Staircase; Fountain Montage F. H. BradleyHegel, Phenomenology of Spirit Plato The Matter of Britain Jessie Weston James Frazer Richard Wagner, Parsifal Augustine, Confessions Charles Dickens, Hard Times Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Eliot, “The Hollow Men” Tower of Babel Petronius, The Satyricon Michelangelo, frescoes of Sistine Chapel Virgil, Eclogues Ovid, Metamorphoses Franz Kafka Chaucer, Canterbury Tales Thomas Middleton, Women Beware Women; A Game at Chess Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra Charles Baudelaire, “Au Lecteur” Fredrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals

A conversation between Dr Jay Parini, a prolific author and the D.E. Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College, and Dr Stephen Blackwood, the founding president of Ralston College, recorded on the occasion of the release of a Ralston College short course, “Robert Frost: The American Voice,” taught by Dr Parini. Dr Parini discusses the film adaptation of his most recent book Borges and Me (2020), shares stories of his friendships with literary figures including Jorge Luis Borges, W. H. Auden, and Iris Murdoch, explains why poetry matters, and shares the fruits of a life “lived in literature.” Applications are now open for next year’s MA program. Full scholarships are available. https://www.ralston.ac/apply Authors, Artists, and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Jay Parini, Borges and Me Alan Cumming Jorge Luis BorgesBeowulf Robert Burns Isaiah Berlin Homer Aeschylus Dante Michel de Montaigne William Wordsworth W. B. Yeats Brian Friel, Dancing at Lughnasa Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Iris Murdoch, The Bell W.H. Auden Boethius Jay Parini, Robert Frost: A Life Robert Frost, “Fire and Ice” Jay Parini, Robert Frost: 16 Poems to Learn by Heart Robert Frost, “The Road Less Traveled” Robert Frost, “After Apple-Picking” Robert Frost, “Birches” Robert Frost, “Directive” Robert Frost, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” Gerard Manley Hopkins Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Ralston College Humanities MA   Dr Paul Epstein is a distinguished classicist and Professor Emeritus of Classics at Oklahoma State University, renowned for his extensive knowledge of Greek and Latin literature.  In this lecture and discussion—delivered in Savannah during the x term of the inaugural year of Ralston College’s MA in the Humanities program—classicist Dr Paul Epstein considers how Sophocles’s tragedy Women of Trachis and Aristophanes’s comedy Frogs arise from—and reflect upon—the polis-centered polytheism of ancient Greece as it appeared during the Athenian flourishing of the fifth century BC. Professor Epstein explores how these Greek dramas articulate the relationship between human beings, the gods, and the community. Tragedy, in Professor Epstein’s account, is about the overall structure of the community, while comedy starts with the individual’s exploration of that community. Yet both forms ultimately reveal an understanding of the individual that is inseparable from the polis in which he or she lives. Professor Epstein argues that our contemporary notion of the self as an entity fundamentally separate from context would be entirely alien to the ancient Greeks. Grasping this ancient understanding of the individual is vitally necessary if we are to correctly interpret the literary and philosophical texts of Hellenic antiquity. *In this lecture and discussion, classicist Dr. Paul Epstein considers how Sophocles’s tragedy Women of Trachis and Aristophanes’s comedy Frogs arise from—and reflect upon—the polis-centered polytheism of ancient Greece during the Athenian flourishing of the fifth century BC. Professor Epstein explores how these Greek dramas articulate the relationship between human beings, the gods, and the community. Tragedy, in Professor Epstein’s account, is about the overall structure of the community, while comedy starts with the individual’s exploration of that community. Yet both forms ultimately reveal an understanding of the individual that is inseparable from the polis in which he or she lives. Professor Epstein argues that our contemporary notion of the self as an entity fundamentally separate from context would be entirely alien to the ancient Greeks. Grasping this ancient understanding of the individual is vitally necessary if we are to correctly interpret the literary and philosophical texts of Hellenic antiquity.   —   0:00 Introduction of Professor Epstein by President Blackwood 6:25 The Polytheistic World of the Polis 01:09:35 Dialogue with Students on Polytheism and the Polis 01:22:40 Sophocles’s Women of Trachis 01:44:10 Dialogue with Students About Women of Trachis 01:56:10 Introduction to Aristophanes' Frogs 02:24:40 Dialogue with Students About Frogs  02:49:45 Closing Remarks for Professor Epstein's Lecture   —   Authors, Ideas, and Works Mentioned in This Episode:    Athenian flourishing of the fifth century BC  Sophocles, Women of Trachis  Aristophanes, Frogs William Shakespeare Plato, Symposium Aristophanes, Lysistrata Homer, Odyssey  Aristotle, Poetics Peloponnesian War   Plato, Apology nomizó (νομίζω)—translated in the talk as “acknowledge” nous (νοῦς) binein (Βινέω)  Johann Joachim Winkelman  Nicene Creed  Titanic v. Olympian gods  Hesiod  Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility  Sigmund Freud  Existentialism  techne (τέχνη) logos (λόγος) eros (Ἔρως)  hubris (ὕβρις) Philip Larkin, “Annus Mirabilis”  Athansian Creed psuche (ψυχή)—translated in the talk as “soul” thelo (θέλω)—translated in the talk as “wishes”  Aristophanes, Clouds mimesis (μίμησις)  —   Additional Resources    Dr Stephen Blackwood    Ralston College (including newsletter)   Support a New Beginning    —   Thank you for listening!  

Ralston College Humanities MA Dr John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist and philosopher who explores the intersections of Neoplatonism, cognitive science, and the meaning crisis, focusing on wisdom practices, relevance realization, and personal transformation. Ralston College presents a lecture titled “Levels of Intelligibility, Levels of the Self: Realizing the Dialectic,” delivered by Dr John Vervaeke, an award-winning associate professor of cognitive science at the University of Toronto and creator of the acclaimed 50-episode “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis” series. In this lecture, Dr Vervaeke identifies our cultural moment as one of profound disconnection and resulting meaninglessness. Drawing on his own cutting-edge research as a cognitive scientist and philosopher, Vervaeke presents a way out of the meaning crisis through what he terms “third-wave Neoplatonism.” He reveals how this Neoplatonic framework, drawn in part from Plato’s conception of the tripartite human soul, corresponds to the modern understanding of human cognition and, ultimately, to the levels of reality itself. He argues that a synoptic integration across these levels is not only possible but imperative.   — 00:00 Levels of Intelligibility: Integrating Neoplatonism and Cognitive Science 12:50 Stage One: Neoplatonic Psycho-ontology and the Path to Spirituality 41:02 Aristotelian Science: Knowing as Conformity and Transformation 46:36 Stoic Tradition: Agency, Identity, and the Flow of Nature 01:00:10 Stage Two: Cognitive Science and the Integration of Self and Reality 01:04:45 The Frame Problem and Relevance Realization  01:08:45 Relevance Realization and the Power of Human Cognition 01:20:15 Transjective Reality: Affordances and Participatory Fittedness 01:23:55 The Role of Relevance Realization: Self-Organizing Processes 01:31:30 Predictive Processing and Adaptivity 01:44:35 Critiquing Kant: The Case for Participatory Realism 01:53:35 Stage Three: Neoplatonism and the Meaning Crisis  02:00:15 Q&A Session 02:01:45 Q: What is the Ecology of Practices for Cultivating Wisdom? 02:11:50 Q: How Has the Cultural Curriculum Evolved Over Time? 02:26:30 Q: Does the World Have Infinite Intelligibility? 02:33:50 Q: Most Meaningful Visual Art? 02:34:15 Q: Social Media's Impact on Mental Health and Information? 02:39:45 Q: What is Transjective Reality? 02:46:35 Q: How Can Education Address the Meaning Crisis? 02:51:50 Q: Advice for Building a College Community? 02:55:30 Closing Remarks   — Authors, Ideas, and Works Mentioned in this Episode:    Antisthenes Aristotle Brett Anderson Byung-Chul Han Charles Darwin Daniel Dennett D. C. Schindler Friedrich Nietzsche Galileo Galilei Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Heraclitus Henry Corbin Immanuel Kant Iris Murdoch Isaac Newton Igor Grossmann Johannes Kepler John Locke John Searle John Spencer Karl Friston Karl Marx Mark Miller  Maurice Merleau-Ponty Nelson Goodman Paul Ricoeur Pierre Hadot Plato Pythagoras Rainer Maria Rilke René Descartes Sigmund Freud W. Norris Clarke anagoge (ἀναγωγή) Distributed cognition eidos (εἶδος) eros (ἔρως) Evan Thompson’s deep continuity hypothesis Generative grammar logos (λόγος) Sensorimotor loop Stoicism thymos (θυμός) Bayes' theorem Wason Selection Task The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber The Ennead by Plotinus Explorations in Metaphysics by W. Norris Clarke Religion and Nothingness by Keiji Nishitani The Eternal Law: Ancient Greek Philosophy, Modern Physics, and Ultimate Reality by John Spencer   — Additional Resources  John Vervaeke https://www.youtube.com/@johnvervaeke  Dr Stephen Blackwood  Ralston College (including newsletter) Support a New Beginning  — Thank you for listening!

Ralston College Humanities MA   Dr David Novak is a distinguished professor at the University of Toronto, renowned theologian, and esteemed rabbi. He has authored numerous books, delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures, and bridges ancient philosophical traditions with modern ethical issues.   Recorded live at Ralston College in Savannah, GA in November of 2022. Dr David Novak—Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto—offers a lecture on the Book of Job followed by an extended question and answer session with students enrolled in Ralston College’s Master’s in the Humanities Program. In his lecture, Dr Novak explores the complex position of Job in the canon of Jewish scriptures, surveys diverse scholarly accounts of the concluding passages of the book, and offers his own interpretation of Job’s “face-to-face” interaction with God, one that emphasizes direct knowledge over abstract understanding and finds in the book’s conclusion a vision of the resurrection of the body.    —   00:00 Introduction 08:20 Dr. David Novak’s Lecture on the Book of Job  53:25:00 Question and Answer Session with Ralston College Students and Dr. Novak  54:45 Question: Does Job’s Vision Occur Before or After Death? 59:40 Question: Why are Job’s Friends Punished for Their Conceptual Understanding? 01:03:00 Question: How Does This Align With the Belief That No One Can See God and Live? 01:09:05 Question: What is the Purpose of the Dialogues Between Job and His Friends? 01:13:05 Question: Did Job’s Friends Hear God’s Voice During the Appearance? 01:14:55 Question: What is the Significance of God Doubling Job’s Possessions? 01:15:30 Question: Is There a Visual Aspect to God’s Response to Job, or Is It Only Auditory? 01:15:30 Question: What Does it Mean for God to Make a Bet with the Adversary? 01:19:10 Question: Is Job’s Refusal to Curse God a Prerequisite for His Later Vision? 01:25:15 Question: What Do You Make of the Relationship Between Satan and God? 01:29:05 Did God Use Job to Prove a Point to Satan, Knowing the Outcome? 01:31:20 Question: Can Man Question God and Express Grievances? 01:35:40 Question: Does Elihu Suggest People Perceive God Through Suffering and Visions? 1:41:30 Question: How Has Your Belief in Providence Impacted Your Life? 01:44:45 Closing Remarks —   Authors, Ideas, and Works Mentioned in this Episode:    The Book of Job The Book of Ezekiel The Book of Leviticus  The Book of Esther The Book of Ecclesiastes Robert Gordis, The Book of God and Man: A Study of Job  mashal (משל)—Hebrew, “parable” Katagoros (Hebrew—קָטִיגור; Greek—κατήγορος)—”accuser”  Fredrich Nietzsche Johann von Rist, “O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid”  G.W.F. Hegel Richard Rorty Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man  Leo Strauss  Plato, Republic  Yehuda Haleri  Aristotle Thomas Aquinas The Book of Isaiah  via negativa  John Rawls Eric Gregory  Chaim ibn Attar Tzimtzum (צמצום)    —   Additional Resources    David Novak    Dr Stephen Blackwood    Ralston College (including newsletter)   Support a New Beginning    —   Thank you for listening!