(by 3 people)
Acquire A Renaissance Education.
Educational endeavors, as all social activities, move from extreme to extreme like a pendulum. At the start of the renaissance there was need to redevelop appreciation of science and math after the excesses of allegorical thought within the preceding Middle Ages.
We are now at the opposite end of the pendulum's swing. There is no need to stress math and science - they are over emphasized by every bureaucratic educator. What has been lost, and sometimes even vilified, is a natural desire to understand "why."
Therefore our Renaissance education includes deep study of classical books and achievements while retaining appropriate appreciation for science and math. Like renaissance students we will study classical style literature to build a foundation for understanding the new era that rises before us.
This study is possible for everyone willing to put in effort while seeking the rewards of knowledge and understanding.
Contents at a Glance
- How do I start a Renaissance style study program?
- Renaissance educators enthusiastically embraced classical achievements.
- Discovering Renaissance Education
How do I start a Renaissance style study program?
This will not be like reading novels or magazines, although once you are done you will be better at that also.
Coerced learning in approved institutions requires a different approach than Renaissance learning. Each approach is appropriate to its learning goals. Renaissance education is like enjoying a fine meal.
When eating a double bacon cheese burger at a beach side stand it is appropriate to gulp it down with a fresh lemonade and hurry on with life. But if you are lingering over fine cuisine with a cherished friend; savoring the complexly flavored taste of each course, every sip of wine, and enjoying intimate conversation is important to the experience.
Life will still be waiting when you are finished, but you will have fully lived in the present.
To prepare for the emerging Netcohort age you need to make yourself more valuable. For many this will be a post literature age as multimedia and video instruct. To be valuable -- be one of the few that understand deeper, finer things.
"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different." - Coco Channel
Starting with one of these books on how to read a book will help ensure your depth of understanding.
The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had
Amazon Price: $18.45 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $27.95
The Improvement of the Mind: To which is Added a Discourse on the Education of Children and Youth
Amazon Price: $17.99 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $17.99
How to Read a Book (A Touchstone Book)
Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $16.00
Renaissance educators enthusiastically embraced classical achievements.
Classic literature is the foundational basis for renaissance style learning.
It will take effort to gain understanding from literature of the style used during the Renaissance for education. "The desire to know is natural to good men." - Leonardo da Vinci
Like all reading, studying the classics brings pleasures, but in a most enduring form. For a renaissance education the following is a suggested process:
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin"
Discovering Renaissance Education
Renaissance education is best accomplished by self education while interacting with friends and mentors of your choice.
"Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them." - Baruch Spinoza
Lets start with some ancient, classical texts and move forward chronologically.
The oldest classical literature will be an assumed knowledge as you approach renaissance literature.
The authors of these books viewed their world differently than we view ours. As a consequence they were blind to other factors than we are. Each book becomes a chance to compare and contrast; and perhaps learn where we may be wrong.
These books are serious reading - expect to read each book a couple of times, slowly. Write in the margins and underline, take notes, and talk about them with friends. Add insights gained and representative quotes to your journal, blog, or Squidoo lenses.
The classical and renaissance wisdom you gain will remain with you your entire life.
The Republic (Penguin Classics)
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Amazon Price: $8.00 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $10.00
Plutarch's Lives Volume 1 (Modern Library Classics)
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Amazon Price: $11.16 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $13.95
St. Augustine Confessions (Oxford World's Classics)
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Amazon Price: $7.95 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $7.95
Two Treatises of Government
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Amazon Price: $11.69 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $12.99
Why Self Educate?
Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.
Plato
Have any inspirational leaders emerged from studying the classics?
C. F. Bastiat and Benjamin Franklin are examples of what can be accomplished by diligent, student-directed learning.
Due to a death in his family Bastiat was unable to finish his formal education. He continued his studies however, and found a friend with opposing views to discuss and debate principles.
Claude Frédéric Bastiat is still influential with those that want to understand economics without having to delve into the unwieldy and inaccurate mathematical models currently favored.
Benjamin Franklin applied himself with diligence, debating and writing about what he understood to be truth. Much of what he wrote has appeared as jewels of understanding in oft quoted sayings.
Ben Franklin was a major influence on the emergence of an experimental republic formed by representative consensus of thirteen individual countries - or states. Their original construction of independent and competitive internal governments with a weak federal coalition for external affairs was to survive for almost a century; a significant achievement.
There are thousands of other individuals that have shaped society by applying understanding and wisdom acquired through various forms of renaissance education.
If you are not satisfied being a standardized cog within an inflexable social machine, you too can learn how to study and benefit from classical literature.
Let's choose several books that will aid in reflection.
Not all of these are universally considered as part of the top 100 best books, or even the most appropriate books for everyone.
Iliad and Odyssey boxed set
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Amazon Price: $21.09 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $31.95
The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso)
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Amazon Price: $12.24 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $18.00
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
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Amazon Price: $8.76 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $10.95
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Penguin Classics)
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Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $16.00
Have you started your Renaissance education?
Actually, having read this page is a start.
The real question then becomes:
Are you ready to continue your Renaissance education?
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spirituality
Congrats on making giant squid! so did I! Posted July 03, 2008 |
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danismom97
I love all things literature so I found this lens very fascinating as well as a very enjoyable reading experience all its own! :) Posted June 16, 2008 |
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The_Homeopath
This is a wonderful lens. I would be very interested in reading one in which you discuss contemporary authors in the same context with works such as 1984, Metamorphosis, Brave New World, and the like. Posted June 06, 2008 |
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blastfromthepast
Thank you for your lens on renaissance education! The great books have so much to teach us; and yet they are being cast aside by many teachers and dismissed as mere "cultural artifacts" of earlier centuries. They are in fact cultural monuments! Posted May 18, 2008 |
One of the best lenses I've come across. I shall come back here again.
Best wishes
Coral
Posted May 18, 2008
Let's start building a list of great books.
We can build this list ourselves
Add any classical style books that are particularly valuable. Feel free to vote on books you have read.
I may edit this list occasionally.
Will we push this list to the 100 most important books?
#1
Holy Bible, Giant Print Presentation Edition: King James Version
A Bible that's easy on the eyes and the wallet, an more...1 point
#4
Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph by T.E. Lawrence
The monumental work that assured T.E. Lawrence's p more...0 points
#5
Gulliver's Travels (Unabridged Classics) by Jonathan Swift
If you want to complement this with a more modern more...0 points
#6
The Epic of Gilgamesh: An English Verison with an Introduction (Penguin Classics) by Anonymous
One of the best and most important pieces of epic more...0 points
#7
Don Quixote (Penguin Classics) by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Don Quixote, with the company of his faithful squi more...0 points
#8
The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics) by Thucydides
A detailed contemporary account of the struggle be more...0 points
#9
Rhetoric (Thrift Edition) by Aristotle
Thought provoking, even today. This is one reader' more...0 points
#10
The Philosophical Writings of Descartes: Volume 1 by Rene Descartes
Should meet the widespread demand for an accurate more...0 points
#11
On Liberty (Rethinking the Western Tradition) by John Stuart Mill
"The only purpose for which power can be righ more...0 points
#12
Classical Tragedy - Greek and Roman: Eight Plays in Authoriative Modern Translations by Aeschylus, Euripides, Seneca
A collection of eight plays along with accompanyin more...0 points
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