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I am proud to boldly state that I am the product of a "liberal" education. During five years spent as an undergraduate (1982 - 1987), I will always consider the latter four years in a new Liberal Arts program at my alma mater as the best educational experience of my life thus far: the classes were small, the seminar was the predominant medium of scholarly exploration, the professors were enthusiastic and accessible, and fellow students were sociable and multi-faceted. We were also fortunate, as students, to be in a small, intimate group -- the very first year there were only eight students in the program and by fourth year we "pioneers" were down to five -- by that time the total student population of the program was about twenty. By the early nineties the first year courses were attracting a dozen or more undergrads and the program, with some slight changes over the years, continues to thrive at Brock.
So what exactly do I mean by a liberal education? I usually describe the program I participated in as a "study of the (intellectual/moral/political/religious/economic/scientific) history of Western Civilization through its literature" -- from the beginnings of Indo-European civilization to as late as the 1970's drama of British playwright Tom Stoppard . Our program was called the Liberal Studies Program and the design as well as the course content were based on that of St. John's College, in Annapolis, Maryland, a renowned liberal arts college. The core component of the program curriculum was called the "Great Books Seminar", a twice-weekly two-hour colloquy where students shared impressions of the assigned texts with two professors who moderated the discussions. In the third and fourth year, students and professors participated in smaller seminars, over a two to three week period, centred upon narrow themes (such as Original Sin, Historicism, Philosophy of Humour, to name a few) -- these were called "Praeceptorials". Other courses offered by the program were: Logic, Rhetoric and Poetics, History of the Scientific Method, The Mathematics of Probability, Classical Greek or Latin (two years), Poetic and Musical Interpretation, as well as a Fourth Year Essay Course, among others.
One of the fascinating aspects of the Great Books Seminar (and of the LRP course) was the uniqueness of professorial participation in the learning process -- according to the St. John's College model, the seminar leaders shouldn't necessarily be experts in the material being discussed during that year's seminar curriculum. For example, during my first year I remember being amazed at the professors' enthusiasm for reading and discussing, along with the students, such works as The Epic of Gilgamesh, Prometheus Bound, Oedipus Tyrannus , The Clouds, The Peloponnesian War, The Nature of Things and The Satyricon among many others. One of the profs in the first year seminar was a Historian (Intellectual History of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries a specialty) and the other was a Political Scientist (Political Philosophy, special interest in the works of Thomas Hobbes). In addition, the LRP seminar leader was a professor of English Literature who struggled with the rest of us in trying to understand Aristotle's Categories and Prior Analytics and even took the mid-term Logics test with us, devised neutrally by a Philosophy Department prof . Needless to say, our seminar leader was the only one in the class who passed! The general enthusiasm of the program's professors was infectious and had a lot to do with encouraging the students overcome the stress of having to read one or two texts a week along with having to submit essays and study for tests in these and other courses at the same time.
So what, you may be asking, is the point of this narrative? Is it an apology, a defense of the Classical university curriculum such as that offered by a liberal arts course of study outlined above? It is definitely my intent to promote this type of education, but not in an exclusive sense. For the person who believes that their predominant cultural life experience is centered in the formidable literary, philosophical and scientific legacy of the Western Civilization, a curriculum such as the Great Books Seminar can only enhance one's appreciation of the progress of what is evidently the dominant macro-cultural manifestation on this planet. . It is the perfect starting point or even the most compatible companion course of study for the student of literature, (from any Western culture or linguistic group), Comparative Literature, Political Science, History or Philosophy. In either way, it can lead to specialist studies in any of the above-mentioned fields.
On their own, the works generally associated with the Great Books Seminar, known most commonly as the "canon" of Western literature, comprise perhaps the most excellent core education in letters available in either a formal (university or otherwise) or informal setting. From the lofty, spirit-wrenching heights of a Shakespeare drama, to the cold, calculated Realpolitik of Machiavelli the works of the Western Canon encompass much of the breadth of the human experience as compiled throughout the ages. These works are deemed to stand out against others of their own, previous as well as subsequent eras for their originality, aesthetic value and intellectual vigour, among other reasons.
What about non-occidental culture, you ask?
While versed in few of the jewels of African, Indian or Oriental cultures, to mention a few non-occidental sources of Terran civilization, I believe that they would have as much to offer the enquiring mind as do the works of the authors mentioned above. The Vedas and the subsequent Vedantic corpus , the Upanishads, the Analects of Confucius, these works and many more from numerous cultures all offer invaluable commentaries and exegeses on the human experience. A Terran Great Books Seminar would be incomplete without the philosophical "bestsellers" of any culture.
Brief comment on H.G. Wells Modern Utopia (unfinished)
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