QuoteHe was never in a college or academy as a student, and never inside of a college or academy building till since he had a law license. What he has in the way of education he has picked up. After he was twenty-three and had separated from his father, he studied English grammar--imperfectly, of course, but so as to speak and write as well as he now does. He studied and nearly mastered the six books of Euclid since he was a member of Congress. He regrets his want of education, and does what he can to supply the want.Some LincolnOf course, for the slothful students of 2004 they can read Jacques Barzun's essayon Lincoln's remarkable development -- Lincoln the Literary Artist

There are also a number of essays that explore Lincoln's writings as works of literature, which trace one or more of the several strands of law, rural imagery, backwoods humor, Shakespeare, and the Bible, which inform Lincoln's rhetoric. Entire books have been devoted to establishing the historical contexts in which Lincoln developed the Gettysburg Address or the Emancipation Proclamation, but for the instructor on the go nothing beats Jacques Barzun's Lincoln the Literary Genius (Evanston, Illinois: Evanston Publishing Co., 1960). It's short but covers much ground and offers perceptive close analysis of Lincoln's rhetorical techniques and style--both identifying these elements and suggesting their effects and implications.One more recent study that employs analysis of Lincoln's speeches is Charles B. Strozier's psychoanalytic study of Lincoln, Lincoln's Quest for Union: Public and Private Meanings (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987; Basic Books, 1982), chapters 6-9 but especially chapter 7, "The Domestication of Political Rhetoric."Purchasing a clue on Wheel of Fortune

QuoteIn "I Have a Dream" are the voices of Lincoln, Jefferson, Shakespeare, Amos, Isaiah, Jesus, Handel's Messiah, "America the Beautiful," a slave spiritual, and the black folk pulpit.As a sidenote, Martin Luther King's most famous speech shows a trace...No Ebonics here. Phone Bill Cosby

The irony of linking to the 'Fallen'. Anyway, Hamilton, I like the link to the English dept. of Georgetown. The Assistant Professor of English there, whom I met once, is a truly great chap; however, he is not too good at my subtle jokes.

From The Independent, June 10 04Latin is not only a dead language, it is also almost dead in state schools. The Government, however, wants to revive it. That is why the Department for Education and Skills is backing a project to adapt the Cambridge Latin Course to DVD. And that can only be a good thing. The main reason why classics courses at university level are dominated by independent school pupils is that comprehensive schools tend not to teach Latin or Greek, partly because there are very few teachers out there. In 2000, only 11,624 children were sitting GCSE Latin, two-thirds of them from independent schools. It is well known that one way for privately educated students to gain admission to Oxford and Cambridge is to apply for classics, as the competition in this subject is less fierce. So, anything that makes Latin more acceptable to a mass audience is to be welcomed.People who learnt the subject in the bad old days when the required textbook was Approach to Latin (or what schoolchildren called Approach to Eatin) may find the idea of a revival appalling. They remember a dreary subject - filled with farmers and sailors, and queens perambulating in woods - taught in a dull way. But the subject has been transformed, first by the Cambridge Latin Project with its story-based technique, and second by the tale of Minimus, the mouse that lives with a Roman family in Vindolanda, near Hadrian's Wall. So there is little danger that the DVD approach will send today's generation of students up the wall with boredom. Indeed, the hope is that it will inspire them to study the language further, and give them a good dose of the roots of English and its grammar. So far the signs are good. The project has been piloted in 40 schools and the feedback is positive. The pupils like it.The developers of the new e-learning resource say that anyone can deliver the DVD-based lessons to pupils, who can then direct their inquiries to an e-tutor over the internet. It means that every secondary school in the country can have access to the programme. In theory, then, this September the subject could be back on the timetable of every state school. This is probably the only way that Latin is going to be saved, because it is unlikely that a new cohort of Latin teacher trainees will come forward for training.

QuoteOriginally posted by: LondonPeteThe irony of linking to the 'Fallen'. Anyway, Hamilton, I like the link to the English dept. of Georgetown. The Assistant Professor of English there, whom I met once, is a truly great chap; however, he is not too good at my subtle jokes.Perhaps the jokes aren't funny. By the by, how is your alter go RowdyDoodyPiper makingout with his Hunter S Thompson Summa Politica?

Actually that specific joke was funny. Out of a hundred people, including him, only one (other than me) realized the meaning of what was being conveyed.I can assure you, Rowdyroddypiper is not an alter ego of LondonPete. So, I guess, no comment. RE: my Fallen comment - you seem not to have noticed. That was not an undignified jibe at MLK, but a reference to Georgetown, which is nicknamed "the Fallen" because it has lost its Jesuit/Catholic piety in relation to other US Catholic colleges.

RE: my Fallen comment - you seem not to have noticed. That was not an undignified jibe and MLK, but a reference to Georgetown, which is nicknamed "the Fallen" because it has lost its Jesuit/Catholic piety in relation to other US Catholic colleges. Georgetown, Fordham, Boston College (nicknamed BC or Barely Catholic), Loyola and others have all lost their way. The real centers of anti-catholicism are safely esconsed in their theology faculties.

Well, Hamilton, next you will be saying that the Vatican has lost its way.

"Socratic dialogue can lead to error, therefore Socratic dialogue cannot teach the truth. This is an elementary logical fallacy.I'll leave it to you or others to tell me which one."Hamilton, frankly, you clearly have a superficial familiarity with Plato if you can't point to dozens, but I will leave you to ponder this one then, with citations:Socrates, in dialogue (one presumes Socratic dialogue) with his judges shows that the logical conclussion of his being found guilty of corrupting the youth is that he be given the *punishment* of: “to be given [my] meals in the Prytaneum,” (Apology of Socrates, 36d, Plato)."Socratic dialogue can lead to error, therefore Socratic dialogue cannot teach the truth. This is an elementary logical fallacy"Then: 'all that I know is that I know nothing" also is an elementary logical fallacy. And you clearly aren't familiar with Zeno's paradox.Let me re-write your 'Socratic dialogue' sentance with a 'quant finance' metaphor:"Approximations with calculus still can lead to (and always have immersurable) error, therefore approximations with calculus cannot tell us the truth. This is an elementary logical fallacy."Socratic dialogue is an attempt to uncover the truth through dialectic. The method of dialogue displaces assumptions and previously held beliefs, but it often offers nothing in its place, as dozens of the dialogues conclude."I'll leave it to you or others to tell me which one."I've told you one. But I must admit, I had to resort to citations for you to see the truth of it. It wasn't very Socratic of me, but it is true. I recognize that this is a departure from your presumed place of mastery of this material, so now I'll let you find the others, since by your own lights thius would only be to your benefit. But I suggest you begin with the pre-Socratics first, working through Parmenidies, and then the concepts of Paradox found in the pre-Socratics, so that you will see the truth of dialogue as an approximative hermeneutic circle, and not an absolute. We had to wait for Aristotle for that.

"Perhaps the jokes aren't funny. By the by, how is your alter go RowdyDoodyPiper makingout with his Hunter S Thompson Summa Politica? "RowdyDoodyPiper? Oh god, that is hysterical my man. Please keep them coming. Anyway, LondonPete and I are not the same person. Not that I have anything against him, but I'm not interested in being in London at the time. Anyway I don't see much point in arguing with a clueless pedant. That's just me though. Hamilton, to be quite honest, I think that your mastery of "Greek" is limited to the definition used at the washy washy down the block from me, where you can get whatever you need to relax for under $100. Anyway, I do appreciate the link to the HST interview. I'll make my point on that in the appropriate thread.

But I suggest you begin with the pre-Socratics first, working through Parmenidies, and then the concepts of Paradox found in the pre-Socratics, so that you will see the truth of dialogue as an approximative hermeneutic circle, and not an absolute. I have read the Pre Socratics and your statement that dialogue is an "approximative hermeneutic" makes no sense.Zeno of Elea was defending Parmenides against the Pythagoreans. Plato makes this clear in his dialogue Parmenides.The Eleatics were denying the reality of multiplicity and motion; the One of the One and The Many. Apparently, you areas well.You seem not to have read The Divided Line in Book 6 of Plato's Republic.Socratic dialogues use the dialogue form for enthymemes (abbreviated syllogisms), syllogisms, and literary development,as the Straussians have demonstrated so well. Aristotle's surviving works are treatises.

QuoteDerived from a Greek word connected with the name of the god Hermes, the reputed messenger and interpreter of the gods. It would be wrong to infer from this that the word denotes the interpretation or exegesis of Sacred Scripture. Usage has restricted the meaning of hermeneutics to the science of Biblical exegesis, that is, to the collection of rules which govern the right interpretation of Sacred Scripture. Exegesis is therefore related to hermeneutics, as language is to grammar, or as reasoning is to logic. Men spoke and reasoned before there was any grammar or logic; but it is very difficult to speak correctly and reason rightly at all times and under any circumstances without a knowledge of grammar and logic. In the same way our early Christian writers explained Sacred Scripture--as it is interpreted in particular cases even in out days by students of extraordinary talent--without relying on any formal principles of hermeneutics, but such explanations, if correct, will always be in accordance with the canons of our present-day science of exegesis. Catholic Encyclopedia entry on hermeneutics