Oxford’s Classical Philosophy, Politics, and Economics for Extramural Readers

Dr Jonathan Kenigson, FRSA

The purpose of the current discussion is to briefly outline several ways in which the University of Oxford’s existing infrastructure could be used to support a classical college in Oxfordshire. By “classical college,” one should be taken to mean an institution that meets all the following criteria: (1). The instructional methodology uses the great books of Western civilisation as a bedrock of the curriculum; (2). Students are expected to demonstrate competence in all the classical liberal arts and not solely the Trivium. Students must demonstrate acceptable mastery of Grammar (Latin, Greek, and English), Logic (Syllogism and Formal Logic), Rhetoric (eloquent defence of arguments), Arithmetic, Astronomy, Geometry, and Music. Several modules offered via the University of Oxford’s extramural scheme permit customization to this effect. A judicious combination of these modules would be sufficient to obtain the desired programme.

“Philosophy of Mind” contains an extensive deconstruction of Cartesian Dualism, Epiphenomenalism, Eliminitativism, Functionalism, and other schools of thought. Texts are not classical, and much work is based upon confrontation of “edge cases” and counterfactual thinking. The module can be modified to include classical texts in Philosophy of Mind: Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Kant, Spinoza, Freud, and James. Additional texts from Greco-Roman antiquity could be profitably included – specifically Stoic and Epicurean philosophies and ancient Atomism. Aquinas should be included for any students sufficiently invested in the broader study of philosophical anthropology. “Metaphysics” includes some classical texts but is also taught from the standpoint of Analytic Philosophy, focusing upon questions of Universal/Particular distinction, Realism and Idealism, and the freedom of the Will. Kant’s theory of Time and Space are also briefly introduced. A proper classical understanding of this topic would include a more extensive discussion of Kantian Metaphysics and a more thorough integration of Metaphysical themes in ancient literature: Aeschylus, Euripides, Homer, Virgil, and the like. The module entitled “Philosophy of Religion” should be fortified with additional readings from Anselm and Aquinas upon the knowledge and attributes of God; the Metaphysical nature of Spirit; and the abstract nature of Causes. Such readings should draw heavily from the Aristotelian corpus and should include substantive introductions both to Attic Greek and the Latin of the Vulgate. The modules in “Political Philosophy,” “Existential Phenomenology,” “Ethics with Aristotle,” and “Human Nature Reexamined” are all essentially complete as-is and need little if any modification.

Possible improvements would be almost focus upon mastery of the relevant languages to a degree sufficient to discern the fidelity and consistency of the relevant translations. “Hegel’s Political Philosophy” would only serve to be modified in support of a further examination of Spirit in terms of Pietist themes. The foundations of Dialecticism could be examined first from Aristotle and Aquinas’ theories of Cause as they appear in Philosophy of History and Phenomenology of Spirit. The module in “Philosophy of Science” focuses almost exclusively on modern science to the complete negation of ancient and medieval advances in the philosophical foundation of scientific thought. This module is the least complete of all of those assayed for the current report. Sources from the Great Ideas of Cause, Nature, Science, Religion, and Mind could be profitably integrated at virtually every juncture. Linguistic study would be very highly suggested for sustained and devoted study of the Great Ideas above. The French, German, Greek, and Latin languages would be suggested above all because of their universal applicability to the entire corpus and their relevance to Enlightenment and Early-Modern scientific thought.

The modules in “Politics,” “Macroeconomics,” “History of Economic Thought,” and “Economics for Politics” as taught by the Blavatnik School are remarkably concise but surprisingly complete. They do lack some mathematical rigor, but this is not an impediment to a well-crafted programme. Statistics modules are easy to obtain from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) open resources. The Blavatnik modules offer an excellent blend of applied work emphasizing modern problems in UK public-sector economics and classical sources that could be enriched with study of the relevant languages. Surprisingly, the modules designed jointly by Blavatnik and the Faculty of Economics contain philosophical content equivalent to – or perhaps exceeding – the philosophical modules that entirely eschew mathematical economics. This observation alone makes the Economics modules worth including if one seeks a balanced programme that could be adapted to postgraduate study in the UK or elsewhere. The production of three monographs of roughly 20,000 words apiece should be a hallmark of an appropriately writing-intensive study of classical sources. Instead of a single summative monograph emphasizing extensive specialization, participants could identify topics of interest from the Great Books Syntopicon and combine them into coherent studies of three distinct liberal arts. For instance, one could produce an initial work on the causes and effects of desire in the human mind opposed to the Divine Mind. This project would involve Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric but not Quadrivium Arts. For the second project, one could produce a treatise on the Rhetoric of Mathematical and Musical Discourse. This project would have applications throughout the Quadrivium and simultaneously improve rhetorical exposition.

A final project might include a theological excursus into Universal History with an emphasis upon anti-Dialectical thinking or a problematization of Dialectical Materialism arising from a predominantly empirical philosophy of Nature. This project would involve sustained engagement with philosophical texts spanning the historical and linguistic gamut and would require exceptional skills in refutation of prominent counterarguments arising from within and without Western intellectual history. These tentative ideas should be sufficient to establish the possibility of crafting a classical college programme using existing Oxford University resources. The resources could be suitably modified to embody materials from the Great Books of the Western World or the Harvard Classics. The typical Syntopicon would likely provide the most efficient starting point in the establishment of such a curriculum. It would not be prohibitively difficult to assemble these resources into a coherent 3-year cycle that could combine existing modules with intensive composition of monographs calculated to span the entire scope of the liberal arts, including high-level mathematical topics.

Works Consulted.

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/reality-being-and-existence-an-introduction-to-metaphysics-online

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/philosophy-of-religion-online?code=O22P488PHV

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/an-introduction-to-contemporary-humanism?code=O22P175PHJ

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/philosophy-of-mind-online

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/political-philosophy-an-introduction-online?code=O22P398PHV

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/theory-of-knowledge-online?code=O22P328PHV

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/philosophy-of-science-online?code=O22P468PHV

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/ethics-with-aristotle?code=O22P708PHW

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/hegels-political-philosophy?code=O22P709PHW

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/reality-being-and-existence-an-introduction-to-metaphysics-online?code=O22P496PHV

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/human-nature-re-examined?code=O22P711PHW