The Tempest - William Shakespeare: A sorcerer wants revenge, then forgives when he has the opportunity. The spirit gets to go free, the starry-eyed teenagers find true love, and the bad guys got dissed, even if they didn't get their just desserts. I guess that makes it a comedy, if an odd one.
Herodotus' Histories, Book IX: The Greeks already whipped up on the Persians...several times. Xerxes high-tailed it back to Asia and left Mardonius in charge. The Greek army then whips up on him while the fleet does the same to the Persian fleet at Mycale. So why are the Greeks always winning over the Persians? Are men defending their homes better warriors than those not? Are free men better warriors than slaves? Or (the more mundane option) are Greeks just better fighters than Persians? At the end of the day though, whatever happens it's the Oracle at Delphi that wins. Goodbye Herodotus, it's been fun.
The Republic of Plato, Book II: Old age and justice: I know that's how conversations at my house always come back to. It's easy to understand why people really didn't like Socrates and how he picked and picked at their precious theories. It's easier for me to read, but I wouldn't want my precious theories of life on his plate. I'm curious to see where the proofs for God's simplicity are going with respect to the justice question.
Federalist Papers #44: Now in Madison's 5th and 6th points about the use of powers as dictated by the Constitution: restrictions on states and powers and provisions to carry out the other powers. They keep harping on this last point, yet it seems so obvious. Looking at the details of what that required though, I could see how people might get antsy. It's interesting to see what ideas they had at the time that don't even occur to us today. Two in passing (mostly from last week's reading): Canada joining the US, insurrections at the state level. Think if Canada did join, boy that'd be a lot of land.
The Sphinx - Francis Bacon: Great little story. I do think he's taken some liberty with interpreting the author's original intent. It does work for his own uses though. It's also an interesting way to think about the sciences, their division and their ramifications.
The Process of Thought, Ch. 1 - John Dewey: Starting off, this reads like a layman's critical thinking-type book (which, maybe it was intended to be), but then it starts to make sense to view it as Dewey the philosopher of education working his way into what schooling should look like...because this is what thinking is, or at least what it should be, and schooling should do such and such to bring it about. Maybe it won't all come through in this work, but it should dovetail in with the larger body of his work, which I think has problems. Looks good so far though.
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