by Prof. John Dreher, from the Fall 1995 issue of Lawrence Today
- What difference does ancient Greek culture -- or anything else that happened before you were born -- make to what counts as Western society today?
- Is listening to a Mozart opera or reading a Faulkner novel just another way to kill some time while you wait to do something really worth doing?
- Have you got a mind of your own, or do you believe everything thrown at you in Freshman Studies?
- How does Plato distinguish between knowledge and opinion? What's the point of that distinction? Do you agree with it?
- Is it possible to give evidence or reasons in support of an ethical judgment, or is it all merely a matter of feeling and indoctrination?
- Do you read aggressively, write clearly, and argue cogently?
- What makes the difference between legitimate political authority and mere power?
- Are there objective and transcendent standards by which we may judge what is true or good or beautiful? Or is it all relative? or do we make judgments in light of working hypotheses which we adjust as we grow in experience?
- Should non-Western works be part of the FS list of works? Why? Why not?
- Choose a century, any century, (If you relish a challenge, choose a decade, any decade!) then say something about what was going on in the sciences during that century. Can you relate what was going on in the sciences during that century to what was going on in the arts or the religion or the politics or the economics or the everyday life in that century?