Humanities Group Launch Day | Fortnight 1
Our first two-week block of Ted Gioia's Humanities Course
It’s the beginning of a two-year reading and arts project. Here’s what we’re reading, listening to and looking at in our first fortnight. I posted the introduction earlier in July.
FORTNIGHT ONE
Plato: The Final Days of Socrates (as told in four dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo)
Plato: Republic, Books I, VII
Musical listening for fortnight one: Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier (Book 1) and Goldberg Variations.
Art for fortnight one: Paintings by Jacques-Louis David (including The Death of Socrates).
I think the Substack platform will work well for discussions, but I’ve also set up a Discord Server as I enjoy that platform and it may very well work better. I prefer it anyway, and that’s largely down to the fact that I have two Substacks and the mobile app doesn’t allow account switching in the same way that say Instagram does. Anyway, technicalities. We can let the group evolve in the direction that it takes—I’m happy with that.
There are multiple translations for Plato’s works. The one I have is this one (Amazon | Blackwells), translated by Hugh Tredennick and Harold Tarrant.
And the copy of Plato’s Republic I have is this one (Amazon | Blackwells | Bookshop.org), translated by Christopher Rowe:
We have two weeks to read these texts and share our thoughts, either here or on the Discord—wherever you feel most comfortable.
Music
My daughter and her boyfriend are both classical music students at Guildhall, so I’ve asked them for their recommendations for classical recordings.
Her boyfriend’s father, John Butt, has made a wonderful recording of Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier on harpsichord:
They have recommended this recording of the Goldberg Variations by Masaaki Suzuki.
So, off we go to expand our minds. I’m so excited for this project and I’m really looking forward to learning more about myself and humanity. I hope you are too!