CiRCE Booklist {II}

I didn’t expect to have another list so soon! As I mentioned before, I was going to post a list each time my notepad filled up. Well, up until that time, each session I listened to from the Contemplation of Nature conference had suggested a book or two, maybe three. And then I listened to two in a row where the suggestions took up half a page.

For those of you who want to practice adding fractions:

1/2 + 1/2 = 1

Which means, my page is full!

Lecture: {Plenary V: Pillar II} The Principles of Classical Education: Nature–The Principle of Principles
Lecturer: Martin Cothran
I am too tired to give a synopsis of this lecture, but I liked it well enough! Every one of these CDs is a feast of ideas. Anyhow, he seemed to think the order in which he offered this book list was important. By the end of it, a reader will have a pretty good grasp of the concept of nature. This is nature not in a woodsy wilderness sense, but nature as in the natural essence of something.

An additional note: For the first book, by Aristotle, he suggested a specific translator. The reason for this is that this translator agrees with Aristotle. Cothran gave an interesting opinion: even if you go into a reading knowing that you are not going to agree with the author, it is very helpful if the translator and/or commentator agrees with the author. Cothran says that this will give you the best reading of the material, and the best case for the author’s viewpoint.

Something to think about.

The list:

Aristotle’s Physics: A Guided Study

Science and the Modern World

The Idea of Nature

The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science

The Seventeenth Century Background: The Thought of the Age in Relation to Religion and Poetry

The Eighteenth Century Background: Studies on the Idea of Nature
In the Thought of the Period
{sorry…no photo available for that one}

The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis

{not necessarily from a Christian perspective, but helpful for understanding the idea of nature}

Lecture: {Workshop 4} Naturalism and the Arts
Lecturer: John Hodges
This probably should have been called Naturalism and the Fine Arts since it discussed music, painting, sculpture  and such. For some reason, people in the workshop kept bringing up rap music. Perhaps their students love it or something? I didn’t really understand that.

Hodges gave almost the entire lecture without mentioning a single book. I am guessing this is because he is a conductor by trade and is himself a fountain of knowledge. But, at the end, folks in the workshop began discussing what they had their students reading in regard to studying beauty {aesthetics}, and I thought that list might be helpful. At the end, Hodges adds in two books for understanding aesthetics. I myself am very interested in Eco’s book, which is last on the list.

The Collected Works of C.S. Lewis

{specifically, the essay Education in Wartime from God in the Dock}

Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic

The Arts of the Beautiful

Tree and Leaf

{specifically the essay On Fairy-Stories}

Art and the Bible: Two Essays

The Mind of the Maker

Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages

______________
First list is here.