Five Roman Shipwrecks Found

From BBC News:

Underwater archaeologists in Italy have discovered the wrecks of five
ancient Roman ships in the Mediterranean, with their cargo still largely
intact.

The ships are lying in up to 150 metres (500 feet) of water off the tiny
island of Ventotene, between Rome and Naples.

They are between 1,600 and 1,900 years old, and were laden with - among
other things - jars for carrying wine, olive oil and fish sauce.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

(Kudos to you if you get the reference in the title without Googling it.)

I will be in sunny CA for the next week, basking in the Sacramento sun, surrounded by the corona of classical studies. (Couldn't resist the alliteration.) Yes, it's once again time for the annual National JCL Convention, this year held at UC Davis.

I will have internet access, but make no guarantees that I'll have the energy to post. (To anyone who's never been, believe me when I say that it's intense.) I'll post pics if I get a chance.

Open Teaching

Here's an example of a contemporary topic - open-source information - that leads directly to a philosophical discussion.

In yesterday's Wired Campus feature in the Chronicle of Higher Education, David Wiley offers his perspective on the value of 'open teaching' - that is, making course materials, readings, assignments, and even lectures freely accessible not only to students in the course, but to anyone at all on the web.

Oratorical style, ancient and modern

A story in today's BBC News Magazine points out successful techniques used in modern rhetoric. As any scholar of antiquity knows, the ancients had a lock on masterful oratory and its principles. BBC readers commenting on the website note the connections:

Ah yes. We like a good bit of "tricolon" and "tricolon crescendo". Popular trick in the works of Virgil, Juvenal, Martial et al. Good to see the occasional bit of classical rhetoric still appearing in the increasingly sound-bitten fluff that passes as oratory amongst our illustrious leaders.

And now a word on the eternal antagonism between rhetoric and philosophy:

As an ex-student of philosophy, I have to say speechwriting is not truly persuasion, as in all forms of oratory, the orator has to make concessions to the crowd to make them think what he says is what they are thinking already. The best way to change someone's mind is through discussion and debate, where ideas can be analysed and demolished to show the other person that your method is the "true way". See the Phaedo by Plato for more.

Obama, Philosopher-in-Chief

Carlin Romano writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education [06/26/2009], describing how President Obama's foreign policy positions are informed by a commitment to philosophical principles from pragmatism to Stoic cosmopolitanism. A selection:

At its core, his teaching was ethical and political, using the intellectual tools of logic to illuminate hypocrisy and contradiction.

Sounds like philosophy to me!

Can linguists avoid dementia?

BBC News reports today on a study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University suggesting that having highly developed language skills early in life might somehow neutralize the effects of physical brain problems in later life that typically produce the symptoms of dementia.

Researchers

"analysed essays that 14 of the women wrote as they entered the convent in their late teens or early 20s, assessing them for complexity of language and grammar. The study showed that language scores were 20% higher in women without memory problems than those with signs of a malfunctioning memory."

Deep Thought...in a high school?!?

As I mentioned back in February on this very blog, I'll be piloting an Intro to Philosophy semester course at Mt. Greylock Regional High School in spring 2010, thanks to a grant from the Squire Family Foundation, as well as logistical support from Williams College. The course is designed to give high school juniors and seniors a taste of the discipline of philosophy, using both traditional readings and curriculum (when appropriate) and contemporary, digital-age points of contact (whenever possible!). Logic/critical thinking and ethics will be two of the areas we'll investigate, along with a smattering of metaphysics, political philosophy, and aesthetics (whew!).

I'll be using my newly-created MG Philosophy blog as one of the main foci for course activity. Also check out the official Mt. Greylock webpage for the course, also maintained by me; it has a few links to get started on investigating what it's all about. Students, the syllabus and other course documents will be up sometime this summer - check these sites often! (But you do that anyway, right? :-)