re: How Would You Rate Your Classical Education?

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Locke, Aurelius, Rousseau, Voltaire, Humme, Franklin, Paine, Jefferson, Adams, etc.

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Hume is the best out of all of them (if you're talking pure philosophy). Locke is very boring. Voltaire was more of a satirist and cultural critic. Hume was a pure skeptic who put a wrecking ball to Kant's Critiques (reading Kant is necessary to understand Hume).

Then again I am a sucker for epistemology. I love that kind of stuff. Not really into political philosophy which was more Locke's specialty (and thus the founders of America who were all Lockeans).

As I said, when I first read these I was way beyond my depth or experience. I read them because they were there and I loved to read. Reading them later in life, I understood more, but I find that true whenever I revisit things I read long ago.

Understood, and I agree.

But how are most going to learn it? Because the intuitively know about Machiavelli or Sun Tsu?

From this thread?

No baw, that is taught.

I have gone down wiki holes that have taught me more than some College courses.

The material is instantaneous, in ways my younger mind never could have imagined. I am a student of Dewey decimal. I remember researching stuff in that. Encarta was next level stuff.

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You chase the rabbit down the hole until you're sated.

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think the word is satiated, Aristotle

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think the word is satiated, Aristotle

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Nope.

Sated

It's a matter of degree with satiated being the lesser. Sated is completely, thoroughly full.

Late jumping into this thread. I read a lot, all of my life, until I reached my 40s and really started getting busy. It was a good way to pass time, back when I had too much of it.
Never focused on any particular direction in my reading, just whatever looked interesting when browsing at the library. Not much philosophical stuff.
Early on, I read a lot of Dicken's stuff, and Mark Twain, Westerns (not just Louis Lamour, I always liked his stuff, but figured out pretty fast that it was a formula and searched out better books), Crime novels, Spy Novels( John Le Carre and Jack Higgins), Tom Clancy..
Then one day, I picked up Michener's, Tales Of The South Pacific, and just had to read all of his books. That started me into reading a lot more American History, and that got kind of centered around The War Of 1812, and the more famous individuals from that, and that led to Texas History... Then Larry McMurtry... Then The Dan Brown stuff...then The Hunger Games Books, those were the last, That's when I got too busy, to read much anymore. I left out Tolkien, Kipling, London, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Hemmingway and some others that I devoured.

I don't know if any of that, gave me much education, but it sure was entertaining.

Ol Mississippi Billy is probably my favorite but I’m having a time getting through Da Sound An Da Furry. I read AILD as a spoof of southern culture. Read a bunch of Ol baw that married a bunch and lived in the FL Keys. I like his style.

Finished 1984 last year. Been meaning to do “Animal Farm”. I’m also getting through “Brave New World” at the moment. Kinda meh.

Tried Tolstoy. I will read “War & Peace” one day albeit it’ll need to be a day (month) when I’m stuck on an island somewhere because that thing is thicc.

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I read AILD as a spoof of southern culture.

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When I first started reading it, I thought it was serious stuff. I can't remember which part it was. Either " My Mother is a fish" or when they had to run the buzzards away from the coffin, that I realized what it really was, went back and started again, and laughed like hell.