When I was in law school, my professors taught that law is a “seamless web,” by which they meant that every area of law was connected to every other. Studying contract law will give you insight into tort law, which will give you insight into criminal law, which will give you insight into international law, and so on and so on. 40 years later, I can say that they were absolutely right.
Thank you! The idea of Watertight Bulkheads, I served in the Navy, and the thought about Watertight Bulkheads keeping the ship afloat if there is a water intake in one area or many areas to try to keep the ship afloat. Many watertight compartments may keep the ship afloat. Thanks again
The cathedral example is the one I keep coming back to. Geometry, engineering, music, and worship all held in one act, with nobody in the room worried about which subject they were doing. That is the opposite of how we hand a curriculum to a twelve year old. Sayers's line about learning everything except the art of learning has been sitting with me for years. I try to build that connective tissue into how I teach logic, treating it less like a standalone subject and more like the hinge that lets the other subjects talk to each other.
That correlation might be the most precise thing said in this thread. The cathedral required people who could not afford to think in silos. The moment we stopped building things that demanded integrated knowledge, we stopped needing to produce people who had it.
Sayers saw this clearly. The art of learning is prior to the content of learning, and no subject can teach it alone. Logic, for me, is the closest thing we have to that prior art, not because it subsumes the other disciplines but because it is the grammar they all share. A student who has been taught to classify, to form a proposition, to trace an argument to its conclusion reads history differently, reads literature differently, reads a legal text differently. The hinge, as I put it, opens multiple doors.
I have been working on exactly this problem from within the Islamic classical tradition, where the sequence was once architecture, not accident. If that intersection interests you, some of what I am building is at thefoundationspress.com.
There is a solution to the Watertight Bulkheads. It's the great Conversation. (If you haven't already, watch my video on the Three-Thousand-Year Conversation.
The founding cohort is shaping up. I’ve met some tremendous families with great young people. And, in just a few weeks, I’ll be sitting around the proverbial table with them discussing the perennial human concerns through primary sourced ancient literature.
We’ll tussle with tyrants and their empires and politics, pull back the curtain on the historical battle between poetry and philosophy, witness mortal combat and immortal clashes between heroes and gods, all while exploring art and music, geography and cosmology, and religion and revelation.
If you have a 12-14 year-old who might be interested in spending the next six years participating in this Great Conversation—from antiquity to postmodernity—the deadline is approaching (August 1st).
The table is about halfway full and not everyone will get to join us!
If you want to interview for a seat at this table, you’ll need to fill out the interest form right away! (https://forms.gle/49fnvz7vBsqvqFKc9)
Excellent post. Thank you so much for honing in on this single question from Dorothy Sayers that opens up the universe.
How do we join you in this six year course?
This post has the details https://substack.com/@scottpostma/note/p-207819179?r=332w5&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
When I was in law school, my professors taught that law is a “seamless web,” by which they meant that every area of law was connected to every other. Studying contract law will give you insight into tort law, which will give you insight into criminal law, which will give you insight into international law, and so on and so on. 40 years later, I can say that they were absolutely right.
Good point. Law school, with its Socratic approach and emphasis on logic and rhetoric, is an organic remnant of the classical model.
Thank you! The idea of Watertight Bulkheads, I served in the Navy, and the thought about Watertight Bulkheads keeping the ship afloat if there is a water intake in one area or many areas to try to keep the ship afloat. Many watertight compartments may keep the ship afloat. Thanks again
You’re welcome. Thank you for your service!
The cathedral example is the one I keep coming back to. Geometry, engineering, music, and worship all held in one act, with nobody in the room worried about which subject they were doing. That is the opposite of how we hand a curriculum to a twelve year old. Sayers's line about learning everything except the art of learning has been sitting with me for years. I try to build that connective tissue into how I teach logic, treating it less like a standalone subject and more like the hinge that lets the other subjects talk to each other.
Maybe there’s a correlation. If we still built cathedrals, perhaps we’d have never stopped teaching the art of leaning.
That correlation might be the most precise thing said in this thread. The cathedral required people who could not afford to think in silos. The moment we stopped building things that demanded integrated knowledge, we stopped needing to produce people who had it.
Sayers saw this clearly. The art of learning is prior to the content of learning, and no subject can teach it alone. Logic, for me, is the closest thing we have to that prior art, not because it subsumes the other disciplines but because it is the grammar they all share. A student who has been taught to classify, to form a proposition, to trace an argument to its conclusion reads history differently, reads literature differently, reads a legal text differently. The hinge, as I put it, opens multiple doors.
I have been working on exactly this problem from within the Islamic classical tradition, where the sequence was once architecture, not accident. If that intersection interests you, some of what I am building is at thefoundationspress.com.
There is a solution to the Watertight Bulkheads. It's the great Conversation. (If you haven't already, watch my video on the Three-Thousand-Year Conversation.
https://www.scottpostma.net/p/a-three-thousand-year-conversation?r=332w5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web×tamp=182.7
The founding cohort is shaping up. I’ve met some tremendous families with great young people. And, in just a few weeks, I’ll be sitting around the proverbial table with them discussing the perennial human concerns through primary sourced ancient literature.
We’ll tussle with tyrants and their empires and politics, pull back the curtain on the historical battle between poetry and philosophy, witness mortal combat and immortal clashes between heroes and gods, all while exploring art and music, geography and cosmology, and religion and revelation.
If you have a 12-14 year-old who might be interested in spending the next six years participating in this Great Conversation—from antiquity to postmodernity—the deadline is approaching (August 1st).
The table is about halfway full and not everyone will get to join us!
If you want to interview for a seat at this table, you’ll need to fill out the interest form right away! (https://forms.gle/49fnvz7vBsqvqFKc9)