A self taught classical education
[Disclaimer this will be a different sort of Blog Post as I plan to update it occasionally.]
I owe a lot of what I’ve learned in Computer Science to teachyourselfcs.com which is a simple site that shows the best books and freely available videos to learn every major aspect of computer science. After reading Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis I became interested in learning more about the foundation of western thought which he had been trained and taught in. I looked for a similar list of books and videos on learning what one would learn in a classical eduction in the subjects of Philosophy, History, Theology, Politics and Literature. So far I have not yet found a succinct list so I will start to build my own here.
All of these are related and you can find many major figures throughout history who were educated on these subjects before doing great things in their life. My personal goal will be to better understand the world I live in and give me new perspectives to life. This guide will have an American slant/perspective to it because that is the world I live in.
I’ve broke these down into categories but many of the books I am reading overlap.
Philosophy
Philosophy is the base upon which everything we know is built upon, whether we realize it or not. I started by reading The Philosophy Book (DK Big Ideas) to give me an overview of the various books but after reading a biography on Alexander Hamilton and part of St. Augustine’s Confessions I realized I was missing out on some crutial knowledge.
Plato Complete Works - Edited by John M. Cooper
This book contains all known writings from Plato and some which may or may not be by Plato. I found the order the writings were placed in made it an easier read than trying to start with something like The Republic.
History
I want to know more about the time period between the fall of Rome and now. I plan on reading The City of God by St. Augustine as a start.
Theology
Keeping with St. Augustine I’m going to be reading [Confessions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_(Augustine) to start but will be looking for more details about how the Bible was formed as well as the start of the Christian church.
Literature
This is a very broad category but for now will be focused on reading Biographies to compliment or replace History books. I’ve started with Alexander Hamilton by Chernow.
Politics
[The Republic] by Plato is on my list so far.