In the July 2, 1751 issue of the Rambler, Samuel Johnson remarked, “Very few have abilities requisite for the discovery of abstruse truth; and of those few some want leisure and others, resolution.” When...

I was in my second semester as a political theory grad student in the government department here and feeling completely overwhelmed with coursework, TA responsibilities and life in general. One day as...

Fr. James Schall, S.J., did something for me that no other professor of Georgetown has — he moved my soul. The things I learned in Fr. Schall's class extend far beyond the realm of teaching in an academic...

On a Friday in Dec. 2010 I made my way over to the Wolfington Hall to have dinner with Fr. James Schall, S.J. There he stood, looking sharper and stronger than ever in spite of a recently healed cancerous...

Fr. James Schall, S.J., is a wonderful Jesuit and good friend. He and I are both political scientists and from the California Province of the Jesuits. Although we might have different political views,...

Thanks to a kind article by Lauren Weber ("Recovering From Jaw Cancer, Schall Will Miss Fall Semester," THE HOYA, Aug. 31, 2010, A1), many know that I am out for the fall semester due to a combination...

A professor who has been many years at a school is often asked by visitors: “Do you notice any difference between current students and those from previous decades?” I always answer that question pretty...

In the "Phaedo," the dialogue of Socrates' last day, a question arises about Socrates' burial after he is to drink the fatal hemlock. His friend, Crito, is fussing about what he will do with the body....

In Plato's "Republic" (V), Socrates tells Glaucon that anyone "can feel both secure and confident when one has the truth about the dearest and most important things and speaks about them among those who...

Plato was 40 years old (388 B.C.), as he tells us in his "Seventh Letter." The Peloponnesian War had ended in 404. The Greek colony of Syracuse on Sicily was in the ascendancy. Along with Sparta, Syracuse...