Self-Taught Classical Education? - or is it possible to give yourself an education worth having?

[RussianMozart]

The so-called education system in the western world is unworthy of being called an education system in my opinion. Reason, logic, and the ability to debate has been replaced by the orthodoxy of wokesheviks and tards. This makes me wonder, how can you go about giving yourself an education worth having? What texts and topics should you read? What should you avoid? It would be better to give yourself a classical education in your 20s or 30s than to only get what the tards give you in school.

 

[King Koalemos]

at that point it's self-directed and there's absolutely nothing wrong with being an autodidact and going through the classics at all.

I highly suggest if you haven't done so, to peruse Homer's works. I recommend the Fagles translations of The Illiad and The Oddysey. Starting from literature is never a bad idea as it's generally the easiest to digest. Epics, myth, and other forms of fiction are easy to digest.

The one thing I have to say is that if you're interested in Paradise Lost by John Milton, beware that it is not an easy book to read. I had to take a class wherein we specifically read the entire thing over the semester. It's certainly an important work, but it's also not an easy read.

Figure out where your interests lie in regards to topics of literature. Branch off into philosophies, history, and other areas. self-study can be incredibly rewarding as a hobby. The only difficulty you might have is the lack of proper facilitation via a Professor. This comes into play if you're doing shit with language barriers like ancient texts translated to modern english. Or anything translated to english really but the classical education is very heavy on greek/latin with a mix of english/french for some stuff. I highly recommend fine tuning your interests by dipping your toes into your interests and then going from there as it may be tricky to continue to be motivated.

As for philosophical works, there's a wide variety to start from if you're going into the greco-roman stuff. It depends on your interests. If you're super serious about this and know where to pirate acquire them, check out The Great Courses by the learning company. There's ways to get the videos/audiobooks and they're really handy for self-directed learning on topics.

Peace out, this is a fun topic to sperg on but a classical education is never bad. Getting familiar with classical texts is never bad either and can be rewarding. Just don't become a redditor-tier asshat about reading Paradise Lost or The Canterbury Tales.

 

[Standardized Profile]

What do you mean by "classical education?" Greek and Latin? You could work through Wheelock's Latin easy enough then start reading simple texts like the Vulgate without too much effort. If you prefer proper classical Latin, there are web sites with annotations of texts that are popular with students such as the Aeneid and Catullus. I once started working through a PDF of Pharr's Homeric Greek--I was making rapid progress but I never finished it, then forgot everything and never picked up a Greek text again (other than my Greek NT, which I use mainly for the critical apparatus.)

For a general "education worth having," I'd focus on bullshit detection--logic, critical thinking, and stats if you are mathematically inclined. (And even if you are not, you should learn about frequently abused statistical concepts so you know them when you see them.) Beyond that, it's hard to say. The body of human knowledge is almost infinite, and there is more worth having than you can learn in a lifetime.

 

[Pixy]

You will need a music tutor. There's no questioning it. The internet can provide many resources, but it cannot supplant learning under the guidance of someone accredited with sufficient proficiency to teach students.

 

[Johan Schmidt]

I think it depends on what you mean. Do you mean things like just what you can read, or practical skills? I'm doing a STEM degree, and I can read all I want to for essentially free. But the reading isn't a good replacement for the practical skills you need for lab work. My university is desperate to get us into the labs again to cover shit we've missed.

 

[L50LasPak]

This is one of those thing's that absolutely lovely when someone manages to pull it off, but for like every one person who is capable of doing this there are a hundred, if not hundreds more who are too egotistical to be educated the regular way, let alone self-taught.

 

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

The so-called education system in the western world is unworthy of being called an education system in my opinion. Reason, logic, and the ability to debate has been replaced by the orthodoxy of wokesheviks and tards. This makes me wonder, how can you go about giving yourself an education worth having? What texts and topics should you read? What should you avoid? It would be better to give yourself a classical education in your 20s or 30s than to only get what the tards give you in school.

What the fuck would be the point of getting a "second education" in your 30s? What do you expect to happen at that point?

 

[Brahma]

Start with the Greeks

 

[Bussyking7]

For a general "education worth having," I'd focus on bullshit detection--logic, critical thinking, and stats if you are mathematically inclined. (And even if you are not, you should learn about frequently abused statistical concepts so you know them when you see them.)

Statistics should never be included in a classical education. That stuff is for applied faggots. Imagine learning Lehman Scheffe in your free time.

A classical education should involve all of, and nothing more so that you're not a peasant pussy that has real world value: The classics, philology, classical literature, music, history, philosophy, physics and pure math. All this stuff besides music can be self studied.

 

[Standardized Profile]

Statistics should never be included in a classical education. That stuff is for applied faggots. Imagine learning Lehman Scheffe in your free time.

A classical education should involve all of, and nothing more so that you're not a peasant pussy that has real world value: The classics, philology, classical literature, music, history, philosophy, physics and pure math. All this stuff besides music can be self studied.

You will note the OP asked for both "classical education" and "an education worth having." I addressed them separately. This is why critical thinking is important. You saw something that provoked an emotional reaction and, rather than responding to the post you were quoting, you responded to your own emotions. Critical thinking aims to reduce these cognitive errors.

 

[Bussyking7]

You will note the OP asked for both "classical education" and "an education worth having." I addressed them separately. This is why critical thinking is important. You saw something that provoked an emotional reaction and, rather than responding to the post you were quoting, you responded to your own emotions. Critical thinking aims to reduce these cognitive errors.

Hahahaha. Anyone that has any remote semblance of a reading comprehension would see that OP considers classical education and an education worth having equivalent things. Go back to deriving your Fisher information matrix you statistics cuck.

 

[Kosher Dill]

Is this supposed to be about "classical" as in reading the great works of antiquity, or "classical" as in before the education system went to hell?

 

[nigger of the north]

I'm in autodidact in many ways, so certainly possible. I had a decent education when younger, but when I was 19/20 I had a burning desire to learn everything. Started by reading everything on the western canon (or most of it,) and really hammering things through until I felt as though I'd gotten even halfway in understanding it. Starting self-teaching myself Latin and French, then Greek. French I did in highschool, so I already had a decent springboard in that respect.

You eventually get to a point where you can read certain works and find numerous references to other things, from contemporary authors to the classical myths on which they might be built. It's quite to odd think now that despite not having a classical education, I can pore through a text and make notes, in Latin, referencing other authors from antiquity. Marginalia, commonplace books and the like were what I started creating, which is right in line with what learned men of the past used to do (and which is now basically non-existent.)

By the time I went to university the second time as a mature student, everyone just assumed I'd had such an education based on what I knew and could talk about. I was hesitant to correct them on this, as it's kind of weird explaining to someone that you used to spend hours looking at verb conjugations in classical Latin whilst poring over a volume of Martial. But it is what it is.

I do feel like there is a time window to some extent if you want to go down this road. I'm past thirty now, and simply don't have that fire for learning anymore. I don't have the time like I did back then, nor the inclination to put so much effort into something which, if we're being honest, doesn't really matter so much when put against my daily commitments. But I have that solid base of learning that is pretty much ineffable now, which is nice.

I'm pretty sure I'm also low-key on the spectrum, so my dedication isn't as surprising as it might seem.

 

[VIPPER?]

You can self-teach lots of things but critical thinking and debate are skills that have to be practiced. Pure logic is different but most formal logic starts to fall apart with complex issues since for as easy as it is to build a logical statement, your premises are what get called into question and you need more complex methods of confirming them (statistics (math) at the very least and lots of data collection)

I've found it's just best to read whatever you come across and talk to other people when you can. Even if what you read or who you meet is absolutely retarded, seeing what someone Actually Believes™ is important to figuring out context and how to better defend your own opinions