Antigone, Photography & Philosophy — Oh My!

Following a good night’s rest after Monday night’s activities, students woke up ready to carpe diem on their second full day at the Great Books High School Summer Program. Several students rose early to attend the 7:15 a.m. Mass, after which came breakfast in St. Joseph Commons: egg burritos, bacon, sausage, and cinnamon rolls, thus ensuring that programmers were ready to gather in their sections and examine Sophocles’ Antigone.

With guidance from their tutors and the camaraderie of their classmates, students dove headlong into perennial themes of civil vs. religious duty, as well as love for family. The polarizing figures of Antigone and Creon kept discussions alive! Leaving their classrooms, the sections then gathered outside St. Joseph Commons for a group photo. They also got snapshots of each section, which should be available on this blog before too long.

Then it was time for a lunch of savory orange chicken and steamed rice. Tables were crammed with section-mates and new friends as students discussed any and everything — home, the previous day, Antigone, and the subject of the upcoming afternoon class: the Pre-Socratic philosophers.

Once all was said and eaten, it was time to visit the land before Socrates: Selections from the fragments of Empedocles, Democritus, and Epicurus, the movers and shakers of early Ancient Greek thought. Delving into the writings, programmers explored a wide variety of ideas, all wrapped up together: Metaphysics, physics, creation and destruction, infinity — even atoms! Students bravely contended with these ideas, parsing obscure sentences and exploring their meanings. Here, they could encounter many of the ideas that prompted Aristotle to write his landmark Physics and other such works.

Please return to the Summer Blog tomorrow to catch up on this evening’s goings-on. Programmers are looking forward to studying Genesis from the Holy Bible — which is sure to prompt discussions contrasting the Pre-Socratics’ take on Creation to that of Holy Scripture — and to spending their free time with each other, playing hard and unwinding from the day.