Great Books II   Spring 2012
  Reading Questions  
 

February 2

 

Dante

Read one Canto aloud each day.

 

Augustine (XI-XII)
Focus on XXIII-XXV
  1. Why is the bridge broken in the sixth circle of the Malabolgia?

  2. What is Dante teaching us about fraud by the architecture of this region?

  3. Why is hypocrisy at the cusp of the Malabolgia? What do the sins of fraud above hypocrisy have in common?

  4. Analyze the contrapasso of the thieves and serpents in Canto XXIV-V.

 

  1. Why are the issues of time and creation important to Augustin?
  2. Read this poem by T.S. Eliot in preparaton for class.
  3. In his dialogue "Meno", Plato says: "There is no teaching, but only recollection." What would Augustine say about this statement?
  4. What is the relationship between the self and memory?
  5. Augustine describes three selves in chapter XIII. How does each one tie to conversion?