Allan Bloom - Political philosophy (Plato, Machiavelli..) - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Found a great free learning resource? Share it here.
Forum rules: See here for guidelines on the use of the Free Learning Resources forum.
#14106179
Image

I discovered these recently i.n the Internet Archive. I particularly enjoyed the seminar series on Machiavelli, which Bloom gave to teaching assistants. He teaches these subjects with a great deal of wry humor. The one on Plato's Apology is also interesting but the recording is much worse. There's also stuff on Nietzsche, Aristotle and more if you look around.

Bloom taught political philosophy at numerous American universities, know Leo Strauss and Raymond Aron among others, and had a deep knowledge of the Western tradition of political philosophy. He became famous in 1987 for his book The Closing of the American Mind on how moral relativism was destroying the university. I can't speak to that - see this interview of him about the book, funny as usual, but the point escapes - but I'm finding his broader discussions of the foundations of our politics very stimulating.

Yes I was using the word fun, loosely , ironicall[…]

Trans people are just people. They have no less an[…]

Russia-Ukraine War 2022

You should impose your own standards on yourself.[…]

No, I want you to be happy. I will be happy when[…]