"[The human] condition of freedom, which is the condition that makes ethical life possible, is the question to which liberal education addresses itself." So says Roosevelt Montás, Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English at Columbia University, in conversation with Brendan Boyle about the aims of liberal education. Their discussion explores the use of texts as a means to help students shape their own lives, the compatibility of liberal education's positive and negative ends, and the role of the teacher, among other topics.

Links:

• Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Change My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (Princeton University Press, 2021)
• "What Should Students Learn?" The Point, August 2021
• Columbia College's core curriculum
• The St. John's College academic program