Young Heretics

Life is very hard for Odysseus. He's lost comrades to war and to people-eaters of both the one- and two-eyed varieties. He's far from home, wandering at sea, and now, after all that...he has to go to bed with a beautiful goddess. Please bow your heads in a moment of silence. Truly, though, the island of Aeaea, where Circe the witch lives, does represent a major trial that Odysseus must go through to make his way back into civilization. But it's not he kind of trial we'd imagine today, when Christianity has totally transformed sexual ethics. What does it mean to stay true to your family, and what is true strength? Odysseus is going to have to answer both questions to make it home.

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Catch up on my livestream with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/new-livestream-october-7-6pm-et

Simon Netchev's Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Translation should be impossible--but it works. Does that prove there's such a thing as universal, objective reality? For that matter, what would "objective" reality even mean? This week, thanks to a listener question, I'm lead to the heart of these ancient mysteries via Aristotle, Kant and...Kanye West? Plus: the Light of the Mind book tour begins! Guess where I am this week...

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Simon Netchev's Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Ah, the state of nature: a peaceful utopia where each man is free to live off his own vineyards, sit under his own fig tree, and eat people alive. Wait--what?? In Book 9 of the Odyssey, Homer gives us a diabolical bait-and-switch, from the pure serenity of primitive life to the gruesome horrors of a world without law. It's the perfect antidote to the wishful thinking that might set in around election time, when all we want is to get away from politics: if you can believe it, the alternatives might be even worse!

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Simon Netchev's Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Let's pick up where we left off last week: words are symbols of symbols, representing inward states of the soul. But those inward states are also symbols, because the world is symbolic--that is, it naturally produces symbols as a real feature of its construction. So...what do we do about it? To answer that question we turn to Thomas Aquinas, whose little book De Natura Verbi Intellectus tells you everything you need to know about Adam naming the animals, and probably also about quantum superposition. Which is...cool.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

The Odyssey begins with a big empty space where Odysseus should be. His home, his familiy, his household are all suffering for want of him. But where is he--and more importantly, who is he? That's the poem again and again and today, we begin trying to answer it. If there's one thing everyone remembers from this poem it's the adventure stories in the middle: the Cyclops, Circe, the Lotus Eaters. We embark on those stories now, beginning with the moment when Odysseus finally chooses to reveal his true identity to his hosts the Phaeacians...and perhaps also to himself.

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

Peter Struck's interactive Odyssey Map: https://www2.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/homer/index.php?page=odymap

Simon Netchev's Odyssey Map: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15906/odysseus-ten-year-journey-home

Selective attention test (the basketball gorilla): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

EPiC, a concept album by Jorge Rivera-Herrans: https://solo.to/jayherrans

And check out Rivera-Herrans's Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/jayherrans/?hl=en

If a tree falls in the forest...does it make a sound? There's actually a great answer to that question, and Aristotle just tweeted it out way back when. Today, in response to a listener question, I finally lay it all on the line and tell you my nuts-and-bolts theory of translation, which is also a theory of the world. It's basically Aristotle, with some Thomas Aquinas mixed in: the mysteries of the soul are inscribed all over with the hieroglyphs of the body, and symbols are the rosetta stone that bridge between them.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

The Writing of the Gods, by Edward Dolnick: https://a.co/d/4jGv6NO

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Let's check in on how Odysseus' other buddies from Troy are doing.

*Briefly scans news report from Proteus*

Yeah so uh it's a dumpster fire. Today Telemachus arrives at Troy, where he hears from Menelaus about his own fraught journey home, including his encounter with an immortal seal dad (real) which led to the first news of Odysseus in years. It won't bring him home but it will bring his son hope, which might be just what he needs to fill the void that has opened up since Odysseus left.

SIGNUPS OPEN: Register for Spring courses at The Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

I Maked This: "If--," Then (And Now) https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/p/if-then-and-now

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

The name "Rosetta Stone" has great brand recognition, but how much do you really know about Ptolemy V's royal decree? When you get right down to it, it's one of the wildest little corners of world history, stretching from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the defeat of Napoleon, with lots of bonkers facts in between. Plus it'll help us uncover more about the nature of language, logic, and humanity itself. Not bad for a hunk of rock!

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

The Odyssey is a very different poem from the Iliad in many ways, but in one way it picks up right where the Iliad leaves off: with the fallout of war and the journey to re-integrate soldiers back into the civil society they came from. Today we begin Odysseus' long journey home, which actually begins at the end and works backward, starting with his son Telemachus' journey to grow to manhod without his dad around.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

Stephen C. Meyer, The Return of the God Hypothesis: https://a.co/d/gbIOQSY

Owen Barfield, Worlds Apart: https://a.co/d/1eVagdy

Owen Barfield, Saving the Appearances: https://a.co/d/ioLqsnf

C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man: https://a.co/d/e3QeBte

C.S. Lewis, Miracles: https://a.co/d/g9hpjq5

Victor Stenger, God: The Failed Hypothesis: https://a.co/d/gmGwcoW

James Hannam, God's Philosophers: https://a.co/d/625AA62

Ed Feser, Aristotle's Revenge: https://a.co/d/bPGnKuf

Augustine, Confessions: https://a.co/d/99APz4T

Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram imperfectus liber: https://www.augustinus.it/latino/genesi_incompiuto/index.htm

Is prophecy a species of translation, or encryption, or both? This fascinating question, prompted by last week's episode on quantum cryptography, breaks down into two different sub-questions: how do prophets receive and communicate their messages, and how should we understand them? There are lots of ways to go wrong here--think doomsday cults--but also some fascinating ways to go right that help reveal the nature of language, scripture, and history. Plus: an illustration of the four traditional ways to interpret the Bible.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

I maked this: a full translation of the Book of Isaiah at https://www.rejoice-evermore.com/just-the-translation