Most early modern scholars know that Petrus Ramus (1515-1572) is important, but may be rather vague as to where his importance lies. This new collection of essays analyses the impact of the logician, rhetorician and pedagogical innovator across a variety of countries and intellectual disciplines, reappraising Ramus in the light of scholarly developments in the fifty years since the publication of Walter Ong's seminal work Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue. Chapters reflect the broad impact of Ramus and the Ramist 'method' of teaching across many subjects, including logic and rhetoric, pedagogy, mathematics, philosophy, and new scientific and taxonomic developments in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There is no current work that offers such a broad survey of Ramus and Ramism, or that looks at him in such an interdisciplinary fashion. Ramus' influence extended across many disciplines and this book skillfully weaves together studies in intellectual history, pedagogy, literature, philosophy and the history of science. It will prove a useful starting point for those interested in Ramus and his impact, as well as serving to redefine the field of Ramist studies for future scholars.

Most early modern scholars know that Petrus Ramus (1515-1572) is important, but may be rather vague as to where his importance lies. This new collection of essays analyses the impact of the logician, rhetorician and pedagogical innovator across a variety of countries and intellectual disciplines, reappraising Ramus in the light of scholarly developments in the fifty years since the publication of Walter Ong's seminal work Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue. Chapters reflect the broad impact of Ramus and the Ramist 'method' of teaching across many subjects, including logic and rhetoric, pedagogy, mathematics, philosophy, and new scientific and taxonomic developments in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There is no current work that offers such a broad survey of Ramus and Ramism, or that looks at him in such an interdisciplinary fashion. Ramus' influence extended across many disciplines and this book skillfully weaves together studies in intellectual history, pedagogy, literature, philosophy and the history of science. It will prove a useful starting point for those interested in Ramus and his impact, as well as serving to redefine the field of Ramist studies for future scholars.

Contributions by William D. Adams, Sarah Archino, Mario J. Azevedo, Katrina Byrd, Rico D. Chapman, Helen O. Chukwuma, Monica Flippin Wynn, Tatiana Glushko, Eric J. Griffin, Kathi R. Griffin, Yumi Park Huntington, Thomas M. Kersen, Robert E. Luckett Jr., Floyd W. Martin, Preselfannie W. McDaniels, Dawn Bishop McLin, Laura Ashlee Messina, Byron D'Andra Orey, Kathy Root Pitts, Candis Pizzetta, Lawrence Sledge, RaShell R. Smith-Spears, Joseph Martin Stevenson, Seretha D. Williams, and Karen C. Wilson-Stevenson Redefining Liberal Arts Education in the Twenty-First Century delves into the essential nature of the liberal arts in America today. During a time when the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math dominate the narrative around the future of higher education, the liberal arts remain vital but frequently dismissed academic pursuits. While STEAM has emerged as a popular acronym, the arts get added to the discussion in a way that is often rhetorical at best. Written by scholars from a diversity of fields and institutions, the essays in this collection legitimize the liberal arts and offer visions for the role of these disciplines in the modern world. From the arts, pedagogy, and writing to social justice, the digital humanities, and the African American experience, the essays that comprise Redefining Liberal Arts Education in the Twenty-First Century bring attention to the vast array of ways in which the liberal arts continue to be fundamental parts of any education. In an increasingly transactional environment, in which students believe a degree must lead to a specific job and set income, colleges and universities should take heed of the advice from these scholars. The liberal arts do not lend themselves to the capacity to do a single job, but to do any job. The effective teaching of critical and analytical thinking, writing, and speaking creates educated citizens. In a divisive twenty-first-century world, such a citizenry holds the tools to maintain a free society, redefining the liberal arts in a manner that may be key to the American republic.

This book argues for a modern version of liberal arts education, exploring first principles within the divine comedy of educational logic. By reforming the three philosophies of metaphysics, nature and ethics upon which liberal arts education is based, Tubbs offers a profound transatlantic philosophical and educational challenge to the subject.

In a world where the value of a liberal arts education is no longer taken for granted, Mark William Roche lucidly and passionately argues for its essential importance. Drawing on more than thirty years of experience in higher education as a student, faculty member, and administrator, Roche deftly connects the broad theoretical perspective of educators to the practical needs and questions of students and their parents. Roche develops three overlapping arguments for a strong liberal arts education: first, the intrinsic value of learning for its own sake, including exploration of the profound questions that give meaning to life; second, the cultivation of intellectual virtues necessary for success beyond the academy; and third, the formative influence of the liberal arts on character and on the development of a sense of higher purpose and vocation. Together with his exploration of these three values—intrinsic, practical, and idealistic—Roche reflects on ways to integrate them, interweaving empirical data with personal experience. Why Choose the Liberal Arts? is an accessible and thought-provoking work of interest to students, parents, and administrators.

In A Life in Learning, award-winning professor Anthony Aveni tells the personal story of his six decades in college classrooms and some of the 10,000 students who have filled them. Through anecdotes of his own triumphs and tribulations—some amusing, others heartrending—Aveni reveals his teaching story and thoughts on the future of higher education. Although in recent years the lecture has come under fire as a pedagogical method, Aveni ardently defends lecturing to students. He shares his secrets on crafting an engaging lecture and creating productive dialogue in class discussions. He lays out his rules on classroom discipline and tells how he promotes the lost art of listening. He is a passionate proponent of the liberal arts and core course requirements as well as a believer in sound teaching promoted by active scholarship. Aveni is known to his students as a consummate storyteller. In A Life in Learning he shares real stories about everyday college life that shed light on serious educational issues. The result is a humorous, reflective, inviting, and powerful inquiry into higher education that will be of interest to anyone invested in the current and future state of college and university education.

This book offers a clarion call, in the words of Franklin Roosevelt, to “try something!” And not just any something. A systematic, integrated, chronological, multi-disciplinary approach to reinvigorate the teaching of the liberal arts and put them back where they belong—at the center of a student’s educational experience. It does not pretend to offer a cure-all or a one-size-fits-all solution to everything that is ailing American higher education, or even secondary education. It does, however, offer a place to begin a discussion, to invite experimentation, and to initiate reform based on solid pedagogy and 2,500 years of time-tested wisdom in the human experience. As such it should be of interest to many people. Those in higher education serious about the crisis facing their institutions could benefit from taking up the gauntlet this volume throws down. For students and parents, the book raises alternatives and poses some hard questions that they should be asking not only as they consider colleges and universities, but of their secondary schools. In fact, anyone who keeps a close eye on the state of education would be interested in what this book adds to the discussion.

“Liberal Arts and Sciences ... should be read by those persons who wish to seek a higher level of critical, compassionate, and creative thinking, It is well-written, insightful, and is a fascinating examination of education...and significant traits such as honesty, creativity, ethical behavior, and wisdom—concepts that are sorely needed in today’s global world.” -US Review of Books Nominated for the American Association of Colleges & University's 2015 Frederic W. Ness Book Award. Nominated for the 2015 Eric Hoffer Book Award. “This book will help individuals become more open, courageous, and willing to engage in meaningful and constructive dialogue in their search for truth.” -Miriam Montano, undergraduate student in California This book will, first, move the reader through philosophy’s major conceptions as ideas that initiate and sustain educational and learning processes. The book will then provide an historical account of the key periods, development, and continuing contributions of the liberal arts enterprise. The book also includes three chapters on the application dimensions of the liberal arts model of higher learning, mainly its development of critical, creative, and ethical thinking competencies for effective citizenship and problem solving in the world.