New Book on Core Texts in Liberal Arts & Sciences

Recent collection of essays Back to the Core by Emma Cohen de Lara, Hanke Drop (Eds.) admirably reflects the Association for Core Texts and Courses conference in Amsterdam in September 2015 from which it was generated. The watchword is inclusiveness: authors from a variety of departments are represented from across the United States and Europe, there are no limits on what texts can be examined – from Plato to Wallace – and no restrictions on the approach taken toward the text. The spirit of experimentation pervades the writing and thinking and assures the existence of the kind of seminar protocol that was first elucidated by Socrates. His only rule in conversation was for his speakers to say what they truly thought, and what better way to stimulate original thought? This is a splendid achievement for the cause of interdisciplinarity.