
Political philosophy professor for @CCSUVU and @ClaremontInst. Heretical Straussian synthesist. Lincoln's Shakespearean Education out November 2026.
Joined June 2016
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Ted Richards retweeted
Mormons are good citizens, patriotic Americans, and not far from the kingdom of heaven. That's why the Left hates them and for years mocked and picked at them incessantly. The Right should not scorn them.
Ted Richards retweeted
Replying to @GregMcBrayer3 @ProfEricAdler
The curriculum is highly important, but I think it is subordinate to the personnel. I would rather listen to my best professors talk about critical race theory than hear my worst professors lecture on Plato.
The Trump-Douglas Debates: "'Dirty Douglas' pretends he 'don't care.' That's what he says! 'I don't care!' Dirty Douglas. He does though, doesn't he? He wants to force you to have a slave!"
The Lincoln-Trump Debates: "Old 'Abolition Abe,' that's what they call him. They call him 'Abolition Abe.' Abolition Abe wants to marry a slave!"
My students already think I'm a little eccentric in how I've read the texts we've covered so far this semester, but they have no idea what's coming lol
Alcasan soon
JUST IN🚨: Scientists have successfully detached the human brain from the living body.
Fully detached, yet still actively functioning.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
No credible reports support detaching a human brain from a living body while it continues to function actively. Experiments with isolated brains use organs donated after death to restore basic cellular functions for research, without restoring consciousness.
popularmechanics.com/science/a63459…
polytechnique-insights.com/en/columns/neu…
nature.com/articles/d4158…
Ted Richards retweeted
We're almost at the fundraising goal to have the symphony recorded with a live orchestra! Donate here 👇🏻
givesendgo.com/a250symphony
The thing about Dante's Inferno is...I don't think you can convince me that the 8th circle should actually be full of primarily liars of various kinds, while murderers are in the 7th.
Ted Richards retweeted
Students in classical schools should be studying heroes, not philosophy
Ted Richards retweeted
No one should read philosophy until they reach adulthood.
Ok, this is incredible.
A new classical Catholic high school just opened in Fairfax County (St. Jerome Institute) — this is what a serious education looks like:
– Phones collected at the door
– Every class is a seminar discussion
– 15-20 students seated facing one another
– Art and music are required, NOT elective
– Math class teaches "the intrinsic beauty of math"
– Entire curriculum is integrated: philosophical and theological questioning in every class
And here's the literature section of the reading list:
9th grade (Exodus & Odyssey):
– Homer, Odyssey
– Genesis
– Plato, Euthyphro and Apology
– Virgil, Aeneid
– Exodus
– Beowulf
– Song of Roland
– Gospel of Luke
– Plato, Phaedo and Crito
– Acts of the Apostles
– Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
– Wilder, Our Town
10th grade (God & Nature):
– Creation myths
– Plato, Timaeus and Symposium
– Aristotle, De Anima
– Plotinus
– Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Bonaventure, Aquinas
– Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
– Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
– Descartes, Meditations
– Bacon, Newton, Darwin
– Berry, Wilder, Tolkien
– Tocqueville
– Benedict XVI
– Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
– Faulkner, The Bear
11th grade (God & the Human Person):
– Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
– Plato, Symposium
– Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
– Augustine, Confessions
– Shakespeare, Twelfth Night and King Lear
– Hobbes, Leviathan
– Swift, A Modest Proposal
– Austen, Pride and Prejudice
– Shelley, Frankenstein
– Hopkins
– O’Connor
– Martin Luther King Jr.
– Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
– John Paul II
12th grade (God & Society):
– Plato, Republic
– Dante, The Divine Comedy
– Aristotle, Politics
– Augustine, City of God
– Aquinas, De Regno
– Natural and human law
– Machiavelli, Hobbes
– Locke, Rousseau
– Marx and Engels
– Dignitatis Humanae, Evangelium Vitae, Centesimus Annus
– John Courtney Murray
– Leviticus
– Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
– The Declaration of Independence
– The Constitution
– The Federalist Papers
"They gain an in-depth knowledge of Western civilization from Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem through England and the founding of our own country."
High schoolers should not be studying this much philosophy. Truly. Leave the literature, epics, etc. but cut the philosophy. It is at best destabilizing at that age. Make it available for some precocious and interested in senior year, but not for 9th graders.
Ok, this is incredible.
A new classical Catholic high school just opened in Fairfax County (St. Jerome Institute) — this is what a serious education looks like:
– Phones collected at the door
– Every class is a seminar discussion
– 15-20 students seated facing one another
– Art and music are required, NOT elective
– Math class teaches "the intrinsic beauty of math"
– Entire curriculum is integrated: philosophical and theological questioning in every class
And here's the literature section of the reading list:
9th grade (Exodus & Odyssey):
– Homer, Odyssey
– Genesis
– Plato, Euthyphro and Apology
– Virgil, Aeneid
– Exodus
– Beowulf
– Song of Roland
– Gospel of Luke
– Plato, Phaedo and Crito
– Acts of the Apostles
– Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
– Wilder, Our Town
10th grade (God & Nature):
– Creation myths
– Plato, Timaeus and Symposium
– Aristotle, De Anima
– Plotinus
– Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Bonaventure, Aquinas
– Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
– Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
– Descartes, Meditations
– Bacon, Newton, Darwin
– Berry, Wilder, Tolkien
– Tocqueville
– Benedict XVI
– Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
– Faulkner, The Bear
11th grade (God & the Human Person):
– Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
– Plato, Symposium
– Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
– Augustine, Confessions
– Shakespeare, Twelfth Night and King Lear
– Hobbes, Leviathan
– Swift, A Modest Proposal
– Austen, Pride and Prejudice
– Shelley, Frankenstein
– Hopkins
– O’Connor
– Martin Luther King Jr.
– Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
– John Paul II
12th grade (God & Society):
– Plato, Republic
– Dante, The Divine Comedy
– Aristotle, Politics
– Augustine, City of God
– Aquinas, De Regno
– Natural and human law
– Machiavelli, Hobbes
– Locke, Rousseau
– Marx and Engels
– Dignitatis Humanae, Evangelium Vitae, Centesimus Annus
– John Courtney Murray
– Leviticus
– Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
– The Declaration of Independence
– The Constitution
– The Federalist Papers
"They gain an in-depth knowledge of Western civilization from Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem through England and the founding of our own country."
The idea that the Founding was amoral or immoral is the result of radical historicist "presentism." Reading the Declaration through the lens of post 60's morality supports such a conclusion; reading it as the Founders understood it yields coherent (usually Christian) moral claims
The first 100 pages of the book is a series of extended jokes. Really, the whole novel. Some quite off-color, but very clearly funny. Anyone arguing otherwise is speaking based on the reputation of the book being a boring and overly long allegory, which it isn't. cc: @MTClassical
The opening paragraph of Moby-Dick is one big, long, bit of self-deprecating black humor about how Ishmael has to go out on a ship every now and then or he might off himself. It's supposed to be funny.
"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."
























