14. Chat GPT & The End of Education

01/27/23 • 52 min

James and Difff return for the second season of Educating Humans to discuss the big buzz-word of the moment: ChatGPT. What are the implications of artificial intelligence for education? Is it really the 'end of the high school English classroom' and 'the end of the college essay?' Or perhaps rather than spelling the end of education, it should instead have us returning to that fundamental question - what is the end of education, anyway?

Check out Difff's other podcast: Chiron, conversations about the past to help make sense of the present.
And James' other podcast: The Art of Inquiry, inquiries into the nature of the world and humanity with expert level guests passionate about their field.
Music: 'Inspiring Dreams' by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon
Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Previous Episode

13. Misconceptions about Classical Education

Continuing from Episode 12, Difff and James tackle two more misconceptions about classical education. The first is that classical education has a narrow and specific definition. Is it all Socratic Discussions? Is it all The Trivium? What are the non-negotiable elements that must be included for an education to be considered Classical, or Liberal? The second is the claim that classical education is inherently pagan because it stems from Ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. Alternatively, it is sometimes claimed that classical education is always Christian because of its foundations in Medieval Christendom. The fact that both of these claims can be levelled at it, however, points to the answer to them both.

Next Episode

15. The Great Conversation & Practical Theology - Some Books, Part 1

This is the first episode about some good books worth reading for anyone interested in classical liberal education. Covering genres such as philosophy, history, educational theory and fiction, these books are not only about classical education, but also constitute a good platform for a liberal education.
James discusses The Great Conversation by Mortimer Adler, which is an introduction to reading the canon of Western Civilisation. Difff then discusses his first choice, Practical Theology by Peter Kreeft, 358 short summaries of important questions from St Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae.
Other books that will be discussed in this series include: Frankenstein, Hamlet, The Philosophy of Tolkein, and the two that will be discussed in the next instalment, The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost.