Harrison Middleton University

Who necromanced thisv old thread and why?

 

Haha! It's been awhile since I posted on forums. Hello Ted. I'm new here. I guess I'll post an intro of myself on the intro page. The bottom line is that I'm applying to the DA program at HMU. This program will be my first DL program.

 

Good luck and I hope you get admitted. :banana::banana::banana::banana: I've been lusting after HMU for a long while but have yet to take the plunge.

 

Question: Who is Boethius? I think he's soime guy I'm supposed to remember from Early Church History.

 

Boethius was a Roman Patrician and philosopher in the medieval era. To make a long story short, Boethius rose to prominence in the government and later was imprisoned. Before waiting for his execution, he wrote his Consolation of Philosophy, a dialog between he and Lady Philosophy. Boethius is also credited with bringing Aristotelian thought into the early Medieval era. So, we just don't owe this intelectual gift from the Muslims in the later medieval era. The Muslims were Aristotelian scholars who preserved Aristotle's writings and as a result gave Western Europe a lot of the advanced technology and ideas in the late middle ages.

 

Hey everyone,
I'm still in the program (Philosophy/religion) -- I take my sweet time. We have ten years to complete a degree. HMU is going through the re-accreditation process in early November and they're still maintaining their NA/DETC credentials.

And Ted, take that plunge! We probably have our own HMU support group right here. Working on a classical liberal arts education is what education should be. Go for it.
:You_Rock_Emoticon:

 

Hi Cute!

We need to talk - if you don't mind. I'm very excited about this DA program. Once my intro clears on the intro page, you can read about me. By the way, here's a question: do we have to obtain a set of the GB? Or, do we purchase the authors' works one at a time?

Best -

Boethius

 

I can't see your intro on the intro page and I'm one of the mods.

 

found it...

 

I don't know if they offer the traditional student tuition loans. They do allow students to pay for each course, interest free, in four monthly payments. Here's the link to what loans they can help you with (of course you can always get your own private loan):
Consumer Disclosure Report - Harrison Middleton University

By the way, for anyone interested in a more structured degree program in Philosophy/religion, HMU is partnering with the Adler-Aquinas Institute to offer additional degrees:
Adler-Aquinas Institute - Harrison Middleton University

 

Hi back Boethius,
You definitely need to purchase the entire set of the GBs all at once, 2nd ed., 1994, including the intro book called "The Great Conversation." All graduate students start with the same introductory course for which you'll need the intro book as well the two vols. called the Syntopicon. Yes, odd names, but it makes sense once you've plunged into the intro course. I see that Amazon no longer directly sells the GB 2nd ed. set. I bought mine in 2008 and paid $995, brand spanking new, plus free shipping. Alas, you'll have to do some searching for a set that's reasonably priced. If you find a used one make sure it has the Great Conversation book included. You'll most likely also need a KJV Bible too, the only one authorized for course use -- I guess it just depends on your chosen subject matter. Hope this helps. PM me if you want to. Oh yeah, make sure your spelling, grammar, syntax and punctuation skills are perfect. The school doesn't let anything slide when evaluating your essays.

-- Carole

 

It looks like the GB 2nd ed. set is still available in the UK, for £599, which would be around $950 at current exchange rates. Wouldn't count on free shipping to the US though.

If you order from the UK, you should check to see if you qualify for a rebate of the VAT (value-added tax). Basically the UK price includes a hefty sales tax (sales tax is not charged separately, as it is in the US). However, exported items may be exempt from that tax, in which case the price would be lower.

 

Looks like eBay to the rescue, maybe ....

One of the sellers:
Britannica Great Books of The Western World Complete 60 Vol Set 2nd Edition | eBay

If anyone needs the set, make sure you ask the seller, before buying, if it includes The Great Conversation book, required for the 1st HMU course. Nobody is showing it in their piccies. Some eBay sellers are even offering free shipping. Yippee!!

 

You're right. But there is something attractive about beautiful leather-bound encyclopedias, especially the GB. They are so "retro," to use my teenage daughter's term.

I have most of these books from a previous grad program, but I would spring a few $$$ for this set.

 

"Great Books" people are traditionalists. When they say "Great Books of the Western World", they mean BOOKS. Not "Great Downloads of the Western World".

Also, with Great Books courses, I suspect that the student and teacher need to (literally) be on the same page, so they probably need the exact same edition of the text. HMU is accustomed to using the Britannica edition. You may be able to get electronic versions of the same works from Project Gutenberg, but there is no assurance that they represent the same editions that the HMU teachers are looking at, or the same translations, or with the same page numbers.

That said, it would certainly make sense for HMU to move towards some kind of uniform electronic edition of the Great Books -- perhaps by arrangement with Britannica -- that they could make available to students. The model of selling 60-volume sets of printed books to the general public is not viable any more, and it will probably never come back. That 60-volume Britannica edition is only going to become harder to find in the future.

 

It seems like HMU could go straight to Gutenberg, gather the list of great books and put them together on the HMU website. Then students could buy only the one or two required books for the introductory course. They would always have access to the entire collection online or on their ebook readers.

 

So true!

Cal, You're exactly right, when we have our one hour phone discussions with our assigned Tutors (rarely the same Tutor assigned for various discussions) they read exactly what we've read. We submit 5 questions and 2 passages for discussion for every assignment. Each question and passage must designate the book volume, chapter, page number and column. So you are correct, we must literally be reading (and quoting) the same pages.

Personally, I own 2 Kindles and 3 iPads plus multiple computers. But for academic work I want printed material -- using sticky Post-it notes to make my own comments, something that's extremely difficult to do with electronic readers and devices. Even some PDF files I use get printed and I can highlight passages. Too bad most of the pages in the GBs are tissue thin, so they don't lend themselves to highlighting or notes in the margins.

It's a shame, because the 60-vol. set of GBs is becoming a quaint method of delivery, but it will take a lot of work for HMU to design a uniform means of ensuring everyone is reading the same material, same pages, same editions.

On the bright side, they will be doing some of their one hour discussions via Skype. Heh, ya can't ignore technology forever! :bigeyes2:

 

There is already a website that is compiling free ebook versions of all of the "Great Books". Looks like most of them are covered.

Apparently Britannica does offer the "Great Books" set in e-book format, but it seems to be marketed through a service called MyiLibrary to libraries, rather than to individuals. Faulkner University, which also has some "Great Books" programs, seems to have a subscription:

if HMU subscribed to this service, then presumably HMU students would have access to the Britannica Great Books series in ebook format. The students would presumably lose access if they graduated or dropped out of HMU. But in that case, they wouldn't need to have the exact same editions as the HMU tutors, and could use other free ebooks as per above.