What universities are called to do more than anything else is to present their students with
models of people deeply engaged in what they genuinely love.
Great teaching is an affirmation of an individual's agency and nature and of their potential.
We're attempting to help further the development of people
who value and take responsibility for themselves,
who are good partners in intimate relationships,
who make steadfast and loyal friends, who are good stewards
of the local community, who are informed enough to engage productively in political matters.
At its most ambitious Ralston College hopes to connect the individuals
with the fundamental ontological realities
of truth, beauty, and goodness, to actualize their own freedoms,
to encourage the development of sovereign citizens.
If you study the humanities
and educate yourself in that tradition then
you can write and you can think
and you can communicate, and there isn't anything you'll ever do in your life that's
practical, for that matter, that doesn't require those abilities.
All of that's central to any success, whatsoever.
And you're not studying great literature to be entertained, although, perhaps,
it will also be entertaining; you're studying great literature
to learn how to be great.
And to note that there's a responsibility that goes along with that and an opportunity
and then to manifest that to the degree that you can in everything you do–in your relationship with
yourself, in your relationship with your wife or husband, in your relationship with your kids, your
friends, the surrounding community, the state, the country, everything.
Once you understand that you see the world through a hierarchy of value
and then you understand that the humanities is
both the transmission of that hierarchy of value and its study
then the absolute necessity for
a humanities tradition becomes self-evident.
A huge part of thought is mediated by discussion
most people think by talking
and most thinking that occurs through talking is dialogical.
So right there you see the importance of the dialogue and the community.
And the 'in person' is important.
"Paradeisos" means 'walled garden' and the walls are culture
and the garden is nature and so Savannah has that aspect that it's a very beautiful city it's
laid out extremely intelligently and so the appreciation of beauty and the effect
that beauty has on us is something that the humanities endeavors to explain and develop.
I knew enough about what made people successful in life by the time I met Stephen to know that
you know intelligence is extraordinarily important the ability to communicate is important
You have vision you have practical ability and attention to detail
and then the depth and breadth of the connection network he's fostered
over decades and as well as friendship for that matter which is also not trivial.
We've undertaken a number of difficult ventures together and they've gone extraordinarily well
and so there's that testament to his vision–combination of vision and management ability. Even
Stephen's ability to refurbish a building, to set up classrooms, to make the classrooms work,
to allow people to dine together, to facilitate that, and to value it. And out of that something new will emerge.
That all speaks to a choice that's been very carefully made.
Insofar as you can have the things in place that might indicate success, possibility of success,
they're there. Nothing necessary to that success has been overlooked
and so away we go.