Ep. 57 – The Recovery of the Classical and Christian Roots of the Social Sciences with Dr. Robert Woods (Pt. 4)

This is Episode 57 of the Consortium Podcast, an academic audio blog of Kepler Education.

In this fourth episode of the short series on the Recovery of the Classical and Christian Roots of the Social Sciences, Dr. Robert Woods returns to discuss further insights from his forthcoming book, Neither Angel Nor Beast. In this episode, Dr. Woods elaborates on what he believes is the essential need in modern education to recover a humane understanding of the social sciences.

He asserts that in large part, modern education treats the social sciences with the philosophical is. That means, the human condition is studied as merely observation of what man tends to do. In classical and Christian thought, however, subjects in the social sciences, like anthropology, have historically explored the human condition in relationship to the philosophical ought, the Norms relating to man’s ideal conditions and purposes. 

Dr. Woods has been a Classical Christian educator for nearly 20 years. He has a B.A. in biblical studies and ministry from Point University, an M.A. in religious studies from Barry University, and a Ph.D. in humanities from Florida State University, and most recently, he earned a D.A. from Harrison Middleton University. He developed and chaired the Great Books Honors College at Faulkner University for more than 15 years and is the author of Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education, published by Classical Academic Press.