Freedom in Quarantine: Daniel Bernardus on Leonardo Polo

In his famous intellectual and spiritual autobiography, Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton remarks that the main problem for philosophers is how they can “contrive to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home in it.” The attainment of this double need--for surprise and for security--is, he maintains, at the heart of human happiness.  

Modernity poses similar questions to educators who, though at home in classical and medieval thought, nevertheless desire to prepare their students to live in the middle of the world.  Namely:

1. How can we root our students in those timeless truths, so prized by the ancients and furthered by the medievals, while preparing them to embrace the modern world?  
2. How can we form our students to be both contemplative and active, to be comfortable in the country and in the city, so to speak?  
3. In Biblical terms: how can we remain in this modern world of ours, and yet not be of it?

To help us begin to answer these questions, we welcome to HeightsCast Dr. Daniel Bernardus, a theoretical biologist by training, teacher and tutor at Amsterdam University College by profession, and a philosopher and author by passion. In this episode, Dr. Bernardus introduces us to the ideas of Leonardo Polo, a Spanish philosopher from the University of Navarre, whose work just might offer us a way forward.

Can we integrate the modern, the classical, and the Christian? Can we love the modern world and God first? Listen in and see for yourself.

Show Highlights 

• Who is Leonardo Polo? 
• How Polo’s philosophy can help educators
• Can modern philosophy be integrated with classical and Christian thought?
• What Freedom in Quarantine can teach you
• The roots of modernism and what they can teach us about the way forward
• The limits of classical thought
• How medieval monasteries were places of innovation
• Can anything good come from modernity?
• How modern science can harmonize with classical philosophy
• Consequences of modernism in education
• What is success? Can we measure it?
• How technological innovation can be pursued for love of God
• Why the family is essential to education 
• What Leonardo Polo can teach those who are not educators

Suggested Reading

Freedom in Quarantine

Resources

Leonardo Polo Institute of Philosophy