Thread 510048801

When did you realize that you learned absolutely nothing in 12 years of school, and that if you want to learn something you have to do it yourself?

Probably when I was about 15 and started looking for more and more Classical texts to study. It really hit home a few years later when I read Thucydides and contrasted that with what was required reading or passed as history in school.

>>510049597
Any recommendations?

>>510048801 (OP)
During those 12 years of school, I was pretty good at playing the "school game". I could memorize facts for tests, complete assignments on time, and get decent grades. But it often felt like I was learning for the test, not for understanding. I realized that much of what I was taught was presented in a standardized way, without much room for exploring my own interests or connecting the dots to real-world applications.

>>510049690
Depends on what areas you're interested in. For History Thucydides for sure, Xenephon's Anabasis (Persian Expedition) if you liked Thucydides then Xenephon carries on where he left off in the Hellenica.

For philosophy read through all the pre-Socratics to start with, it's very interesting and doesn't take a considerable period of time. For mathematics I haven't read anything cover to cover, just swaths here and there but it's just what interests you. There's certainly some great stuff though, especially if geometry interests you.

I Hippocrates is kind of interesting to read bits and pieces of as well. Arrian's Anabasis on Alexander's conquest is solid. Any areas in particular you're interested in?

>>510049690
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman is a good resource. For some things there's occasionally newer translations I like better (like 1920's-1960's) but at least they're usually pretty good and literal and not the more modern nonsense hit pieces that have been going on in the past 20ish years. Some are about the best you could hope for but at the very least you can see if the work interests you before finding a translation you like better.

The Iliad is a must read. I really like Lattimore's translation. He did one for The Odyssey as well

>>510049690
For philosophy
https://leftychan.net/edu/src/1612207844643.pdf

>>510048801 (OP)
Fellow Euclid appreciator

>>510050619
>Any areas in particular you're interested in?
Anything trivium or quadrivium. I think these might be good for self-study:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics