Education and Reason

With 'The Choice of Heracles' Handel explores an ancient myth that was a figment of Sophistic pedagogical literature of the 5th century BC. In antiquity, the myth, in which personified virtue trumps lust, found currency primarily in the stoic school of philosophy; in more modern times, it played a major role in educational literature that was likewise inspired by stoicism, particularly during the Renaissance and in the 18th century.

Today, it seems to be of historical interest only, sounding all too much like old-fashioned moral codes and anti-pleasure duty-based ethics. The lecture will illustrate why the stoic idea of virtue and vice stands closer to us today than one might think and what all this has to do with the great dispute about reason and truth in antiquity.