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I. What is the FC degree?
A. It initiates the Mason into a consideration of lifelong pursuits
B. It teaches the importance of the five senses – in effect, epistemology – as well as the sensuality of man – which are parallel with the orders of architectural columns.
C. It admonishes the basics of a broad-based education, both literally and metaphorically.
D. Historically, what were important subjects to learn, and why
E. Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy
F. Why not foreign languages, or drama, or literature? Why not history?
G. What is the “middle chamber?”
H. Why not ethics, theology, metaphysics or such that were well known at the time?
II. Epistemology, ontology and their branches of philosophy – Sybil of Cumae – definitions of these branches.
A. Aristotle and ontology
B. Descartes - Epistemology
C. Gnosticism, Zen, Enlightenment tolerance and beginning of the scientific method. D. Aristotle and ethics
E. A Masonic ethic
F. Are Masons modern Sybil’s holding secret knowledge of the past that is unread and unheard?
III. The arts and sciences as we know them today, compared to the past
A. Logic, the science as a lost art as melded into math, engineering and such. Now lost in emotion?
B. Scientific advances.
C. Rhetoric – now a matter of marketing?
D. Belief vs. science: A dilemma unforeseen by Freemasonry, or their habit.
E. Social sciences and statistics. Is this dehumanization?
F. Platonism – The beginnings of science and Freemasonry parallel.
G. Metaphysics and physics blending? Mythology and alternative worlds blend with string theory and membrane universes.
H. What do these changes mean to Freemasons and Freemasonry?
IV. Grammar
A. Grammar, and how it might be learned. Initially in childhood, and then…
B. Note the lack of an English grammar at the period. Appeal form foreign languages, especially Latin.
C. Why is Grammar first? Without grammar there is no communication.
D. Grammar as mathematics, math as grammar
E. Comparative grammar suggests greater expressiveness – e.g., the Ablative.
F. Grammar as power, the expressive are those of influence.
V. Rhetoric
A. Back to Aristotle yet again
B. Literature as rhetoric – from letters to theater, novels, essays and poetry
C. Rhetoric as logic and mathematics
D. Rhetoric as a Masonic art and science
E. Rhetoric as power, the expressive are those of influence
F. Internal rhetoric – restructuring consideration of belief structures
VI. Logic
A. And again, to Aristotle
B. Basic types of logic, inductive and deductive
C. Necessary for all other sciences – a true foundation of thought
D. Logical fallacies - pitfalls
E. Casuistry
F. Logic and belief structures – again Descartes and others
VII. Arithmetic
A. Stepping stone to all science
B. Roman vs. Arabic numeral systems
C. Some usages in Freemasonry as in 3-5-7, etc.
D. Arithmetic in daily life – both work and private life today and before
E. Algebra = arithmetic plus logic
F. Math as descriptive for physics
VIII. Geometry
A. Geometry and “G”od.
B. Freemasony and its use of figurative geometry.
C. Geometry as a mode of extrapolating Enlightenment truths such as a solar centric system.
D. Geometry and traditional architecture
E. Geometry and the industrial revolution, a new use for repeatability
F. Geometry as a universal basic descriptive language for Freemasonry
G. Geometry and the unseen secret
IX. Music – the lost science
A. Music as a universal human language
B. Music as a science – Vivaldi to Mozart
C. Music as a physical skill
D. Music and the emotions
E. Musical logic and rhetoric
F. Folk vs. professional music
G. Emotion vs. logic in music
H. Why is music important to Freemasons? Emotional consideration
X. Astronomy
A. Masonic astronomy from an era of astrology
B. Astronomy and man’s place in the universe
C. History of astronomy and its meaning to Freemasonry
D. Those two globes on the columns
E. Astrological Freemasonry?
F. Astronomy, astrolabes and sextants, mapmaking and voyages
G. Is astronomy beyond today’s individual? What does that mean for Freemasonry?
XI. A foundation of learning or a metaphor – or both?
A. Are these arts and sciences just a metaphor for Freemasons? Yes.
B. Are these arts and sciences a meaningful study for Masons? Yes
C. If they are not part of current curricula, why waste non-academic effort?
D. Philosophy – neo-Platonism and Freemasonry
XII. Why does Freemasonry seemingly ignore these in its institutional activities?
A. Changes from the 1600s
B. Politics, religion and science from Renaissance to Enlightenment
C. “English” role in these from a “heathen-barbarian” tradition
D. Current educational trends of acculturation vs. e-duco.
E. The lost word, a classical allusion now lost?
F. Tragedy, Aristotle’s Poetics, the Hiramic mythos and Masonry
G. Masonry – The FC challenge for self-realization
H. Freemasonry and Zen – light, then study, light then study
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