• Introduction
• Description
• Philosophy
• Blount Life
• Mission Statements

The Blount Undergraduate Initiative

The Blount Undergraduate Initiative is a four-year program that affirms the value of a liberal arts education based on classical traditions. Its objective is to instill in students the habits of mind that characterize self-reliant thinkers. The Blount program is predicated on the assumption that all students, no matter what their backgrounds, can read and discuss excellent literature. We define this literature as the kind that has the ability to engage the whole person, the imagination as well as the intellect, and that provides a rich source of continuing inquiry. We invite students to join faculty in the liberal arts tradition of exploring the intellectual and cultural heritage of Western civilization and to come to a critical perspective for understanding the world in all its diversity.

The Concept of "Foundations" in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative

"If I tell you that this is the greatest good for a human being, to engage every day in arguments about virtue and other things you have heard me talk about, examining both myself and others, and if I tell you that the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being, you will be even less likely to believe what I am saying. But that's the way it is, as I claim, though it's not easy to convince you of it."

Socrates, in Plato, Apology 38A