31 OCT 2018 by ideonexus
Adult is Not a Term of Approval
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about bei...Folksonomies: maturity juvenillia
Folksonomies: maturity juvenillia
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notes
notes17 MAY 2017 by ideonexus
Success as Proof of Virtue
Ivanka contrasts “proactive” people, who are “passionate and productive,” with “negative people,” those who are “swayed by the external and are frequently the victim of circumstance.” Her worldview, it turns out, is not so different from her father’s. Both see society through the lens of quasi-mystical corporate self-help, the sort pioneered by Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking and a major influence on Donald Trump. In their schema, success is proof of virtue and ... 1 notes
notes21 APR 2014 by ideonexus
History in "A Song of Ice and Fire"
In this, the obvious contrast is with the only work of fantasy to compare in terms of ambition and achievement to Martin's own: The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien's Middle-earth, unlike Westeros, is the creation of a dauntingly learned scholar: his ambition was to fashion from the languages, literature and history of the early middle ages an invented mythology that would nevertheless retain the stamp of the period that had inspired it. Martin's approach is infinitely more slapdash. Just as the ch... 1 notes
notesASOIF contains many references to real history.
24 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Geometry Sets the Mind Right
Geometry enlightens the intellect and sets one's mind right. All its proofs are very clear and orderly. It is hardly possible for errors to enter into geometrical reasoning, because it is well arranged and orderly. Thus, the mind that constantly applies itself to geometry is not likely to fall into error. In this convenient way, the person who knows geometry acquires intelligence. It has been assumed that the followmg statement was written Upon Plato's door: 'No one who is not a geometrician ...Folksonomies: mathematics meditation
Folksonomies: mathematics meditation
1 Makes me think about mindfulness meditation, which is fine, but there are meditative practices that are proactive as well.
13 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
Anecdote About the Cuckoo Clock in China
The gaudy watches of indifferent workmanship, fabricated purposely for the China market and once in universal demand, are now scarcely asked for. One gentleman in the Honourable East India Company’s employ took it into his head that cuckoo clocks might prove a saleable article in China, and accordingly laid in a large assortment, which more than answered his most sanguine expectations. But as these wooden machines were constructed for sale only, and not for use, the cuckoo clocks became all m... 1 notes
notesA salesman convinces his buyers that his faulty clocks will work once again once the birds come out of hibernation.
10 OCT 2013 by mxplx
Reflective equilibrium
No moral position is universal and that each society makes its own moral rules unfettered, so that even acts we would view as unequivocally immoral could be morally unobjectionable in some other culture.
kayan people in vietnam put rings around their neck
general conformity to values, especially if it is cited in mainstream media as opposed to those who thought independentlyReflective equilibrium is a state of balance or coherence among a set of beliefs arrived at by a process of deliberative mutual adjustment among general principles and particular judgments
28 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
A Succinct Response to Overgeneralization
I think you may be mistaking what are actually contrasting and often contradictory statements of discrete individuals across several communities for a monolithic statement of belief by a single collective mind.Folksonomies: debate
Folksonomies: debate
Posted to a forum.
25 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
Prayer is Silent Observation
Learning to pray, then as I understand it, is learning to listen with the mind and the heart – making oneself attentive to each exquisite detail of the world. It is a fearsome exhilarating task, best suited to solitude and silence. Such prayers are answered not with miracles tagged with our names, or those of our loved ones, but with beauty and terror. For the prayerful listener, the world becomes the sublime scripture, full of stories of structure and chaos, law and chance, complexification ...Folksonomies: observation prayer
Folksonomies: observation prayer
1 notes
notesSimply looking at the world for what it is and what it has to tell us.
21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Archimedes Discovers How to Measure Volume
Hieron asked Archimedes to discover, without damaging it, whether a certain crown or wreath was made of pure gold, or if the goldsmith had fraudulently alloyed it with some baser metal. While Archimedes was turning the problem over in his mind, he chanced to be in the bath house. There, as he was sitting in the bath, he noticed that the amount of water that was flowing over the top of it was equal in volume to that part of his body that was immersed. He saw at once a way of solving the proble...Folksonomies: discovery measurement
Folksonomies: discovery measurement
1 notes
notesAsked to measure the volume of a crown, he discovers it will displace water in a tub.
12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Lecturing is Easy, Teaching is Hard
Lecturing after a fashion is easy enough ; teaching is a very different affair. ... The transmission of ideas from one mind to another, in a simple unequivocal form, is not always easy ; but in teaching, the object is not merely to convey the idea, but to give a lively and lasting impression; something that should not merely cause the retention of the image, but in such connection as to excite another process, ' thought.' 1 notes
notesPlanting ideas in students' heads of different backgrounds and experiences is a difficult task.
