tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035097679467656472.post5155286661221660455..comments2023-09-24T13:29:36.082+00:00Comments on Reason's Sword: Awkward Universitytoby lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15687485829494173937noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035097679467656472.post-58967622891387034612007-02-22T11:55:00.000+00:002007-02-22T11:55:00.000+00:00Interesting here that philosophy is a normal schoo...Interesting here that philosophy is a normal school subject in Norway for kids around 8-18 years of age. Just a point. But this point might help this thread becoming UK based and biased.<BR/><BR/>Berlin would not like that methinks. <BR/>I am reading again, for this thread, turgenev who berlin seemed to adore. I am comparing one character from fathres and Sons ( children depending on the translation) with Big Bliar. If Berlin has anything left in him it might surface this way.zola a social thinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14206983697656466653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035097679467656472.post-5863511385953799342007-02-21T10:14:00.000+00:002007-02-21T10:14:00.000+00:00Yet if they are taught to like things they may wel...Yet if they are taught to like things they may well find a passion. My parents used to always try to encourage an interest in culture generally and so they would take us to Churches, art galleries, etc. Often we may have preferred in the short term to go to an amusement park, but in the long term the opportunity to open our minds at a young age through exposure to the beautiful and the historically important was invaluable. What you should say to the cousin is "give it a try, you'll probably like it." None of this is mutually exclusive to pub-going, carpentry or football. In fact people need exposure to all of these things to appreciate their value. <BR/><BR/>The problem with the British education system is that philosophy is marginalised. This means it is often only at degree level that people have the opportunity to study it. This was true for myself. I went to a religious school, which only offered theology! I even asked to study philosophy, I was ignored and offered art history instead. In Spain where they taught philosophy as an optional subject, where all pupils had to choose between theology or philosophy. According to Ana (my wife) it was a great way of encouraging students of a more scientific bent to have exposure to the other culture of the humanities and for the humanities students to learn a bit more about rigour. <BR/><BR/>As to the Keynes' quote it definitely seems to be the Zeitgeist floating around at the time.toby lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15687485829494173937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035097679467656472.post-22068002909396175182007-02-21T06:19:00.000+00:002007-02-21T06:19:00.000+00:00Contrary to Pascal, Keynes wrote in chapter 2 of t...Contrary to Pascal, Keynes wrote in chapter 2 of the "General Theory": "The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood....Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back."<BR/><BR/>I used to think as you do, Toby, about teaching everyone some philosophy and ethics, but I fear it's too idealistic - most people dislike the effort of abstract thinking, and prefer to watch football, go to the pub, or do manual tasks. I few years ago I gave a young teenage cousin an excellent little book called "The Philosophy Files". His reaction was to say to his mother "Oh dear, do I have to read all this stuff?" You can lead a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink.....anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035097679467656472.post-64669006340505817072007-02-18T13:09:00.000+00:002007-02-18T13:09:00.000+00:00I think Berlin documents quite helpfully how at ti...I think Berlin documents quite helpfully how at times philosophical ideas affect the world and great historical movements. The story he has to tell may be too epic, yet there is something quite interesting (if tendentious) in his narrative of how the different intellectual ideas of scientistic rationalism and enlightenment led to a barbaric irrationalism in the hands of philosophically dogmatic dictators. <BR/><BR/>Surely people like Marx and Rousseau were philosophers who moved beyond the study and the seminar room? The consequences of their ideas interpreted by the wrong hands have been shown to be diabolical yet they were certainly influential. Bentham, Smith and Mill have also had a more measured influence on our world even if their ideas have also been grotesquely distorted. <BR/><BR/>I would advocate philosophy being taught in school. The argument should be made for it as a universal subject and the teaching of logic, ethics, aesthetics, Plato, Descartes, Locke et.al should be regarded as fundamental to a person's education as knowledge of Shakespeare and Cervantes, or a basic understanding of mathematics and the sciences.toby lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15687485829494173937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035097679467656472.post-55465400561581473302007-02-17T22:42:00.000+00:002007-02-17T22:42:00.000+00:00’No one has rights against reason.’ Maybe not, but...’No one has rights against reason.’ Maybe not, but the vast majority of humankind live by irrationality. There's the rub - especially for philosophers who fondly believe they have deeper insights.<BR/><BR/>How influential is philosophy in shaping what actually happens in the world? Not, I fear, nearly so much as philosophers fondly believe. The great mass of people know nothing of philosophy or logic, and care less. They act on impulse and passion. Pascal said: "All our reasoning reduces itself to yielding to feeling."anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035097679467656472.post-1138246473652938822007-02-17T18:54:00.000+00:002007-02-17T18:54:00.000+00:00If you have any questions about Berlin please feel...If you have any questions about Berlin please feel free to ask although I'm no expert. <BR/><BR/>I hope the feature went well.toby lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15687485829494173937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035097679467656472.post-19764875319927475362007-02-16T15:41:00.000+00:002007-02-16T15:41:00.000+00:00I was just thinking about Isaiah Berlin yesterday,...I was just thinking about Isaiah Berlin yesterday, oddly. Still can't get my head round any of it though.<BR/><BR/>I've just been writing a feature on cars...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com