A Stoic Response To The Climate Crisis

[Belinda]

Walker, thank you for the except from Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance.
I like it of course. Don't you agree while true it is a caricature, and many students benefit to some extent from real education? I mean, admittedly the university course as a whole has these faults a) perhaps the student selected the wrong subject for herself b) students may please the authorities by parroting the received ideas to get good grades .

However some things may be taught which lead the student into genuine work and a disinterested attitude. I believe all good teachers want their students to do work that is not derivative but creative. I have a little experience of teachers, and university.

[Nick_A]

Yet the basic question is to the distinction between the essence and personlity of human being remains. without it education must become indoctrination.

It probabaly is better this way. Confronting the question when it isn't understood eventually leads to extreme nastiness. Nothing good comes from it as was experienced. Sadly it is better avoided.

[Belinda]

Yet the basic question is to the distinction between the essence and personlity of human being remains. without it education must become indoctrination.

It probabaly is better this way. Confronting the question when it isn't understood eventually leads to extreme nastiness. Nothing good comes from it as was experienced. Sadly it is better avoided.

Apart from religious faith, is there any evidence there is such as thing as an individual's essence?

If there were such a thing as an individual's essence would this essence prevent him from learning how to be more free, more kind, or more efficient than he was at age 15 years?

[Nick_A]

Yet the basic question is to the distinction between the essence and personlity of human being remains. without it education must become indoctrination.

It probabaly is better this way. Confronting the question when it isn't understood eventually leads to extreme nastiness. Nothing good comes from it as was experienced. Sadly it is better avoided.

Apart from religious faith, is there any evidence there is such as thing as an individual's essence?

If there were such a thing as an individual's essence would this essence prevent him from learning how to be more free, more kind, or more efficient than he was at age 15 years?

Again, I've learned that without the open mind, the idea of the human essence. cannot be discussed. But anyone can feel free to ponder the Tripartite soul. The hard part is finding those capable of an open mind or a mind that isn't drawn to nastines to justify itself.

However this site and its description of the Chariot analogy does a good job in introducing it. It is easy to see why we are hypocrites

http://www.scandalon.co.uk/philosophy/p ... e_soul.htm

Plato starting point for his divisions of the soul is the different classes he observed in society (Guardians, Auxiliaries and Workers). He concluded that this structure must have arisen from the individuals which make up society. Plato started with noting what motivated people – desires, needs and wants. These wants could be qualified or unqualified. For example, someone who was thirsty could just want a drink or a particular type of drink. The first type was appetitive (1) whereas the second type was reflective and rational (2).

Next he noted that young children showed signs of rationality despite their youth. He attributed this to the spirited (3) part of the soul which kept the appetitive (1) part of the soul in check. The spirited (3) part of the soul had an affinity to the rational (2) part of the soul but was quite distinct and separate.

Plato explains this tripartite division by an allegory - a charioteer driving two horses. The charioteer represents the rational (2) part of the soul. The ugly black horse represents the appetitive (1) part of the soul which is kept in check by the white noble horse which represents the spirited (3) part of the soul................

Hypocrisy is the norm for the human condition. Indoctrination is about what to know to create a personality desired by an agenda while education is for the charioteer. It begins with awakening the body or the dark horse that has become corrupted. It is concept best avoided.

[Belinda]

it is a nice analogy Nick. Thanks for that.

[Walker]

Walker, thank you for the except from Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance.
I like it of course. Don't you agree while true it is a caricature, and many students benefit to some extent from real education? I mean, admittedly the university course as a whole has these faults a) perhaps the student selected the wrong subject for herself b) students may please the authorities by parroting the received ideas to get good grades .

However some things may be taught which lead the student into genuine work and a disinterested attitude. I believe all good teachers want their students to do work that is not derivative but creative. I have a little experience of teachers, and university.

Vocationally, colleges are geared towards molding the individual into a corporate cog. In engineering and medicine the team approach is taught and teams are part of the whole machine. Creativity within the framework of the team is possible.

For the creative individual who is also a serious student seeking individual artistic expression college is worthwhile in that it expands horizontal knowledge to deepen the well of cultural relatability. Knowledge gives the student a sense of proportion when seeing others have gone the same way, and further. Mentoring is the best education for the student for it expands the classroom and requires a relationship where the student’s opinion defers to trusted expertise, within the context of evolving situations.

For example, a mentor’s influence enabled Annie Dillard to write Pilgrim At Tinker Creek, which is a philosophical look at the natural world.

[Belinda]

Walker, I can see from your point of view as you explain it. It is however incomplete. "The university" is more than bricks and mortar as you will agree. What you omit is "the university" is also a community of free individuals who are free to think, and even free to speak and to publish their thoughts. Even within nations where repression is the rule there are individuals for whom freedom of thought is a reality

[Walker]

Walker, I can see from your point of view as you explain it. It is however incomplete. "The university" is more than bricks and mortar as you will agree. What you omit is "the university" is also a community of free individuals who are free to think, and even free to speak and to publish their thoughts. Even within nations where repression is the rule there are individuals for whom freedom of thought is a reality

What a wonderful ideal.

It should be enforced when conservative intellectuals are prevented from speaking at universities.

*

“Mac Donald said that 50 minutes into her talk, half the people in the auditorium stood up and started chanting 'my oppression is not a delusion,' 'your racism is not welcome,' 'your sexism is not welcome,' 'your homophobia is not welcome'...'you are not welcome...'

"’So, I addressed what had just happened and said this is a perfect demonstration of the closed-mindedness that is being cultivated by adults, frankly, on campuses. And then proceeded with my talk to a half-empty room,’ she explained.”

https://www.foxnews.com/media/heather-m ... ias-hatred

[Nick_A]

From Walker's article:

However, in a new Wall Street Journal op-ed, Holy Cross Dean Michelle C. Murray is now defending her students' behavior, writing that "...education requires them to wrestle with a wide range of ideas, which sometimes means engaging with controversial messages, as with Ms. Mac Donald. And sometimes, it means making use of their own free speech to combat objectionable ideas."

A classic justification for secular intolerance. It is the means for indoctrinating the dark horse in the chariot analogy.

However, educating the charioteer and its need to balance its opposing sides requires opening a student to the means for experiencing objective knowledge. As we've seen it is intolerable. There can be no objective knowledge by definition in a secular world without an origin so the concept must be shouted down as the Dean described. The Quadrivium must be ridiculed out of existence since it aimed at perennial knowledge which always was necessitating a source greater than Man


https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science ... -1.3153793

The quadrivium originated with Pythagoras around 500 BC. The Pythagoreans sought the unchanging fundamentals underlying nature and society. Their quest was to find the eternal laws of the universe; the quadrivium became the name of the scheme they organised their studies into.

It arises from number, the subject revered by the Pythagoreans, and comprises four disciplines. The first is arithmetic, concerned with the infinite linear array of numbers. Moving beyond the line to higher-dimensional spaces, we have geometry. The third discipline is music or harmony, which is, fundamentally, an application of the pure science of numbers evolving in time. Fourth comes astronomy, the application of geometry to the world of space...............

What appeals to the dark horse is self justifition. while it is opening to the reality of what our universe is which awakens the inner man. Self justification and pride of what we know vs character recognizing what we don't understand. The old idea of conscious pondering arousing the inner man is ignored in favor of worshiping immediate gratification feeding the egoism of personality. It is obvious which side is winning.

The young are helpless in this while the majority of society and its educators make sure they stay that way

[henry quirk]

education requires them to wrestle with a wide range of ideas, which sometimes means engaging with controversial messages, as with Ms. Mac Donald. And sometimes, it means making use of their own free speech to combat objectionable ideas.

Why should students have all the fun? Next time someone waxes eloquent about the virtues of socialism, in-person or on-line, I'll just chant...

Your socialism is not welcome, your communism is not welcome, your collectivism is not welcome, you are not welcome.

[Belinda]

Walker , racism, sexism, and homophobia are not "conservative" . Persons who promote racism, sexism, and homophobia when they are given a voice are would-be rabble rousers.

[Belinda]

Reliable sources of information, including when intended for university students ,are disinterested sources. Fox News is not disinterested.

[henry quirk]

Your socialism is not welcome, your communism is not welcome, your collectivism is not welcome, you are not welcome.

[Belinda]

Nick , the chariot analogy : both or all of the horses represent the passions and the driver represents reason. You will see the horses are the motive force for change and the driver governs the wild strength of the passions.

[henry quirk]

Your socialism is not welcome, your communism is not welcome, your collectivism is not welcome, you are not welcome.