What is a human being and how does it grow? Two men offer helpful and constructive answers can be found below. To be human is to be the sort of creature whose mind can incorporate struggles and trials into itself to become more. Marcus is commenting on the Stoic concept that human beings are rational …
Category: Education
How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?
So asks Tyler Durden in, Fight Club. I think it’s a serious question. And even for men to prefer gymnastic exercises by far to the baths, is perchance not bad, since they are in some respects conducive to the health of young men, and produce exertion—emulation to aim at not only a healthy habit of but …
Two Types of Honesty
There are two types of honesty: Frankness: Saying what you think/feel is true, simply. When one is being frank, you could speak complete untruths (objectively speaking) while still being honest. Scientific Accuracy: This mode of honesty is intentionally humble in the sense that you say what you think could provide evidence for, qualify what you …
Arthur Whimbey on Intelligence as a skill
Arthur Whimbey’s definition of intelligence: “Intelligence in an attentional/processing skill used in analyzing and mentally reconstructing relations. The distinguishing feature of this skill is breaking down complex relations (or problems) into small steps that can be dealt with fully. The major components of the skill are extensive search and careful apprehension of all details relevant …
Simplify Complex Problems Like Descartes
Ever Feel Stupid? Many of us wish we were smarter than we are. Rene Descartes even felt this way: “For myself, I have never fancied my mind to be in any respect more perfect than those of the generality; on the contrary, I have often wished that I were equal to some others in promptitude …
Dialectic: The Second Art of the Trivium
Introduction: What is dialectic? What is logic? The second liberal art is logic or dialectic. Dialectic typically refers to the practice of precise discussion, using a question and answer format with facts or apparent facts, to explain or get at the truth. It has another, less academic, use I’ll explain later. Logic is a more …
Intellectual Weakness
Nobody wants to be weak. Weakness leads to losing. Weakness leads to resentment.[1] Intellectual weakness is perhaps the most subtle weakness. It compounds itself. Physical weakness makes us feel bad. Intellectual weakness makes us feel smug or leaves us unable to see our weakness. There are many ways to overcome this problem, but the first …
Grammar: The First Art of the Trivium
Introduction The first of the liberal arts is grammar. The Trivium Trivium is shorthand for three skills: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Together with arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music they make up the liberal arts. In the current year, a liberal arts degree is simply a degree in reading texts and critical theory. What is Grammar? …
Eric Johnson’s Proposal for Christian Reading
Eric L. Johnson, Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal[1] Below is a summary of Johnson’s rules for Christian reading. It’s a useful part of his book. Because these are my own words, anything poorly stated is my own fault, not Johnson’s. The goal of Christian reading, even leisure reading, is conformity to …
Your Calling as a Teacher
One of my favorite lines from classical literature is this brief quote from Socrate’s Apology: For I tried to persuade each of you to care for himself and his own perfection in goodness and wisdom rather than for any of his belongings, and for the state itself rather than for its interests, and to follow …