http://www.changeyourreality.com/blog/2007/02/23/the-point-of-education/ where ideas can change you Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:10:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 http://www.changeyourreality.com/blog/2007/02/23/the-point-of-education/#comment-9 Philippe Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:00:53 +0000 http://www.changeyourreality.com/blog/2007/02/23/the-point-of-education/#comment-9 Indeed "you do not need to remember the good judgments of others because you have one yourself" where my statement that to talk about what others have written in books is not as important as what one thinks on his or her own. This concept is also expressed by Rousseau in Emile, which is to learn from one experiences and own observations. It is also reinforced by the conclusion of Candide by Voltaire "go and cultivate your own garden." Even that here I am quoting others to reinforce my position which may appear to be contradictory, which in fact is to show that even those authors understood the need for that self development. Indeed “you do not need to remember the good judgments of others because you have one yourself” where my statement that to talk about what others have written in books is not as important as what one thinks on his or her own. This concept is also expressed by Rousseau in Emile, which is to learn from one experiences and own observations. It is also reinforced by the conclusion of Candide by Voltaire “go and cultivate your own garden.” Even that here I am quoting others to reinforce my position which may appear to be contradictory, which in fact is to show that even those authors understood the need for that self development.

]]> http://www.changeyourreality.com/blog/2007/02/23/the-point-of-education/#comment-10 Alexander Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:45:46 +0000 http://www.changeyourreality.com/blog/2007/02/23/the-point-of-education/#comment-10 Yes, this was a general theme among Enlightenment philosophers. It was generally held that if you didn't know things yourself you would be hostage to the ones who did and that would upset the equality amongst citizens. It is the same theme that runs through Kant's essay "What is Enlightenment?" part of which I have posted in my philosophy website. Imagine that for philosophers like Locke, the only thing that counted as knowledge were the things that you have experienced yourself and reading from books was, strictly speaking, not considered to be knowledge. It was akin to hearsay only in different form. Unless verified by personal experience it could not count as knowledge. In regard to quoting others in general, I believe people think of name dropping as an exercise in increasing your own value in front of others by the borrowing of other people’s wisdom. The thought that you might be paying tribute to the person who created it is far from their minds because this is not how they think. They don’t know how to honor and are blind to those who do. Nor do they care if the quotation fitted perfectly into the conversation and enlightened the subject at hand. Because ultimately those people do not care about the subject at hand. They care about how the subject at hand might increase or decrease their perceived image. And that goes back to the talk of desires we had Phillipe. Some people do not engage in intellectual conversation in order to understand certain phenomena but in order to show to themselves and others how intelligent they are. They see intellectual conversations as an arena where they ought to win even if truth is sacrificed for their "victory". Yes, this was a general theme among Enlightenment philosophers. It was generally held that if you didn’t know things yourself you would be hostage to the ones who did and that would upset the equality amongst citizens. It is the same theme that runs through Kant’s essay “What is Enlightenment?” part of which I have posted in my philosophy website. Imagine that for philosophers like Locke, the only thing that counted as knowledge were the things that you have experienced yourself and reading from books was, strictly speaking, not considered to be knowledge. It was akin to hearsay only in different form. Unless verified by personal experience it could not count as knowledge.
In regard to quoting others in general, I believe people think of name dropping as an exercise in increasing your own value in front of others by the borrowing of other people’s wisdom. The thought that you might be paying tribute to the person who created it is far from their minds because this is not how they think. They don’t know how to honor and are blind to those who do. Nor do they care if the quotation fitted perfectly into the conversation and enlightened the subject at hand. Because ultimately those people do not care about the subject at hand. They care about how the subject at hand might increase or decrease their perceived image.
And that goes back to the talk of desires we had Phillipe. Some people do not engage in intellectual conversation in order to understand certain phenomena but in order to show to themselves and others how intelligent they are. They see intellectual conversations as an arena where they ought to win even if truth is sacrificed for their “victory”.

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