Category: Theory
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On intellectual honesty and accepting the humiliation of error
I. The virtue of intellectual honesty. Honesty is a greatly underrated epistemic virtue. There is a sound reason for thinking so. It turns out that probably the single greatest source of error is not ignorance but arrogance, not lack of facts but dogmatism. We leap to conclusions that fit with our preconceptions without testing them.…
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Modern education and culture, or, what did you think would happen?
I. Modern education and culture Look at where we are in education and culture today. Let’s catalog the main issues, shall we? School children are often not taught to read properly, and too many fall behind and grow up functionally illiterate. Yet students are kept in schools practically all day and are made to do…
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On the Purposes of the Internet
SISCTI 34 February 28, 2009 Monterrey, Mexico Introduction I am going to begin by asking a philosophical question about the Internet. But I can hear some of you saying, “Philosophy? What does that have to do with the Internet? Maybe I will have a siesta.” Well, before you close your eyes, let me assure you that the question…
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Why study higher mathematics and other stuff most people don’t use in everyday life?
This video was posted in a Facebook group of mine here: I find it ironic that some of the most listened-to speakers about education explain that the cure to our educational ills is to point out that education is unnecessary. I call this educational anti-intellectualism. Here’s another representative sample and another. It is possible to make the argument,…
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How the government can monitor U.S. citizens
Just what tools do American governments—federal, state, and local—have to monitor U.S. citizens? There are other such lists online, but I couldn’t find one that struck me as being quite complete. This list omits strictly criminal tracking, because while criminals are citizens, actual crime obviously needs to be tracked. First, there’s what you yourself reveal: the government can use whatever information you yourself put…
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Against language arts and social studies textbooks
Here’s a little argument against language arts and social studies (e.g., history and geography) textbooks. We need to get rid of them. Period. Prima facie, we don’t need textbooks to teach a subject. Other pedagogical methods include chapter (trade, library) books, short readings, computer software, videos, lectures, worksheets, projects, etc. So what are textbooks for? Well, consider what they are:…
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Our Moral Abyss
First, let me state my basic thesis poetically. To some, it will sound unoriginal, implausible, and overwrought: We in the West are falling in a moral abyss. We are in mid-fall. It’s been long since we careened off the precipice, though we have not hit bottom. Poetic language is vague, so let me explain what I mean. 1. Plumbing the abyss We…
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How to pop the education bubble
1. Soul-making and the education bubble One of my biggest pet peeves is the reduction of education to an economic transaction—to the gaining of marketable skills in exchange for fees. That’s all wrong. Professional and vocational education is all fine and well, but education at the K-12 and college level is essentially soul-making. To be educated, we…