Presentations: #1 Rylie, #3 Kiersten
WGU -p.165
1. Kant's definition of maturity is what?
- What are some other signs of being grown-up, besides the ability to think for yourself? 123
- Are you good at accepting compromise? Are the adults in your life? 124
- Have you "sifted through your parents' choices about everything"? 125
- Do you "love the world enough to assume responsibility for it?" 126
- Has your educational experience so far broken or furthered your "urge to explore the world"? Do you still "desire to learn"? 127
- Should corporations like Coca-Cola be allowed to have "pouring rights" in public schools? 132
- "You must take your education into your own hands as soon as possible." Did you? How? 140
- Should the age of legal maturity be raised to match the age of brain maturity? 140
- "Minds need at least as much exercise as bodies..." 141 Do you get enough of both forms of exercise? Too much of one or the other? Do you subscribe to Mens sana in corpore sano?
- Do you love books and reading? 143
- Do you agree with Mark Twain?: "A person who won't read has no advantage over a person who can't."
- Are you willing to go a month without internet? Or even a day? 148
- Were Augustine and Rousseau right about travel? 150-51
- Does group travel "preclude real encounters" with a place? 158
- Do you hope to live and work one day in another culture for at least a year? Do you think it will contribute to your maturity? 162-3
2. What is distinctive about "our age" that makes James particularly relevant?
3. What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book?
(See "Is Life Worth Living...)
5. Human history is "one long commentary on" what?
6. A "wider world... unseen by us" may exist, just as our world does for ___.
7. The "deepest thing in our nature," which deals with possibilities rather than finished facts, is a "dumb region of the heart" called (in German) ___.
For the past year, two philosophy professors have been calling around to prominent authors and public intellectuals with an unusual, perhaps heretical, proposal. They have been asking these thinkers if, for a handsome fee, they wouldn’t mind turning themselves into A.I. chatbots.
John Kaag, one of the academics, is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is known for writing books, such as “Hiking With Nietzsche” and “American Philosophy: A Love Story,” that blend philosophy and memoir... (nyt, continues)
Discussion questions:
- Have you ever felt "pulled in too many directions"? 2 How did you respond?
- Do you approach philosophy as a "detached intellectual exercise," an "existential life preserver," or something else?
- Where would you place yourself on the spectrum between "sick soul" and "healthy-minded"? Does that change, over time?
- Can belief that life is worth living become self-fulfilling?
- Do you know any "sick souls"? 3 Or "healthy minds"? 4 Are they the same person?
- Do you agree that believing life to be worth living "will help create the fact"? 5
- Do you like WJ's answer to the question "Is life worth living?" 9
- Is suicide always "the wrong way to exit life"? 10
- Have you ever visited the Harvard campus? What were your impressions?
- Is "maybe" a good answer to the eponymous question of James's essay below?
- Do you like Whitman's poetic expression of "the joy of living"?
- Have you ever been as happy as Rousseau at Annecy?
- Do you agree that nature cannot embody the ultimate "divine" spirit of the universe? What if you remove (or re-define) "divine"? 489
- Do you agree that "sufferings and hardships do not, as a rule, abate the love of life..."? 491
- Does the "purely naturalistic basis" suffice to make life worth living? 494
- Does life feel like a "real fight" to you? 502
*IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? (see the Library of America's terrific William James : Writings 1878-1899... vol.2 is William James : Writings 1902-1910).
When Mr. Mallock's book with this title appeared some fifteen years ago, the jocose answer that "it depends on the liver" had great currency in the newspapers. The answer which I propose to give to-night cannot be jocose. In the words of one of Shakespeare's prologues,—
"I come no more to make you laugh; things now,
That bear a weighty and a serious brow,
Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe,"—
must be my theme. In the deepest heart of all of us there is a corner in which the ultimate mystery of things works sadly; and I know not what such an association as yours intends, nor what you ask of those whom you invite to address you, unless it be to lead you from the surface-glamour of existence, and for an hour at least to make you heedless to the buzzing and jigging and vibration of small interests and excitements that form the tissue of our ordinary consciousness. Without further explanation or apology, then, I ask you to join me in turning an attention, commonly too unwilling, to the profounder bass-note of life. Let us search the lonely depths for an hour together, and see what answers in the last folds and recesses of things our question may find... (continues)
- Why does anyone give Alex Jones any credibility at all?
- Why do people like Ayn Rand's message that selfishness is a virtue?
- Was Mencken right about the Scopes Trial? 375
Kieran Setiya's Five Questions podcast... Five questions for Setiya in TPM...
Map of William James's Cambridge...
- Do you feel more resentful or grateful to have been "thrown" into the world? 11
- Do you agree with Jennifer Michael Hecht? “None of us can truly know what we mean to other people, and none of us can know what our future self will experience. History and philosophy ask us to remember these mysteries, to look around at friends, family, humanity, at the surprises life brings — the endless possibilities that living offers — and to persevere. There is love and insight to live for, bright moments to cherish, and even the possibility of happiness, and the chance of helping someone else through his or her own troubles. Know that people, through history and today, understand how much courage it takes to stay. Bear witness to the night side of being human and the bravery it entails, and wait for the sun. If we meditate on the record of human wisdom we may find there reason enough to persist and find our way back to happiness. The first step is to consider the arguments and evidence and choose to stay. After that, anything may happen. First, choose to stay.” Stay: A History of Suicide and the Arguments Against It by Jennifer Michael Hecht
- Does Calvinism "set out an impossible task"? 13
- Do you agree with WJ's father about "the point of life"?
- Can there be a constructive, non-violent "moral equivalent of war"? 21
- Do you agree with James about "our national disease"? 22
- Would it be bad if all your wishes "were fulfilled as soon as they arose"? 23
- Was "Mark" right about the three parts of a person? 26
- If there's no "soul" is determinism true? 28
- If humans are animals, do we have no soul? 31
- Were Nietzsche and Buber right about suicide? 34-5
- Are you one of the lucky "once-born"? Does that make you "blind and shallow"? 40
- If we possess free will, would it be wrong to insist on a coercive demonstration that we do? DD 566
- Do you believe you regularly experience opportunities to really choose between alternative futures? Could you decide, for instance, to take an alternate route home from school today? 573
- Are some regrets appropriate and unavoidable? 577
- Does determinism define our universe as one in which it is impossible to close the gap between how things are and how they ought to be? 578
- Which is better, pessimism or subjectivism? 584f.
- Does life lose zest and excitement, if things were foredoomed and settled long ago? 594
LISTEN (11.4.21). The World Series may be over, but "radical evil gets its innings" still (wrote William James in the "Sick Soul" chapter of Varieties of Religious Experience). That's what's really at stake in the free will-determinism debate: whether we'll get ours, and have a shot at amelioration.
Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life
by John Kaag (author of American Philosophy: A Love Story and Hiking with Nietzsche)
In 1895, William James, the father of American philosophy, delivered a lecture entitled "Is Life Worth Living?" It was no theoretical question for James, who had contemplated suicide during an existential crisis as a young man a quarter century earlier. Indeed, as John Kaag writes, "James's entire philosophy, from beginning to end, was geared to save a life, his life"--and that's why it just might be able to save yours, too. Sick Souls, Healthy Minds is a compelling introduction to James's life and thought that shows why the founder of pragmatism and empirical psychology--and an inspiration for Alcoholics Anonymous--can still speak so directly and profoundly to anyone struggling to make a life worth living.
Kaag tells how James's experiences as one of what he called the "sick-souled," those who think that life might be meaningless, drove him to articulate an ideal of "healthy-mindedness"--an attitude toward life that is open, active, and hopeful, but also realistic about its risks. In fact, all of James's pragmatism, resting on the idea that truth should be judged by its practical consequences for our lives, is a response to, and possible antidote for, crises of meaning that threaten to undo many of us at one time or another. Along the way, Kaag also movingly describes how his own life has been endlessly enriched by James.
Eloquent, inspiring, and filled with insight, Sick Souls, Healthy Minds may be the smartest and most important self-help book you'll ever read. g'r
==
By William James
A common opinion prevails that the juice has ages ago been pressed out of the free-will controversy, and that no new champion can do more than warm up stale arguments which everyone has heard. This is a radical mistake. I know of no subject less worn out, or in which inventive genius has a better chance of breaking open new ground--not, perhaps, of forcing a conclusion or of coercing assent, but of deepening our sense of what the issue between the two parties really is, of what the ideas of fate and of free will imply. At our very side almost, in the past few years, we have seen falling in rapid succession from the press works that present the alternative in entirely novel lights. Not to speak of the English disciples of Hegel, such as Green and Bradley; not to speak of Hinton and Hodgson, nor of Hazard here --we see in the writings of Renouvier, Fouillée, and Delbœuf how completely changed and refreshed is the form of all the old disputes. I cannot pretend to vie in originality with any of the masters I have named, and my ambition limits itself to just one little point. If I can make two of the necessarily implied corollaries of determinism clearer to you than they have been made before, I shall have made it possible for you to decide for or against that doctrine with a better understanding of what you are about. And if you prefer not to decide at all, but to remain doubters, you will at least see more plainly what the subject of your hesitation is. I thus disclaim openly on the threshold all pretension to prove to you that the freedom of the will is true. The most I hope is to induce some of you to follow my own example in assuming it true, and acting as if it were true. If it be true, it seems to me that this is involved in the strict logic of the case. Its truth ought not to be forced willy-nilly down our indifferent throats. It ought to be freely espoused by men who can equally well turn their backs upon it. In other words, our first act of freedom, if we are free, ought in all inward propriety to be to affirm that we are free. This should exclude, it seems to me, from the freewill side of the question all hope of a coercive demonstrations,-- a demonstration which I, for one, am perfectly contented to go without.
With thus much understood at the outset, we can advance. But not without one more point understood as well. The arguments I am about to urge all proceed on two suppositions: first, when we make theories about the world and discuss them with one another, we do so in order to attain a conception of things which shall give us subjective satisfaction; and, second, if there be two conceptions, and the one seems to us, on the whole, more rational than the other, we are entitled to suppose that the more rational one is the truer of the two. I hope that you are all willing to make these suppositions with me; for I am afraid that if there be any of you here who are not, they will find little edification in the rest of what I have to say. I cannot stop to argue the point; but I myself believe that all the magnificent achievements of mathematical and physical science--our doctrines of evolution, of uniformity of law, and the rest--proceed from our indomitable desire to cast the world into a more rational shape in our minds than the shape into which it is thrown there by the crude order of our experience. The world has shown itself, to a great extent, plastic to this demand of ours for rationality. How much farther it will show itself plastic no one can say. Our only means of finding out is to try; and I, for one, feel as free to try conceptions of moral as of mechanical or of logical rationality. If a certain formula for expressing the nature of the world violates my moral demand, I shall feel as free to throw it overboard, or at least to doubt it, as if it disappointed my demand for uniformity of sequence, for example; the one demand being, so far as I can see, quite as subjective and emotional as the other is. The principle of causality, for example--what is it but a postulate, an empty name covering simply a demand that the sequence of events shall some day manifest a deeper kind of belonging of one thing with another than the mere arbitrary juxtaposition which now phenomenally appears? It is as much an altar to an unknown god as the one that Saint Paul found at Athens. All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods. Uniformity is as much so as is free will. If this be admitted, we can debate on even terms. But if anyone pretends that while freedom and variety are, in the first instance, subjective demands, necessity and uniformity are something altogether different, I do not see how we can debate at all...
...determinism leads us to call our judgments of regret wrong, because they are pessimistic in implying that what is impossible yet ought to be. But how then about the judgments of regret themselves? If they are wrong, other judgments, judgments of approval presumably, ought to be in their place. But as they are necessitated, nothing else can be in their place; and the universe is just what it was before,--namely, a place in which what ought to be appears impossible. We have got one foot out of the pessimistic bog, but the other one sinks all the deeper. We have rescued our actions from the bonds of evil, but our judgments are now held fast. When murders and treacheries cease to be sins, regrets are theoretic absurdities and errors. The theoretic and the active life thus play a kind of see-saw with each other on the ground of evil. The rise of either sends the other down. Murder and treachery cannot be good without regret being bad: regret cannot be good without treachery and murder being bad. Both, however, are supposed to have been foredoomed; so something must be fatally unreasonable, absurd, and wrong in the world. It must be a place of which either sin or error forms a necessary part. From this dilemma there seems at first sight no escape. Are we then so soon to fall back into the pessimism from which we thought we had emerged? And is there no possible way by which we may, with good intellectual consciences, call the cruelties and treacheries, the reluctances and the regrets, all good together?
...
The dilemma of this determinism is one whose left horn is pessimism and whose right horn is subjectivism. In other words, if determinism is to escape pessimism, it must leave off looking at the goods and ills of life in a simple objective way, and regard them as materials, indifferent in themselves, for the production of consciousness, scientific and ethical, in us... (continues)
1. Young William James's problem, as he felt "pulled in too many directions" and worried that we might be nothing but cogs in a machine, was ____.
ReplyDeleteYoung William James’s problem was a matter of meaningless. He was pursuing many interests at once, poetry, art, biology, mysticism, and was stretched too thin to make any real progress on any of them. Additionally, he was tormented by questions about fate, and whether we have any control over our own lives.
2. What is distinctive about "our age" that makes James particularly relevant?
Like James himself, our current age seems to be going in many directions at once. We question the traditions and beliefs of the generations before us while seeking stability and meaning. We follow fashion trends that change from month to month and foster shopping addictions, but all these material goods only hide our sadness and insecurity. We idolize celebrities who in reality are often corrupt or miserable or both. In the midst of all this James tells us not to fear life, but to instead believe that it is worth living; in doing so, we make it worth living.
3. What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book?
On February 6, 2014, Steven Rose, a Harvard alumnus, jumped from the William James building and committed suicide. Kaag was passing by on his bike shortly after and saw all the police tape and people gathered around, asking “Why did this happen?”. This experience ultimately prompted Kaag to write Sick Souls, Healthy Minds, to share James’ thoughts on the meaning of life and whether it was worth living. James had once asked himself these same questions, and decided the answer was maybe. Maybe life is worth living, and you have to continue doing so to find out.
Section 1
ReplyDeleteWGU
I'm not sure whether to go for the discussion questions or the regular questions, so I'm going to do a bit of both.
"Do you love books and reading? 143" Duh yes. Wouldn't be here if I didn't.
"Do you agree with Mark Twain?: "A person who won't read has no advantage over a person who can't."" Sounds legit.
"Are you willing to go a month without internet? Or even a day? 148" Month- no. Day-- already did this past week. I had no wifi and no data so I didn't really have an option. Still had downloaded books and songs and physical books. I was still plenty entertained.
6. What does it mean to love a book?
To me, loving a book means to explore the world inside and find joy in it. To find joy in someone else's mind and perspectives. To grow as a person or separate from your world for a short time, whichever you need, and to come back to it whenever you desire.
4. Why should languages and music be learned as early as possible?
Because your brain is more flexible for learning these sorts of things when you are young
Section #1
ReplyDelete1. Kant’s definition of maturity is the ability to think for yourself without relying on others to guide you. A mature person uses reason to make decisions, questions authority when needed, and takes responsibility for their own beliefs and actions.
4. Languages and music should be learned as early as possible because the mind is most flexible in childhood, making it easier to absorb complex skills. Early learning also allows these abilities to become natural parts of thought and expression that last a lifetime.
10. Travel’s greatest gift is broadening your perspective. It exposes you to different cultures, ideas, and ways of life, helping you understand the world and yourself more fully. Travel teaches empathy, adaptability, and an awareness that life can be lived in many valid ways.
1. Kant's definition of maturity is what? Kant’s definition of maturity is the human being’s emergence from “self-impose immaturity”.
ReplyDelete5. What is the message of Rousseau's Emile? In Rousseau’s Emile, the message is that humans are innately good but corrupted by society, so in return, education should be child-centered and natural, focusing on sensory experience and moral development rather than forced smarts or societal conformity.
7. The internet, says Nick Carr, is a machine geared for what? Nick Carr says the internet is a machine geared for dividing our attention.
9. What did Rousseau say about those who do not walk? Rousseau did not like those who did not walk, calling them prisoners in a “small, closed-up cage” who miss the riches of the world.
SSHM Prologue
ReplyDelete1. Young William James's problem, as he felt "pulled in too many directions" and worried that we might be nothing but cogs in a machine, was ____.
Young William James’ problem was about meaninglessness. He struggled with the idea of fate and that people may be destined to have a tragic and meaningless fate. This drove him to the edge of suicide and led to his description of an individual who is “sick-souled.”
2. What is distinctive about "our age" that makes James particularly relevant?
What makes James particularly relevant to “our age” is that his philosophy was of “healthy-mindedness” and that many of us struggle with depression and anxiety. He urges us to “Be not afraid of life” and to “believe that life is worth living.”
3. What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book?
On February 6, 2014 a Harvard alumnus, Steven Rose, took his own life by jumping off of William James Hall. William James suggests that “maybe” life is worth living, and that is what kept him going even when he was contemplating suicide. For Kaag, this event was what sparked him to write this book: a book that James might have written for people contemplating suicide, a book that explores the “maybe” of life’s worth and decides that it is worth enough.
Section #1
ReplyDelete1) Do you love books and reading?
Yes, I do. However, I rarely find myself reading in my free time, which is unfortunate. I think the sheer availability of easy-to-access entertainment, plus the fact that reading has always been presented as a chore in high school, has reduced my will to read, even when I really want to.
2) Have you ever felt "pulled in too many directions"? 2 How did you respond?
Yes, I responded by going everywhere and seeing where most of me lands.
3) Is suicide always "the wrong way to exit life"?
I would argue, no. We were having this discussion in my Sci. Comm. Research class, and I believe if one isnin grave pain (i.e. terminal disease), it might be helpful and calming to be able to consider suicide .
1) You're not grown-up if you've not rejected what? If you have not rejected any of your parent's choices.
ReplyDelete2? What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book? On February 6, 2014, A Harvard Alumnus, Steven rose, committed suicide by jumping off the William Jame's Hall. On the day he took his life, Kaag was riding a bike through campus and spotted the yellow tape. He was unable to go on as if nothing happened, prompting him to write this novel about James's philosophy on the worth of life.
3) Have you ever felt "pulled in too many directions"? How did you respond? There have been many points in my life in which I have felt pulled in too many directions. I think it can be difficult to develop passions and hobbies, but then to learn we have limited time on earth to explore them. We are encouraged to pursue a single passion that we call a career, despite interest in a plethora of other subjects. To respond, I try to make time for the hobbies that I love while moving towards an equally meaningful career. I just try to remind myself that we are not confined to invest all of our energy into a single job, but that we can spend our lives enjoying a little bit of everything.
1. Kant's definition of maturity is what?
ReplyDeleteA: Kant's defines maturity as the ability to think independently and make decisions for oneself. If you're able to reason and construct original ideas, Kant believed that you exemplified maturity.
2. What are some other signs of being grown-up, besides the ability to think for yourself?
A: I think a major indicator of growth in individuals is derived from the ability to accept and concede to certain beliefs that differ from one's own. Developing an interpersonal sense allows for constructive interaction/confrontation between two antagonizing points of view. To me, this is one of the most prominent signs of maturity.
3. Are you good at accepting compromise? Are the adults in your life?
A: I try my best to accommodate for compromise amongst my peers. I have a tendency to be stubborn, but regardless, I am aware that progress only arrives at the behest of the collective. To achieve this, compromise must occur more frequently than it currently does in our world. Adults in my life are typically more able to compromise than people my age, but I often find that when they're unable to do so, the effect of the disagreement is often more consequential.
David Vargas Section #1
Delete#3
ReplyDelete1. Kant's definition of maturity is what?
Being able to use your reasoning and understanding without guidance from another person
2. Education, travel, and work share what common purpose, ideally?
Making you think for yourself
4. Why should languages and music be learned as early as possible?
Languages and music should be learned early because its makes it easier to integrate these different modes of thought into the rest of your life and you dont get stuck thinking in a one dimensional way.
1. Young William James's problem, as he felt "pulled in too many directions" and worried that we might be nothing but cogs in a machine, was ____.
ReplyDeleteHis problem was meaninglessness. He had no direction to his life.
2. What is distinctive about "our age" that makes James particularly relevant?
Our age is plagued by mental illness and the belief that life is ultimately meaningless, yet tries harder than ever to find a meaning to life. James’s philosophy tries to show those who feel they have no meaning that life can be worth living after all.
3. What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book?
Steven Rose, a Harvard alumnus, took his own life on this date. This prompted Kaag to write this book as a “life preserver” to those whose souls are sick and could benefit from William James’s philosophy.
ReplyDeleteSection #1
Do you love books and reading?
-I do, but it is hard for me to stay engaged. Whenever I find a story I like, I get halfway through it and decide I’m done reading it. The thrill of waiting until the end gets too much for me, so I peak at the last chapter and I ruin it for myself.
Are you willing to go a month without internet? Or even a day?
-I could go a day without internet, but not an entire month. I would lose my mind. I, unfortunately, am glued to my phone. Doomscrolling is my escape from stressful events (e.g. schoolwork). If I were forced to go a month without internet, it would likely allow me to realize I don’t need it as badly as I think I do, but as of right now, I do not think I would last.
Do you hope to live and work one day in another culture for at least a year? Do you think it would contribute to your maturity?
-Yes! I actually would love to study abroad in Japan, and possibly build a life for myself there. I adore the culture, and I would like to learn more things about Japan I do not know already. I believe it would contribute to my maturity because I would be forced to find my own way. I’d be far away from my family and friends, and I would have to socialize by myself. I think it would be a very humbling life experience.
1. The point of Rousseau's book 'Emile' is that education should channel children's natural curiosity rather than force them into standards and societal molds.
ReplyDelete2. Rousseau characterized people who don't walk as sad prisoners in a cage.
3. I do believe that believing that life is worth living will, in some ways, create the fact. I know that it's not necessarily that simple but I think in my experience if I feel like I'm dissatisfied with my life, I'm really in my head, and everything becomes a reason why it sucks. When I try to think it's the opposite, I almost create a better life. I'm not bitter, my reactions to things in the world are happier, I find meaning in small interactions, and I appreciate life the way that I have it. I'm also inspired to change the things that I was so upset about. Everything combined, my mindset changed and it seemingly created a life worth living.
#1
Delete1. Education, travel, and work share what common purpose, ideally?
ReplyDeleteWhen we travel, we experience the world as babies do.
2.. What does it mean to love a book?
To wrestle with it, and take it seriously enough to be unsettled by it.
3.If you don't travel, you're likely to suppose what?
Your own cultural assumptions to make up reality
WGU 4: What is the message of Rousseau's _Emile_?
ReplyDeleteThere are two morals in Rousseau's Emile. The first is that even if you are born into property, you should work to earn a living of your own because being born lucky means nothing if you can't develop your skills, taking advantage of that luck. The second moral is that trades are great professions. They solve tangible problems, require physical effort, teach actionable knowledge, and can even be elegant.
WGU 7: The internet, says Nick Carr, is a machine geared for what?
Nick Carr said that the internet is designed to divide thought, training the brain to process information immediately and efficiently rather than deeply or creatively. I agree, overuse of the internet can definitely make you feel like a zombie, absent-mindedly consuming info.
Discussion Question: Are you willing to go a month without internet? Or even a day? 148
I've gone days without using the internet before, but I wouldn't want to go a full month. Most of my communication with friends is through online means, as is all of the news I get. Not to mention the MTSU emails I'd miss, or the lessons I wouldn't be able to review with the recordings and slides readily available on D2L, or the blog I have to comment under every Tuesday and Thursday. Human society is too deep into the internet to quit it entirely for that long.
What are some other signs of being grown-up, besides the ability to think for yourself? 123
ReplyDeleteMaturity is definety one of the biggest parts of growing up. However, I don't think this mean that we need to lose the piece of us that is "childlike", such as our humor and our wonder. I believe part of maturing is realizing the broken state of the world, and realizing that everything will not always be wonderful. Maturing is coming to terms with a broken, imperfect world, but still finding joy, love, and friendship within it. Compromising a broken world with happiness means you will not always be happy or content, but the general average of your life will be good.
Are you good at accepting compromise? Are the adults in your life? 124
I have struggled with compromise throughout my life. Whether it was compromising over some sort of shared gift with my six siblings growing up, or feeling like I "compromised" on where I went to college due to financials, my life has been riddled with compromises. However, the more I make them, the more I see a change within myself to be more humble and less selfish. I think all the compromises I have made throughout my life have changed me, and the adults around me, for the better. Yes, you should always strive for the best that which you can achieve, but it is important to recognize that you have your limits, and so do the other people surrounding you.
2. What does it mean to love a book?
All of my truest and deepest loves have been books. To truly love a book, you have to understand its meaning, fully grasp onto its message. You then have to apply that meaning to your own life, and try to decide if you should change your life or worldview based upon its teachings.
Presley Baker, Section #3
DeleteWhat is the message of Rousseau's Emile?
ReplyDeleteEmile was written to serve as Rousseau's optimal framework for raising a child to be self-sufficient and free-thinking. The book describes how a parent can shape their child's perception of the world in a way that leaves them better suited for life in society and in nature. Rousseau argues for seclusion and a close connection with nature, free from the influence of culture, at least in the early years of a child's life. As the child grows into puberty, however, Rousseau finds it imperative that the adolescent embrace culture and art to help them transition from child to adult. One particularly interesting point is Rousseau's claim that babies use crying as a manipulative tactic to gain the attention of adults even when their needs have been satisfied, an observation i've heard discussed elsewhere too. It goes to show how early we seek to exert our will on the people and things around us. At its core, Emile is a guide to the kind of freedom that demands full control over your own life and responsibility for your actions.
3. What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book?
A Harvard alumni named Steven Rose committed suicide by jumping from the William James Hall on the Harvard campus. Kaag writes that those who witnessed the aftermath were not left asking how it happened, but rather why. Spurred by the weight of that experience, Kaag decided to write a book wrestling with William James's question, "Is life worth living?", and to argue that maybe it was. The book is written for the men and women who might find themselves feeling as Steven Rose did.
2. What is distinctive about "our age" that makes James particularly relevant?
In the times we live in, society puts a premium on material wealth, idolizing celebrities, and being successful compared to our peers in the classic trap of keeping up with the Joneses. American society especially lacks traditions and a sense of collective identity which ultimately leaves a void of meaning and purpose. William James reminds us in times like these that life is still worth living and that we shouldn't waste our time chasing material pleasures or putting people on pedestals when it happens that those same people cut their own lives short due to the unsustainable lives they lead.