Hi Billy, > On Jan 23, 2015, at 11:37 AM, BILROJ via Centroids: The Center of the Radical > Centrist Community <[email protected]> wrote: > > The older, rhetorically structured mode of historical writing openly promoted > the study and contemplation of the past as propaedeutic to a life in the > public sphere, as an alternative ground to theology and metaphysics (not to > mention as an alternative to the kind of knowledge one might derive from > experience of what Aristotle called the “banausic” life of commerce and > trade), for the discovery or invention of principles by which to answer the > central question of ethics: “What should (ought, must) I do?” Or to put it in > Lenin’s terms: “What is to be done?” > > It seems as if, in roundabout ways, all of our current historiographical > trend-followers finally agree with White, in the face of what they regard as > a great crisis for historical writing today. But it is one thing to call for > speculation for the sake of relevance, and another to bring about a new > marriage of history and philosophy. For the coming generation, one thing is > clear: thinking will have to become our profession.
Well said. In the future — or at least the “pre-future” — what used to be disciplines will instead become tools. Yeah, I’m sure there is somebody somewhere who just specializes in making hammers, but most carpenters are expected to be able to use hammers, saws, screwdrivers — plus even more esoteric tools as needed — in order to get their jobs done. What we really need is a discipline of thinking (a la Radical Centrism) — where we teach students the tools of history, philosophy, economics, anthropology, math, science, theology, etc. — so they have more of the power and less of the baggage. Which, it must be admitted, isn’t too far off from Gates vision. That’s pretty much the journey I took to get here. Given modern technology and an appropriate paradigm, it shouldn't be that hard to cram the basics — i.e., what people would be able to remember five years later — into a four year course. The real fun would be trying to turn it into a summer boot camp… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4 ▶ Father Guido Sarducci's Five Minute University - YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4> — Ernie P. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
