Tag Archives: philosophy/religion

5 Confucian Blessings

Posted on August 25, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Longevity * Wealth * Health * Civility * A Natural Death

The Five Blessings can be symbolized by a peach—a very auspicious Chinese symbol, linked with wishes for long life (often expressed by the number 10,000, with is suggestion of infinity of immortality). An image of nine peaches and five bats (linked to a peach because they sound familiar) is therefore coloured with all sorts of suggestions about all these blessing.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Robert Maynard Hutchins on the Death of Democracy

Posted on August 24, 2020 | Leave a comment

“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”

Robert Maynard Hutchins

Great Books of the Western World, vol. I, ch. 10 (1952)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Historical Term: Bourgeoisie

Posted on August 24, 2020 | Leave a comment

“bourgeoisie: (Fr. citizen class) Term used by Marxists to indicate those persons other than the agricultural capitalist who do not, like the proletariat, live by the sale of their labor. They include, on the one hand, industrialists, financiers and members of the liberal professions; on the other, small artisans and shopkeepers who are described as the ‘petty” bourgeoisie, although their standard of living may not be appreciably higher, and may even be lower, than that of the proletariat. According to Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie arose with modern industrialization, breaking feudal patterns of society and replacing the feudal lords of the ruling class; the petty bourgeoisie will gradually become proletarianized and the proletariat will then succeed its remaining members as masters of society.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

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Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Posted on August 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

 “Slaughterhouse-Five: A novel (1969) by the US writer Kurt Vonnegut Jr (1922-2007), drawing on his experience of witnessing, as a prisoner of war, the Allied destruction of Dresden by fire bombs during the Second World War. The framework of the book concerns Billy Pilgrim, who is transported by aliens through a time warp, enabling him to witness events in the past of which he has foreknowledge. So it is that, with other US prisoners, he finds himself shut up in a slaughterhouse (Slaughterhouse-Five) in Dresden when the city is bombed. An interesting film version (1972) was directed by George Roy Hill.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

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Thorstein Veblen on the Esteem of One’s Peers

Posted on August 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

“In order to gain and hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power. The wealth or power must be put in evidence, for esteem is awarded only on evidence.”

Thorstein Veblen

The Theory of the Leisure Class ch. 3 (1899)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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73 Benedictine Rules

Posted on August 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

“The Benedictines follow a rule divided into seventy-three chapters of advice covering every detail of monastic order and the pursuit of a spiritual life. However, there remains an overriding stipulation that the rules exist to help and are not an end in themselves.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Cultural Literacy: Jesuits

Posted on August 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Jesuits is a full-page document, so it would serve well as an independent practice–i.e. homework–assignment if you think kids should know about this order.

It might be worth keeping in mind the adjective jesuitical, meaning  “practicing casuistry or equivocation; using subtle or oversubtle reasoning; crafty; sly; intriguing.” This turns up in academic and scholarly prose, and might help students understand why the Jesuits animated the Counter-Reformation and are today regarded, in some circles and to some degree, with suspicion.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Melba Patillo Beals on the Crucible of Her Youth

Posted on August 17, 2020 | Leave a comment

“But, because we dared to challenge the Southern tradition of segregation, this school became, instead, a furnace that consumed our youth and forged us into reluctant warriors.”

Melba Patillo Beals, on the Desegregation of Little Rock Schools, Warriors Don’t Cry(1994)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003

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Aldous Huxley with Some Good Advice for Our Time

Posted on August 17, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

Aldous Huxley

Proper Studies “A Note on Dogma” (1927)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Term of Art: Syllogism

Posted on August 17, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Syllogism: (Greek “reckoning together”) Deduction, from two propositions containing three terms of which one appears in both, of a conclusion that is true if they are true. A stock example is: All men are mortal; Greeks are mortal; so all Greeks are mortal. ‘Men’ is the middle term. ‘Mortal,’ the second term in the conclusion, is the major term and the premise in which it occurs is the major premise. ‘Greeks’ is the minor term and its premise the minor premise.”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.

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