Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
"We can usually learn much more from people whose views we
share than from people whose views contradict our own";
disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning."
EDUCATION
SCIENCE
Video provides more objective & accurate record of events spatial aspects,
there is far more to document than what we see or hear.
So the author overstates the comparative significance.
For purpose of documenting temporal, spatial events & experiences-> video
is more convincing
No keen observer, skilled journalist could recount the complete & objective
detail of a winning touchdown at the super bowl, a Balanchine ballet, the
tournament of Roses Parade, or the scene of intersection of Florence &
Normandy streets during 1992 Los Angeles riots
Video surveillance cameras act as objective witness to crimes with their
perfect memories against robbery, drug trafficking, police misconduct, motor
vehicle violation & even malpractices in hospitals & court cases themselves.
A written description of a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, tsunami or a
volcanic eruption cannot capture the immediate power & awesome nature
like a video record
A diary entry cannot replay the wedding reception, dance recital, or
surprise birthday party as accurately or objectively as a video record.
A real estate brochure cannot inform about lighting, spaciousness & general
ambiance of a featured property.
Written records are superior in terms of legal matters. Video is of no practical
use in terms of a complex contractual agreement or incorporation
Video is of little use while documenting a persons subjective state of mind,
impressions or reflections of an event or experience
Personal interpretation adds dimension and richness to the record
Video record is of no use while documenting statistical or quantitative
information.
Relying on video to document the loss of every person would require a video
camera to be present at every street corner at every aisle of every store
What we view through the camera lens provides only one dimension of our
life and times; written documentation will always be needed to demystify,
quantify, and provide meaning to the world around us.
05. "It is often necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to
withhold information from the public."
Political ethics
A contrary view would reveal a naivet about the inherent nature of politics
and compromises on the part of well-intentioned political leaders necessary
in order to further the publics ultimate interests.
But we risk demagoguery and undermining the philosophical underpinnings
of any democratic society.
(1) Ensuring the survival of large cities, in turn, preserving the cultural
traditions, is a proper function of government
(2) Government support is needed for the large cities & cultural traditions to
thrive
(3) Cultural traditions are preserved & generated primarily in our large cities.
Not a role of government. Certain aspects, as healthcare & safety, that are
necessary for survival of nation they should be met. Cannot extend
tenuously to preserving cultural traditions
Government cannot be an evenhanded role as cultural patron.
Inadequate resources call for restrictions, priorities, and choices
Unconscionable to relegate normative decisions as what cultures are more
deserving & valuable.
Legislators are likely to make a choice in favor of home towns & states
Subsidizing cultural tradition is not a role of the government. In case of
absence of a patron might justify an exception?
A cultural traditions mostly fine art has always depended upon the patronage
of private individuals and not on government. For example -> The Medicis, a
powerful banking family of renaissance period in Italy, supported artists like
Michelangelo & Raphael. During 20th century the foundations led by the
industrial magnates Carnegie, Mellon etc. & In the coming years the media
Moguls like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg will be more likely to save cultural
traditions than government. They are more equipped to do so.
Philanthropy is alive and well today.
Large cities are not the breeding ground & sanctuaries for a nations cultural
traditions.
Distinct traditions -Folk art, songs, crafts, traditions, customs & ceremoniesburgeon instead in small towns & rural regions. Admittedly cities serve as
centers of high art, big cities boasts the deposit of preeminent art,
architecture & music.
Big cities are multicultural stew pots where people from all over the country
settle in & form a homogenous tradition of their own rarely preserving their
original form. So by assisting large cities a government is assisting the global
culture
07. "All nations should help support the development of a global
university designed to engage students in the process of solving the
world's most persistent social problems."
Global University
Languages
Countrys indigenous, native & distinct languages should not be abandoned
and forgotten altogether.
Cultural identity should yield to more practical considerations.
Language is a part-and-parcel of the cultural heritage of the regions natives.
We have a psychological need for individual identity that we define by our
distinct cultural groups.
A culture defines itself in various ways unique traditions, customs, rituals,
mores, attitudes, and beliefs but especially language.
When language extinct the result is a diminished sense of pride, dignity &
self-worth.
In continental Europe people cling tenaciously to their distinct language
Across Atlantic French Canadians stubbornly insist on French as their official
language.
If no language exists people even invent one to gain a sense of cultural
identity, as Ebonics cant among todays African American
So people resist language assimilation in order to maintain distinct cultural
groups.
Another reason prevent the loss of philosophy & ideas that exists in a
particular group.
Certain Native American & oriental languages have terms in spiritualism that
explain some deep philosophy thats passed down for generations.
Contrary in todays high tech world of satellite communication, global
mobility and internet, language barriers impede cross cultural
communication, which hampers international commerce & trade.
Language barriers breed misunderstanding, a discord, a dissonance, and
results in feuds & even wars among nations.
Extinction of languages is inexorable. With the Internet adopting English as
official language.
By intervening to preserve a dying language one might engage in a losing
battle/ invest in a lost cause rather to combat more severe social problemssuch as hunger, homelessness, disease & ignorance.
Preserving languages is important but the government should leave it to
people & devout its time elsewhere.
09. "Although many people think that the luxuries and conveniences
of contemporary life are entirely harmless, they in fact, prevent
people from developing into truly strong and independent
individuals."
Luxuries
Every culture has the enduring nearly ubiquitous icon of the ragged
individualist, who charts his or her own course, bucks the trend; achieve
notoriety through individual creativity, imagination, invention, or
entrepreneurship.
Yet all this support is just hype as most people chose to conform.
It is human nature to distrust and even shun someone who is different.
Rugged individualism is to risk becoming an outcast, the consequence which
is to limit ones socioeconomic career opportunity.
This quells the yearning of most of the people
Paradoxically it is the achievements of the non conformists that are
responsible for the most cultural development and progress.
So, most people chose to conform to the fear of exclusion at the heart of
their choice yet no culture actually promotes conformity.
People freely choose conformity as they believe there is strength in numbers
11. "There are two types of laws: just and unjust. Every individual in
a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and, even more
importantly, to disobey and resist unjust laws."
Each person has a duty to obey just laws & also to disobey unjust laws.
Firstly wrongly/vaguely characterizes laws as just & unjust
Secondly, it recommends an ineffective & potentially harmful means for legal
reform.
Fairness of any law is subjected to ones own personal value system.
This is especially true in case of personal freedoms like abortion. People with
strong religious belief view this law as unjust.
Fairness of a law also depends upon ones personal interest
Chief function of laws is strike balance among competing interests.
Consider a regulation that specifies the toxic effluents a certain factory can
emit into nearby river.
Cost more so risks losing thousands of jobs or increase the price of the
product. So stake of company owners vs the health of the locals.
Disobeying unjust laws has opposite affect then one hopes for
Tax system unfair, but mass evasion would cripple the government that may
be forced to add more tax upon its citizens or fail to do their objectives
making the poor suffer.
Slippery slope towards sanctioning illegal behavior
Safety of innocent people should not be jeopardized as a result.
12. "Anyone can make things bigger and more complex. What
requires real effort and courage is to move in the opposite
direction---in other words, to make things as simple as possible."
Threshold claim-> students who learn only facts learn very little -> then
concludes -> always learn concepts, ideas, trends then only facts.
The conclusion unfairly generalizes about learning process
Speakers advice would actually impede the learning of concepts & ideas
Rote memorization -> just a bit mental exercise -> an opportunity to practice
Memorization techniques
Concede that postponing the memorization of facts until after one learns
ideas & concepts holds certain advantages.
If conceptual framework already in place student is better able to understand
the meaning of a fact & appreciate its significance.
Student is more likely to memorize the fact to begin with & less likely to
forget it as time passes.
If memorize the facts first-> student aims shifts to assemble trivia.
Students must learn ideas & concepts and facts relating to them
No reason why memorization of facts cannot precede learning about its
meaning as long as student does not stop at rote memorization.
Speaker might advise student to first learn historical trends leading to
discovery of the elements or learn about concepts of altering chemical
compounds to achieve certain reactions
Having no familiarity with the basic vocabulary of chemistry which includes
the information in the periodic table student will come out of the lesson
bewildered & confused
Speaker misunderstands the process by which we learn ideas & concepts
Consider how economics student learning about the relationship between
supply & demand.
Media- Role
Public Image
Teddy Roosevelt is known primarily for building the Panama Canal and for
establishing our National Park Systemand not for his rough and ready
wardrobe.
Success depends to some degree on persuasion, marketing, or
salesmanship, image is a central concern of those who seek to persuade.
As Lives become busier, our attention span briefer, our choices among
products and services greater this trend will continue unabatedfor better or
worse.
20. "Most of the people we consider heroic today were, in fact, very
ordinary people who happened to be in the right place at the right
time."
Heroes
Books vs Video
Research
Faith
Leader should follow high ethical and moral standards is a complex issue
One that is fraught with the problems of defining ethics, morality, and
successful leadership in the first place.
Three distinct forms of leadership: business, political and social-spiritual.
Business
Successful leadership is defined as that which achieves the goal of profit
maximization for a firms shareholders or other owners.
The prevailing view in Western corporate culture is that by maximizing profits
a business leader fulfills his/her highest moral or ethical obligation.
Some detractors claim that business leaders have an obligation to do no
intentional harm to their customers or to the society in which they operate.
For eg- Provide safe products & implement all safety and pollution control
measures.
Others go further saying business leaders have an obligation to protect
consumers, preserve the natural environment, promote education, and
otherwise take steps to help alleviate societys problems.
Whether business leaders are the ones who embrace these additional
obligations depends on ones own definition of business success
Business leaders can maximize profits in long term only by taking reasonable
steps to minimize the social and environmental harm.
Political Leaders
These are tied up in the means a leader uses to wield ones power and to
obtain that power.
Useful approach to define the distinction between personal morality and
public morality
Personal morality is unrelated to effective political leadership.
Marital indiscretions of President Kennedy
Few would disagree that poor moral choices adversely affect the ability to
lead.
Many leaders, such as Stalin and Hitler, were egregious violators of public
morality who ultimately had to forfeit their leadership as a result of immoral
means by which they had gained or wielded their power
President Nixon, whose contempt for the very legal system that afforded him
his leadership led to his forfeiture of it.
Short-term unethical behavior might serve a political leaders interest in
preserving ones own powers yet in the long run it leads to their downfall.
Socio-spiritual = Gandhi & Martin Luther King were eminently successful.
High standards of moral ethics they advocated and practiced.
Hard-pressed to name one successful social or spiritual leader whose
leadership was predicated on the advocacy of patently unethical or immoral
behavior
High standards for ones own public morality are prerequisites for successful
social-spiritual leadership.
26. "While some leaders in government, sports, industry, and other
areas attribute their success to a well-developed sense of
competition, a society can better prepare its young people for
leadership by instilling in them a sense of cooperation."
Competition vs Cooperation
In extreme cases might try to sabotage the goal or take useful ideas to the
competitors.
Instilling a sense of competition serves to narrow a leaders focus on
thwarting the efforts of competitors.
With tunnel vision it is difficult to develop other, more creative and effective
means of attaining organizational objectives.
Thriving economy depends on the freely competitive business environment.
Ensures high quality goods at lower price
Leadership positions inherently call for certain tenacity and competitive
spirit.
Critical in highly competitive market
Effectiveness as a competitor is not necessarily inconsistent with his or her
ability to cooperate with subordinates or with competitors as noted above.
If we take speakers advice too far we would risk becoming a world without
leaders.
We would risk the key benefits of a free market.
27. "Society does not place enough emphasis on the intellect---that
is, on reasoning and other cognitive skills."
More emphasis on intellect and cognition is required
Speaker overlooks the benefits of nurturing certain emotions and feelings
Agree that by way of our heads rather than our heads we can ensure the
well-being of our society
Concede that intellect at the expense of healthy emotions can harm an
individual psychology.
Undue suppression of legitimate and healthy desires and emotions can result
in depression, dysfunction and even physical illness.
Intelligence can mask such problems thereby exacerbate them.
On mass scale these problems become societallowering our economic
productivity, burdening our health-care and social-welfare systems.
Concede that by encouraging and cultivating certain positive emotions and
feelings such as compassion and empathy society clearly stands to
benefit.
Emphasizing emotions over intellect can carry negative even dangerous
consequence for any society.
Collective sense of fairness, equity and justice can easily give way to base
instincts like hate, greed and lust for power and domination.
Any society is better off by quelling or at least tempering these sorts of
instincts by nurturing reason, judgment, tolerance, fairness, and
understanding all of which are products of intellect.
Television set
Witness to the current trend of trashy talk shows, which eschew
anything approaching intellectual discourse in favor of pandering to our
baser urges and instincts like jealousy, lust and hate
Prior to decline of, Roman Empire, many women fled to join Benedictine
monasteries, bringing with them substantial dowries which they used to
acquire artifacts, art works and manuscripts
Monasteries served as centers for preservation of Western culture and
knowledge
Equally influential was Johannes Guttenberg, whose invention of the printing
press several centuries later rendered Western knowledge and culture
accessible to every class throughout the known world.
Without the support of paper manufacturers, publishers, and distributors and
without sufficient demand for printed books Guttenberg would have never
become one of the famous few.
Studying the groups of people who rode the wave is secondary in
understanding history to learning root historical cause of the wave.
Undue attention to the efforts and contributions of the various groups tends
to obscure the cause and effect relationships with which study of history is
chiefly concerned.
When it comes to seminal sociopolitical events, the speakers claims find
even less support from historical record
Sweeping social changes and political reforms require support of large group
of people
Hard-pressed to identify any watershed sociopolitical event attributable to a
leaderless group
Groups rally on when incited and inspired by key individuals
Concede that gradual shifts in demography, in cultural traditions and mores,
and in societal attitudes and values can carry just as significant historical
impact as the deeds of the famous few
Key individuals invariably provide the initial sparks for those trends.
For instance, prevailing attitudes about sexual morality stem from the ideas
of key religious leaders, and a cultures prevailing values concerning human
life are often rooted in the policies and prejudices of the political leaders.
Speaker might also point that key architectural wonders like the Taj Mahal
and the Great Wall came about only through the efforts of large groups of
workers however it was the famous fewmonarchs whose whims & egos
were the driving force behind these accomplishments.
History is shaped by key individuals that provide visions of the future which
groups then bring to fruition.
Speakers claims will gain more merit maybe in the next millennium as
politics and science are conducted increasingly by consortiums and
committees.
Today it behooves us to continue drawing inspiration from the famous few
and understand history chiefly in terms of their influence
29. "Imaginative works such as novels, plays, films, fairy tales, and
legends present a more accurate and meaningful picture of human
experience than do factual accounts. Because the creators of fiction
Both teem with symbolism and metaphor relating to lifes journey, the
human spirit, and our hopes, dreams and ambitionsin short, the human
experience.
Without prior factual accounts fictional works set in historical periods lose
much of their meaning
Through the exercise of artistic license can we convey human experience in
all its dimensions, and thereby fully understand and appreciate life in other
times and places
30. "In order to improve the quality of instruction at the college and
university level, all faculty should be required to spend time
working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the
courses they teach."
This depends primarily on the specific academic area
Fields in which outside work is appropriate, I strongly agree with this
statement
Students and faculty all stand to gain in a variety of respects when a
professor complements academic duties with real-world experience
The statement requires qualification in two respects: In certain academic
areas there is no profession to speak of outside academia. Especially true in
humanities; after all, what work outside academia is there for professors of
literature or philosopher?
In a certain other academic areas professors academic duties typically
involve practical work of the sort that occurs outside academia. Especially
true in fine and performing arts, faculty actively engage in the craft by
demonstrating techniques and styles for their students
Faculty who are actively engaged in their fields come to class with fresh
insights and a contagious excitement about the subject at hand.
They bring to their students practical, real world examples of the principles
and theories discussed in textbooks, motivating some students to pursue the
field as a career.
Keeping abreast with the changing demands of work as a professional,
professors can help students who are serious about pursuing a career in that
field to make more informed career decisions
Better able to impart useful, up-to-date information about what work in the
field entails, and even about the current job market
College career planning staffs are neither equipped nor sufficiently
experienced to provide such specific advice to students.
With faculty research and publication in their areas of specialty some
experience in the field can help a professor ferret out cutting-edge and
controversial issueswhich will be appropriate subjects for research and
publication.
Practical experience can boost a professors credibility as an expert in the
field
49. "So much is new and complex today that looking back for an
understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the
present."
50. "At various times in the geological past, many species have
become extinct as a result of natural, rather than human, processes.
Thus, there is no justification for society to make extraordinary
efforts, especially at a great cost in money and jobs, to save
endangered species."
51. The well being of a society is enhanced when many of its people
question authority.
52. "Facts are stubborn things. They cannot be altered by our
wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions."
53. "How children are socialized today determines the destiny of
society. Unfortunately, we have not yet learned how to raise
children who can help bring about a better society."
54. "The arts (painting, music, literature, etc.) reveal the otherwise
hidden ideas and impulses of a society."
55. "The absence of choice is a circumstance that is very, very rare."
56. "Only through mistakes can there be discovery or progress."
57. "What society has thought to be its greatest social, political, and
individual achievements have often resulted in the greatest
discontent."
58. "Contemporary art (painting, music, literature, etc.) is absent
from the lives of most people, since it is primarily created only for
the enjoyment of other artists. Art should instead be created purely
for popular understanding and appreciation."
59. "Most people recognize the benefits of individuality, but the fact
is that personal economic success requires conformity."
60. "It is the artist, not the critic,* who gives society something of
lasting value."
*a person who evaluates works of art, such as novels, films, music,
paintings, etc.
61. "People who are the most deeply committed to an idea or policy
are the most critical of it."
110. "Too much time, money, and energy are spent developing new
and more elaborate technology. Society should instead focus on
maximizing the use of existing technology for the immediate benefit
of its citizens."
111. "Most important discoveries or creations are accidental: it is
usually while seeking the answer to one question that we come
across the answer to another."
112. "In order for any work of art---whether film, literature,
sculpture, or a song---to have merit, it must be understandable to
most people."
113. "The chief benefit of the study of history is to break down the
illusion that people in one period of time are significantly different
from people who lived at any other time in history."
114. "Imprisonment for violent crimes should be made as
unpleasant as possible in order to deter potential offenders from
committing such crimes."
115. "People often look for similarities, even between very different
things, and even when it is unhelpful or harmful to do so. Instead, a
thing should be considered on its own terms; we should avoid the
tendency to compare it to something else."
116. "People are mistaken when they assume that the problems
they confront are more complex and challenging than the problems
faced by their predecessors. This illusion is eventually dispelled
with increased knowledge and experience."
117. "The best way to teach---whether as an educator, employer, or
parent---is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones."
118. " 'Moderation in all things' is ill-considered advice. Rather, one
should say, 'Moderation in most things,' since many areas of human
concern require or at least profit from intense focus."
119. "Although innovations such as video, computers, and the
Internet seem to offer schools improved methods for instructing
students, these technologies all too often distract from real
learning."
120. "Most people prefer restrictions and regulations to absolute
freedom of choice, even though they might deny such a preference."
121. "Most people are taught that loyalty is a virtue. But loyalty--whether to one's friends, to one's school or place of employment, or
to any institution---is all too often a destructive rather than a
positive force."
122. "Conformity almost always leads to a deadening of individual
creativity and energy."
123. "Much of the information that people assume is 'factual'
actually turns out to be inaccurate. Thus, any piece of information
referred to as a 'fact' should be mistrusted since it may well be
proven false in the future."
124. "The true value of a civilization is reflected in its artistic
creations rather than in its scientific accomplishments."