THE MUSIC SALON: classical music, popular culture, philosophy and anything else that catches my fancy...
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
A Good Article in the Globe and Mail
I know what you are thinking; how did he find a good article in, of all places, the Globe and Mail! Easy, I looked. I know I kick around this newspaper a lot, because they usually deserve it. But it is only fair to recognize a good article. That's why I want to put up this link to an article on education and philosophy by Mark Kingwell. I know it is not directly music related, but it is full of such good sense that I wanted to link to it.
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3 comments:
Not! Kingwell is a twerp.
1. Education is part of parenting and the continuity of family values, it may be delegated.
2. “What matters about Plato’s cave is the vivid depiction of political deception.” Ipsius verba.
3. People like MK “don’t do much about critical thinking” because any spread of it would end their spell over the gullible masses.
4. “The basics: social justice, community service” and other traits of the terminally liberal.
5. Good education is a matter of whether “the room is the right size and the professor is engaging and enthusiastic”. MK can’t tell whether he means education or entertainment.
6. The examined life is neurotic. Not everybody should do it.
7. MK thinks he is Thales. May this time the pit be deep enough.
And as for Classical Education schools, like monks who pray in silence, where there is freedom to choose, these are the flourishing ones.
Ok, I guess I was reaching. I thought some of it was good. I liked this, for example:
"Important social institutions combine innovation with tradition, sustaining past achievements as living ideas. Change and novelty should never be pursued for their own sake, or because the world at large is driven by them. This isn’t nostalgia.
We philosophers don’t value Plato because he has been around so long; he has been around so long because he’s valuable."
But right after, you are perfectly correct, he gives a nonsensical interpretation of the analogy of the Cave. But what's wrong with this:
"Here’s what we need: courses in informal logic, so students can recognize fallacies in public discourse; in economic theory, since economists think they rule the world, and politicians believe them; and in computer programming, because you can’t see the biases of the system unless you know how it was coded.
Also, the widespread view that technology is value-neutral, inevitable and always here to help, needs to be exposed as the dangerous ideology it is."
Parts of a poisoned pie are pure.
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