philosophy of education | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Episode 207: Herder on Art Appreciation (Part Two)

January 21, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Continuing on Johann Gottfried von Herder’s “The Causes of Sunken Taste among the Different Peoples in Whom It Once Blossomed” (1775), then moving to “On the Influence of the Belles Lettres on the Higher Sciences” (1781), “Does Painting or Music Have a Greater Effect? A Divine Colloquy” (1785), and and some of Critical Forests: Fourth Grove (written 1769). With guest rock god John “Jughead” Pierson.

What grounds good taste in society? Can an aesthetic education ground abstract thought? What would such an education consist of? Which is more affecting, music or painting?

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Episode 207: Herder on Art Appreciation (Part One)

January 14, 2019 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On Johann Gottfried von Herder’s “The Causes of Sunken Taste among the Different Peoples in Whom It Once Blossomed” (1775), “On the Influence of the Belles Lettres on the Higher Sciences” (1781), “Does Painting or Music Have a Greater Effect? A Divine Colloquy” (1785), and some of Critical Forests: Fourth Grove (written 1769). With guest rock god John “Jughead” Pierson.

What is aesthetic taste, and why do some societies (e.g., ancient Greece) seem rife with genius while others are not? Herder has some definite ideas about aesthetic, sensual education as grounding for abstract thinking, rages against attempts to copy another culture’s art forms, and likes melody over harmony. Plus he coined the term “zeitgeist”!

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Episode 200: Kant/Mendelssohn/Foucault on Enlightenment (Part Two)

October 15, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 5 Comments

Continuing on “What Is Enlightenment” by Immanuel Kant (1784), “On Enlightening the Mind” by Moses Mendelssohn (1784), and “What Is Enlightenment” by Michael Foucault (1984).

We finish up Kant (the courage to know!) and lay out the Mendelssohn (cultivation vs. enlightenment) and Foucault (ironically heroize the present!). Will this conversation enlighten you? Who knows?

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End song: “Holy Fool” by Love and Rockets. Listen to singer Daniel Ash on Nakedly Examined Music #35.

Episode 200: Kant/Mendelssohn/Foucault on Enlightenment (Part One)

October 8, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On “What Is Enlightenment” by Immanuel Kant (1784), “On Enlightening the Mind” by Moses Mendelssohn (1784), and “What Is Enlightenment” by Michael Foucault (1984).

At the end of the historical period known as The Enlightenment, a Berlin newspaper asked what exactly that is, and Kant and Mendelssohn responded. Both were concerned with whether too much enlightenment among the public can cause social unrest, and so whether there should be freedom of speech and opinion. Foucault thinks that we’re not yet Enlightened, that it’s an ongoing process of critique.

Continue on part 2, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

Episode 200: Kant/Mendelssohn/Foucault on Enlightenment (Citizen Edition)

October 8, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 8 Comments

On “What Is Enlightenment” by Immanuel Kant (1784), “On Enlightening the Mind” by Moses Mendelssohn (1784), and “What Is Enlightenment” by Michael Foucault (1984).

At the end of the historical period known as the Enlightenment, a Berlin newspaper asked what exactly that is, and Kant and Mendelssohn responded. Both were concerned with whether too much enlightenment among the public can cause social unrest, and so whether there should be freedom of speech and opinion. Foucault thinks that we’re not yet Enlightened, that it’s an ongoing process of critique.

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End song: “Holy Fool” by Love and Rockets. Listen to singer Daniel Ash on Nakedly Examined Music #35.

Episode 193: The Theory and Practice of Liberal Education w/ Pano Kanelos (Part Two)

July 2, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Continuing with the current St. John’s College president on articles on liberal education by Jacob Klein, Sidney Hook, and Martha Nussbaum.

What’s the practical application of a liberal education? Is it really liberating or indoctrinating? We continue discussion of the Great Books model.

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End song: “Preservation Hill” by The Bevis Frond; Mark interviewed Nick Saloman on Nakedly Examined Music #75.

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Episode 193 Follow-Up: Strauss and Rorty on Liberal Education and Democracy (Citizens Only)

July 1, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

Wes and Dylan discuss Leo Strauss’s “Mass Education and Democracy” (1967) and Richard Rorty’s “Democracy and Philosophy” (2007). Must philosophical training, or liberal education more generally, necessarily be restricted a privileged minority? PEL Citizens get to find out!

Episode 193: The Theory and Practice of Liberal Education w/ Pano Kanelos (Part One)

June 25, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

The president of St. John’s College, Annapolis joins us to discuss Jacob Klein’s “The Idea of a Liberal Education” (1960) and “On Liberal Education” (1965), plus Sidney Hook’s “A Critical Appraisal of the St. John’s College Curriculum” (1946) and Martha Nussbaum’s “Undemocratic Vistas” (1987).

What constitutes a liberal education? Should we all read the Western canon? Klein (and our guest) think that we need to wonder at the familiar, to explore the ancestry of our current concepts in order to avoid their sedimentation.

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Episode 193: The Theory and Practice of Liberal Education w/ Pano Kanelos (Citizen Edition)

June 25, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 10 Comments

End song: “Preservation Hill” by The Bevis Frond; Mark interviewed Nick Saloman on Nakedly Examined Music #75.

Education and Schopenhauer’s “Thinking for Oneself”

June 11, 2014 by Billie Pritchett 8 Comments

In Arthur Schopenhauer’s essay “On Thinking for Oneself” (1851), he writes that there are few people who possess a natural love of learning and that they will only learn from others if they find something that triggers an innate interest inside themselves. Thinking must be kindled, like a fire by a draught; it must be sustained by some interest in the matter Continue Reading …

Education Philosophy Becomes Practice

March 25, 2013 by Gary Chapin 31 Comments

Over the past hundred years Constructivists and Traditionalists have enjoyed an uneasy truce in the world of education practitioners. Constructivism “says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.” [thirteen.org] Traditionalists were more influenced by the “scientific management” of Taylorism, seeing schools on the industry model. Schools are factories with inputs, throughputs Continue Reading …

The Problem with Academia Today: Corporatism, Not Identity Politics

August 28, 2012 by Wes Alwan 5 Comments

Andrew Delbanco, author of his own book on what ails today’s university, gives the thumbs down to another critique that tilts at feminists and queer theorists: The Victims’ Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind. Delbanco is sympathetic to the notion that identity politics has taken its toll on academic life (as am I). Continue Reading …