Famous Novelists on Symbolism in Their Work and Whether It Was Intentional Eric Carle's bright, beloved children's classic about an insatiable caterpillar has been collecting awards—and fans—since it was first published in 1969. Here are a few things you might not know about The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 1. Eric Carle was born in Syracuse, New York, on June 25, 1929. The author has since speculated that he was drawn to the chunky, vibrant colors of painted tissue paper collage in part as reaction to the grimness of his childhood. 2. Herr Kraus, Carle’s high school art teacher, recognized his young pupil’s potential and risked his livelihood for the opportunity to foster it. "I didn't have the slightest idea that something like that existed, because I was used to art being flag-waving, gun-toting Aryans—super-realistic Aryan farmers, the women with their brute arms,” Carle said. 3. The war didn't exactly endear Carle to Europe, and he longed to return to America. "I wasn't thinking of books or anything like that," Carle told The Guardian. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Politics and the English Language Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language — so the argument runs — must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes. Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. DYING METAPHORS. OPERATORS OR VERBAL FALSE LIMBS.
Time [The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy] Time is what we use a clock or calendar to measure. It provides us with a measure of change by putting dates on moments, fixing the durations of events, and specifying which events happen before which other events. Yet despite 2,500 years of investigating time, many issues about it are unresolved. Consider this one issue upon which philosophers are deeply divided: What sort of ontological differences are there among the present, the past and the future? There are three competing theories. That controversy raises the issue of tenseless versus tensed theories of time. Table of Contents 1. Philosophers of time tend to divide into two broad camps on some of the key philosophical issues, although many philosophers do not fit into these pigeonholes. However, there are many other issues about time whose solutions do not fit into one or the other of the above two camps. A full theory of time should address this constellation of philosophical issues about time. 2. St. 3. a.
What I Saw in America: Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking In spite of the praise for and embrace of “diversity” on nearly every campus in the nation, there is one orthodoxy upon which all campuses now largely and uniformly agree: the aim of a university education is to inculcate among students the skill of “critical thinking.” As various requirements in humanities, social sciences and the natural sciences are eliminated, reduced, or replaced by a set of “distribution requirements,” colleges and universities increasingly signal that it is less any particular content or specific knowledge that matters than the ability to think critically about any and all issues. The skills that one learns in any given course – whether geology, philosophy, literature, sociology, physics, theology or political science, and so on – are fungible and transportable, a set of tools that can be used to analyze any topic or idea that falls within the general family of inquiry that is learned in a given course.
Socratic Questioning Techniques > Questioning > Socratic Questions Conceptual | Assumptions | Rationale | Viewpoint | Implications | Question | See also Socrates was one of the greatest educators who taught by asking questions and thus drawing out answers from his pupils ('ex duco', means to 'lead out', which is the root of 'education'). Sadly, he martyred himself by drinking hemlock rather than compromise his principles. Bold, but not a good survival strategy. But then he lived very frugally and was known for his eccentricity. Here are the six types of questions that Socrates asked his pupils. The overall purpose of Socratic questioning, is to challenge accuracy and completeness of thinking in a way that acts to move people towards their ultimate goal. Conceptual clarification questions Get them to think more about what exactly they are asking or thinking about. Why are you saying that? Probing assumptions What else could we assume? Probing rationale, reasons and evidence Why is that happening? See also
My Journey from Atheist to Catholic: 11 Questions for Leah Libresco Leah Libresco is a writer and school systems analyst based in Washington, D.C. A former atheist blogger and writer for the Huffington Post, Ms. Libresco stunned her readers in summer 2012 when she announced that she was converting to Catholicism. Ms. Advertisement What were your first experiences of religion? I grew up on Long Island, where most of the people I knew were non-religious Jews. The main exposure I had to religion was through politics (I was the kind of kid who hurried home to watch "Crossfire"). How and why did you become a self-professed atheist? There wasn’t really a time when I wasn’t an atheist. As an undergraduate student at Yale, how did you experience religion? Yale was the first time I met and talked to smart, interesting Christians. What drew you to the Catholic Church? Catholicism seemed to be pointed at the same end. What were your biggest obstacles to becoming Catholic and how did you resolve them? Who are your role models in the faith, either living or dead? St. St.
Strasbourg Court declares Russia innocent of Katyn massacre MOSCOW, April 12 - RAPSI. The European Court of Human Rights found Russia not guilty of the Katyn massacre, the mass execution of Polish nationals in 1940, the Moscow News reported on Thursday with reference to its source. The Strasbourg Court will pass its formal judgment on April 16, but the operative part of the sentence has been already passed. Poland has almost suffered overwhelming defeat in the Katyn case. However, it would be premature for Russia to celebrate the victory as the court declared it responsible for inhuman treatment of some of the applicants. The case might be considered by the Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg Court and be eventually reviewed, the newspaper reports. The Soviet Union blamed the Katyn massacre on the Nazis, stating that the killings took place in 1941 when the territory was occupied by German troops. In November 2011, the lower house of Russia's parliament approved a declaration recognizing the Katyn massacre as a crime committed by Stalin's regime.
Innerring - CS Lewis Society of California May I read you a few lines from Tolstoy’s War and Peace? When Boris entered the room, Prince Andrey was listening to an old general, wearing his decorations, who was reporting something to Prince Andrey, with an expression of soldierly servility on his purple face. “Alright. Please wait!” he said to the general, speaking in Russian with the French accent which he used when he spoke with contempt. When you invite a middle-aged moralist to address you, I suppose I must conclude, however unlikely the conclusion seems, that you have a taste for middle-aged moralising. It is not, in fact, very likely that any of you will be able, in the next ten years, to make any direct contribution to the peace or prosperity of Europe. And of course everyone knows what a middle-aged moralist of my type warns his juniors against. In the passage I have just read from Tolstoy, the young second lieutenant Boris Dubretskoi discovers that there exist in the army two different systems or hierarchies.
Myths About Socialism: Common Arguments Defeated « The Red Phoenix If you’ve expressed interest in socialism at some point in your life, you’ve probably had an encounter ( it can be at a family dinner, at school, the break room at work or any number of other examples) that goes like this: You say something favorable about socialism, anything at all, and someone in the conversation dons a smug, wise-in–the-ways-of–the-world facial expression, then fires off a line of “bumper sticker wisdom.” Some of us have heard these arguments hundreds of times; indeed many of us remember being indoctrinated with these capitalist sentiments since high school. Some can be easily dismissed, but others are so profoundly ingrained that you must examine it from every angle, engaging each layer contained with the statement. Why are anti-communist arguments important to examine and engage? It is because in almost every case, these common claims are straw man arguments advanced by people who do not have a knowledge of Marxism or the reality of socialist countries. Nope.
The Curse of Smart People - apenwarr The Curse of Smart People A bit over 3 years ago, after working for many years at a series of startups (most of which I co-founded), I disappeared through a Certain Vortex to start working at a Certain Large Company which I won't mention here. But it's not really a secret; you can probably figure it out if you bing around a bit for my name. Anyway, this big company that now employs me is rumoured to hire the smartest people in the world. Question number one: how true is that? Answer: I think it's really true. Question number two: but I'm sure they hired some non-smart people too, right? Answer: surprisingly infrequently. Well, they surprised me. (I later learned that my evil plan and/or information about my personality may have been leaked to the recruiters who may have intentionally set me up with especially clueful interviewers to avoid the problem, but this can neither be confirmed nor denied.) Anyway, I continue to be amazed at the overall smartness of people at this place. Yes.
Relationships “Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. “When you find someone that speaks the language of your soul---never let them go.” “It's easy to lose yourself in the idea of a person and be blinded to their reality.” “I don't know whether it's because I don't love him, or because I can't love him for demanding something like that from me. "We do not love people so much for the good they have done us, as for the good we do them." “We see in others what we want and what we fear.” "We are not the same person this year as last; nor are those we love. “One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silences. “Because I think that sometimes, when you really love somebody, you don't ask them for the kind of compromise that is actually a sacrifice. “Always! -Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray "Love can be a terrible curse.