academics_anon, posts by tag: philosophy - LiveJournal (original) (raw)

| My thesis chair mentioned that Kant once wrote (in response to an argument that no one can actually live by the categorical imperative) something similar to the idea that theory drives practice, and while he may not be perfect, he does his best to live by the C.I.I cannot find this reference. Does it ring any bells for anyone? I just re-read Theory and Practice (On the common saying...) and I didn't see it in there. It's not the bit from the Pure Reason on intuitions and conceptions. I have a feeling my chair's just misremembering, but I would really appreciate either confirmation that that's the case, or some idea of where Kant actually said this.Tags:"the a_a reference desk", philosophy My university is currently revamping its curriculum, moving away from the course credit system toward the course unit system instead. (The difference, to oversimplify, is that rather than working for say 36 hours in the major, the students work for 11 or 12 courses instead, with the advantage of being therefore limited to taking four courses a semester instead of five; this allows for deeper, "enriched" coursework, which encourages us all to revamp and enhance assignments and definitions of what "course" really means.) We're still in the gathering-data mode, but the plan is to implement the new approach within the next year. Concurrently with that effort, and initially separately from that effort, I began to assemble notes and plans for a first-year English online handbook, which I envisioned as a combination of standard "handbook" (how tos, the idea of process writing, the emphasis on inquiry rather than formula, grammar, and so forth) and a "how university is different from high school, specifically how THIS university is unique in its expectations of first year writing, what you need to know as a freshman, etc" explanation. When I mentioned this project to the Dean overseeing the first year student experience, he jumped on the idea immediately as an opportunity to present our incoming freshmen with a unified online document introducing them to the intellectual rigor of the university experience, one evinced specifically in the now-higher expectations of critical and analytical writing. I thought combining the two aims like this was a good idea. I still do. I'm not sure how to accomplish it, though, even given that the Dean in question is certainly going to be contributing to the effort and not planning to leave it all up to me as the director of the freshman comp program. He has no idea either how to combine the two, but it seems clear to both of us that if we did it separately, we'd end up overlapping in several ways; it appears more effective to simply produce a two-pronged single effort since critical inquiry in the form of written work is going to be the cornerstone of our new curricular goals. So, I've found a dozen or so models of the handbook idea, one or two models of the "intro to college level inquiry" idea, and no models for the combination of the two. My questions, then, are several, in order to prevent wheel-reinventing: are you aware of other strong "intro to college level critical inquiry" handbooks online? (Links, please!) am I thinking too broadly or too narrowly about the value of such a combined endeavor? This community embraces a very wide range of specialties, and I'd appreciate comments and responses from specific disciplines about whether and how such a handbook would help the students of your experience. what would you recommend that such online handbooks include, other than what I've listed? What kind of material, in your eyes, would help students acclimate to the expectations of a pretty demanding curriculum? (We're a high-ranked private liberal arts college, with recognized schools of business and music as well.) Recommended readings for students? Models of successful writing in the first year? Theory and/or pedagogical approaches to student writing? Aristotelian or Platonic rhetoric? I'd welcome other thoughts, too. Right now I'm focused on seeing trees in relationship to forests, with the result that I'm probably not seeing either too terribly clearly. I know my own trees very well, but I'm less sure about what else might be living in the underbrush with the freshman comp course. Am I, for instance, not seeing the obvious? Very likely. Thanks for any responses or suggestions.Tags:advice for students, advice-for-those-new-to-academia, class handouts, grading-student-writing, pedagogy, philosophy, recommendations, style manuals, writing Hello,This community was recommended to me as a place where my inquiry has a better chance of being attended to than where it was before.This is for those of you with some knowledge of ancient Indian philosophy and/or culture, perhaps through study of culture and/or philosophy.I am looking to read the Vedic texts as well as the Upanishads, and am looking for suggestions of editions/translations.There is an edition of The Rig Veda available from Penguin Classics, and as I am partial to Penguin books, I am keen on this edition. Is it respectable, or would other ones be recommended? As well, I can only find the Rig Veda as a separate edition, but am also interested in reading the (Black) Yajur-Veda and the (Saunaka) Atharva-Veda. Have they been translated in ways other than as part of an uncommented anthology, which is the only way I can find them at the moment?As for the Upanishads, there are two versions I have found: one is by Eknath Easwaran, and the other, a Patrick Olivelle. Most reviews recommend the former over the latter, but does anyone have personal experience?Much obliged.Cross-posted.Tags:literature, philosophy, poetry, reading-recommendations, summer-reading I'm writing an article that hives off from current research (because it's Friday, it's important, and I can, in that order, I suspect). However, my background is theology, some philosophy and education... and what I want to write about concerns agency and voice.Now, pupil voice and even to some extent parent voice I can find. But I'd be very grateful if someone could direct me to starting placed about agency? As in, who has it and why? I can find numerous articles but I'd be grateful for a pointer toward something fairly ... I want to say, "basic" but I mean that in terms of "this is where to start and where it starts" rather than "Janet and John bit".TIA...Tags:philosophy, resources Heidegger wrote something about "dwelling" and "place"? All I know of Heidegger is "Being and Time", and his "Introduction to Metaphysics". Either I was reading with less than full attention in these boks, or there's other stuff that wasn't covered (because really, can you cover an entire philosphy in one semester?) in class...but I need to know what these readings are....Anyone? Heidegger and writings about dwelling and place?I would be eternally grateful if you (oh, the ethereal you) could point me in the right direction.Tags:philosophy i am currently tumbling, clawing and lurching my way through Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and am becoming ever more certain that this book will indeed be the end of me. it is the only required text in a semester-long compulsary seminar for philosophy majors (lucky us) and this maddening and largely incomprehensable prose makes... me... want... to... throw... things... big things. things with sharp edges or uneven surfaces.just wondering if anyone had any interesting or even similarly painful encounters with the critique, or if anyone had any kant-survival tips, suggestions on secondary sources that might make some of this clearer or even lists of interesting things i can do with this godforsaken text after the semester is over would all be welcome.has anyone ever been bitten by this book?is there such thing as a kant-induced-coma?seriously, i am worried for my health.Tags:lit-crit-and-theory, philosophy Top of Page | | | 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