This is actually a pretty good book!
I recently read a book called slide:ology that talks about improving slide-based presentations, and the book has given me a lot of food for thought. But one of the minor points that’s really stuck with me comes from a section where the author explains that it’s easy to create your own illustrations for slides, but that people rarely do it because they believe they can’t. The author mentions is that if you ask a group of children, “Who in this room can draw?”, you’ll see almost every hand in the room go up. But if you ask a group of college graduates, “Who in this room can draw?”, you’ll see very few hands go up.
When I’ve gone into classrooms and worked with aspiring young authors, I’ve noticed this as well. Kids believe they can do almost anything, and regardless of the results, they’re willing to try. Adults, on the other hand, only believe they can do the things they know how to do, and they’re often reluctant to try new things without someone there to guide them. What causes this disconnect? Is it simply that children don’t have the wisdom to know that they can’t do something well… or that adults are too concerned with quality to try something that they know they’ll do poorly?
I’m probably the wrong person to answer this question, because I love learning new things, and I’m rarely afraid of failure. But in that spirit, I’m going to make an attempt to do so. Bear with me.
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It's not always easy to decide what's beautiful...
So I’m a little critical on this blog — I’ll admit it. Every week, I recommend films, video games and television shows that I think are good and I tear apart others that I think are pretty lousy. Clearly, my tastes are particularly, and my preferences are for things that I consider good. Most people develop their own sets of preferences for things that they find good which may or may not conflict with my own. That’s part of being human.
But have you ever stopped and wondered how we arrive at conclusions about what is good and what is bad, what is perfect and what is flawed?
The field of criticism is based on a philosophical principle called “aesthetics,” and it’s the basis that we use to determine what we like and what we don’t like. Most people have an intuitive grasp of aesthetics, but never bother to develop their understanding to a point that they can broaden their own horizons very easily. And there’s another problem, too – the problem of whether or not there is some universal sense of “good” aesthetics (i.e. whether truth and beauty are directly related) or whether or not aesthetic values are determined by culture and experience.
Let’s take a closer look at the issue and see if we can arrive at any conclusions.
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Sometimes, it's good to think about the deeper questions in life. But if that sounds boring to some, a picture of a pretty girl never hurts, either.
Throughout the varied religious ideologies of the world, there are three common themes:
- Humanity is imperfect and needs to improve itself in some way.
- Treating others with love and respect is the morally proper thing to do.
- Wisdom reigns supreme over all other knowledge.
But what is wisdom? Is wisdom relative to culture, or is it something universal? And how can one truly become wise?
Let’s address each of those questions point by point.
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[Philosophy Friday] | SeanJJordan | 
January 30, 2009 12:11 pm | 
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