Philosophy and Point of View

In Sophie’s World, we have reached the pivotal chapter “Bjerkely.” While reading this chapter keep in mind your understanding of point of view.  You will need to have a thorough understanding of “Bjerkley” in order to understand the chapter “The Enlightenment.”  Also, yesterday (4.03.12) we viewed Jill Bolte Taylor‘s stroke of insight (2008) TEDTalk video that presented several topics related to perspective and reality and that shared the idea of answering the question of  “who are we?”.

1. What does POV mean philosophically?
2. How does the epigram for this chapter connect? What is the significance of the mirror?
3. Where are we in this chapter?
4. What philosophers/philosophies are quoted in this chapter? Has the history of philosophy helped in understanding this chapter?
5. How does the chapter end? What is Hilde’s conclusion?

Challenge: What archetype is Albert Knag?
Challenge: If you had to create an analogy for this chapter, what would it be?

Happy 5th Birthday, TEDTalks Video!

The 20 most-watched TEDTalks (so far)

Today, on the fifth birthday of TEDTalks video, we’re releasing a new list of the 20 most-watched TEDTalks over the past five years — as watched on all the platforms we track: TED.com, YouTube, iTunes, embed and download, Hulu and more …

Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity (2006): 8,660,010 views
Jill Bolte Taylor‘s stroke of insight (2008): 8,087,935
Pranav Mistry on the thrilling potential of SixthSense (2009): 6,747,410
Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense (2009): 6,731,153
David Gallo‘s underwater astonishments (2007): 6,411,705
Tony Robbins asks Why we do what we do (2006): 4,909,505
Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen (2006): 3,954,776
Arthur Benjamin does mathemagic (2005): 3,664,705
Jeff Han demos his breakthrough multi-touchscreen (2006): 3,592,795
Johnny Lee shows Wii Remote hacks for educators (2008): 3,225,864
Blaise Aguera y Arcas runs through the Photosynth demo (2007): 3,007,440
Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing your genius (2009): 2,978,288
Dan Gilbert asks: Why are we happy? (2004): 2,903,993
Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe (2008): 2,629,230
Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation (2009): 2,616,363
Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice (2005): 2,263,065
Richard St. John shares 8 secrets of success (2005): 2,252,911
Simon Sinek on how great leaders inspire action (2010): 2,187,868
Chimamanda Adichie shares the danger of a single story (2009): 2,143,763

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I cannot begin to explain how much I adore Emerson and the Transcendentalists; they refuel my soul.

Finish each day and be done with it…
You have done what you could;
Some blunders and absurdities
                                                    no doubt crept in
Forget them as soon as you can
Tomorrow will be a new day;
You shall begin it well and serenely.
                                                  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mistakes will happen, but learn from them; they allow you to grow as an individual. Success is not measured by your achievements, but rather by your attempts to try what you fear the most.

American Romanticism and Values

American Romanticism

“. . . a glorification of yearning, striving, and becoming. . . “

~David Perkins

 Romanticism, originally a European movement (began in Germany), emphasized feeling and intuition over reason.  Romantics sought wisdom in natural beauty, and valued poetry above all other works of the imagination.

American Romanticism took two roads on the journey to understanding higher truths.  One road led to the exploration of the past and of exotic, even supernatural, realms; the other road led to the contemplation of the natural world.

The differences between the views of the rationalists (Age of Reason) and those of the Romantics was that the rationalists viewed the city as a place to find success and self-realization, whereas the Romantics viewed the city as a place of moral ambiguity and of corruption and death.

The Romantic journey was a flight both from something and to something.

American Romanticism was a journey away from the corruption of civilization and the limits of rational thought and toward the integrity of nature and the freedom of the imagination. The Romantics associated the countryside with independence, moral clarity, and healthful living.

American novelists looked to westward expansion and the development of the frontier for inspiration, creating subject matter that broke with European traditions.

Virtue, American novelists implied, was in American innocence.  Eternal truths were waiting to be discovered in the American Wilderness, not in the dusty libraries or crowded cities of Europe.

The rationalist hero was worldly, educated, sophisticated, and bent on making a place for himself in civilization.  The American Romantic hero was youthful, innocent, intuitive, close to nature, and uneasy around women.

James Fenimore Cooper created the first American heroic figure: Natty Bumppo (a.k.a. Hawkeye, Deerslayer, and Leatherstocking), a heroic, virtuous, skillful frontiersman whose simple morality, love of nature, distrust of town life, and almost superhuman resourcefulness mark him as the American Romantic hero.

Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero:

  • Is young, or possesses youthful qualities;
  • Is innocent and pure of purpose;
  • Has a sense of honor based not on society’s rules but on some higher principle;
  • Loves nature and avoids town life; and
  • Quests for some higher truth in the natural world.

http://thisibelieve.org/

http://www.npr.org/series/4538138/this-i-believe

http://www.yellafella.com/press/YellaWood_OldWestRidesAgain.pdf 

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/v49-1/br-west.htm 

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug02/COOPER/bumppo.html