A Polanyian rationale for a liberal arts core curriculum

2021 ◽  
pp. 147787852199623
Author(s):  
Jon Fennell ◽  
Timothy L. Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Core Curriculum ◽  
Moral Imagination ◽  
Philosophy Of Education ◽  
Michael Polanyi ◽  
Character Formation ◽  
Selection Of

What would we have the school teach? To what end? In the name of democracy, and building on the pioneering epistemology of Michael Polanyi, Harry S. Broudy, a leading voice in philosophy of education during the twentieth century, calls for a liberal arts core curriculum for all. The envisioned product of such schooling is a certain sort of person. Anticipating the predictable relativistic challenge so much on display in our own time, Broudy justifies the selection of subject matter (and thus the envisioned character formation and cultivation of moral imagination) by reference to the authority of experts in the disciplines. This response fails to fully repel the assault, thereby revealing the need for a dimension of Polanyi’s thought whose significance exceeds even that of the epistemology that Broudy so effectively invokes.

Background Studies in the Teaching of Latin

1953 ◽  
Vol 22 (64) ◽  
pp. 18-26
Author(s):  
F. W. Garforth
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Greek Literature ◽  
Mental Training ◽  
The Face ◽  
One Year ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
The Middle Ages

From the Middle Ages to the end of the nineteenth century the teaching of Latin in England emphasized grammar and the formal aspects of language at the expense of subject-matter and of the general background of civilization. The tradition continued into the twentieth century and is still not dead. Protests against this formalizing and grammaticizing of a potentially liberal subject have been made regularly, at least from Elyot onwards. ‘By what time he [the pupil] cometh to the most sweet and pleasant reading of old authors, the spark of fervent desire of learning is extinct with the burthen of grammar’ (Governour, Book I. x). Milton, in the Tractate, writes: ‘Language is but the instrument conveying to us things useful to be known.… We do amiss to spend seven or eight years merely in scraping together so much miserable Latin and Greek as might be learnt easily and delightfully in one year’ (ed. Morris, p. 5). Locke makes a similar complaint (Thoughts, para. 165 ff.). During England's classical age protests were fewer; for the end—familiarity with Latin and Greek literature (or rather with a fairly narrow selection of it)—was so desirable that it justified the means, however unpleasant. In the nineteenth century the volume of protest grew again and was reinforced by the partisans of science; notably Spencer and Huxley. But the linguistic tradition was strengthened rather than weakened, at least for the time being; for its supporters, rationalizing their prejudices in the face of attack, conjured up the various mental-training arguments which ever since have confused the whole issue of the value of Latin in education.

Veiling Esther, Unveiling Her Story

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam J. Silverstein
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Religious Background ◽  
Literary Context ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of

This book examines the ways in which the biblical book of Esther was read, understood, and used in Muslim lands, from ancient to modern times. It zeroes-in on a selection of case studies, covering works from various periods and regions of the Muslim world, including the Qur’an, premodern historical chronicles and literary works, the writings of a nineteenth-century Shia feminist, a twentieth-century Iranian dictionary, and others. These case studies demonstrate that Muslim sources contain valuable materials on Esther, which shed light both on the Esther story itself and on the Muslim peoples and cultures that received it. The book argues that Muslim sources preserve important, pre-Islamic materials on Esther that have not survived elsewhere, some of which offer answers to ancient questions about Esther, such as the meaning of Haman’s epithet in the Greek versions of the story, the reason why Mordecai refused to prostrate himself before Haman, and the literary context of the “plot of the eunuchs” to kill the Persian king. Furthermore, throughout the book we will see how each author’s cultural and religious background influenced his or her understanding and retelling of the Esther story: In particular, it will be shown that Persian Muslims (and Jews) were often forced to reconcile or choose between the conflicting historical narratives provided by their religious and cultural heritages respectively.

Why Phenomenology?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Pattison
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Present Approach ◽  
The Self ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Pure Intuition ◽  
The Way

This chapter sets out the rationale for adopting a phenomenological approach to the devout life literature. Distinguishing the present approach from versions of the phenomenology of religion dominant in mid-twentieth-century approaches to religion, an alternative model is found in Heidegger’s early lectures on Paul. These illustrate that alongside its striving to achieve a maximally pure intuition of its subject matter, phenomenology will also be necessarily interpretative and existential. Although phenomenology is limited to what shows itself and therefore cannot pass judgement on the existence of God, it can deal with God insofar as God appears within the activity and passivity of human existence. From Hegel onward, it has also shown itself open to seeing the self as twofold and thus more than a simple subjective agent, opening the way to an understanding of the self as essentially spiritual.

The Yellow Wall-Paper and Other Stories

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Charlotte Perkins Gilman ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Selection Of

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was America's leading feminist intellectual of the early twentieth century. The Yellow Wall-Paper and Other Stories makes available the fullest selection of her short fiction ever printed. In addition to her pioneering masterpiece, ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’ (1890), which draws on her own experience of depression and insanity, this edition features her Impress ‘story studies’, works in the manner of writers such as James, Twain, and Kipling. These stories, together with other fiction from her neglected California period (1890-5), throw new light on Gilman as a practitioner of the art of fiction. In her Forerunner stories she repeatedly explores the situation of ‘the woman of fifty’ and inspires reform by imagining workable solutions to a range of personal and social problems.

THE ANTI-BUCOLIC WORLD OF NICANDER'S THERIACA

2014 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 623-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Overduin
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Authentic Learning ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Proper Treatment ◽  
Locus Amoenus ◽  
Linguistic Innovation ◽  
Negative Feelings ◽  
Selection Of

The last decades have shown that Nicander's Theriaca (second century b.c.e.), a didactic hexameter poem of 958 lines on snakes, scorpions, spiders, and the proper treatment of the wounds they inflict, is a markedly more playful work than most readers thought. Rather than considering the poem as a vehicle of authentic learning, literary approaches to the nature of Nicander's strange poetic world have focussed on his eye for Alexandrian aesthetics, intertextuality, linguistic innovation, and awareness of the didactic tradition that started with Hesiod's Works and Days, but also on his predilection for horror, voyeuristic sensationalism, and gory details. Although literary-minded readers have found it hard to disprove convincingly that Nicander may have had some professional knowledge of his subject matter, a glance at his arcane language is enough to convince any reader that the Theriaca cannot be concerned solely with its explicit subject. In this article I will make some additional observations on the way in which Nicander has turned the Theriaca into a work of literature, focussing on some of the choices that he has made with regard to his less than veracious depiction of snakes and animals. While Spatafora rightly points to Nicander's eye for detail when portraying floral beauty, I will argue that the poet's play with the topos of the locus amoenus has a darker side. Rather than creating an epic world of beauty, Nicander shows his talent for taking the reader along an unpleasant path of apprehension and negative feelings, portraying a choice selection of afflictions. Not only does he have many ways of giving his quasi-scientific account a markedly negative atmosphere, but his world may well be a deliberate reversal of that other well-known Hellenistic portrayal of the natural world, Theocritus' bucolics.

scholarly journals Słownictwo dotyczące świata fauny i flory w Symbolice wiosennej Stefanii Ulanowskiej

2021 ◽  
pp. 60-72
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Andrejczyk
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Reconstructed Image ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Selection Of

The object of interest in this sketch is an analysis of the vocabulary indicating selected elements of the world of fauna and fl ora in Symbolika wiosenna (Spring symbolism) by Stefania Ulanowska (Kraków 1884). The collected language material is characterised by wealth and complexity of the subject matter. The indicated vocabulary has not been characterised yet. This paper employs elements of the cognitivist description of language. The selection of this method enables depiction of the relation between linguistic knowledge and encyclopaedic knowledge. Language becomes an indispensible element of mental processes of the perception of the world (Tokarski 1995; Miodunka 1980). The analysis of the excerpted material clearly shows that the discussed spring symbolism usually invokes, contrary to the prototype, the semantic fi eld related to ‘śmierć’ (death) rather than ‘życie’ (life). The reconstructed image of the folk idea of spring largely deviates from the ideas established in the consciousness of language users in general, which is confi rmed by the discussed examples. It presents unit connotations that are individualised and present in the consciousness of members of small rural communities of those times. Keywords: Stefania Ulanowska – vocabulary of fauna and flora

scholarly journals Beyond Post-Tonal: A Broader Approach to the Fourth Semester Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Knowles
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Core Curriculum ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
World Music ◽  
Degree Programs ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Twentieth Century Music ◽  
Musical Interests ◽  
Broad Overview

In this article, I argue for organizing the undergraduate curriculum around topics that are applicable to a wide variety of repertoires. Doing so allows students to continue to learn the central concepts and skills that theorists seek to impart via the core curriculum but through a wider variety of musical styles and traditions. Pairing this approach to the curriculum with a wide range of musical activities and projects that extend beyond analysis to include improvisation, arranging, performance, composition, and research helps students connect the content to their own instruments, degree programs, and musical interests. I describe my application of this philosophy towards curricular reform within the context of a fourth semester course on twentieth-century music, where twentieth-century music was treated as a broad category encompassing post-tonal and avant garde music alongside jazz, popular, and world music. This article presents a broad overview of the course, discusses the successes and failures of this approach, and offers some suggestions for how it may be implemented and adapted for various teaching contexts.

Sweeping Out Home Economics: Curriculum Reform at Connecticut College for Women, 1952–1962

2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-388
Author(s):  
Paul Philip Marthers
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Women's Colleges ◽  
Home Economics ◽  
Academic Program ◽  
Women's College ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Twentieth Century America

At the moment of its founding in 1911, Connecticut College for Women exhibited a curricular tension between an emphasis on the liberal arts, which mirrored the elite men's and women's colleges of the day, and vocational aspects, which made it a different type of women's college, one designed to prepare women for the kind of lives they would lead in twentieth-century America. Connecticut was a women's college that simultaneously embraced the established brand of education practiced by its prestigious Seven Sister neighbors and forged its own path by integrating elements of home economics, municipal housekeeping, and professional/clerical training into its academic program. For forty years Connecticut College for Women achieved a balance between those two opposing poles of its curriculum.

Sterilization Modality Selection: Role of Sterility Assurance Subject Matter Expert

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (s3) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Jami McLaren ◽  
Joyce M. Hansen ◽  
Vu Le
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Collaborative Partnerships ◽  
Supply Chain Logistics ◽  
End To End ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Assurance Process ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract Selection of a sterilization modality for a medical device is a critical decision that requires sterility assurance subject matter experts (SME)s to work collaboratively with various company functions. The sterility assurance SME is responsible and accountable for the sterilization modality decision for a product. The modality selection process starts with the sterility assurance SME partnering with research and development to ensure that the sterilization modality allows the device to deliver its intended function in patient care. After the sterilization modality is selected, the sterility assurance SME needs to work with other partners, including quality, supply chain/logistics, operations, and regulatory, to ensure that the selected sterilization modality is appropriately integrated into the end-to-end process. Collaborative partnerships between sterility assurance experts and key partners regarding sterilization modality selection reduce the potential for negative impacts within the end-to-end sterility assurance process, including impacts on product functionality, increased regulatory approval timelines, and inefficiencies and risks throughout the supply chain. This article describes aspects of a comprehensive approach to sterilization modality selection, including critical information necessary to address each of the key considerations.

The domestication of the earth

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Ecological Theory ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

The domestication of the earth entails the enfolding of ‘nature’ into human life and society. This chapter focuses on the millennia of the Holocene, when human societies consisted of food collectors and agriculturalists who essentially lived off recently fixed solar energy. In the course of its last 100 years, geography has from time to time taken in, and focused its attention on, diverse approaches to its subject matter. But as a ground bass to these variations, the relation between humans and the environment has persisted, though sometimes virtually at sotto voce level. In part, geography's attention has concentrated on landscapes as visible demonstrations, past and present, of these interrelations, but it has also taken an approach based explicitly on late-twentieth-century ecological theory. This chapter examines humans as hunter-gatherers during prehistoric times, along with the emergence of agriculture in Britain.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document