Arousing Intellectual Curiosity and Spirit of Enquiry

2021 ◽  
Vol 141 (7) ◽  
pp. 381-381
Author(s):  
Yoshinori SAKAMOTO
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Curiosity

Simone Weil

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Marovich
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Intellectual Curiosity ◽  
Creation Theology ◽  
Simone Weil

Few of Giorgio Agamben’s works are as mysterious as his unpublished dissertation, reportedly on the political thought of the French philosopher Simone Weil. If Weil was an early subject of Agamben’s intellectual curiosity, it would appear – judging from his published works – that her influence upon him has been neither central nor lasting.1 Leland de la Durantaye argues that Weil’s work has left a mark on Agamben’s philosophy of potentiality, largely in his discussion of the concept of decreation; but de la Durantaye does not make much of Weil’s influence here, determining that her theory of decreation is ‘essentially dialectical’ and still too bound up with creation theology. 2 Alessia Ricciardi, however, argues that de la Durantaye’s dismissal of Weil’s influence is hasty.3 Ricciardi analyses deeper resonances between Weil’s and Agamben’s philosophies, ultimately claiming that Agamben ‘seems to extend many of the implications and claims of Weil’s idea of force’,4 arguably spreading Weil’s influence into Agamben’s reflections on sovereign power and bare life.

Craft Beer's Unlikely Alchemist

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 78-90
Author(s):  
Theresa McCulla
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Assembly Line ◽  
The United States ◽  
Risk Tolerance ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Intellectual Curiosity ◽  
Brewing Industry ◽  
Washing Machine ◽  
Craft Beer ◽  
History Of

In 1965, Frederick (Fritz) Maytag III began a decades-long revitalization of Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, California. This was an unexpected venture from an unlikely brewer; for generations, Maytag's family had run the Maytag Washing Machine Company in Iowa and he had no training in brewing. Yet Maytag's career at Anchor initiated a phenomenal wave of growth in the American brewing industry that came to be known as the microbrewing—now “craft beer”—revolution. To understand Maytag's path, this article draws on original oral histories and artifacts that Maytag donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History via the American Brewing History Initiative, a project to document the history of brewing in the United States. The objects and reflections that Maytag shared with the museum revealed a surprising link between the birth of microbrewing and the strategies and culture of mass manufacturing. Even if the hallmarks of microbrewing—a small-scale, artisan approach to making beer—began as a backlash against the mass-produced system of large breweries, they relied on Maytag's early, intimate connections to the assembly-line world of the Maytag Company and the alchemy of intellectual curiosity, socioeconomic privilege, and risk tolerance with which his history equipped him.

Intellectual Curiosity

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bedelia H. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Curiosity

Predictors of use of digital technology for communication among older adults: analysis of data from the health and retirement study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brady Lund
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Technology Adoption ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Health And Retirement Study ◽  
Intellectual Curiosity ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Retirement Study

Purpose This study aims to examine the potential impact of eleven social and psychological factors – anxiety, closeness with family and friends, intellectual curiosity, life control, life satisfaction, physical health, religiosity, self-esteem, sociability, socioeconomic status and works status and demands – on the use of digital technology by older adults for the purpose of communicating with family and friends. Design/methodology/approach A path analysis, which uses ordinary least squares regression to examine relationships among variables, is used to perform a secondary analysis of data from the 2018 Health and Retirement Study. A correlation matrix, which displays the direct relationships among variables, is also incorporated. Findings Statistically significant direct influences are revealed between the use of digital technology for communication and three factors: intellectual curiosity, self-esteem, and sociability. These three factors are themselves moderated by the influences of the remaining eight factors. While most factors relate to an increase in the adoption of social uses of digital technology, increased anxiety and increased work demands (for those who are employed) are related to decreased adoption, while increased religiosity has a mixed effect (reduced intellectual curiosity but increased sociability). These findings suggest a few avenues for identifying and intervening in the lives of physically and socially isolated older adults, by illuminating correlates of technology adoption. Originality/value While many studies have examined factors that correlate to increased technology adoption, this study is original in that it focuses specifically on the use of digital technology for communication with family and friends (i.e. use of email, messaging, social media) while also focusing on social and psychological factors (many of which can be changed through intervention) rather than innate and uncontrollable factors like age, gender and ethnicity.

scholarly journals To Fear or Fly to the Unknown: Tolerance for Ambiguity and Big Five Personality Traits

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley Jach ◽  
Luke Smillie
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Ambiguity Tolerance ◽  
Intellectual Curiosity ◽  
Behavioral Choice ◽  
Tolerance For Ambiguity

The present study investigated whether ambiguity tolerance relates to personality traits that are theoretically grounded in fear (neuroticism) or attraction (openness to experience; extraversion) for the unknown. Our hypotheses were supported for self-report measures (and openness to experience predicted ambiguity tolerance controlling for intelligence), but behavioral choice measures of ambiguity tolerance demonstrated poor reliability and were unrelated to self-reported ambiguity tolerance and basic personality traits. An exploratory network analysis revealed that ambiguity tolerance was more strongly related to the intellectual curiosity (vs. aesthetic appreciation) facet of openness to experience, and the assertiveness (vs. energy or sociability) facet of extraversion. Our findings reinforce the fragmented literature in this area, and support predictions derived from psychological entropy theories of personality.

The Madness of Cambyses: Herodotus and the Problem of Inquiry

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-82
Author(s):  
Lindsay Mahon Rathnam
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Intellectual Curiosity ◽  
The World ◽  
Self Knowledge

Abstract In his evaluation of the mad despot Cambyses, Herodotus proclaims that preference for one’s own culture persists after examination. This paper examines how Herodotus’ treatment of Cambyses reveals the insidious ways that thought is bounded by cultural attachments. Blindness to one’s attachments spurs the drive to empire by covering and justifying expansionist appetites. Herodotus’ treatment of Cambyses’ imperialist inquiries will thus not only implicate the Persians, but raise unsettling questions about the Hellenes’ own appetites. Herodotus offers his own methods of inquiry as an alternative. Rather than denying appetite and rendering it subterranean, Herodotus suggests that inquiry must be motivated by the quest for self-knowledge – understanding the diversity of the world helps reveal the fuller contours of human nature. Herodotus’ storytelling engages affect by provoking the intellectual curiosity of his audience. It promises that expansionist appetites can be rehabilitated into genuine curiosity and openness to difference.

Writing the Liberal Arts and Sciences

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Intellectual Curiosity ◽  
Liberal Arts Education ◽  
Scholarly Community ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Core ◽  
Liberal Arts And Sciences ◽  
Academic Content

Starting from informal cross-disciplinary conversations between colleagues, this volume is the result of an experiment in understanding the standpoints and methodologies of others in a multidisciplinary setting. At its heart are the core values of a liberal arts education: intellectual curiosity and the ability to communicate across borders. Written with the aim of communicating academic content to non-specialists, the essays interweave narratives about truth with various kinds of dialogue and the importance of historical consciousness. Together they illustrate the power of writing as a tool for strengthening a scholarly community.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document