The Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm and its Relevance for the Jesuit University

The article describes the seven characteristics that should identify a Jesuit university nowadays: 1) Pedagogical practices at Jesuit universities should promote authentic dialog and reconciliation; 2) Pedagogical practices at Jesuit universities should promote human excellence in every aspect of human life; 3) Pedagogical practices at Jesuit universities should promote exploration and discovery focused on and among disciplines; 4) Programs and practices at Jesuit universities should promote exploration and intercultural appreciation; 5) Jesuit universities should contribute both in theory and in practice to the promotion of justice in society as a whole and within society’s various institutions; 6) A Jesuit classroom should promote the construction of a global vision in students and professors; and 7) Internships and programs at Jesuit universities should promote authentic spiritual growth and faith development.Based on the key approaches of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) and having in view that this is not a prefabricated model ready to be applied, its particularities in higher education are contextualized in light of the reflections of the Society General Superiors.The characteristics or identifiers presented motivate educational institutions to build an identitythat responds to a long tradition of Jesuit education and constant renewal of their commitment toform leaders to heal a broken world.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming & VR via the 8 Pillars of Metacognition X 8 Layers of Consciousness X 8 Intelligences

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) has already achieved great popularity as a method for personal development and excellence. It is already used by successful educators, managers, trainers, salespeople, market researchers, counselors, consultants, medics, top athletes and lawyers. However, there is a lack of understanding about the secrets behind the success of neuro-linguistic training in various areas of human life. What are the pillars of its success? What is the role of metacognition? The specific aim of the present review is to explore the relationship between neuro-linguistic programming and metacognition as well as their role in building human excellence. In addition, we investigate, for the first time to our knowledge, the effectiveness of NLP in virtual reality in order to promote metacognitive development in terms of behavior change, subconscious reshaping and consciousness-raising. The results of this review showed that there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between Neuro-linguistic programming and Metacognition. Research has also shown that virtual reality provides the ideal environment for the application of subconscious training techniques like those of NLP. We conclude with a new layered model of NLP based on the principles of metacognition. This model aims to condition people to become awake, transcend their limitations, and enter a higher state of consciousness.

Hindu Literacy: The Basic Concept of Education and the Literacy Patter in Upanisads

Literacy is the soul of education in Hindu civilization. The Upanisad is an integral part of Vedic literature, and it provides the basic concepts of education and literacy patterns. According to the Upanisad, education is about giving academic degrees to students and building excellent human character; literacy is essential in Hindu Education. Various educational methods are used in the Upanisad, with the aim of awakening all human potential. Through educational efforts to generate superior human character as a whole, intelligence and wisdom are accentuated. Upanisad learning still has relevance in the modern era, such as in the philosophy of idealism. Students must be made aware of the importance of education in life, outside of simply making a living. The spirit of the learning torch must be adopted in modern times to prevent it from losing sight of its main path, that is, to raise human excellence. Hindu literacy becomes the main foundation in the education system, which builds the machine of human intelligence and wisdom. Activating the spirit of learning and methodology in Upanisad will directly help efforts to increase literacy. Keywords: upanisad, vedānta, Hindu literacy

Spinoza and the Possibility of a Philosophical Religion

What is a philosophical religion? Carlos Fraenkel proposes that we use this term to describe “the interpretation of the historical forms of a religion in philosophical terms”. Such a philosophical interpretation allows religious traditions to be utilized in service of a political-pedagogical program, the goal of which is orienting society towards the highest good: human excellence. Here, I outline the idea of a philosophical religion as it can be found in the Arabic tradition of rationalist Aristotelianism and scrutinize Spinoza’s ambiguous response to this idea. Despite his programmatic separation of theology and philosophy, I argue, Spinoza, at least in some crucial passages, shows himself to be engaged in the project of retrieving the truths of philosophy through the interpretation of Scripture. Thus, there are two contradictory strains at work in Spinoza’s philosophy of religion: he systematically denies that Scripture is the locus of truth, yet he articulates parts of his philosophical anthropology and rational theology by means of Scriptural exegesis. Both of these strains, however, depend on the claim that the final arbiter of truth about the divine and the one true act of worship of God is metaphysics.

Attention in Skilled Behavior: an Argument for Pluralism

Peak human performance—whether of Olympic athletes, Nobel prize winners, or you cooking the best dish you’ve ever made—depends on skill. Skill is at the heart of what it means to excel. Yet, the fixity of skilled behavior can sometimes make it seem a lower-level activity, more akin to the movements of an invertebrate or a machine. Peak performance in elite athletes is often described, for example, as “automatic” by those athletes: “The most frequent response from participants (eight athletes and one coach) when describing the execution of a peak performance was the automatic execution of performance” (Anderson et al. 2014). While the automaticity of skilled behavior is widely acknowledged, some worry that too much automaticity in skill would challenge its ability to exhibit human excellence. And so two camps have developed: those who focus on the automaticity of skilled behavior, the “habitualists,” and those who focus on the higher-level cognition behind peak performance, the “intellectualists.” We take a different tack. We argue that skilled behavior weaves together automaticity and higher-level cognition, which we call “pluralism.” That is, we argue that automaticity and higher-level cognition are both normal features of skilled behavior that benefit skilled behavior. This view is hinted at in other quotes about automaticity in skill—while expert gamers describe themselves as “playing with” automaticity (Taylor and Elam 2018), expert musicians are said to balance automaticity with creativity through performance cues: “Performance cues allow the musician to attend to some aspects of the performance while allowing others to be executed automatically” (Chaffin and Logan 2006). We describe in this paper three ways that higher-level cognition and automaticity are woven together. The first two, level pluralism and synchronic pluralism, are described in other papers, albeit under different cover. We take our contribution to be both distinguishing the three forms and contributing the third, diachronic pluralism. In fact, we find that diachronic pluralism presents the strongest case against habitualism and intellectualism, especially when considered through the example of strategic automaticity. In each case of pluralism, we use research on the presence or absence of attention (e.g., in mind wandering) to explore the presence or absence of higher-level cognition in skilled behavior.

Anthony Trollope: Novelist of the “Democratic Revolution”

Anthony Trollope uses the characters and drama of his “semi-political” Palliser novels to pursue the ends of Alexis de Tocqueville's political science in a lighthearted yet serious way. Describing himself as an “advanced conservative Liberal,” Trollope claims that his “political theory” is expressed most fully in the Palliser novels. Preoccupied with the phenomenon Tocqueville designates the “democratic revolution,” the novels emphasize the historical “tendency towards equality,” consider its social and political implications, and intimate how traditionally aristocratic England might respond to it. While he endorses the justice of the democratic revolution, Trollope shows that it is accompanied by such disadvantages as a decline in human excellence and greatness. Realistic depictions of character arouse sympathy for his view that by adopting a posture of prudent liberalism toward the advance of equality, the English could both reform their aristocratic institutions and rely on those institutions to mitigate the excesses of democracy.

Irony, Disruption and Moral Imperfection

Irony has a suspicious moral reputation, especially in popular media and internet culture. Jonathan Lear (2011) introduces a proposal which challenges this suspicion and identifies irony as a means to achieve human excellence. For Lear, irony is a disruptive uncanniness which arises from a gap between aspiration and actualisation in our practical identity. According to Lear, such a disruptive experience of ironic uncanniness reorients us toward excellence, because it passionately propels us to really live up to that practical identity. However, Lear’s understanding of irony is idiosyncratic and his proposal overlooks that disruption often results from value incompatibility between different practical identities. The disruption which follows from value incompatibility does not inherently reorient us toward excellence. The point is exactly that achieving excellence in one practical identity is sometimes incompatible with excellence in the other. Pace Lear, I do not identify this disruptive experience as a central example of irony. Instead, I consider irony a virtuous coping strategy for such disruption, because it introduces the necessary distance from our moral imperfection to sustain practical deliberation and maintain good mental health. Such virtuous irony negotiates a golden mean between too little disruption (complete insensitivity toward one’s imperfection) and too much disruption (a complete breakdown of practical deliberation and mental health). I argue that ironic media in popular culture provide a rich source of such virtuous irony, which I demonstrate through analysis of satirical examples.