This is symptomatic of the long retreat from what it means to be human. We encapsulate ourselves into buildings all day, faces glued to blue screens, shoving our brains full of useless factoids, while allowing our communities to die. A truly classical education must be truly human, including the intellectual pursuits proper to man, but also real recreation, art, and music. We have so much to restore, but there is hope as people reject the sterility of modern life.
Hi Lisa, I agree that our isolation only worsens the problem. If I may be so bold, however, the "first mistake" is the current belief (religion) that the world can be reduced to an algorithm. In particular, the hard-AI crowd, believe that the human mind is basically a computer running algorithms. Like Descartes' duality error, perhaps related to it, this spawns a cascade of errors.
I might even be convinced that the brain is a computer, but certainly not the mind. Search around for writings by Ian McGilchrist (long reads: The Master and His Emissary, The Matter with Things), a very good piece in the January 2025 First Things by Dan Hitchens about McGilchrist's work, and some very good podcasts (see Oxford Union) with him.
His work debunks the decades-outdated silly right-brain/left-brain pop psychology. It reveals the true right-left difference. The good doctor contends that many of todays problems (pathologies) stem from our worship of left-brain thinking (algorithm, process) which are only representations or maps of reality that "work" in some circumstances. A fundamental error is to mistake the map for the actual territory.
A silly example: my darling wife is like a rose. The map: wife~rose, therefore beautiful but with thorns. If I mistake the map for the territory, however, I'd be led to water her and spoon Miracle Grow into her shoes.
Humans learn and connect via stories, not algorithms. If you've ever known a recovering alcoholic it's unlikely that he stopped drinking via thinking and reasoning. A common AA refrain is "act your way into good thinking." AA meetings are gatherings were people briefly discuss the rather high-level "12 Steps," then go on to "tell their stories." These stories are the carriers of wisdom and insight.
Kinda like your family's stories. If you wanted to describe your family to us, it's unlikely that you'd pull out a few organization charts and process-flow diagrams (say, how we plan and prepare Thanksgiving dinner). You'd tell us stories.
A classical education both implicitly and explicitly rests on the power of stories.
This is symptomatic of the long retreat from what it means to be human. We encapsulate ourselves into buildings all day, faces glued to blue screens, shoving our brains full of useless factoids, while allowing our communities to die. A truly classical education must be truly human, including the intellectual pursuits proper to man, but also real recreation, art, and music. We have so much to restore, but there is hope as people reject the sterility of modern life.
Hi Lisa, I agree that our isolation only worsens the problem. If I may be so bold, however, the "first mistake" is the current belief (religion) that the world can be reduced to an algorithm. In particular, the hard-AI crowd, believe that the human mind is basically a computer running algorithms. Like Descartes' duality error, perhaps related to it, this spawns a cascade of errors.
I might even be convinced that the brain is a computer, but certainly not the mind. Search around for writings by Ian McGilchrist (long reads: The Master and His Emissary, The Matter with Things), a very good piece in the January 2025 First Things by Dan Hitchens about McGilchrist's work, and some very good podcasts (see Oxford Union) with him.
His work debunks the decades-outdated silly right-brain/left-brain pop psychology. It reveals the true right-left difference. The good doctor contends that many of todays problems (pathologies) stem from our worship of left-brain thinking (algorithm, process) which are only representations or maps of reality that "work" in some circumstances. A fundamental error is to mistake the map for the actual territory.
A silly example: my darling wife is like a rose. The map: wife~rose, therefore beautiful but with thorns. If I mistake the map for the territory, however, I'd be led to water her and spoon Miracle Grow into her shoes.
Humans learn and connect via stories, not algorithms. If you've ever known a recovering alcoholic it's unlikely that he stopped drinking via thinking and reasoning. A common AA refrain is "act your way into good thinking." AA meetings are gatherings were people briefly discuss the rather high-level "12 Steps," then go on to "tell their stories." These stories are the carriers of wisdom and insight.
Kinda like your family's stories. If you wanted to describe your family to us, it's unlikely that you'd pull out a few organization charts and process-flow diagrams (say, how we plan and prepare Thanksgiving dinner). You'd tell us stories.
A classical education both implicitly and explicitly rests on the power of stories.