MetaFilter posts tagged with philosophy and Society

Ancient Greece

netbros — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:24:40 -0800

Explore the History of the Ancient Greek World from the Neolithic to the Classical Period. Covering important topics, such as Art and Architecture, Mythology, Wars, Culture and Society, Poetry, Olympics, History Periods, Philosophy, Playwrights, Kings and Rulers of Ancient Greece.

Spontaneous rebellion alone is not sufficient.

divabat — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:52:44 -0800

The Revolutionary Pleasure of Thinking for Yourself

Weapons of Mass Instruction

symbollocks — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 06:54:01 -0800

John Taylor Gatto's newest book, Weapons of Mass Instruction, is out today. Gatto, a former New York State "Teacher of the Year" (1991), is a critic of state education and compulsory schooling in general: "When you take the free will out of education, that turns it into schooling." Gatto laid out his comprehensive critical analysis of the current education system in his previous book The Underground History of American Education (free online edition), [previously]. He contends that the current education system was set up from the start to serve business and government interests by isolating children from the real world. "Only then could the necessary training in boredom and bewilderment begin. Such training is necessary to produce dependable consumers and dependent citizens who would always look for a teacher to tell them what to do in later life, even if that teacher was an ad man or television anchor." In a recent interview he summarized how he got started as a teacher, why he left the profession, why the current education system is a failure, and offers solutions to the problem. Gatto is not alone in his crusade against compulsory schooling. A few, among the many worth mentioning, are: Grace Llewellyn author of The Teenage Liberation Handbook, sociology professor Stanley Aronowitz author of Against Schooling, environmentalist Derrick Jensen author of Walking on Water, Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich author of Deschooling Society, German philosopher Max Stirner author of The False Principle of our Education, and even Albert Einstein who wrote in his autobiographical notes: "It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreck and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty. To the contrary, I believe it would be possible to rob even a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the aid of a whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry, especially if the food, handed out under such coercion, were to be selected accordingly."

Consider my opinion changed.

fantabulous timewaster — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:58:48 -0800

Overcoming Bias [via]

Dopamine

homunculus — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:30:25 -0800

A New State of Mind. "New research is linking dopamine to complex social phenomena and changing neuroscience in the process."

Just Say No .. to John Stuart Mill

daksya — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 08:23:01 -0800

"An open society must be prepared to listen to those who offer a critique of its conventional wisdom—and our conventional wisdom about drugs and addiction should be no exception."

Habermas and MeFi

TheRoach — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 15:25:30 -0800

Jurgen Habermas and the Public Sphere. Habermas' conception of the public sphere has become increasingly interesting to scholars of internet theory. Any thoughts on what role MeFi plays in creating a public? What about issues of accessibility, autonomy, and quality? Could Mefi be the realization of Habermas' public sphere?