I have recently become a fan of Steven Pinker. His Wikipedia page tells you who he is and if you like, youtube him to find some remarkable lectures, specially the one on why we use swear words. But this post is about his eloquent and precise definition about what it means to be an educated person.
"I think we can be more specific. It seems to me that educated people should know something about the 13-billion-year prehistory of our species and the basic laws governing the physical and living world, including our bodies and brains. They should grasp the timeline of human history from the dawn of agriculture to the present. They should be exposed to the diversity of human cultures, and the major systems of belief and value with which they have made sense of their lives. They should know about the formative events in human history, including the blunders we can hope not to repeat. They should understand the principles behind democratic governance and the rule of law. They should know how to appreciate works of fiction and art as sources of aesthetic pleasure and as impetuses to reflect on the human condition.
On top of this knowledge, a liberal education should make certain habits of rationality second nature. Educated people should be able to express complex ideas in clear writing and speech. They should appreciate that objective knowledge is a precious commodity, and know how to distinguish vetted fact from superstition, rumor, and unexamined conventional wisdom. They should know how to reason logically and statistically, avoiding the fallacies and biases to which the untutored human mind is vulnerable. They should think causally rather than magically, and know what it takes to distinguish causation from correlation and coincidence. They should be acutely aware of human fallibility, most notably their own, and appreciate that people who disagree with them are not stupid or evil. Accordingly, they should appreciate the value of trying to change minds by persuasion rather than intimidation or demagoguery."
I'll try to keep updating this post to provide some web resources that I've found, which one can use to actually educate themselves..
"13-billion-year prehistory of our species": Big History Project. and the talk.
"basic laws governing the physical and living world": This is the all the things taught in the high school science class.. Can be learned online from Khan Academy.
"diversity of human cultures": .......Quite tough.
There is a big time controversy that was generated by a provocative article in the magazine New Republic "Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League". In response to this Steven Pinker wrote a great piece "The Trouble With Harvard". In this article, he gives a wonderful definition of an educated person.
"I think we can be more specific. It seems to me that educated people should know something about the 13-billion-year prehistory of our species and the basic laws governing the physical and living world, including our bodies and brains. They should grasp the timeline of human history from the dawn of agriculture to the present. They should be exposed to the diversity of human cultures, and the major systems of belief and value with which they have made sense of their lives. They should know about the formative events in human history, including the blunders we can hope not to repeat. They should understand the principles behind democratic governance and the rule of law. They should know how to appreciate works of fiction and art as sources of aesthetic pleasure and as impetuses to reflect on the human condition.
On top of this knowledge, a liberal education should make certain habits of rationality second nature. Educated people should be able to express complex ideas in clear writing and speech. They should appreciate that objective knowledge is a precious commodity, and know how to distinguish vetted fact from superstition, rumor, and unexamined conventional wisdom. They should know how to reason logically and statistically, avoiding the fallacies and biases to which the untutored human mind is vulnerable. They should think causally rather than magically, and know what it takes to distinguish causation from correlation and coincidence. They should be acutely aware of human fallibility, most notably their own, and appreciate that people who disagree with them are not stupid or evil. Accordingly, they should appreciate the value of trying to change minds by persuasion rather than intimidation or demagoguery."
I'll try to keep updating this post to provide some web resources that I've found, which one can use to actually educate themselves..
"13-billion-year prehistory of our species": Big History Project. and the talk.
"basic laws governing the physical and living world": This is the all the things taught in the high school science class.. Can be learned online from Khan Academy.
"diversity of human cultures": .......Quite tough.
"major systems of
belief ": Religion, not a big fan!!
"principles behind democratic governance and the rule of law": Random reading on Wikipedia!!
"clear writing and speech": A very helpful and short video on writing is here.
"think causally rather than magically, and know
what it takes to distinguish causation from correlation and coincidence": Difficult concept to convey...
No comments:
Post a Comment