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Smacholdt's picture

A Sense of Place

After Tuesday’s discussion, I read some more of Naess’s essays with the thought that he was writing with the idea that his environmental outlook was better than everyone else’s, or that he was trying to indoctrinate people into his way of thinking. However, while reading the essay about Tvergastein I found that he was simply expressing his own profound respect for nature and sharing his ideas about why this respect is important.

AyaSeaver's picture

Are we told what to think?

      One of the most confusing topics that came up in discussion on Monday was the disagreement in how different readers felt when they read "The Ecology of Wisdom".  Is there a didactic strand to Naess's argument or is he simply revealing one way to live. 

Paul Grobstein's picture

Evolving Systems Course: PGnotes10

EVD's picture

Class Notes 9/28

We started class by disussing some of the posts people made since the last class on A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

Paul Grobstein's picture

Genes, evolution, science education, and science

"One well-known path to change is a heavily favorable mutation in a single gene. But it may be well known only because it is easy to study. Another path is exploitation of mildly favorable differences that already exist in many genes ... Theorists have argued over this point for years, but researchers have been able to address it only recently." ... Natural selection cuts broad swath through fruit fly genome, New York Times, 20 September, 2010

pfischer's picture

Solnit and the unknown unknown

 

 

Our discussion of getting lost made me think of this article from the last summer’s New York Times. I believe it relates to Solnit in the way that getting lost within the bounds of the unknown is unsettling - you don’t physically know your way around the woods, you don’t know what a word means, you cannot interpret a situation or your own thoughts. Unknown unknowns cause the brief flashes of panic that occur once you are ‘found’ – the fact that you are not aware of things you do not know about (take a second to read that slowly) is such an uncomfortable idea, as you cannot prepare for them. Being lost, having an unknown location, is built on the framework of your unknown unknowns. Here’s the article.

pfischer's picture

Exit Through The Gift Shop: (Banksy) via Guetta, (Guetta) via Banksy?

 

Exit through the Gift Shop: (Guetta) via Banksy, not (Banksy) via Guetta

Trailer:

Paul Grobstein's picture

Evolving Systems Course: PGnotes9

L Cubed's picture

The Power of School Culture: Addressing the Issue of Systematic Failure for Black Males

   It can be argued that the U.S. has created and maintained a culture of black males who feel trapped in the stereotypes of society and therefore often fall into them. With no one expecting them to amount to anything but a statistic, African-American males subconsciously fulfill the roles of high school dropout, drug dealer, criminal, gangster, jock, and teen father. They continuously feed into a system that exploits rather than supports them.

rachelr's picture

"Some places speak distinctly. Certain dank gardens cry aloud for a murder; certain old houses demand to be haunted; certain coasts are set apart for shipwrecks." ~Robert Louis Stevenson

 While reading the beginning of The Ecology of Wisdom I was struck by the passages on pages 46 and 64 where Naess speaks about a distinct sense of "place" and that was can be defined by or identify with a particular place. He says, "… the development of a place in which a person feels at home and feels a sense of belonging shows exceptionally clearly some of the forces at work in the establishment of a place," and then later speaks about a physical place being lost or destroyed, saying "… choose a place that you will likely to be able to master when you are older.

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