tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825838744483889047.post7589447777407915684..comments2023-10-08T05:15:48.600-07:00Comments on Only Connect: Reading the WorldGarrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16094759803063892673noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825838744483889047.post-31609348060803079192010-03-18T16:42:06.709-07:002010-03-18T16:42:06.709-07:00Genial dispatch and this fill someone in on helped...Genial dispatch and this fill someone in on helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you seeking your information.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825838744483889047.post-18241700114388347182009-11-30T17:47:25.084-08:002009-11-30T17:47:25.084-08:00Jesse,
I mean "reading" in the sense of...Jesse,<br /><br />I mean "reading" in the sense of "symbol manipulation," as you note in your third paragraph, not in a more general sense of merely making meaning from incoming stimuli. And I mean it in the sense that not only are they familiar with symbols of different types (visual symbols, auditory/musical symbols, figurative and literal symbols (linguistically speaking)), but they understand how to construct meaning in such systems. Toward that interpretation, then, the more widely educated a person, the more symbol systems he she is, theoretically, exposed to. As liberal educations offer one of the widest ranging curricula, I'm sticking to that interpretation. Additionally, symbol manipulation is a process, and learning various such processes is one of the ends of a liberal education. However, LIberal Educations generally provide a broader scope of "content knowledge" than more focused educations. As reading well not only calls upon being able to enact the processes that make connections between what is already known and the new information/symbols encountered through the senses but also the ability to access a broad body of knowledge, the more broadly educated a person, the greater the opportunity for reading the world because their content knowledge is (again, generally) broader. <br /><br />Thus, because liberally educated people generally have more practice in symbol manipulations of all types and because liberal educations provide, curricularly speaking, the broadest education (see the medieval model of a liberal education: The trivium--logic, rhetoric, grammar; and the quadrivium--arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, music) and therefore the broadest content exposure, they also provide the best prerequisites for reading.<br /><br />I understand your caveat about coming off as a liberal (ly educated) snob in that all people have some type of "reading" they do of the world, but as I note, I'm suggesting Cronon is going beyond that.<br /><br />This is awfully redundant 'cause I'm awfully tired.Garrethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16094759803063892673noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825838744483889047.post-63262558551795852242009-11-30T09:20:50.965-08:002009-11-30T09:20:50.965-08:00(Made a little revision to the comment, since it s...(Made a little revision to the comment, since it stopped making sense in the middle.)<br /><br />I agree with the sentiment here, but the way it's phrased implies a reverse claim: when you say that liberally-educated people "read the world," you imply that there are people who DON'T read the world. Perhaps he's suggesting the alternative that some people merely react to the world (see Bergson, who claims that "intelligence" is merely a longer delay between sense impression and reaction).<br /><br />I'd be careful about this... can you honestly claim that there are people out there who don't construct some sort of "reading" of their world? I think you could argue that not only do all people create "readings" of the world at all times, but that even some animals and objects create such "readings" when it's necessary to their functioning. i.e. I think we can assume that certain animals, like monkeys, create world-views and symbolic systems that count as "readings," and in some cases, such as their sense of danger read from their surroundings, these readings may be more sensitive than any possessed by a liberally-educated Westerner.<br /><br />However, looked at in light of some other theories, I guess it makes sense... the Bergson, above, or some theory of symbol-manipulation as the fundamental human function, like the Strong Symbol System Hypothesis. Looked at in this light, I suppose Cronon may be advocating for an education that allows us to be as skilled as possible at symbol-manipulation. Maybe it's a tautology that the more symbols we can process and account for simultaneously, the better-educated we are, and the happier we're liable to be.Jesse Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06628842413174084374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3825838744483889047.post-39406347632830471972009-11-30T09:18:23.253-08:002009-11-30T09:18:23.253-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jesse Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06628842413174084374noreply@blogger.com