tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-357943202024-03-09T00:38:28.119+00:00CELIA GREENnotes from an exiled academicUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger643125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-78536983052058992052024-01-26T13:58:00.000+00:002024-01-26T13:58:03.369+00:00Genes and social classIt has been estimated that the proportion of a person’s intelligence which is inherited from his or her parents is upward of 50 percent.
However, there is great resistance to the idea of heritable intelligence.
A theory popular with some academics is that Victorian and Edwardian middle-class intellectuals believed in heritability because it fitted with the view that the class structure of Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comOxford, UK51.7520209 -1.257726323.441787063821153 -36.4139763 80.062254736178843 33.8985237tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-73765534231994799642023-10-30T14:36:00.002+00:002023-10-30T14:41:45.942+00:00Genes, leadership and monarchyThe idea that ability is partly inherited continues to be controversial, for reasons that seem to have more to do with ideology than scientific evidence.
If ability does in general have a heritable component, this would go some way towards explaining the existence of social classes.
Hereditary monarchy was for many centuries the most common form of political system, and the heritability of Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-50191259749509938732023-10-13T11:02:00.000+01:002023-10-13T11:02:29.163+01:00Two brief essays on educationGood parents
In order to be a socially approved parent it is necessary not to ‘push’ your child. There is a social myth to the effect that great harm (of a quite unspecified kind) can be done by ‘pushing’ children.
There is no corresponding myth about any harm that can be done by frustrating children; in fact, of course, ‘frustrating’ a child is not a possible concept. Even if Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-29871265386041275172023-09-06T15:18:00.003+01:002023-09-06T16:45:08.912+01:00The cult of creativityOne weakness of the pursuit of creativity is that it focuses attention on what seems to you to be significant (which admittedly is the only way you have of evaluating what might be significant), so that the tension between the subject or observer and external (unknown) reality is relatively weakened.
This is clearly why creativity is so popular as an educational catchword. If everyone tries to Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-86740682984195562722023-08-02T17:36:00.004+01:002023-10-13T11:16:25.307+01:00Out-of-the-Body Experiences
My colleague Charles McCreery has recently published his book on out-of-the-body experiences. This is available from Amazon.
Here are links to the Amazon UK page:
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1916090656
and the Amazon USA page:
www.amazon.com/dp/1916090656
The book should appeal to anyone interested in any of the following topics:
• out-of-the-body experiences
• hallucinations and apparitionsCelia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-71629064659557524132023-07-08T14:27:00.000+01:002023-07-08T14:27:18.970+01:00The common good?Here is another extract from Ayn Rand’s book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. Rand expresses scepticism about the ‘common good’, a concept popular with collectivists.
“The common good” is a meaningless concept, unless taken literally, in which case its only possible meaning is: the sum of the good of all the individual men involved. But in that case, the concept is Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-47307340640342082692023-04-26T15:08:00.001+01:002023-07-08T14:28:56.074+01:00Ayn RandAyn Rand was the pen name of Alice O’Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum), a Russian-American writer and philosopher. Her most notable works were the novels The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957).
Rand condemned the initiation of force as immoral, and opposed statism and collectivism, but was also against anarchism. She was in favour of laissez-faire capitalism, and was one Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-17156221350398399252023-03-13T15:46:00.005+00:002023-07-24T14:45:19.983+01:00New book: The Corpse and the KingdomMy new book, The Corpse and the Kingdom, is now available from Amazon.
Below is an extract.
SECOND INTRODUCTORY SCENARIO
What you are perceiving seems to be a physical universe and it seems to be possible to infer certain things about the past history of this universe. It is possible to suppose that your consciousness is a by-product of physical and chemical events in your organism, and Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-38103088527176455322023-01-13T15:42:00.002+00:002023-01-13T15:42:24.863+00:00Are schools bad for people?Extract from chapter ‘Dozing in the staff room’, in:
It’s your time you’re wasting: A teacher’s tales of classroom hell, by Frank Chalk (pseudonym):
The group [of teachers] on the next table are discussing one of the ‘Please make me famous, I’m desperate’-type programmes that seem to be on the telly every night these days. When I first started Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-25618294891471451702022-11-01T17:52:00.001+00:002022-11-01T17:52:39.858+00:00Children and Mill’s principle of liberty
J.S.Mill (1806-1873)
As quite a young child, I was under the impression that it was a basic principle of accepted morality and legislation that an individual’s freedom of action should not be restricted except in so far as his actions might impinge upon the freedom of others. A century ago this principle was to a large extent respected. Provided you kept the law you could make your own Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-23104744682567574092022-09-30T15:47:00.002+01:002022-09-30T15:54:22.294+01:00The basic moral principle — IIPart 1 of ‘The basic moral principle’ is here.
Having stated the basic moral principle, it can be seen that it is freely violated in modern society.
What destroyed my education, and has made it impossible for me to recover from the effects of that destruction ever since, was not au fond the hostility and oppressiveness of any particular individuals, but the intrinsic immorality Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-214097272332670922022-07-31T16:27:00.000+01:002022-07-31T16:27:02.423+01:00The power of the lieThe power of society depends on the power of the lie. The power of the lie is very great.
The power of the individual depends on the right of possession and the sanctity of facts. Neither of these is recognised by society. It is only under capitalism that there is a recognition of the individual’s right to the facts. He has a right to the facts about his possessions. Consequently facts are Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-61928627054648173662022-05-25T16:22:00.006+01:002022-05-25T16:25:24.252+01:00The evolution of educationThere is a sense in which the authoritarian figures of a socialist society are far more authoritarian than those of a capitalist one. To illustrate this, let us consider the development of authority in the educational system, and the state of affairs regarded as acceptable at the present time.
In a primitive society there is no education in the modern sense. The child joins in activities Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-60652409930377360922022-03-12T15:48:00.002+00:002022-03-12T15:51:39.134+00:00The Romany RyeGeorge Borrow (1803-1881) was an English author who was contemporary with novelists such as Charles Dickens and George Eliot. Well-known in his day, and celebrated for several decades after his death, he is now somewhat neglected.
Borrow is best known for two semi-autobiographical novels (Lavengro and its sequel The Romany Rye) which feature, among many encounters with colourful characters, his Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-26087379961691874852021-12-08T11:47:00.002+00:002021-12-08T11:48:31.832+00:00Beethoven’s housekeeperBeethoven had a housekeeper.* She did the cooking and housekeeping while he composed music. I am sure the modern view of the matter is that Beethoven did not need a housekeeper, or, if he did, he should not have done. Plainly, they should both have composed music, and both have cooked their own meals. The fact that Beethoven composed music better than the housekeeper could have done is beside theUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-16242943791208839142021-10-22T12:44:00.002+01:002021-10-26T09:26:03.914+01:00G.I. GurdjieffG.I. GurdjieffGeorge Gurdjieff (d. 1947) was a mystic who believed in the possibility of a higher state of consciousness, and who tried to convey a method for reaching that state. Although he published several books, his ideas are best approached via the work of his pupils, particularly that of Peter Ouspensky. In his book In Search of the Miraculous, Ouspensky tells of his meeting Gurdjieff in Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-27345830278514288902021-08-18T10:42:00.002+01:002021-08-25T14:30:19.859+01:00Richard Church’s levitation experienceRichard Church (1893-1972)Richard Church was a poet and novelist who was particularly active during the 1930s and 1940s. Perhaps his best known work of prose is the semi-autobiographical trilogy consisting of the novels The Porch, The Stronghold and The Room Within.
Church became better known in later life for his childhood autobiography, Over the Bridge. In this, he recounts two phenomena whichUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-79042112736787446102021-06-13T09:53:00.000+01:002021-06-13T09:53:37.806+01:00Mary Somerville, Scottish polymathMary Somerville, born Mary Fairfax in 1780, was a Scottish scientist, known particularly for her books on astronomy and other physical sciences. Somerville College in Oxford is named after her. However, when I was at Somerville there was little sign of her in the college. I came across no portraits of her, and none of the undergraduates I knew seemed aware of who the college was named after.
In Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-36949489342692012712021-04-17T13:41:00.005+01:002021-04-17T13:43:08.423+01:00A shortage of domestic servants in 1909Extract from pamphlet Canada wants domestic servants, issued by Canada’s Minister of the Interior in 1909:
The domestic servant problem is to-day one of the most serious questions which the Canadian ladies have to deal with, and it would be beneficial alike to the employer and employee if a large number of female domestics should decide at once to emigrate to the Dominion.
[In the four Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-66061821260124896932021-02-28T13:44:00.003+00:002021-02-28T15:35:29.893+00:00Lawrence of ArabiaExtract from Advice to Clever Children, about the modern obsession with qualifications.
T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935)In the University of Oxford there used to be more understanding than there is now of the fact that there were a lot of ways in which a person of very high ability could get disconnected from his education, but that this ability might still be too good to waste. T.E. Lawrence, as he Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-52783378034195735662021-01-10T18:45:00.005+00:002021-01-10T18:47:52.616+00:00‘Man should become God’In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a key idea is that man should become God, and that the universe will become deified with him.
Here are some quotations from Vladimir Lossky’s The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church* which illustrate this idea.
Man, according to St. Basil, is a creature who has received a commandment to become God.
Man was created last, according to the Greek Fathers, Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-56628296954295791102020-12-08T11:33:00.003+00:002020-12-08T11:45:58.984+00:00Bishop Berkeley: is there an external world?George Berkeley (1685-1753) George Berkeley, born in 1685 at Dysart Castle
in County Kilkenny, and Bishop of Cloyne from
1734 to 1753, wrote a philosophical analysis of
materialism which has been the subject of
controversy since its publication.
Berkeley attacked the belief in material
objects that underlay the prevailing scientific
model of the world. He argued that there was
no basis for a Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-70360601081290735042020-09-22T15:50:00.004+01:002020-09-22T17:55:36.081+01:00guest post: Christine Fulcher on schoolsBelow is a post by my colleague Christine Fulcher, giving some of her views on education.
The headmaster of my primary school made great play of the fact that he was in loco parentis. He told us that this was how his legal position vis-à-vis the pupils of the school was described, and that this was Latin for ‘in place of the parent’. In other words, he was acting as a substituteUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-20194383174125308972020-08-15T16:06:00.001+01:002020-08-15T16:19:25.682+01:00Metachoric experiences
metachoric experience = experience in which the whole of a subject’s visual field is replaced by a hallucinatory one
Our research on lucid dreams, false awakenings and out-of-the-body experiences highlighted the capacity of the brain to generate experiences which provide a convincing replica of normal perceptual experience.
In lucid dreams, the subject appears to be relatively ‘normal’ in Celia Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06740450022227490329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-33611683683118708742020-07-29T16:57:00.001+01:002020-07-29T17:02:49.288+01:00Tribalism and ethicsThe essential feature of ethics — that is to say, respect for the right of the individual to have what he wants and to decide for himself what is of importance to him, so long as it is not interfering with the rights of others to pursue what they consider important for them — arose in association with capitalism. It was an ethic that could only arise when individuals had at least the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com