This Is Why Academic Intellectuals Generally Suck For The Most Part...
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I do agree that there should always be some balance between theory and practice, but university, for the most part, is a place to learn and explore theory and, by extension, to learn how to tackle problems and to think critically
I agree with this, but I think it echoes misterlowercase's point: bad theory is bad theory if it has no possible application, and theory written for the sake of publishing alone fits in that category.
We're awash in information. The problem as always is a lack of quality and accuracy.
One thing left out, not all young adults have a place at University.
And an IQ test can pretty much suss this out from an early age. Heresy, I know.
I am mostly a romantic at heart, an idealist, I do look upon the internet as a very positive influence, and actually believe it has provided a sort of transcendental tech-gnosis --- Borges's infinite library in the flesh, alive and mutating by the nanosecond.
Me too... or at least I did, until the AOL/clickbait culture took over.
However, as universities began to expand, they offered new opportunities to erstwhile unemployables. The academy demanded a high price. Intellectuals had to turn away from the public and toward the practiced obscurities of academic research and prose. In Jacoby’s description, these intellectuals “no longer needed or wanted a larger public…. Campuses were their homes; colleagues their audience; monographs and specialized journals their media.”
This sounds a lot like what happens when a band sells out, or when Roman senators decided that their audience was lobbyists and the raging mob and not people of good character.
When I used the term "academic intellectuals" as a descriptor,
in my mind the phrase has a rather narrow application as to relate moreso to "traditional humanists" and everything encapsulated within that particular subset of academia.
That's a great point. There are a lot of people making a living by repeating the prevailing dogma in new forms.
Too long people, toooooo long!!!! My head hurts. Some would attribute it to an over indulgence of gin; I know the truth. You see...
My name is Yon Yonson
I come from Wisconsin
My name is Yon Yonson
I come from Wisconsin
Many times a student's sucess, or lack of, in the university setting is a result of putting the kid in the right or wrong institution of higher education. Some are unprepared for life in a big population away from the family unit. Others thrive when more or less on their own. Many have been short changed by earlier education. What a child takes away from a college education is more dependent on the student than the teacher.
Having a rigid, ill tempered, pedant for an instructor taught me many things about surviving in a world where I was expected to meet the expectations of others.
Having a rigid, ill tempered, pedant for an instructor taught me many things about surviving in a world where I was expected to meet the expectations of others.
"According to some of my research there was only one physicist that was smart enough to understand what Einstein was writing at the time he wrote his first paper."
I would bet no more than a handful in the world at the most. There were so many others at the turn of the 20th century, and the decades before, whose names are forever attached to their field and so many forgotten. I've spent my life of 45 years so far, trying to understand Einstein and others from a hundred years ago. Einstein was one of my heroes in the seventies, along with Tesla, Steve Martin, Batman and Redd Foxx. Strange mix right? Tutankhamen's treasure was on display an hour's drive away in Chicago and my parents took myself and my little brother. The line was far WORSE than Star Wars !!
We never got to see the treasure. This highlights the access to information and images we have now, which was nearly unimaginable when I was a child. Computers are in classrooms as they should be. Newer and sometimes better methods of teaching are coming to the fore, Montessori comes to mind. This thread started as an innocent rant and fun "poke" at specialized and superficially irrelevant academia. It has turned into a SERIOUS matter. WHY? Because everyone here has visceral experience with a broken system. A system I bucked in favor of learning "real world" skills while treating education as a fun hobby, like music or drinking. My Mother was a teacher and my Father was a factory worker, so, in effect, my house growing up was a microcosm of this debate. If I have offended anyone, I apologize. It was not my intention nor inclination. I have a great deal of respect for all positions I have seen represented. I don't feel this has as much to do with anti-intellectualism as with frustration in how we are nurturing a vastly diverse population, both in ability and interest, to be the guardians of a civilization we could not subsist easily without.
I would bet no more than a handful in the world at the most. There were so many others at the turn of the 20th century, and the decades before, whose names are forever attached to their field and so many forgotten. I've spent my life of 45 years so far, trying to understand Einstein and others from a hundred years ago. Einstein was one of my heroes in the seventies, along with Tesla, Steve Martin, Batman and Redd Foxx. Strange mix right? Tutankhamen's treasure was on display an hour's drive away in Chicago and my parents took myself and my little brother. The line was far WORSE than Star Wars !!
We never got to see the treasure. This highlights the access to information and images we have now, which was nearly unimaginable when I was a child. Computers are in classrooms as they should be. Newer and sometimes better methods of teaching are coming to the fore, Montessori comes to mind. This thread started as an innocent rant and fun "poke" at specialized and superficially irrelevant academia. It has turned into a SERIOUS matter. WHY? Because everyone here has visceral experience with a broken system. A system I bucked in favor of learning "real world" skills while treating education as a fun hobby, like music or drinking. My Mother was a teacher and my Father was a factory worker, so, in effect, my house growing up was a microcosm of this debate. If I have offended anyone, I apologize. It was not my intention nor inclination. I have a great deal of respect for all positions I have seen represented. I don't feel this has as much to do with anti-intellectualism as with frustration in how we are nurturing a vastly diverse population, both in ability and interest, to be the guardians of a civilization we could not subsist easily without.
That's hilarious! At least, I hope your statement is satire. Anyone equating "intellectualism" with "academia" has a serious critical thinking problem.
Another way to view this: how could they not be doing this? Universities are businesses, whether churning out STEM robots or liberal arts SJWs.
You'd need some kind of culture to keep them in check -- but that, alas, is taboo by the 68ers.
Einstein borrowed his idea of relativity from Schopenhauer, and Schopenhauer credited the Upanishads as the origin of his understanding.
Some "genius."
If you're going to worship genius, make sure what you're worshiping is actual genius.
In any line of work you find -- as they used to say of G.I.'s in Vietnam -- heros and zeros. Yes, academe produces some of the most godawful prose writing in the universe. Still, there are plenty of heros, people who inspire young people to careers and launch them toward their best work in many fields. Today, a disproportionate number of faculty are temporary and/or part timers who have no job security, low pay, no benefits, and little status. This is somewhat a hidden scandal.
It's not good that the very word "intellectual" is derisive generally in the West. You know if someone is an intellectual that's a bad thing. Still, we hope to have ambitious, intelligent, hard-working people to research and report on a vast number of subjects including studies of various areas in the world, numerous specialities in the health sciences, engineering, and hundreds of others. We won't say any of them are intellectuals, because that would be to say they are worthless, and we need these people and their knowledge. The so-called life of the mind is usually not a wicked thing; maybe we need a different word.
It's not good that the very word "intellectual" is derisive generally in the West. You know if someone is an intellectual that's a bad thing. Still, we hope to have ambitious, intelligent, hard-working people to research and report on a vast number of subjects including studies of various areas in the world, numerous specialities in the health sciences, engineering, and hundreds of others. We won't say any of them are intellectuals, because that would be to say they are worthless, and we need these people and their knowledge. The so-called life of the mind is usually not a wicked thing; maybe we need a different word.
A very thoughtful post MSO, as per usual for you.
I'm tempted to call you an intellectual,
but I don't want to be derogatory.
:wink:
I agree a better word is need, the term intellectual has become completely corrupted, for a number of reasons, and it seems people carry many differing connotations of it.
I've always liked the word bookworm much much better!
Spiderman gave all bookworms hope that yes, they too could self-actualize themselves into a force to be reckoned with and defeat any nefarious supervillian if one put ones mind to it!
--- Steve Ditko Rules!
I'm tempted to call you an intellectual,
but I don't want to be derogatory.
:wink:
I agree a better word is need, the term intellectual has become completely corrupted, for a number of reasons, and it seems people carry many differing connotations of it.
I've always liked the word bookworm much much better!
Spiderman gave all bookworms hope that yes, they too could self-actualize themselves into a force to be reckoned with and defeat any nefarious supervillian if one put ones mind to it!
--- Steve Ditko Rules!
deathmetal, I am not qualified to decide anything about Einstein nor do I worship genius. Simply using him as an example. My line of expertise is far removed from physics. Once you get to Einstien or any of the the people/scientists at that level I do not believe there are many people qualified to discuss or comment much on their theories. I also believe many think they are qualified to do so. Which is a good thing and a not so good thing. Ideas should be discussed and evaluated one of the things that make life interesting. But as always the source is important to keep in mind. I am not much good at physics and as such my ideas on that might not be to accurate. Yet, if you want to discuss Airborne Infantry tatics then my opinion suddenly becomes more accurate and can be counted on. But I do love to discuss and contemplate many fields of study. My Star of the East is calling, must answer lol!!
I thought I would teach when I was in college, then grad school, but I never have, but I was a faculty spouse for about 25 years, married to my late wife who was a gifted teacher. People used to come up to me at school social events and asked where I taught. If I thought they could digest the joke, I'd say I swore I never taught anybody anything. My wife loved to teach and there is evidence she did it wonderfully well. But it deprived the world of a superb editor when she spent all of her editing chops on grading papers for students who perhaps didn't need that level of careful line-by-line attention. And it deprived the world of a superb writer, though she did two books that are still well regarded. She spent most of those summers teaching or taking required education courses instead of writing her own work. Seeing what it took, I slowly lost every bit of my interest in teaching. I'm neither patient nor sociable enough. I'd love to help young folks, but it's not my aptitude, not classroom teaching.
"Einstein borrowed his idea of relativity from Schopenhauer, and Schopenhauer credited the Upanishads as the origin of his understanding.
Some "genius."
If you're going to worship genius, make sure what you're worshiping is actual genius."
This may be true, but parsing about Euclidean Geometry and helping create the mathematics of what is essentially Modern Physics are orders of magnitude difference. Not even mentioning theories of General and Special Relativity. In the 65 years or so between when Schopenhauer conducted HIS thought experiments about Euclid, and when Einstein performed HIS on photons, mathematics and physics had changed in leaps and bounds. I aced AP Geometry (Euclidean) in high school and didn't even show for class half the time and still blew the bell curve for others on tests. It took me 20 years to explain to another human being in plain English what E=mc2 meant. To proof at Einstein's level is mind boggling. Try it. If you can do it, then teach me how.
Mathematically, Schopenhauer would have drowned in the waters Einstein swam in. Genius.
Some "genius."
If you're going to worship genius, make sure what you're worshiping is actual genius."
This may be true, but parsing about Euclidean Geometry and helping create the mathematics of what is essentially Modern Physics are orders of magnitude difference. Not even mentioning theories of General and Special Relativity. In the 65 years or so between when Schopenhauer conducted HIS thought experiments about Euclid, and when Einstein performed HIS on photons, mathematics and physics had changed in leaps and bounds. I aced AP Geometry (Euclidean) in high school and didn't even show for class half the time and still blew the bell curve for others on tests. It took me 20 years to explain to another human being in plain English what E=mc2 meant. To proof at Einstein's level is mind boggling. Try it. If you can do it, then teach me how.
Mathematically, Schopenhauer would have drowned in the waters Einstein swam in. Genius.
Please elaborate.
Most of the disparagement of intellectualism that I've encountered comes from people who, for reasons of their own, consider themselves "less than", and so take comfort in belittling others. They like to entwine intellectualism with a complete lack of common sense or practical ability. While there may be cases where this is true, there are also cases where a slobbering knuckle dragging troglodyte is lacking in common sense or practical ability. So while occasionally true, it is not a truism.
Some like to accuse intellectuals of elitism, arrogance, and snobbery. Intellectuals have no monopoly on such character traits. Plenty of people from all walks of life, even pipe smokers, display these traits.
Being gifted with superior intellect is not a crime, nor a bad thing.
If I am to be in the company of others, I'd prefer they are smarter, more skilled, and/or better educated than I am. I hope my education doesn't stop until I'm eating the dirt sandwich. I enjoy having my beliefs challenged, it's invigorating.
This thread now forces me to read a bit on Schopenhauer. I do not like the idea that Einstein borrowed, I prefer to think he built on a foundation as others are building on Einstein. Mostly we all stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before.
This thread now forces me to read a bit on Schopenhauer. I do not like the idea that Einstein borrowed, I prefer to think he built on a foundation as others are building on Einstein. Mostly we all stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before.
Very good point.
So true.
WE ALL STAND ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS,
whether they be intellectuals or plumbers,
photographers or bricklayers,
carpenters or poets.
The land of giants is the everyday world,
I've met some incredibly intelligent people whom at first glance you'd never think they'd know their ass from a hole in the ground.
Receptivity is the key,
imho.
A full meal is never complete,
one must continue eating.
Until the very grim end.
I agree with you about the dirt sandwich too.
Education is life.
Life is education.
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I think that now is an apt time to add this crucial tidbit...
A fellow forum brother contacted me via email and helped me to grok this topic a good bit deeper,
The way he put everything in regards concerning most especially the structural aspects within the collegiate world was condensed into a clear crystallization and his explanation really elucidated upon why things are as they are,
and I thank him greatly for taking the time.
This is what he said:
::
A fellow forum brother contacted me via email and helped me to grok this topic a good bit deeper,
The way he put everything in regards concerning most especially the structural aspects within the collegiate world was condensed into a clear crystallization and his explanation really elucidated upon why things are as they are,
and I thank him greatly for taking the time.
This is what he said:
Good stuff.
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