My Burqa Debate with Martha Nussbaum Martha Nussbaum of the University of Chicago law school gave a talk about religious intolerance at Hamilton College and, as reported by student reporter Esther Malisov on Nov. 5, had this to say about burqas and security issues: She cited five common positions advocated by those who criticize Muslim head coverings, providing counterexamples and evidence against each. The first argument stems from concerns over security: because the burqa is bulky and obscures the face, it may be easier for its wearers to transport weapons or explosives. Furthermore, burqa wearers are difficult to identify because their faces are not exposed. However, in a more realistic scenario involving terrorism, this would hardly be the case. … Nussbaum argued that a ban on burqas unfairly targets many innocent people who have no affiliation with terrorism.
How to Master the Art of “Effective Surprise” and the 6 Essential Conditions for Creativity by Maria Popova “Passion, like discriminating taste, grows on its use. You more likely act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action.” One of the greatest preoccupations not only of our culture but of our civilization is the question of what creativity is, dating back to the dawn of recorded thought. But one of the most compelling in the past century comes from the influential Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner (b. Jerome Bruner In one of the most timelessly illuminating essays from the collection, “The Conditions of Creativity,” Bruner writes: There is something antic about creating, although the enterprise be serious. Noting that there is a “shrillness to our contemporary concern with creativity” — something perhaps even more observably true today than half a century ago, when he pondered the question — Bruner offers an essential caveat: Our search for those sources of dignity through creation is dictated by the cultural patterns of the time. Detachment and commitment.
Guardare l’altro con i suoi occhi. La proposta di Martha Nussbaum per superare la paura del diverso. | Giornale Il Referendum di Alessandro Pagano Dritto Ragazza con hijab. (fonte: www.emel.com) Giada Frana è una giovane giornalista italiana di Bergamo. In queste semplici parole e in questo semplice concetto, mettersi nei panni di un altro, sta una buona parte del discorso che la filosofa americana Martha Nussbaum conduce nel suo ultimo lavoro, La nuova intolleranza. È un libro denso, questo: denso di filosofia, denso di cronaca, denso di legge, di sociologia e di psicologia. Martha Nussbaum, La nuova intolleranza. Non inganni intanto il titolo, che nella versione originale inglese è semplicemente The New Religious Intolerance, «La nuova intolleranza religiosa». Si dovesse formulare una domanda di cui The New Religious Intolerance fosse poi la risposta, questa sarebbe: «Come guardare all’altro?» E la Nussbaum risponderebbe rubando un’espressione del romanziere statunitense Ralph Ellison (1914-1994): usando «gli occhi interni». L’uomo non è l’unico animale capace di empatia. Martha Nussbaum.
Alan Lightman on Our Yearning for Immortality and Why We Long for Permanence in a Universe of Constant Change by Maria Popova A heartening perspective on mortality by way of the physics of the cosmos and the poetics of the night-blooming cereus cactus. “We suffer from a hallucination, from a false and distorted sensation of our own existence as living organisms,” Alan Watts wrote in contemplating how our ego keeps us separate from the universe. “It is almost banal to say so,” Henry Miller observed, “yet it needs to be stressed continually: all is creation, all is change, all is flux, all is metamorphosis.” But banal as it may be, it is also intolerably discomfiting to accept, which is why we retreat into our hallucination — we resist change, we long for immortality, and we cling to the notion of the self, despite its ever-changing essence, as anxious assurance of our own permanence in an impermanent universe. Alan Lightman (Photograph courtesy of MIT) It was a perfect picture of utter joy, and utter tragedy. Physicists call it the second law of thermodynamics. Donating = Loving Share on Tumblr
Recensie: Onderwijs als redmiddel voor democratie (Martha Nussbaum, Niet voor de winst, Not for Profit) 14 oktober 2011 Wat is het doel van onderwijs? Het aanleren van vaardigheden voor een baan en zo winstgevend te zijn voor de maatschappij, of het leren je verbeeldingskracht te gebruiken, je eigen cultuur kritisch te bevragen, een betrokken burger te worden in diezelfde maatschappij? Ongemerkt zijn de humaniora steeds verder in de marge van het onderwijs gedrukt om plaats te maken voor onderricht gericht op economische groei. 'Radical changes are occurring in what democratic societies teach the young, and these have not been well thought through. Een overbruggende humanistische traditie Nussbaum behandelt deze kwestie aan de hand van de pedagogische denkbeelden van grote geesten als Socrates, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey, Johann Pestalozzi, Friedrich Fröbel (de uitvinder van de Kindergarten) en Rabindranath Tagore, die zich verdiepte in de manier waarop kinderen tot bewustzijn komen. De crisis in de democratie Tevens bewijst Nussbaum niet een innovatief denker te zijn. Reacties
Here are 89 Life Hacks That Will Make Your New Year So Much Better As you go into the New Year, remember that things can be better than previous years. Maybe you'll get a raise, date someone new or even adopt an adorable pet to welcome into your family. But, if you fail at all of those things (sorry, if you do, but the chances are you may), here are life hacks that you can use to make your 2014 a lot better. Martha Nussbaum en de religieuze tolerantie. | Blog van Toon Kasdorp Religieuze tolerantie is geen uitvinding van de verlichting. Intolerantie is een uitvinding geweest van de monotheïstische godsdiensten, om te beginnen dus van het jodendom. Maar christendom en islam zijn aftakkingen van het jodendom en ze hebben de intolerantie in hun genen. De vervolgingen van joden- en christendom in de jonge keizerstijd van Rome moeten tegen die achtergrond worden gezien. Christenen en joden integreerden niet Men heeft een tijdlang met geweld geprobeerd de cohesie in de samenleving te herstellen. Dat lukte niet en toen heeft de keizer de zaak maar omgedraaid: als Mohammed niet naar de berg komt dan de berg maar naar Mohammed. Toen na Constantijn het christendom tot staatsgodsdienst werd geproclameerd keerde de vrede terug in de samenleving, maar ten koste van de vrijheid van meningsuiting. De aankleding van jodendom, christendom en islam is in de ogen van Spinoza van ondergeschikt belang. In de moslimwereld wordt de leer van Spinoza verworpen.
Curiosity and Wonder Are My Religion: Henry Miller on Growing Old, the Perils of Success, and the Secret of Remaining Young at Heart by Maria Popova “If you can fall in love again and again… if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from growing sour, surly, bitter and cynical… you’ve got it half licked.” “On how one orients himself to the moment,” 48-year-old Henry Miller wrote in reflecting on the art of living in 1939, “depends the failure or fruitfulness of it.” Over the course of his long life, Miller sought ceaselessly to orient himself toward maximal fruitfulness, from his creative discipline to his philosophical reflections to his exuberant irreverence. More than three decades later, shortly after his eightieth birthday, Miller wrote a beautiful essay on the subject of aging and the key to living a full life. Miller begins by considering the true measure of youthfulness: He later adds: I have very few friends or acquaintances my own age or near it. If you have had a successful career, as presumably I have had, the late years may not be the happiest time of your life. Donating = Loving Share on Tumblr
Martha Nussbaum, De nieuwe religieuze intolerantie Nadat Martha Nussbaum, internationaal bekend filosofe en publiciste, voor de New York Times een artikel had geschreven over het boerkaverbod in een aantal Europese landen, kreeg ze daar zoveel reacties op die haar te denken gaven, dat dit de aanleiding vormde voor een breder onderzoek naar angst en intolerantie ten aanzien van religie. Ze verbaast zich over het gewijzigde klimaat in Amerika en Europa. Tot voor kort heerste aan beide zijden van de oceaan een vorm van westers verlichte religieuze verdraagzaamheid. In de nieuwe eeuw is dat omgeslagen in een politiek klimaat dat beheerst wordt door angst. Het is een genot om Nussbaum op het pad van haar analyses te volgen. Angst kan in beide typen samenlevingen opspelen. Nussbaum levert met haar helder geschreven boek een belangrijke bijdrage aan het maatschappelijke en politieke debat hoe we met elkaar kunnen bouwen aan een samenleving waarin het verschil geen bron van angst maar van creativiteit en verbondenheid is.
Swami Vivekananda on the Secret of Work: Intelligent Consolation for the Pressures of Productivity from 1896 by Maria Popova “Every work that we do… every thought that we think, leaves such an impression on the mind-stuff…” In December of 1895, the renowned Indian Hindu monk and philosopher Swami Vivekananda, then in his early thirties, traveled to New York, rented a couple of rooms at 228 West 39th Street, where he spent a month holding a series of public lectures on the notion of karma — translated as work — and various other aspects of mental discipline. They attracted a number of famous followers, including groundbreaking inventor Nikola Tesla and pioneering psychologist and philosopher William James, and were eventually transcribed and published as Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action (public library) in 1896. Among the most timeless of them is one titled “The Secret of Work,” in which Vivekananda examines with ever-timely poignancy the ways in which we mistake the doing for the being and worship the perspirations of our productivity over the aspirations of our soul. Donating = Loving