27 octubre 2012

beaucoup

= "bookoos," which i've oft heard, presumably said, and curiously never tried to write until [last week], that i can recall. "requiring bookoos [sic: beaucoups] of wisdom." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/beaucoup

21 octubre 2012

Words

"When therefore thy tongue is as Christ’s tongue, and thy mouth is become the mouth of the Father, and thou art a temple of the Holy Ghost, then what kind of honor could be equal to this? For not even if thy mouth were made of gold, no nor even of precious stones, would it shine like as now, when lit up with the ornament of meekness. For what is more lovely than a mouth that knoweth not how to insult, but is used to bless and give good words? But if thou canst not bear to bless him that curses thee, hold thy peace, and accomplish but this for the time; and proceeding in order, and striving as thou oughtest, thou wilt attain to that other point also, and wilt acquire such a mouth, as we have spoken of." 

 ~ Chrysostom, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110.iii.LXXV.html


***

"As an American citizen, what can be said, legally, is wide-ranging indeed. One has a right to exagerrate and even, on occasion, to lie. One has a right to fully vent and articulate his passions. If one is enraged, he has a right to inveigh, albeit stupidly, against entire societies about which he knows less than nothing. If one is avaricious, he may manipulate markets and publish images that exploit other passions. If one is concupiscient, he may misrepresent himself, with beer goggles on, to the girl on the next stool. If one is prideful, he may misrepresent his opponent in a political campaign, and suggest to the masses that he "has a plan," while artfully dodging the nettlesome fact that most of his promises are legislative and not executive.

An American citizen has many rights. A Christian has none -- all he has are invitations to virtue, and the promise of beatitude."

~ Fr. Jonathan http://janotec.typepad.com/terrace/2012/10/fire-in-the-theater-rights-and-christians.html

***
"All this isn’t to say that I don’t see value in social media. I certainly do. I just use those media mindful of the possibility that hitting “publish” may mark me as a fool, and that the real reward is in the understanding of–not the airing of–a perspective."
 

 ~ rachael marie stone, wiser than i
http://rachelmariestone.com/2012/10/10/proverbs-for-social-media/

20 octubre 2012

Omni-science

On the internet too long, reading with tired eyes a post @ The Warfare is Mental, which i'm reading in a great part because i like the name, i just realized:

omniscience has the word "science" in it. (don't say "duh." that's immature.)
all science.

...if we define science as what can be observed, well, God can do it. to everything.

The Free Dictionary's definition of science: "The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena."

Intelligence

First thought about this one day on a run (maybe i was walking... an excursion)- i was trying to distinguish between
- Wisdom
- Intelligence
- Ignorance &
- Stupidity.

I don't think i went in order. I seem to remember something like:

Intelligence: being able to ??? (learn new information quickly??? too long ago to remember)
Wisdom: being able to use intelligence for good ends (this is probably at least 5 years later, but it was something to that effect)
Ignorance: not knowing something you should know
Stupidity: not wanting to learn/ use something you sould know

Ha! I blogged it (in inverse order). No wonder i could remember it:

"IGNORANCE: not knowing something you should know
STUPIDITY: not caring that you don't know something you should know; being unwilling to learn
INTELLIGENCE: grasping and utilizing relevant knowledge
WISDOM: knowing when/ how to use intelligence and other virtues to produce good"


So, anyways, then i went on to work with kids and started wondering more about intelligence.

Today, I found 70+ Definitions of Intelligence while gasping for metaphorical mental air at the waaay too deep and educated (for me) less wrong pro-rationality website.

However, a bit back, i realized that i'd already started coming to a working understanding of intelligence... mostly thanks to concrete examples of it in my kids. My school counselor gave me a super-helpful "Gifted/ Talented" indicator list to identify kids for G/T testing. The education industry emphasizes Bloom's taxonomy almost-achingly, but i think, in the long term it's been productive to my understanding.

Basically:
Intelligence is...
... being able to precisely understand new information.... quickly. (I could say "internalize," but that's a little wordy.)
... being able to make legitimate, often creative connections between two things.
... applying information to solve problems or create new things... or do both at the same time.

The first two defs would include classification, i think.

Even more simply:
1) understand precisely
2) connect legitimately
3) solve problems (creatively)

The first definition would also cover "identifying discrepancies," i think. Hmmmmm... how to argue and persuade... Where would that fit? Probably under "connect legitimately" and "solve problems." ...connect my belief to your values to the point where you could see my belief as fulfilling your values. Oops. I forgot communication. Persuasion requires good communication.

... communicating ideas precisely/ creatively.
4) articulating effectively

Dunno the worth of all this. Too much joyous reading of Leah Libresco just inspired me to pontificate on what all those smart people've got, i guess.