Hey! Get an Intellectual Hobby

[AussiePam]

Originally Posted by coberst

If that represents a step forward in intellectual sophistication for you then I approve.

I agree with Kathy! And not only that - I'd put this simple yet elegant gem forward for post of the week!!

[sharedfastlane]

Originally Posted by Rapunzel

This is for you as you are a fan of Carl Sagan. Enjoy.


Forget rap, forget the news, THIS is what auto-tune was meant for. Carl Sagan sings his lovely prose about our wonderful universe with an appearance by Stephen Hawking.

YouTube - Carl Sagan - 'A Glorious Dawn' ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed)

You are GOOD at finding things Rapunzel! This is one I will have to listen to a few times. My son of 24 will LOVE this.

Hello Coberst. I like your Friend of the Library idea. I might see if I can do something like this. Unless I invent a reason, I cannot access the Temple that is the British Library. I can remember as a child the satisfied peaceful feeling of exploring something new and unknown and getting to the solution or understanding. And that feeling of absorbtion where you could miss your dinner and not notice.

What are your latest intellectual hobbies personally ; and your hobbies?

[Ian]

People are my Intellectual Hobby.

[Odie]

Originally Posted by oscar

I collect wild bird feathers

really?

have any pics?

[coberst]

Originally Posted by sharedfastlane

What are your latest intellectual hobbies personally ; and your hobbies?

I am a retired engineer with a good bit of formal education and twenty five years of self-learning. I began the self-learning experience while in my mid-forties. I had no goal in mind; I was just following my intellectual curiosity in whatever direction it led me. This hobby, self-learning, has become very important to me. I have bounced around from one hobby to another but have always been enticed back by the excitement I have discovered in this learning process. Carl Sagan is quoted as having written; “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”

I label myself as a September Scholar because I began the process at mid-life and because my quest is disinterested knowledge.

Disinterested knowledge is an intrinsic value. Disinterested knowledge is not a means but an end. It is knowledge I seek because I desire to know it. I mean the term ‘disinterested knowledge’ as similar to ‘pure research’, as compared to ‘applied research’. Pure research seeks to know truth unconnected to any specific application.

I think of the self-learner of disinterested knowledge as driven by curiosity and imagination to understand. The September Scholar seeks to ‘see’ and then to ‘grasp’ through intellection directed at understanding the self as well as the world. The knowledge and understanding that is sought by the September Scholar are determined only by personal motivations. It is noteworthy that disinterested knowledge is knowledge I am driven to acquire because it is of dominating interest to me. Because I have such an interest in this disinterested knowledge my adrenaline level rises in anticipation of my voyage of discovery.

We often use the metaphors of ‘seeing’ for knowing and ‘grasping’ for understanding. I think these metaphors significantly illuminate the difference between these two forms of intellection. We see much but grasp little. It takes great force to impel us to go beyond seeing to the point of grasping. The force driving us is the strong personal involvement we have to the question that guides our quest. I think it is this inclusion of self-fulfillment, as associated with the question, that makes self-learning so important.

The self-learner of disinterested knowledge is engaged in a single-minded search for understanding. The goal, grasping the ‘truth’, is generally of insignificant consequence in comparison to the single-minded search. Others must judge the value of the ‘truth’ discovered by the autodidactic. I suggest that truth, should it be of any universal value, will evolve in a biological fashion when a significant number of pursuers of disinterested knowledge engage in dialogue.

In the United States our culture compels us to have a purpose. Our culture defines that purpose to be ‘maximize production and consumption’. As a result all good children feel compelled to become a successful producer and consumer. All good children both consciously and unconsciously organize their life for this journey.

At mid-life many citizens begin to analyze their life and often discover a need to reconstitute their purpose. Some of the advantageous of this self-learning experience is that it is virtually free, undeterred by age, not a zero sum game, surprising, exciting and makes each discovery a new eureka moment. The self-learning experience I am suggesting is similar to any other hobby one might undertake; interest will ebb and flow. In my case this was a hobby that I continually came back to after other hobbies lost appeal.

I suggest for your consideration that if we “Get a life—Get an intellectual life” we very well might gain substantially in self-worth and, perhaps, community-worth.

As a popular saying goes ‘there is a season for all things’. We might consider that spring and summer are times for gathering knowledge, maximizing production and consumption, and increasing net-worth; while fall and winter are seasons for gathering understanding, creating wisdom and increasing self-worth.

I have been trying to encourage adults, who in general consider education as a matter only for young people, to give this idea of self-learning a try. It seems to be human nature to do a turtle (close the mind) when encountering a new and unorthodox idea. Generally we seem to need for an idea to face us many times before we can consider it seriously. A common method for brushing aside this idea is to think ‘I’ve been there and done that’, i.e. ‘I have read and been a self-learner all my life’.

I am not suggesting a stroll in the park on a Sunday afternoon. I am suggesting a ‘Lewis and Clark Expedition’. I am suggesting the intellectual equivalent of crossing the Mississippi and heading West across unexplored intellectual territory with the intellectual equivalent of the Pacific Ocean as a destination.

[Zapata]

Originally Posted by Rapunzel

This is for you as you are a fan of Carl Sagan. Enjoy.


Forget rap, forget the news, THIS is what auto-tune was meant for. Carl Sagan sings his lovely prose about our wonderful universe with an appearance by Stephen Hawking.

YouTube - Carl Sagan - 'A Glorious Dawn' ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed)

Wonderful! Beautiful! Thanks so much for posting that.

[sharedfastlane]

I am suggesting the intellectual equivalent of crossing the Mississippi and heading West across unexplored intellectual territory with the intellectual equivalent of the Pacific Ocean as a destination.[/quote]


I have had this swiriling around in my mind for a bit - hence so late posting. Can you elaborate a bit? There is so much " material" especially now we have the Internet. If a person has not had much formal education how can one sift through it all and grow?

[coberst]

Originally Posted by sharedfastlane

I am suggesting the intellectual equivalent of crossing the Mississippi and heading West across unexplored intellectual territory with the intellectual equivalent of the Pacific Ocean as a destination.

I have had this swiriling around in my mind for a bit - hence so late posting. Can you elaborate a bit? There is so much " material" especially now we have the Internet. If a person has not had much formal education how can one sift through it all and grow?[/quote]

Books, the answer is that the Internet is useful to look for specific answers to simple questins but is not useful for developing a comprehension of a domain of knowledge that is new to you.

We were born smart enough but we weren’t born intellectually sophisticated enough to handle this high tech world we have invented.

What is the difference between “being smart” and “being sophisticated”? I would say that we can use the handyman and his tool box as a good analogy for comprehending this difference. The number and quality of the instruments in a handyman’s tool box is a measure of his smartness and his experience using those tools is a measure of his sophistication.

If a handyman has only a hammer then every job is a job that will get hammered on. If that handyman has a great tool box but has experience only with a hammer then that handyman will look for things that can be hammered into place.

Our (American) educational system has left us with many learning handicaps. It has damaged our curiosity, our desire to learn, and our self-reliance. If we were to try we could overcome these handicaps. The solution is just around the corner if only we had the courage to challenge our tradition of anti-intellectualism.

The irony here is that self-actualization via self-learning is the greatest play around. Our tradition of anti-intellectualism has so damaged our natural curiosity, desire to learn, and self-reliance that few will ever learn this fact.

I have a "Friends of the Library" card from a local college. For a fee of $25 a year I have access to a great library. Seldom do I seek a book that this library does not have. It is the only way to go for the self-actualizing self-learner. A person needs books to pursue knowledge. One generally gets just fragments from the Internet.

We can comprehend only what we are prepared to comprehend. First we must be aware of a matter. Then we must become conscious of this awareness. Next we can begin to gain knowledge of this matter. We can then begin to create new meaning by organizing our knowledge in new and meaningful ways. This final step is often called understanding.

Bertrand Russell on Critical Thinking

“ABSTRACT: The ideal of critical thinking is a central one in Russell's philosophy, though this is not yet generally recognized in the literature on critical thinking. For Russell, the ideal is embedded in the fabric of philosophy, science, liberalism and rationality, and this paper reconstructs Russell's account, which is scattered throughout numerous papers and books. It appears that he has developed a rich conception, involving a complex set of skills, dispositions and attitudes, which together delineate a virtue which has both intellectual and moral aspects. It is a view which is rooted in Russell's epistemological conviction that knowledge is difficult but not impossible to attain, and in his ethical conviction that freedom and independence in inquiry are vital. Russell's account anticipates many of the insights to be found in the recent critical thinking literature, and his views on critical thinking are of enormous importance in understanding the nature of educational aims. Moreover, it is argued that Russell manages to avoid many of the objections which have been raised against recent accounts. With respect to impartiality, thinking for oneself, the importance of feelings and relational skills, the connection with action, and the problem of generalizability, Russell shows a deep understanding of problems and issues which have been at the forefront of recent debate.” 20th WCP: Bertrand Russell on Critical Thinking

Comprehension is a slow and developing process. We comprehend only what we are prepared to comprehend. We cannot comprehend long division until we have first studied addition and subtraction.

I think that comprehension is a hierarchy and can be usefully thought of as like a pyramid. At the base of the comprehension pyramid is awareness, which is followed by consciousness (awareness plus attention). Knowledge follows consciousness and understanding is at the pinnacle of the comprehension pyramid. We are aware of many more things than we are conscious of and that sort of ratio follows all the way up to understanding at the pinnacle.

Understanding is a far step beyond knowing and is significantly different from knowing. Knowledge seeks truth whereas understanding seeks meaning.


Awareness--faces in a crowd.

Consciousness—smile, a handshake, and curiosity.

Knowledge—long talks sharing desires and ambitions.

Understanding—a best friend bringing constant April.

Until we become conscious of a matter we cannot become knowledgable of that matter. I am giving the reader a first step in the road to comprehension, I am helping that reader to become conscious of certain ideas that are essential for the comprehension of other ideas.

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
--Voltaire (1694-1778)

I suggest that you start by reading history and biographies and then begin to seek out answers to question that interest you.

[Clodhopper]

I suggest that you start by reading history and biographies and then begin to seek out answers to question that interest you.

Agreed.

sharedfastlane, is there a period of history or a historical figure (not just a celeb) you've ever been interested in? Start there.

warning: you are starting a journey which never ends.

[Clodhopper]

Following the advice on this thread, I have just bought myself a biography of Elizabeth I. We'll see how it goes. First few pages seem promising.