7 Matching Annotations
  1. Last 7 days
    1. Today while listening to the song I am reminded, through reflection, upon the fact that it takes quite some self-awareness and intellectual humility to prevent the rigorous defense of uneducated opinion, especially in online intellectual communities.

      "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." -- Confucius

      Something that intellectuals must be aware of. We must be flexible in opinion and not defend that which we actually have no knowledge of.

      We can debate for Socratic sakes; to deepen our understanding, but not to persuade... Pitfall is one might come to believe beyond doubts that which one debates for.

      Key is to becoming more aware of our debate behavior and stop ourselves when we realize we can't actually prove that which we think.

      This is especially critical for someone in position of teacher or great advisor; he who is looken up to. People are easier to take their opinion for granted based on "authority". As an ethical intellectual we must not abuse this, either on purpose or by accident. With great power comes great responsibility.

  2. Jun 2024
    1. One point for having many unread books is to show the extent of ignorance and develop intellectual humility.

      As Confucius already said: "True knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."

  3. Apr 2024
    1. William Nestle’s Vom Mythos zum Logos (1940) is the classical statement of this reading. On the opening page, Nestle claims mythos and logos are “the two poles between which man’s mental life oscillates. Mythic imagination and logical thought are opposites,” the former being “imagistic and involuntary,” rooted in the unconscious, while the latter is “conceptual and intentional, and analyzes and synthesizes by means of consciousness” (quoted in Glenn Most, “From Logos to Mythos,” in From Myth to Reason?, 27).

      Dichotomy of "mythic imagination" rooted in the unconscious versus "logical thought" rooted in the conscious


      Also, see this as a reading of "chaos versus order". See, for example, Apollonian and Dionysian theory or Confucius order and Lao Tzu chaos (with respect to wu-wei). In PKM, this would correlate to the gardener vs architect archetypes.

  4. Oct 2020
    1. "There’s one great quote that’s attributed to Confucius: 'I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand,'" says Case. "I really believe in the potential of the interactive mediums."

      This is related to the broad idea of modality shifts in more modern educational contexts.

  5. Nov 2019
    1. Zhu Xi’s cosmology asserted a dualism, that the great immutableprinciples of form(li)give shape to the material stuff(qi)that, whenshaped byli,creates existent reality. Behind this duality, however, is theDao,the Way, the vast energizing force that pervades the universe and allthings in it. Only through disciplined self-cultivation could a man getsome understanding of the Way and in pursuit of it form his character.Song Neo-Confucianists believed that the true Way for the moral im-provement of the individual and the world had been set forth by Confu-cius and Mencius but had not been transmitted thereafter. Their aim fif-teen hundred years later was therefore to “repossess the Way.”In effect Zhu Xi found a means of smuggling a needed element ofBuddhist transcendentalism into Confucianism. This new philosophy,both eminently rational and humane, was promoted by its adherents as achallenge to the court and the literati to be less selfish and live up to theirConfucian ideals. Through the writing and teaching of this critical-minded minority, Neo-Confucianism became the living faith of China’selite down to the twentieth century, one of the world’s most widespreadand influential systems of ethics.

      neo-confucianism and Zhu Xi

    2. In effect Zhu Xi found a means of smuggling a needed element ofBuddhist transcendentalism into Confucianism. This new philosophy,both eminently rational and humane,

      neo-confucianism = confucius + buddhism (daoism?)

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  6. Oct 2013
    1. if he is unwilling to learn, let another be taught before him, of whom he may be envious.

      This aligns with Confucius thinker Xunzi's attitude on properly cultivating morality in others. We are guided by our desires: whatever we feel a sense of lack in, we desire that object. It is the role of those with cultivated morality (gentlemen, sages) to act as an exemplar of moral goods, so that others who have yet to be cultivated desire what they have.