Teach us to number our days.

"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!" 

Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine." If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, "Do you desire this once more and innumerable times more?" would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?"

-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science

You turn man back to the dust,

and say, "Turn back, O children of men!"

For a thousand years in your sight

are but as yesterday when it is past,

or as a watch in the night.

You sweep men away;

they are like a dream,

like grass which is renewed in the morning:

in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;

in the evening it fades and withers.

So teach us to number our days

that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Return, O LORD! How long?

Have pity on your servants!

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

and establish the work of our hands upon us,

yes, the work of our hands establish it.

-Psalm 90:3-6,12-14,17

Portrait of Igor Stravinsky - Robert Delaunay 1917

I cannot now evaluate the events that, at the end of those thirty years, made me discover the necessity of religious belief. I was not reasoned into my disposition. Though I admire the structured thought of theology (Anselm's proof in the Fides Quaerens Intellectum, for instance) it is to religion no more than counterpoint exercises are to music. I do not believe in bridges of reason or, indeed in any form of extrapolation in religious matters. ...I can say, however, that for some years before my actual "conversion", a mood of acceptance had been cultivated in me by a reading of the Gospels and by other religious literature.

-Igor Stravinsky

Did those clouds stop your voice. from coming. down?

A time is coming–declares my Lord God–when I will send a famine upon the land: not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord. Men shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.

-Amos 8:11-12

What is a humanist?

"I conquered every weakness because a man can do all things if he will"

-Leon Battista Alberti

Donatello - Equestrian Statue of Gattamelata - Bronze - 1447-50

Vladimir Putin

"Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great."

-Niccoló Macchiavelli

A little too similar

Maybe we should all be asking who these two are really working for.

Constructivism and Standpoint Theory

It may be going too far to say that Social Constructivism is contingent upon Standpoint Theory, but the two paradigms undoubtedly intersect. 

Since blog postings generally stand alone, forgive me for re-stating the Alison Wylie quote from the last post:

"[T]here would be no incongruity in claiming that, with respect to particular epistemic projects, some social locations and standpoints confer epistemic advantage. In particular, some standpoints have the especially salient advantage that they put the critically conscious knower in a position to grasp the effects of power relations on their own understanding and that of others."

Constructivism assumes that knowledge is created in relation to, not copied from, perceived objects, the objective "realness" of which is irrelevant. This knowledge is constructed from within a coherent system by which individuals and cultures attempt to understand the world and cope with its complexities.

Similarly, Standpoint theory offers the possibility of greater objectivity from particular social locations concerning objects, which in themselves are socially determined, reflexive, and locally confined– objects which again do not have "realness" in the traditional sense.

Thus, Standpoint Theory would support and affirm one of the basic contentions of Social Constructivism, namely that knowledge of the world is achieved within an active relationship to the facts at hand and their relevance for day to day life.

The implications for pedagogy are myriad. To begin, classroom content is valuable as it relates to students' day to day lives and their ability to cope with real problems. Facts can be known as they relate to these real lives and real complexities. Additionally, as Wylie asserts, students, who come from different standpoints may have a greater chance at understanding than the teacher, possessing knowledge of great value for the group, regardless of past education. The value of the student's social location is not only determined by race, gender, class, or other traditional social determinants, but also by his or her subdominance under the teacher's authority. The value of empathy, collaboration, and critical thinking are confirmed for the classroom by the intersection of Standpoint Theory and Constructivism, since knowledge is connected to the individual. So much is the case not just for the humanities, but science too, so far as it can be emancipated from the confines of traditionally objective "realness," can benefit from the application of these theories.

The Epistemic Advantage of Oppression

"[T]here would be no incongruity in claiming that, with respect to particular epistemic projects, some social locations and standpoints confer epistemic advantage. In particular, some standpoints have the especially salient advantage that they put the critically conscious knower in a position to grasp the effects of power relations on their own understanding and that of others."

Alison Wylie

From the cover of Gustavo Gutierrez' A Theology of Liberation

Liberation theology offers a haunting inversion of our traditional understanding of these words:

"The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'"

-Matthew 25:40

"God is disclosed in the historical 'praxis' of liberation. It is the situation, and our passionate and reflective involvement in it, which mediates the Word of God. Today that Word is mediated through the cries of the poor and the oppressed."

-Gustavo Gutierrez

The revelation of God as mediated through the cries of of the poor and oppressed offers a new image of the crucifix and a bolder understanding of Christ.

"Where is the wise man? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe . . . We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called . . . the power of God and the wisdom of God."

-1 Corinthians 1:20-24

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. . . ."

-Matthew 5:3

"As soon as a religion begins to dominate, it has as its opponents all those who would have been its first disciples."

-Friedrich Nietzsche