1 / 19

On “Why” and “How”

On “Why” and “How”. The Power of Words, The Decadence of Western Educational Systems and a New Role for Aesthetics Marino Maiorino – IFAE – 18/06/2009. Summary. Childish and Mature Questions: “Why?” And “How?” Meaningful and Effective Communication “The Ancient Greeks, They Sung!”

liam
Download Presentation

On “Why” and “How”

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. On “Why” and “How” The Power of Words, The Decadence of Western Educational Systems and a New Role for Aesthetics Marino Maiorino – IFAE – 18/06/2009

  2. Summary • Childish and Mature Questions: “Why?” And “How?” • Meaningful and Effective Communication • “The Ancient Greeks, They Sung!” • Homer, the Bards, the Minstrels • The Secret Power of Words • Mnemosine • Language in Educational Systems • The Peripathetic School • Cloysters and Deambulatoria • The Present Day Western Educational Systems and Their Role in Society • Good Tools for No Purpose: Latin at School • Expression: NOT Only A Matter of Language • Is there a place left for Aesthetics? • Functional meaning of Aesthetics • Conclusions

  3. Why? – Pourquoi? – ¿Por qué? - ¿Per què? – Perché? Denotes the wish to know the for what reason an event happened. This reason may be a natural law, a free will, anything. How? – Comme? ¿Como? - ¿Com? – Come? Denotes the wish to know the effective cause that led some event to happen. “How” excludes free will from the possible causes. “Why?” and “How?”

  4. Meaningful and Effective Communication • Language is a Communication Protocol • Mastering of Language is Mandatory for Proper, Meaningful and Effective Coomunication • Improper knowledge of language may lead to: • Misunderstandings • Mistakes • Troubles • Health Troubles!

  5. “The Ancient Greeks, They Sung!” • Heard quite often by Latin and Greek teachers for NO GOOD REASON; • Not an example of bad communication: the base of this presentation; • Did the Ancient Greeks really sing? • “the Muse has taught them the pathways, since she loves the company of singers” Homer, Odyssey 8.481 • How did the Greeks preserved their cultural heritage over the centuries? • Oral tradition!!!

  6. Homer, the Bards, the Minstrels • Greeks (classical tradition) did not write themselves! • Poems were seldom repetitions of the same sounds in similar words, so that they could be remembered more easily • In Celtic Europe, bards needed an apprenticeship of 16 years before getting their “grades” • Their tradition passed to the Minstrels of the “Chansons de Geste”

  7. Homer, the Bards, the Minstrels • Butrica, J.L., “A PLEONASTIC USE OF KAI AND ET IN EPIC SIMILES”, Mnemosyne, Volume 53, Number 2, 2000 , pp. 129-138(10) • A pleonasm is a device that entails the use of a word superfluous to the literal meaning of a sentence, and which therefore could be deleted without affecting the sense of something. • A comparable situation is observed between the titles pontifex maximus and archiereus megistos. Arch-iereus would be enough, because arch- already gives the idea of maximus, like iereus that of pontifex: but yet we find in addition also its full form, even if pleonastic, probably because archiereus megistos is rhythmically and phonetically close to pontifex maximus. • Iliad, Odissey, Beowulf, Kalevala… ”Enkä lähe Inkerelle, penkerelle, pänkerelle;

  8. Homer, the Bards, the Minstrels • Roman Battering Ram • In latin Aries = Ram

  9. The Secret Power of Words • “In the beginning there was The Verb…” • Most magic (and sacred rituals) requires the spelling of a spoken formula. • In English, to spell = to pronounce, to mean, to enchant • A word pronounced by a bard or a druid could stop the foes in a battle, make them flee away… • According to some sources, the true name of Rome was not known: Rome was given around so that foe sorcerers could not curse the name and therefore the town!!! • The Power is in the Transmission of Thought: Telepathy!!!

  10. Mnemosine • Words are shells for concepts • How do we remember concepts? • Assonations, rhymes (sound help) • Poems, songs (memory help) • Word formulas (tricky but enjoyable help) • Numerical formulas (successions, series) • Memotechniques (Pico della Mirandola, Dominican Monks, Jesuites Priests) • Mandatory: proper language development

  11. Language in Educational Systems • Learning by memory is pure notionism… • Spoken examinations are stressful… • Speaking is being reduced to a minimum, useless, bad joke • Ortography errors (not to mention problems in proper sentence construction) are overly tolerated • General philosophy: teaching quality is measured by the number of students passing the examinations, therefore… • …set the teaching standards to a lower level in order to allow more students to pass the exams!!!

  12. The Peripathetic School • Pythagoras had his disciples walking under the stoà (covered corridor around the agorà, whence the name of “stoic” school) while he was discussing with them. • The idea behind this: the repetition of concepts in the form of poems or rhymes while walking between cadenced columns, helps focusing on the subject and repeating the concepts

  13. Cloysters and Deambulatoria • In middle ages, monks walked in their buildings while reading the Bible. The decorations often followed a logical order. • The monks could remember the books they were reading by simply looking at the decorations they had nearby.

  14. The Present Day Western Educational Systems and Their Role in Society • Education is: preparing young generations to be active members of the society • Nowadays this means: kids have to know what to do in a factory • Freedom of the individual is the advertised target • Responsibility towards oneself and the others, self-motivation, inner self-growth are of no value • Life may be tough at times. This is simply wiped out by a diffuse acceptance of mediocrity as a life style. • No death, no war, no sickness, no unemployment, no problems…

  15. Good Tools for No Purpose:Latin at School • Dead Languages are useless? • Latin/Greek teachers are able to teach? • Coded grammars are focused to the educative task? • What are “cases” in latin and why there are “complements” on top of them? • Exceptions CONFIRM the rules? WTF? • Deeper knowledge of the matter needed! • Think about the language: think what you say, in order to express correctly your thought!

  16. Expression: NOT OnlyA Matter of Language • Literature • Poetry • Painting • Music • Architecture, engineering • Your everyday life • Hobbies…

  17. Is there a place left for Aesthetics? • Aesthetics makes our life merrier • Objects today designed for function (they say) • Must we survive with functional, foul objects?

  18. Functional Meaning of Aesthetics • Aesthetics makes things more appealing (Apple vs. PC’s) • Working with “nice” tools makes the work more enjoyable (productivity improves) • When developing tools, software, think in the user satisfaction, not only the function • Embed aesthetics in function!

  19. Conclusions • Express properly • Express nicely • Express through your work

More Related