Upon finding oneself fielding such unexpectedly abstract questions as, "What is the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything?" where does one, as a mentor, begin? Put differently, what is the starting point for teaching wisdom?
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Assuming that the student is genuinely searching for an answer and not flippantly reenacting a popular Douglas Adams sketch for a laugh, I would begin with a conceptual representation, the l-u-e-for model illustrated here. Of course, this kind of reductionist picture would not be instantly meaningful to a young student, but it provides a roadmap by which the student will be able to follow the progress of -- and make the inevitable course corrections along -- her potential years of soul searching.
Then, using an engaging interview format I would walk the student swiftly through a recap of a few thoroughly distilled, important core arguments -- historical and contemporary -- both for and against this as the pinnacular model of the universe. This done properly, the student can reason for herself the inherent soundness of it. She can thereafter rely not on any one-sided or otherwise limited perspectives but, instead, on her own ongoing, overlapping life experiences, which act as unrelenting stress tests upon the model's validity.
As with all published thoughts today this model is not new. It is, if anything, a no-frills composite of various yet inter-supporting philosophical and metaphysic exploratory works. However, presented to young students in this way will certainly provide solid footing for their personal journeys into de-mystifying the greatest art and literature of the humanities.
***
Assuming that the student is genuinely searching for an answer and not flippantly reenacting a popular Douglas Adams sketch for a laugh, I would begin with a conceptual representation, the l-u-e-for model illustrated here. Of course, this kind of reductionist picture would not be instantly meaningful to a young student, but it provides a roadmap by which the student will be able to follow the progress of -- and make the inevitable course corrections along -- her potential years of soul searching.
Then, using an engaging interview format I would walk the student swiftly through a recap of a few thoroughly distilled, important core arguments -- historical and contemporary -- both for and against this as the pinnacular model of the universe. This done properly, the student can reason for herself the inherent soundness of it. She can thereafter rely not on any one-sided or otherwise limited perspectives but, instead, on her own ongoing, overlapping life experiences, which act as unrelenting stress tests upon the model's validity.
As with all published thoughts today this model is not new. It is, if anything, a no-frills composite of various yet inter-supporting philosophical and metaphysic exploratory works. However, presented to young students in this way will certainly provide solid footing for their personal journeys into de-mystifying the greatest art and literature of the humanities.
Supporting References
- Anatomy of Criticism is an attempt at a "conceptual framework" for criticism of literature as an object of study, as opposed to a subject of study. Herman Northrop Frye believed that if he could digest it all, or at least grasp enough to get a healthy sampling of the overall "global framework" of literature, it would naturally fall into a "symbolic unity" that could be easily understood by everyone.
- "Science, by definition, cannot begin to address non-mechanical cause -- i.e., purpose. Confronted with any unexplained phenomenon, scientists can only posit mechanical causes; purposes are banned from the discussion because they can never be measured or tested. So when a 'scientist' claims that he has proven that there is no purpose, no purposer, no non-physical aspect, he is reporting as a result the very thing that he adopted as a premise. This is bad logic even in high school, but some scientists and most science reporters make this basic mistake all the time." (Card, Orson Scott; "The Human Genome and the Inconvenient Soul"; beliefnet.com)
- "...[we adopt] final, or purposive, causation [as opposed to mechanistic, or random causation]: The universe acts the way it does because it wants to, say we." (Card, Orson Scott; A Storyteller in Zion; "Science Fiction and the Mormon Religion", p. 159)
- "Fiction is...another kind of reality. ... Unlike life, it begins and ends; we can close the book and draw conclusions. It is often easier to learn from fiction than from life..." (Card, Orson Scott; A Storyteller in Zion; "The Problem of Evil in Fiction", p. 75)
- "Real art creates myths a society can live instead of die by..." (Gardner, John; On Moral Fiction; p. 126)
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