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Philosophy

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Living in the World of Visual Thinking

I can’t believe tha it’s been almost two years since I published the post Living in a Metaphoric World and Trying to Communicate with the Academy.  Although many things have changed, many have remained the same. In October 2011, I was living almost exclusively in a metaphoric and visual thought pattern world. Over the two intervening years, I have worked very hard to regain some of my life in the verbal, analytic, quantitative, and sequential thought world. Today in August 2013, the best I can say is that “Some days are better than others.”  This, of course, drove me to the U2 song, Some Days Are Better Than Others, particularly the verse

Some days it all adds up
And what you got is not enough
Some days are better than others.

When faced with any question, situation, or problem, my thinking still immediately goes to a picture or a scene. Prior to my TBIs, I would have attempted to formulate a verbal description, before piecing together a verbal, analytic, quantitative, sequential explanation or solution. Today, I begin with a picture around which I build a scene. I will then put together a storyboard, and eventually a script. It is as if I am scripting and directing a movie.

Some of my movie productions are visual travelogues, focusing on the scenery. Other productions are closer to documentaries, where I attempt to present a verbal description of what I see. In these I attempt to translate the pictures into words.  However, to use words, you have to have a ready supply of words. Here is where I experience the down side of aphasia. Sometimes I must struggle to find the best word. I know what I want to say because I see the pictures. Nevertheless, the right words don’t leap out at me as they used to do. It takes me back to one of my first posts, Words Are More Like Cats Than Dogs.

One criticism of living in a movie, is that one is always living in a fantasy, a make-believe world. It is not real. Having lived in this fantasy land now for more than two years, I would counter that living in a world of words, analysis, numbers and sequence, is not living in the real world either. The words, analysis, numbers and sequences are only representations of the real world. If analogies congeal into dogmas, metaphors and pictures are easily mistaken for reality. C.S. Lewis said that the danger of using a metaphor is not that it may be wrong, but that people forget it is an analogy and not necessarily reality.

Which is the better description of reality? Having been a resident of both worlds, my answer would have to be, “It depends!” James Geary, New York Times Bestselling author of “I is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How it Shapes the Way We See the World” gives us an answer. The answer is that it depends upon the audience. In his book Geary introduces us to the concept of expectancy bias. Individuals bring their own biases to bear upon any communication. Those differing expectations will cause individuals to create their own interpretations of your story. However, you can help lead individuals in particular directions by the  words, analyses, numbers, sequences, pictures, and metaphors that you select.

What’s left to say? Quiet on the set! ACTION!

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Consider the Moth

Luke 12:22-30 (NIV)

22Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 26Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

27Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

In the 12th chapter of Luke, Jesus alternates between speaking to a large crowd and teaching his disciples privately in this very public setting. In verses 22 through 30, using two lessons from nature, Jesus attempts to teach his disciples the fruitlessness and folly of worry. He shares the secret to handling the paralyzing grip of worry and selfishness: All we need to do is to put our lives into the protective and comforting hands of God the Father.

In the first vignette, God cares for the birds of the field (ravens or crows depending upon which version of Scriptures you use). Ravens and crows are scavengers and generally considered nuisances and pests. However, God takes care of them. That should give all of us hope and comfort.

In the second vignette, wild flowers or lilies (depending upon the version of Scriptures you use) are favorably compared with the splendor of Solomon, his palace and its royal trappings. We all know that all flowers are very temporary. They eventually wither and die. The remains of the flowers are either left to decompose and become part of the ground for the next crop of flowers, or they are gathered up and burnt, with the ashes scattered to the winds. Finally, time erases the signs of their presence and they are remembered no more. However, God gives these temporary plants as much beauty and concern as the royal trappings with which Solomon surrounded himself. We don’t need to be overly-concerned with the way we look and dress. God will provide us with our basic needs. [Note: I believe the key word in the preceding sentence is “overly-concerned.” We do need to dress modestly and appropriately for the occasion. Other people may judge us by the way we look, but God judges us for what is in our hearts.]

In these two vignettes and in other scripture passages Christ, during his earthly ministry, used examples from nature to teach us practical lessons. Some of these include the parable of the sower, the lesson of the mustard seed, and the lesson of the size of the harvest. God, speaking through writers of Job and the Psalms, used examples from nature to teach us practical lessons.

In Christian higher education, we have often used the phrase “All truth is God’s truth.” Arthur Holmes, in his book by this same title, uses the creation or cultural mandate given to Adam as license to search for truth wherever we might find it. We do not need to be afraid of truth. However, we do need to circumspectly make judgments between God’s truth and Satan’s imitations of that truth.

In that vein, I want to thank Tom Bartlett, senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education. He wrote an article that appeared in the August 17, 2012 edition of The Chronicle Review. Interestingly the article was labeled Salvaging God on the cover of the magazine section. Does God need salvaging? Do we think we can salvage him? When you get to the article inside the section, it is entitled, Dusting off God; Does Religion Really Poison Everything?

Bartlett begins this article with a parable about moths that Richard Dawkins, an outspoken atheist, introduced in his book, The God Delusion. Moths and bats are two nocturnal fliers. However, their evening flights are made possible because of two very different natural senses. Bats use the sense of sound. They use natural sonar to navigate around obstacles. Moths, on the other hand, use their very sensitive eyes and the light from the moon or stars to see the obstacles and navigate around them.

The fact that moths use light by which to navigate actually explains why they are susceptible to bug zappers. They are not attracted to the light of campfires, light bulbs or bug zappers. They are confused by that light.

Physics tell us that light is a chameleon in the physical world. Sometimes it behaves like waves of energy, and other times like particles with mass. Some physicists attempt to describe this aspect of light by saying that the particles resemble individual packets of matter that are pure energy. This seems to be a key to the complicated relationship between matter and energy. Recall Einstein’s formula, E = mc2.

Light radiates from a source in waves of ever expanding circles. Our eyes and other light sensors don’t “read” the wave. They are focusing on the individual packets of light. By the time light reaches the earth from the moon or stars, the waves of light are so large in diameter that the light sensors in our eyes are “reading” the light as if it was coming into our eyes as a series of parallel, straight lines.

If we look at a light bulb from a distance of three feet, the diameter of the light waves reaching our eyes is not very large. The light sensors in our eyes pick up multiple light packets, and not a straight, steady stream of packets. This can even make the light bulb seem to flicker. If you look at the light bulb through a very narrow slit, the flickering will be greatly reduced.

The great distances between the earth and the sun, moon and stars, fixes the position of these bodies in relationship to the earth. We and moths can then use those fixed positions to navigate successfully objects on the earth.

Since our eyes and sight receptors are so much larger than those in moths, the introduction of a much closer source of light such as a campfire, porch light or bug zapper doesn’t attract moths. It is actually confusing them. Therefore, they can’t navigate properly and tend to begin a death spiral into the source of the light. Self-immolation is not built into their instincts or DNA. It is the result of confusion. Dawkins explains that moths didn’t evolve to commit suicide. He claims that this is just “an unfortunate byproduct” of the evolutionary process.

Richard Dawkins suggests that religion is like a bug zapper for humans. It introduces another source of information that confuses people, distracting their attention from scientific truth. They behave like moths and seek patterns in religious texts. This begins people on a death spiral into the black hole of ignorance.

This is a very convenient and useful explanation for the confirmed atheist. It removes God from the equation. It eradicates any burden of personal obligation or responsibility for our choices. It then squarely places the blame for all of our problems on religion. Although the seemingly innate search for truth through religion and religious experiences appears to be a universal feature built into the soul of every human, it is nothing but “an unfortunate byproduct” of evolution.

Of course we could offer another explanation. However, this explanation is predicated on the existence of an omnipotent and just God who created the universe and everything in it. This God demands obedience and personal responsibility. However, this God is also a loving God. Through the sacrifice of Christ, this God has offered all people the opportunity for eternal salvation. Yet this scenario is unacceptable to many because man is no longer the center of the universe.

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Skeletons in the Closet–The Academy as a Metaphor

I began this series of postings with the intent of following the historical development of liberal education and colleges. The first posting focused on the ancient Greeks and a difference of understanding among some of the leading ancient Greek philosophers as to what constituted liberal education and for whom it was designed.

         In that first posting I indicated that I would continue the series by looking at the development of liberal arts through the early Roman civilization, the medieval times and the European Renaissance. However, I have found that I must take several small detours.

There are several reasons I have decided on these detours. The first reason is that as I have become more accustomed to my metaphoric world I have discovered how deeply our language is built on metaphors. In my exploration of metaphors, I came across a real eye opener of an information source in James Geary’s book, “I is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How it Shapes the Way We See the World.” Geary is a journalist and also New York Times Bestselling author of “The World in a Phrase.”

In preparation for his books, Geary did extensive study of language and the way we use it. As a result of that study, he concludes that metaphors are as old as language itself. As I have studied learning theory, I believe we must conclude that we learn by comparing and linking the unknown and new with the known and old. Therefore, metaphor was a way of thought long before it was a way with words.

As one of his major sources of information and examples in “I is an Other,” Geary relied on the archaeologist and expert on ancient languages, A. H. Sayce. Sayce estimated that three-fourths of our language consists of metaphors; some of which are active, while many are worn-out or whose origins are buried. The worn out metaphors could also be labeled as dormant. I was very skeptical of Sayce’s estimate of the extent of metaphors until I looked at the examples Sayce and Geary presented. I began to see how almost everything I said was based on a metaphor, long before I took up residence in a metaphoric world.

         I should not have been surprised that three-quarters of our words have a metaphor somewhere in their history. Learning theory tells us that we learn by tying something new and unknown to something old and known. A metaphor attempts to help us understand one thing or concept by comparing it to something we already know. Thus we build new concepts and words via a metaphoric process.

         If three-quarters of our words are based on metaphors, what are the implications for our understanding of liberal arts colleges? Thus, my first detour will be to investigate the metaphors upon which liberal arts education is built. In my investigation, I found that all of the followings words are built on metaphors: liberal, arts, sciences, literal, truth, academic, scholastic, education, knowledge, idea, conceives, and college. In my next posting, I will look at the metaphoric foundations of these terms.

As I previously indicated, I thought following the development of liberal arts and liberal arts colleges through history would be a straight path. However, as I looked at the history of liberal arts throughout history, I found it more resembled a cow path meandering through a pasture, among Western and non-Western civilizations. Living next to farms for many years, the only two times I ever saw a cow walk in a straight line were: 1) when it was feeding time and new food had just been dumped into the feed trough; and 2) when cows were entering the barn at milking time and they headed straight for their assigned milking stations.

If the history of liberal arts does not flow in a straight line, to more fully understand liberal arts and liberal arts colleges and follow their development, I have decided that I needed to meander through history and non-Western civilizations with them. Some of my upcoming postings will feature those meanderings. As with most detours, I believe that we will eventually end up at the desired location.

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Higher Education Lessons Learned from Toys–Part II

Part I of this series discussed the lessons my grandchildren’s toys taught me about higher education. In this posting I will discuss what I learned about higher education when I reflected on my own childhood toys.

The first images that come to my mind when I think about my own toys were images of a large card board cylinder with a set of Lincoln Logs with which I played. Lincoln Logs were very different from Lego’s. Lincoln Logs only came in one basic color, bark color, and in one shape and a limited number of different sizes. You could build a cabin, if you put the logs together in precisely one way. You could put in doors and windows only if you had the framing pieces for the doors and windows. Lincoln Log cabins were essentially identical. They all looked the same. In some branches of higher education, the institutions are like the Lincoln Log cabins. They can only be put together in one way, and they all look identical. You can’t tell the difference as you go from one institution to another.

I also had a large cardboard chest that contained an Erector Set, with all the different sized beams, and extra nuts and bolts. This set included the extra wheels, axels, gears and a small electric motor to drive the axels. With this Erector Set I could build anything, or so I thought. I could put together cranes, skyscrapers, airplanes, cars, and trucks. Although these objects were all different, because they were put together using the same parts and using the same methods, they all had a similar appearance. Because many institutions of higher education are built in this way, using the same parts and construction methodology, they all appear to be the same.

I also had two Lionel Train sets for which my father and I built a train board to display my two train sets. The board consisted of two 4’x8’ sheets of plywood, that contained two villages complete with streets and lighted streets lights, roads with working traffic lights, rail crossings with working rail road gates at the points where the tracks intersected the painted roads on the board, and several industrial sites with loading and unloading equipment for specialty cars in my two train sets. The train board also had mountains, one of which included a train tunnel, several painted streams complete with rail bridges, and a train depot complete with a powered round table. I even had an engineer’s cap which I wore when I played with the trains. The train board and extras made the experience seem realistic. However, the trains never got anywhere and never accomplished anything. All they ever did was go around in circles. This is very similar to some institutions of higher education, Lots of action, all the bells and whistles, but they never go anywhere, except around in circles.

My fourth toy was an extra large Gilbert toy science set. It came in a fold out metal case. It included a lighted microscope with slides, instructions and material to prepare them. It included a small telescope with a map of the northern sky. The microscope opened the small world to me, while the telescope opened the vast expanses of the universe to me. It also included the basic tools of a chemistry lab such as test tubes, beakers, and chemicals. As a concession to safety, the Bunsen burner was a candle instead of a gas burner. The set also included a small handbook filled of Dos and Don’ts, and safety suggestions. If you only used the chemicals that came with the set, you could never get into trouble. It was only when you struck out on your own, did you run the risk of a major accident or explosion. This is very similar to higher education. If you stick to what is given to you within the curriculum, you’ll never run the risk of a major accident. However, how many of us are the compliant children that do everything that we are told, and avoid the forbidden areas? I can remember a few times when I went beyond the safe instructions, and I had messes to clean up in my mother’s kitchen.

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Higher Education Lessons Learned from Toys–Part I

Whenever I spend time with my two daughters and their families, I find it very entertaining and educational watching my grandchildren play with their toys. For years, my youngest grandchildren enjoyed playing with Lego’s. They had several sets of blocks of varying colors, sizes and shapes. My younger grandson is currently into Bionicles, fantasy warriors with interchangeable parts. The second type of toys that he spends hours with is transformers, a toy with parts that you rearrange to form two or more recognizable forms that are very different.

As I watched my younger grandchildren play with their toys, I reflected on some of the toys with which I played when I was growing up. The more I watched and reflected the more similarities that I saw between institutions of higher education and toys.  In this post, I will discuss what I learned about higher education from my grandchildren’s toys. In Part II of this series of posts, I will discuss what I learned from my toys.

         I know some of my former colleagues in higher education will accuse me of falling off the wagon or into the deep end of the pool, if not a cesspool, comparing institutions of higher education to toys. I can hear them saying, “I always knew you were crazy.” I don’t think I’m crazy and I really don’t think that my current residence in the world of metaphors is completely to blame for the similarities that I see between institutions of higher education and toys. I have tried out these metaphors on some other people and they readily agreed that the similarities are patently obvious.

         The buildings that my younger grandson would build with his Lego’s were strange looking. He didn’t have enough blocks of the same color, size or shape to put together a normal looking building. Therefore, his buildings were odd shaped, leaned in various directions, and would fall apart easily. Sometimes her buildings would have wheels. When I asked him about the wheels, he said that the buildings were trailers in which the family could go camping. Sometimes our institutions of higher learning are odd-shaped, lean in various directions, lack permanency, and have wheels which would move the institutions around to different positions on various questions.

         Transformers are an interesting metaphor for institutions of higher learning. Transformers are “two toys in one.” A transformer is made to move back and forth between two recognizable forms that are very different and have very different purposes. Some institutions of higher education move back and forth between two recognizable forms with two very different purposes. You can’t pin the institution down as to what it really is.

         Bionicles are a fascinating metaphor for institutions of higher education. Bionilces are fantasy, warrior creatures with interchangeable parts that capture the imaginations of the builders as they battle other Bionicles and their Masters to save the universe.

As I thought about my grandchildren playing with their toys, I remember the fun that I had as a child when I played with toys. Part II of this series presents my reflections on my toys and institutions of higher education.

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Alfred Hitchcock School of Education

Alfred Hitchcock
was known for his wise and pithy words of advice about film-making. If one does
some minor editing and reads between the lines of the following Hitchcock
quotes that I found on the BraineyQuote.com website, one gets a picture of the educational  philosophy of many instructors and institutions of higher learning. For the  first several, I have included my edits [in brackets]. I have left a number of
unedited quotes, and invite you to do your own editing.

  1. Always make the  audience [students] suffer as much as possible.
  2. I never said all  actors [students] are cattle; what I said was all  actors[students] should be treated like  cattle.
  3. I aim to provide  the public [students] with beneficial shock.
  4. The length of a  film [lecture] should be directly [indirectly] related to the endurance of the  human bladder.
  5. The paperback  [Kindle] is very interesting, but I find it will never replace the hardcover  book. It makes a very poor doorstop.
  6. When an actor  [student] comes to me and wants to discuss his character [assignment; grade]. I  say, ‘It’s in the script [syllabus].’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?’ I  say ‘Your salary [ learning; grade].
  7. Television  [education] has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as  well as contributing to the need for it.
  8. Television is like  the American toaster. You push the button and the same thing pops up every  time.
  9. Give them  pleasure—the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.
  10. We seem to have a  compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people  living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like.
  11. Self-plagiarism is style.
  12. A  good dinner is when the price of the dinner, theatre admission, and the
    babysitter was worth it.
  13. Television  is like the invention of indoor plumbing. It didn’t change people’s habits. It  just kept them inside the house.
  14. There is  nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen  eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever.
  15. Revenge   is sweet and not fattening.