Beyond understanding is appreciation, which occurs as we begin to see and feel ourselves as another person or people. Appreciation reaches out from the intellect to the emotions and is important to ... Read More about Appreciating People
Tuesday
Being Intellectually Excellent
Human progress is attributable not only to the rare geniuses who have revolutionized intellectual life, science and technology but also to the journeymen who have used their considerable talents to ... Read More about Being Intellectually Excellent
Honoring Uniqueness
You may think that someone does not have anything to offer. If you look closely, you will see that virtually everyone does. The simplest person can make a contribution though an observation or a ... Read More about Honoring Uniqueness
Society – Companionship – Togetherness
Homo sapiensis a social animal. We crave the society and companionship of others. We have thrived as an interdependent species; that interdependence shapes the values that human beings must develop ... Read More about Society – Companionship – Togetherness
Beliefs and Convictions
Gustave Dore, The Second Crusaders Encounter the Remains of the First Crusaders (1877)People have believed things with utter conviction - a combination of thought and action - and been consummately ... Read More about Beliefs and Convictions
Making Distinctions
A six-month-old child is in the process of mastering certain distinctions. He picks up a cloth toy and strikes it against his head; then he does the same thing with a wooden block. The child has ... Read More about Making Distinctions
Respecting People
There is no concept of justice in Cree culture. The nearest word is kintohpatatin, which loosely translates to "you've been listened to." But kintohpatatin is richer than justice - really it means ... Read More about Respecting People
Reasoning
To understand the world is never a matter of simply recording our immediate perceptions. Understanding inescapably involves reasoning. [Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice (Belknap Press, 2009), ... Read More about Reasoning
Being Intellectually Honest
In all debates, let truth be thy aim, not victory, or an unjust interest. [William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections & Maxims (1682), “Rules of Conversation,” Part I.] The trouble ... Read More about Being Intellectually Honest