for Glennie's Courses/Classes and Curious Surfing Folk
for Glennie's Courses/Classes and Curious Surfing Folk
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(The only problem here is that different browsers do different things, so what I see on my browser may not be what you get.)
This page contains five Subject Sets which lead to Topic Subsets.
You click the Subject Set for what you need/want.
Once there, you click the specific Subset or Topic item you want--you get it!
(You can only get anywhere by clicking what's blue or purple-red. Color changes after you visit.)
(You can also scroll through the whole mess if you want.)
If you want to research all the internal references for, say, David Hume or Rene Descartes, most computers and browsers support a "Find" function--mine works like a champ.
*Some pages contain minor errors of HTML text or spacing conversion. These errors are periodically edited/corrected. A source of error as of the 16 May 1998 update is OCR (optical character recognition) via the scanner (UMAX Astra 610S), and my edits thereof. If I miss any OCR errors, you get 'em. Clue me if you find such. However, as of 17 June 1998, Zerox/ScanSoft TextBridge Pro 8.0 was installed which provides a MACRO improvement in OCR.
Some comments/criticisms have been that the page takes too long to load, that it should be set up as linkages off the home page (first page) directory. My defense is that I want folks to explore, and to be able to scroll through to find/see the cartoons and pictures in context.
Some fun students teased me a bit regarding the background data, wondering if I were "ego-tripping" them. The reason for this is to offset the pervasive notion that "Those who can do, and those who can't -- teach." If students can drop the stereotype of the world-wise ineffectual teacher, they will be able to separate the chaff from the grain. There are those of us who love to do, and can do, but who also have a PASSION for teaching. No ego-tripping intended!
Additional information is added periodically, so check back as time allows.
Some Subject Subsets contain hyperlinks (http://. . .in blue) which the reader can click for direct access to additional information.
I hope you enjoy the course/class as much as I do, and that you find this additional information helpful.
As regards this site, I heartily THANK YOU Rob Korb for setting-up the initial page which got me motivated to do this one. THANK YOU you great folks at ICNet Internet Services /Salisbury for all your patience and help. THANK YOU Terry Sterner for the system management job (which fixed-up and cleaned-up the computer after I had it jammed-up). THANK YOU Bill Bartee and Wendy Lenoir of ClarisWorks for your help and encouragement. THANK YOU Joanne Cathell for enduring my depressions and rages as I fought my way through this effort. THANK YOU C. Tony Waters for educating me on how to delimit the page width (02/14/00).
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1. 1: Career Summary (Synopsis)
1. 3: Philosophy of Teaching/Management/Administration
1. 5: Major Issues Facing College Undergraduates
1. 6: Summary Highlights: Letters of Recommendation/Appreciation
1. 7: Summary Highlights: Student Letters of Appreciation
1.11: A Letter to the Editor, The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 11, 1993
1.12: Observations on Management and Leadership
1.1
Berlin, MD 21811
Tel. 410-641-7139
loveland@shore.intercom.net
My education1, training, and experience2 are as an applied Social Psychologist specializing in management. My talents are in organizational problem-solving. I have extensive experience in management, applied social psychology, training/education, organizational development, change agentry, and motivation. I am an ardent student of management, human behavior, social psychology, and philosophy. I am action-oriented: Experience in my bones and knowledge in my head are of no value unless they contribute to some purpose.
My work has been mainly as a hands-on manager in start-up, turnaround, and crisis intervention. In the public sector (non-civil service: appointed or contracted), I have designed and implemented programs, units, bureaus, and a major division to rectify organizational and funding/accreditation crises, and to implement legislation. In private enterprise, I have managed projects to protect/increase revenue via marketing, reorganization, management and staff development/training, and systems. I have managed up to 74 multisite operations. Staffs numbered three to several hundred, and have included subordinate area managers, accountants, attorneys, educators, social workers, nutritionists, physicians, psychiatrists, nurses, fire-safety specialists, researchers, and computer systems managers and technicians--these in both staff and line capacities. All missions were completed on time and within budget.
The second major work mode has been as an advisory consultant in diverse areas, including operations, marketing, skill assessment and training, management development, organizational analysis/planning, requirements/needs analyses, and human-systems interface. Both hands-on and advisory responsibilities were undertaken with a wide range of organizations.
Concurrent with these responsibilities, I have maintained interest and work in college and university teaching, and have taught for three state universities, two community colleges, and two private colleges. Courses included undergraduate and graduate level sociology (introductory and beyond) and social psychology, and undergraduate philosophy and statistics.
Some supporting materials follow . Further detail is available, including an outline of 25 seminar workshops, management-supervisory workbook, lecture video "Getting and Keeping a Job," and touch screen interactive management assessment/development program (video demo).
1Significant education/training with the Institute for Social Research, Florida State University, where the MA and PhD degrees were earned. The Institute was a multidisciplinary organization--housing all manner of sociologists and psychologists, and including mental health clinicians and historians-- which was established by Ogburn and Nimkoff upon their retirement from the University of Chicago.
2A major ongoing work experience--achieved most successfully within New York State government-- was the conceptualization, initiation and implementation of a semi-permanent Task Force running tangent with and complimentary to the overall organizational system. This is an organizational inno- vation first described by Peter Drucker in the 1940s, yet adopted by less than ten organizations.
6 Edgewood Drive
Berlin, MD 21811
Tel. 410-641-7139
loveland@shore.intercom.net
Applied Social Psychology
Management, Organizational Development, Change Agentry, Training, Education
1992-Present
Instructor: Philosophy, Sociology, Statistics, Ethics and Values, Race and Ethic Relations
Wor-Wic Community College; Wilmington College; University of Maryland Eastern Shore
1992
Director of Operations, State-contracted residential treatment center
Create and implement written policies and procedures
THE FOLLOWING RELATE TO MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
1984-1991 (Base: Springfield, Illinois) State governments and private sector clients
Monitor, assist implementation of commercial driver training center
Streamline and manage federal funding reporting
Manage federal seat belt use study
Start-up in organization design, product conceptualization
Redesign training programs for increased funding of $4-8 million/year
Redesign training programs for increased funding of $2-4 million/year
Increase on-time third-party liability claims payments by $4 million/year
Write proposals for increased federal funding to Illinois and Massachusetts
1979-1983 (Base: Albany, New York) State governments and private sector clients
Hudson Group Advertising, Omega Advertising, Hoffman Construction Managers, Data Management Services, Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, Lodge Hill Management Associates, Empire Plaza Association of Adult Homes, Multi-Lock, Empire Plaza Magazine. With University Park Group/Alexander Proudfoot: Orange Roof of Canada, New Jersey Bell Telephone, New York Life Insurance Company
THE FOLLOWING RELATE TO WORK WITH NEW YORK STATE GOVERNMENT AS AN APPOINTEE, CONTRACTOR, OR SUBCONTRACTOR (NON-CIVIL SERVICE) IN START-UP, TURNAROUND, AND CRISIS INTERVENTION MANAGEMENT
1971-1978 (Base: Albany, New York)
Assistant Commissioner, Operations (Crisis intervention and Start-up)
Establish division to inspect and enforce state and federal codes on 600 adult-care homes
Develop and promulgate inspection-to-enforcement policies and procedures
Compliance rate from 17 to 83 percent in one year, fifty successful legal actions
Director of Utilization Control (Crisis intervention and Turnaround)
Functional authority for state mental hospitals to comply with federal quality mandates
Develop policies, procedures, manuals and forms for all quality assurance requirements
74 hospitals comply to code in eight months (after over two years of non-compliance)
Federal system distributed manual nationwide as model
Reorganization Consultant (Crisis intervention, Turnaround)
Develop plan for executive/legislative negotiation to restructure agency
Director, Post-Institutional Services Planning Section (Crisis intervention, Start-up)
Plan, implement major unit to ensure coordinated services among agencies
Plan, conduct 10 statewide training sessions for 1,000 two-agency trainees
Subsequent law mandated forms and procedures for continued compliance
Special Assistant to the Commissioner (Start-up)
Liaison to State Budget Division on post-conversion SSI policy (see below)
Director, AABD/SSI Conversion Task Force (Start-up)
Implement Supplemental Security Income program for second largest state (300,000)
(Largest governmental data conversion in peacetime)
On-time, far below budget, minimal error rate; cited as "exemplary" in federal audit
Innovations: first state WATS line, two publications, fraud detection system
Chief, Bureau of Survey Research/Associate Research Scientist (Start-up)
Plan, implement bureau to assess/evaluate programs based on customer input
Prepare options for state policy on flat grant for shelter allowance
THE FOLLOWING RELATE TO POSITIONS WITH THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY (TALLAHASSEE)
1966-1971: The Institute for Social Research
Assistant Professor, Research Associate
Conduct and write statewide study of drug/substance abuse encounters
Manage turnaround of problem projects; contribute to proposal development
Statistician III (part-time)
Turnaround of statewide inventory of law enforcement and judicial system equipment
Research Assistant (part-time)
Manage daily operations of four-year study at three offices, five staff
Write institute-wide "Interviewer Training Manual." Edit external communications
Assist dean in policy planning for new Florida International University
THE FOLLOWING RELATE TO PART-TIME POSITIONS ONGOING WITH OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES
1972-1975
Guest Lecturer, State University of New York/Albany
Taught four undergraduate subjects and graduate social psychology, directed 2 MAs
1968-1971
Instructor, The University of Georgia (Thomasville and Moultrie Centers)
Design, teach Office of Economic Opportunity course, teach four undergraduate subjects
1963-1966
Resident Assistant Manager, Camp Seminole, The Florida State University
Manage 87-acre private lake camp with facilities and housing for 500
1960-1970: The Florida State University
Ph.D. (12/15/70): Research Sociology
Methodology, Statistics, Social Psychology, Complex Organization, Work, Mental Health
M.A. (12/17/66): Research Sociology, graduate work in Philosophy
B.A. (4/18/64): Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy. Biology scholarship
Philosophy of Teaching and Management/Administration
I hold with Hippocrates: "It is necessary to study all that one can see, feel, and hear, everything one can recognize and use."
Following this, a teacher must do at least three things: 1) Teach (cause others to care to learn) a specific body of information; 2) Guide others to see the interrelationships among bodies of knowledge, and; 3) Personally experience the passion of the love of learning and the integration of knowledge so as to be able to share/spread this passion.
As regards management, the philosophy is much the same. The management gurus debate the total time a manager should be teaching between the parameters of 50 to 75%: Managing is largely teaching. With management/administration, an added joy to share is having so much to do that one can--within reason--spread the tasks to suit "the mood of the hour of day." This enables one to have an increased sense of control over one's own time/life. This adds greatly to job satisfaction and successful orientation toward and completion of tasks.
The major flaw of management/administration as often practiced is that it is seen as power. As "Lucy" in a cartoon said, "The part I like about being boss is telling people what to do." This is wrong-headed! The true beauty of management is finding what people like to do, and helping them to do it. Second, it is helping people learn to do, and LIKE to do, what they HAVE to do anyway--which problem everyone has. As well, leaders of administrative systems--and staff--often fall victim to "The Iron Law of Oligarchy"--coming to serve only themselves. True leadership of such systems keeps to the point that they--managers and staff--and the whole enterprise are ONLY there to SERVE somebody/something ELSE--and something else usually of a higher purpose then their own.
GET their ATTENTION in the FIRST instance!
KEEP their ATTENTION. NEVER let go!
BE DYNAMIC. You're up against David Letterman, Madonna,
James Bond, and MTV. Students are in a sense CLIENTS:
You gotta COMPETE for the SUBJECT MATTER--NOT yourself.
BE FAIR. If there is any ONE thing the human being CANNOT
tolerate, it is being treated unfairly. NO MATTER WHAT
the world did you you 30 years ago, last year, or ten minutes
ago, you TAKE it, KEEP it, and DO NOT pass it along! NO
two wrongs EVER made a RIGHT.
REMEMBER the LEARNING CURVE. Keep the grading door open as long
as possible. Remember friend Billy who washed out, then
went back years later and graduated magna cum laude in
engineering. Remember Bob, whom you didn't like, but who
saved your butt once in high school. Remember: Keep The Door
OPEN! (And remember that when someone does fail, you must
respect his/her right to fail now, this time, without making
either for yourself or for him/her any judgments about next
time. You must be FAIR, and you MUST uphold the integrity of
the academic system and institution.)
BE ACCESSIBLE. Hold office hours, give out your phone number
and your address. You MAY thus expose yourself to threats,
vandalism, danger, or bribes, but you WILL surely lessen your
effectiveness if you play it safe.
BE YOURSELF, and let students be themselves.
BE HONEST. If you don't know, say so. If you make a mistake,
admit it and fix it.
CARE! If you ever quit caring, quit teaching!
And if you ever feel you've got it made, that you know it all,
that you know exactly how to teach this class, that you are
more important than the least-able of your students, and/or
that you will not learn much more than your teach and receive
much more than you give--
you have at that exact instant become a fool.
Major issues facing first and second year college students could be addressed in the microcosm. Such perspective would center on personal insecurity, the transition from having been a high school senior--a relative somebody--to being a college undergraduate--a relative nobody--and on to the challenge of the intense need for the manifested relative maturity required in the new and demanding environment.
I favor macro-perspectives. The major issues of this group are the major issues of all humans: THE Existential Question "What am I do to," and the pan-species matter of fairness. It is in addressing the matter of Fairness that the paths and avenues for achieving resolution of all other issues are achieved (including self-concept, maturity, etc.)
This matter of Fairness is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE in higher education, and especially at the undergraduate level. One need not be a sociologist, and only a relatively casual observer of the affairs of humankind, to note the contemporary pervasive orientation towards Unfairness. (This current issue is only an ongoing reflection of the more basal nature of humans as thoroughly reflected throughout history. Yet our current sociocultural "systems" and "leadership" are failing to curb and redirect humankind's more selfish impulses toward greater good, as has occurred in the more luminous and illustrious periods of our ethical/moral history.)
My own experiences (as outlined in my resume and as discussed in part in my "Observations of Management and Leadership"*) as I achieved higher levels of responsibility and obligation (to others and to society) was that those around me, and particularly those above me, were on a personal turkey-shoot for money, power, prestige--and particularly unfair advantage in any and all arenas. Clearly, the "Iron Law of Oligarchy" is not mislabeled.
Such experiences reflect in a sense that of Isaac Asimov regarding the Mensa Society. He noted that it is populated with individuals with the same frailties, foibles, fads and foolishness as the general population, notwithstanding the high IQs.
This is certainly not an original issue with me, nor Asimov. Note Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man. To wit:
What did these three men and their books mean--the works of Hippocrates,
More's Utopia, The Praise of Folly by Erasmus? To me, this is the democracy
of the intellect; and that is why Erasmus and Frobenius and Sir Thomas More
stand in my mind as gigantic landmarks of their time. The democracy of the
intellect comes from the printed book, and the problems that it set from the
year 1500 have lasted right down to the student riots of today. What did Sir
Thomas More die of? He died because his king thought of him as a wielder of
power. And what More wanted to be, what Erasmus wanted to be, what
every strong intellect wants to be, is a guardian of integrity. (p. 429)
And, "Someone once said that a mind becomes a detriment when it acquires more intelligence than its integrity can handle." (From The Kaisho, a novel by Eric Lustbader. New York: Picket Books, 1993, p. 315)
Our particular/specific problem is that our sociocultural institutions are all falling victim to our current orientation to the "rat race," and, as has been observed, "The only trouble with the rat race is that the rats are winning."
The rats are winning, or have won, in government, in business, in religion (most sadly), and even (debatably) in the family. Education has faltered in its orientation toward athletics, toward money and power, and even in the soft-love grading practices pursuant to the Vietnam war and a troubled economy/job market. Here, of course, we have the classic case of a second Wrong trying to make a Right--a case of humankind trying to "unlearn" yet again (a la Carl Sandburg).
Yet I hold out this (quite possibly) naive hope for Education as Savior. If Education does not man the bastions of Integrity--WHAT institution will?
How does one LEARN NOT to do the wrong thing? How does one learn that Utilitarianism still vies for the hearts and minds of humans in an increasingly bipolar society with one-in-five children being raised below the poverty level--yet with $1 million yachts and $5 million dwellings strung side-by-side along A1A Lauderdale, to Michigan Avenue, Chicago, to Aspen (save the yachts), to Lake Tahoe, to El Cami- no Real/ Carmel-Monterey? Yes, "...beautiful...from sea to shining sea." Forget about the pov-er-ty.
Through EDUCATION! This is the answer to the rhetorical question: THIS is how one LEARNS. THEN, at the Existential Moment--when and if one is duty bound to make a decision and/or ACT--one might at least ponder FAIRNESS.
Yes, it's education through which one OUGHT encounter Kant's Categorical Imperative and Practical Imperative: of doing such that it ought be required of all; and of treating humans as ends, never as means only; of the pure conception that the ONLY thing of intrinsic value is GOOD WILL. ("The devil is in the details.")
This is why--all of this is why--I favor undergraduate education. My initial "career track" was as a researcher, either in a "think tank/research mill," or a university, and if dealing with students at all, then graduate students. But it is not graduate school which develops the humans necessary in a democracy! (As Will and Ariel Durant observe in The Lessons of History, when we made ourselves sovereign, we failed to concurrently make ourselves intelligent. Or, if you believe in the pluralistic orientation to power, when we made ourselves powerful, we failed to concurrently make ourselves sensitive.)
Implementing any of this, the implicit orientations of the above, isn't done with, say, a required course or seminar on ethics--as is being done in, say, medical and law schools (or as might be done at Stanford following their overhead fraud against the taxpayers).
It is done by making FAIRNESS an INTEGRAL, IMPLICIT and EXPLICIT keystone of our social institutions. IF FAIRNESS is pulled-out, as with a literal keystone relative to its arch, then the entire structure SHOULD/OUGHT fall. And institutions are only abstractions of organizations.
Give any person, particularly a young person, a fair deal, and that person will learn and grow. And possibly develop the insight, sensitivity, and empathy to SHARE--when the time comes. My approach, then, to address such issues would be to create--within my purview--an environment conducive to such experience and learning. This follows the management precept that one does not influence people directly for the long term. One can only create an environment which, in the long run, influences people. (As our current negative sociocultural environment is now doing.)
Honest, loyal, trustworthy. Integrity beyond reproach. (J. Fleming, General Manager, The Springfield Hilton, 8/90)
Exceeded all expectations. Exceptionally creative. Understand quickly, plan clearly, execute surely. Unmatched verbal and written skills. Success directly due to your dedication, diligence, experience, knowledge. (C. Steigerwald, President, Communications Alliance, Inc., 5/90)
Outstanding ability to make things happen. True leader, avid reader, thinker, action director. Overcame all barriers and obstacles to success. Interacted with people and paper as long as necessary. Fortitude, courage, great devotion to duty and outcomes, and intellectual honesty. (Jerry Metzger, EdD, Manager of Administration, Training Institute, IL State government, 12/88)
Excellent cooperation and direction. Quality product. (J. Gust, Contract Administrator, IL State government, 3/87)
Spent many long days and nights setting up our marketing, analyzing our problems, and correcting our method of presentation. Many valuable marketing tools. Tremendous intensity. Inspired other people to work harder. (Chris Simone, Vice President, FLH Construction Managers, Inc., 2/86)
Drive, ambition, ability, and absolute integrity. (Chet Ortley, M/Sgt, USMC ret, 10/84)
Unique talents. Solid behavioral research. Understands research conceptualizing, data collection, analysis, interpretation and application. (R. Michielutte, PhD, Sr. Research Scientist, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, 11/81)
Outstanding service. Developed and maintained an excellent line of communication. (Gene Neville, Empire State Association of Adult homes, 8/79)
High caliber initiative, judgment, management. (K. Eriksen, Deputy Commissioner, NY State Government, 9/78)
Appreciable effort, devotion to responsibility and accomplishments. (Larry Kolb, MD, Commissioner, NY State Department of Mental Hygiene--DMH--12/76)
Cut through bureaucracy that generally makes programs nonfunctional. (W. Werner, MD, Director, Creedmore Psychiatric Center, DMH, 12/76)
Ability to organize. Great improvement in records, facility control. (F. O'Neill, MD, QA Review, DMH, 11/76)
Manager par excellence, as is your reputation. (A. Arnold, MD, Associate Commissioner, DMH, 11/76)
Ability to organize and direct complicated projects with attention to detail and consistent recognition of goals. (S. Jaffee, Associate Commissioner, New York State Department of Social Services--DSS--5/76)
Herculean accomplishment. Dedicated work on difficult projects. Initiative, competence and timeliness in planning and execution. (A. Levine, Commissioner, DSS, 1/74, 7,9/75)
Knowledge and ability made my work a pleasure. (G. Russo, Deputy Commissioner, DSS, 12/74)
Human directives from the state department. (A. Harrison, Director, Otsego Co. DSS, 8/75)
Direct, clear bulletins answering questions. (E. Cook, Program Manager, Genessee Co. DSS, 7/75)
Ran one department where I could get answers. (S. Kimiecik, Commissioner., Chenango Co. DSS, 7/75)
Responsible for many improvements and advancements. (J. Reed, Commissioner, Monroe Co. DSS, 7/75)
Insurmountable barriers removed. For the first time, a positive working relationship. Unique leadership, managerial skills and a deep personal commitment to the resolution of problems. (T. Donovan, Assoc. Admin., Post Institutional Services Planning Section, DSS, 6/75)
Remarkable understanding of systems, training techniques and human nature while conducting this training. (P. DiSturco, Regional Planning Officer, Region II Social Security Administration, DHEW, 4/73)
Take it as a given, students seldom write letters to their teachers, either in praise or in blame. Therefore, I am honored by such received.
I took sociology the second time because I think your attitude and outlook are fantastic. I really do think you have helped me in a lot of ways. (Gibbs Hastey, University of Georgia, Thomasville Center, 6/12/69)
Best teacher I ever had. Course became real. used examples from everyday life. Always willing to talk, answer questions, and listen. (Bruce Lovett, SUNY/Albany, NY 4/80)
You are a very thoughtful person. I'm glad you were my first college teacher. You have given me the courage to continue. (Shelly Powell, Wor-Wic Community College--hereinafter W--1/15/93)
Your faith in me is greatly appreciated. . . personally inspiring. You were a great instructor. (Maria Cook, W, 1/27/93)
I'll remember: "An education is something no one can ever take away from you." Thank you for your enthusiasm and inexhaustible ideas and resources. (Andrew Perry, W, 11/28/93)
I've learned a lot this semester. Thank you for a job well done. You have the right chemistry for teaching and a good method of innovativeness to keep students motivated to work harder. (Alfonso Bowens, University of Maryland Eastern Shore--hereinafter UMES--11/30/93)
Thank you for helping me with my life improvements. (Tracie Callis, W, 1/11/94)
Thank you for your time during the semester, and the walk-the-walk, not talk-the-talk, demonstration of "to thine own self be true." You are probably one of the few people I have ever had the pleasure to met who could be called anything close to "self-actualized." It was not only Philosophy that you taught me. (Robin Cox,W,1//8/94)
I'd love you as much if I hadn't taken Philosophy after Sociology with you. But your Philosophy course did more for me than you will ever know. (Doug Howard, W, 2/19/94)
I got more out of your class than any others, and I am still reaping the rewards. I learned more than a subject or a bunch of names, I've learned to think for myself, for my own well being. I've become both passional and rational. Thank you. (Mike McGowan, W, 2/4/94)
Thank you for an illuminating experience with ideas, alias Philosophy. It was an initiation into an entirely new world for me. I shall never forget your impact on my life. (Marylee Ross, W, 4/14/94)
Just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your class. Always interesting. (Michelle Frattaroli, W, 4/26/94)
I enjoyed your Sociology class, and appreciated the motivation, caring, and zeal you possessed. You are really intelligent, and I wish we had had more time for conversation. (Ebony Kelly, UMES, 5/2/94)
Thanks for the experience gained from your class. (Ellen Steudle, W, 5/12/94)
Thank you for your many generosities, your wonderfully exegetic teaching style. You make the study of Philosophy not only challenging but interesting and understandable. And thank you for your constant encouragement and caring personality. (Linda Delaney, W, 6/28/94)
You have enlightened us with your stories, enriched us with our knowledge, taught us to respect others and ourselves, never to compromise ourselves, and to not assume the easy way out. You have given us strength and courage to master a difficult task. You have shown us that life is too short, and that we all must take the time to smell the roses. But most of all, you have shown us that friendship, fairness, understanding and respect are still alive. From all of your students, we believe that you are a winner! (Class card, W, Spring, 1994)
Thank you for being the most interesting professor I've ever had. (Shavon Ringold, W, 12/16/95)
The following are anonymous instructor evaluation comments in string format.
Good teacher, attitude. interesting and energetic. Not boring and motivating. ENERGY. Enthusiastic, interesting. Super when you left the room, and had former students tell us what the course would be like--from a students' perspective. Great personality. Kept me on my toes the whole session. It seems overwhelming, but you make it make sense. Humor. Different approach. Clear language. Relaxed atmosphere. Entertaining. An interesting educational experience. Appreciate being able to met with the class and vote on important aspects. Openness. Got my cognitive juices flowing. Clear and straight- forward. All was explained in detail. Effort to make us students comfortable with teacher and subject. You seemed really excited about the class and the subject. Funny. Feedback asked for from us students at the end. Active speaker. Not boring. Always hoped for a teacher with a personality like yours. Great teacher. I believe I will remember you long after I forget everything else. To learn is to live. Knowledge is power. You treat us like people and not just like students. Like your point about not liking being treated unfairly; you treated us fairly. Was a trippin' class. Dynamite!
(I apologize to students who have written during the past few years for not updating this page with your comments. Please do not feel that I am not appreciative--just busy.)
I have rarely been recognized or rewarded for doing the right thing. In fact, I have most often been punished for it. Concurrently, I have seen those doing the wrong thing reap much recognition and reward. (This is reminiscent of Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye upon his apprehension by the teacher for doing graffiti when, in fact, he was undoing graffiti.)
Yet, for all this experience, I cannot bring myself to do the wrong thing, regardless of the potential rewards. I believe that I share with Immanuel Kant (1724-1804, "the Scot from Konigsberg," i.e., one with a Scot mentality in German academia--a hard intellect if ever there was one) an intuitive moral sense. Kant observed that two things intrigued him, one being the workings of the physical universe, and, two, the moral sense within himself. He concluded that since the physical universe worked on laws that there must be laws of the moral universe.
Technically, Kant's is termed a deontological ethic, and in most circles the deontological ethic, meaning that the right/good/moral is what is covered by a rule which one can endorse for everyone to follow. Kant's laws number four (and are variously phrased depending on the translation of the many iterations he provided).
The first law is the Categorical Imperative: "Act as if the maxim of thy act were to become by thy will a universal law of nature." This is to say, act in such a way that you would approve of the consequences if everyone had to follow your example.
The second law is the Practical Imperative: "Treat every man as an end in himself, and never as a means only." The brilliance of this idea is that Kant concedes that, yes, we do treat others as means out of necessity, but we should never treat others as a means only.
The third law: "The only thing of intrinsic value is good will." The notion here is that in any society there are innumerable ways through which one can lie, cheat, and/or steal, and particularly in a legalistic ("legalese") society such as ours, there are many ways to do wrong things under the letter--if not the spirit--of the law (applicable statute). If, however, one carries in one's heart the intent to do the right thing, the right thing will be found to do, even in the absence of a guiding maxim.
The fourth law: "Do your duty." This duty is largely defined by the Categorical Imperative. Such things as self-regard, self-sympathy, self-pity, or what others may tell you to do--in fact, even as you may be ordered to do in some circumstances--and surely any sort of personal gain are not morally responsible nor respectable motives. One knows what one's moral duty is intuitively, and one must/ought do it. In this last law, Kant goes against the weight of most philosophy which holds for happiness as the highest virtue. In effect, Kant says screw your happiness, do your duty. You are not given the leeway to rationalize yourself out of doing the right thing.
Given my experiences in/of life, my favorite philosopher is Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), the most pessimistic of philosophers. (Kant is my second favorite, for as Will Durant holds, one cannot be a philosopher without first being a Kantian.) Schopenhauer observations include:
Of how many a man may it not be said that hope made a fool of him until he danced in the arms of death.
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome-to be got over.
It is a fine thing to say defunctus est; it means that a man has done his task.
There follows (from Parerga and Paralipomena, 1851--unless otherwise annotated) a collection of Schopenhauer observations. . . .
The word of man is the most durable of all material.
Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.
Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.
The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body.
Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own.
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!
In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one's rights and double one's duties.
Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.
In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.
"On the Wisdom of Life: Aphorisms." Quoted in: Selected Essays (1851; tr. by T. Bailey Saunders).
All the cruelty and torment of which the world is full is in fact merely the necessary result of the totality of the forms under which the will to live is objectified.
Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.
Rascals are always sociable-more's the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is he little pleasure he takes in others' company.
The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.
Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.
Money is human happiness in the abstract: he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes his heart entirely to money.
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.
Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them. As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.
A man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations.
Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.
That the outer man is a picture of the inner, and the face an expression and revelation of the whole character, is a presumption likely enough in itself, and therefore a safe one to go on; borne out as it is by the fact that people are always anxious to see anyone who has made himself famous. . . . Photography . . . offers the most complete satisfaction of our curiosity.
Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.
Suicide may also be regarded as an experiment-a question which man puts to Nature, trying to force her to answer. The question is this: What change will death produce in a man's existence and in his insight into the nature of things? It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer.
How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.
The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1993 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
The distinguished philosopher Gabriel Marcel, who is in many ways himself deeply affiliated with the existentialist tradition, remarked some years ago that "not a day passes without someone (generally a woman of culture, but perhaps a janitor or a streetcar conductor) asking me what Existentialism is." But, as he said, "No one will be surprised that I evade the question. I reply that it is too difficult or too long to explain." Yet, in the way of formal definition, perhaps all that need be said is simply that the existentialist tradition embraces that body of twentieth-century thought and literature which finds its center cluster of ideas descending from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.
In order of these ideas, priority is claimed by the conception of the world as a place inaccessible, unintelligible, absurd--and from which, therefore, man is estranged. The hero of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial awakens one morning to find himself under sudden arrest for an unspecified crime; or again, the protagonist of his long story "Metamorphosis" finds himself on a certain morning suddenly transformed into a gigantic beetle. And the world which is portrayed in these and others of Kafka's fictions--in its impenetrable mystery, in its absolute ambiguity--figures forth something of that sense of reality which is characteristic of the existentialist imagination. For it is a mode of reflection which takes the fundamental human experience to be one of exclusion, of being shut out, of being unable to find, in the world into which one has been "thrown," any place of safety or principle of meaning.
And it is the sense of man as a creature estranged--and as therefore locked up within his loneliness and solitude--which leads to the second major theme of existentialist thought: namely, the stress upon the subjectivity of truth. Since the world will not yield up its inner secrets and since man is, therefore, unaccommodated, the existentialist thinker concludes that the principal focus of all serious reflection must be man himself, and his passionate search for the true foundations of life. Given the inaccessibility of the world, it will avail nothing, in other words, to seek after any sort of "objective" truth, to aspire toward knowledge of that which is independent of human existence itself. The important thing, in short, is not the abstract universality of any system of objective ideas, for reality is too slippery to be caught by such a net; no, the important thing is that which I find sustaining of my life--and the only sort of truth that really matters is a truth which is "existential," which is "subjective," a truth that I have earned and which is therefore mine.
It is the emphasis on the essential solitude of man, as he faces an alien universe, which leads to what is a third theme of existentialist thought--namely, the definition of the basic human task as one of achieving an authentic life. What is basically at stake here is the notion that, given the uncertainty and insecurity which so largely constitute the human condition, there is little chance of man's surviving at all unless he can summon the requisite courage. But courage is a virtue painfully and expensively attained; and thus man is constantly tempted to try to escape the arduous solitariness of a truly authentic life by seeking refuge in the social collective, by submerging himself in the routines and customs of what Kierkegaard called "the public." But, as he never tired of pointing out, such stratagems finally lead only to a deepening of despair; and thus in his writings, and in the existentialist literature generally, we not only get a definition of the human norm in terms of "authenticity" but we also get an anatomy of the various forms of "inauthenticity" represented by mass culture.
A fourth existentialist theme, which is a correlate of these already set forth, concerns the scene or setting of authentic existence as being what the German existentialist Karl Jaspers calls the "extreme situation." Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and the various important existentialists of our own time are all in agreement in holding this to be the basic milieu of human life, when it is being experienced with real seriousness and intensity. Certain significant differences, it is true, mark the characterizations given by various writers of what life is like "on the boundary." But the existentialists do all tend to agree that we do not begin to discover what is means to be human until we are brought up short against the great limiting realities of suffering and guilt, or sorrow and disappointment and death. For it is only when we have felt the sting of some radical failure, or blighted hopes and foundered purposes, of some misfortune that is sheer, unmitigated woe--it is only then that we begin, in any deep way, to appreciate our human finitude, how frail and unsheltered and vulnerable we are before the vicissitudes of life. And to be without any experience of extremity is to lack a certain necessary equipment (or wisdom and maturity) apart from which no really authentic life can be achieved.
Then, finally, there is a fifth testimony that existentialists tend to make, which belongs not so much to the substance of their message as to their sense of what ought to be characteristic of the style of serious discourse, and here the stress is on "indirect communication." What is being asserted, in effect, is that he who "thinks existentially"--with the passion of personal immediacy--is attempting, at bottom, to make sense of his own life, to find a way of ordering his own experience of the world. But one cannot contain the vital reality of one's own selfhood within the simple syllogisms of logic, and certainly the world itself is too slippery, too elusive, to be captured by any straightforwardly direct and logical proposition. So, therefore, when the existentialist thinker undertakes to communicate with others, he will not undertake to build a system or to employ with any great consistence the methods of direct exposition: instead, his stratagem will be that of indirect communication. Both Kierkegaard and Nietzsche used a great variety of pseudonyms and poetic devices, and contemporary existentialists like Camus and Sartre, in addition to their philosophic essays, have written plays and novels and stories--the purpose of this whole effort being not primarily that of setting forth a body of doctrine but of plunging us into the existentialist experience, of nostalgia and anguish, of alienation and extremity.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900, German philosopher. An individualistic moralist rather than a systematic philosopher, influenced by SCHOPENHAUER and by his early friendship with Richard WAGNER, he passionately rejected the "slave morality" of Christianity for a new, heroic morality that would affirm life. Leading this new society would be a breed of supermen whose "will to power" would set them off from the "herd" of inferior humanity. His writings, e.g., Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-91) and Beyond Good and Evil (1886), were later used as a philosophical justification for NAZI doctrines of racial and national superiority; most scholars, however, regard this as a perversion of Nietzsche's thought.
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788-1860, German philosopher. A solitary figure who failed to rival HEGEL as a lecturer in Berlin, he considered himself the successor of KANT but equated Kant's "thing-in-itself" with a blind impelling force manifesting itself in individuals as the will to live. Schopenhauer saw the world as a constant conflict of individual wills resulting in frustration and pain. Pleasure is simply the absence of pain and can be achieved only through the renunciation of desire (a concept that reflects Schopenhauer's studies of Hindu scripture). His most important work is The World as Will and Representation (1818). His doctrine of the primacy of the will influenced NIETZSCHE and FREUD.
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GGL ADDNOTES:
The first theme above, and to some degree the second and third, are reflected in the expression "Nothing matters, everything counts."
The fourth theme above, the import of the "extreme situation" in achieving an authentic human life, is reflected in this William Soroyan quote: "The person who is integrated from never having known disintegration, honest from never having needed not to be, virtuous from never having been tempted, is neutral, and slightly less than human."
Schopenhauer, clearly "the most pessimistic of all philosophers," is Glennie's favorite. Here are a couple of Schopenhauer quotes. "Of how many a man may it not be said that hope made a fool of him until he danced in the arms of death." And, "It is a fine thing to say defunctus est. It means that a man has done his task."
The method of Existentialism is phenomenology. In its strictly Existential sense, this method implies that one cannot know anything unless one is involved immediately and personally--and passionately--with it. Hence, no matter how many game and player records one knows, no matter how many games one has seen, one does not know the sport unless one has played the sport for real.
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phenomenology (fî-nòm´e-nòlýe-jê), modern school of philosophy founded by Edmund HUSSERL, who attempted to develop a philosophical method devoid of presuppositions by focusing purely on phenomena and elucidating their meaning through intuition. Anything that cannot be perceived, and thus is not immediately given to the consciousness, is excluded. The influence of phenomenology was strong, especially on EXISTENTIALISM.
The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1991 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
Management consulting is the exercise and application of expertise, experience, and perspective for the benefit of a client. On a fee-for-service basis, a management consultant strives to determine, report, and, if required, to act upon truth and reality. A management consultant is both cognitive and active toward task.
A consultant absolutely, completely, totally, and fully serves the client. No confidences or secrets are ever betrayed in any way.
A consultant does not front for other services or products, and does not recommend such based on personal or financial interest.
A management consultant is such by dint of personality and character even more than by education, training, and experience. An academic degree, any academic degree, does not a consultant make.
By personality and character, a management consultant is a "king-maker." Altruism is a major trait of the consultant's character. ("It's amazing what gets done when one cares not who gets credit.")
A management consultant is objective, impartial, and independent. "I can serve you best by being for and about you, but not of you."2
The true consultant does not contractually bind the client beyond reasonable needs. The consultant is free to say, "I have done all I can." The client is free to say, "You have done all I can use."
Homer: Greece, 9th Century B.C.
Glenn G. Loveland
1An individual or organization which has not thought-out its basic values--and who/which is not clear, sure, steadfast, consistent and eloquent about them--cannot be whole, real, true, nor trusted.
2Peter Drucker shows this orientation in his autobiographical The Adventures of a Bystander. Albert Einstein had a parable of the bears. For the bears to know what they are doing in a pit, one bear must climb up to the pit rim and observe, reflect, and think. The bear needs pit-duty, but cannot figure out what is truly going on while within the pit.
To the Editor:
"Community Colleges Wonder Whether They Can Keep Doors Open to All" brings to mind Will and Ariel Durant's Lessons of History (page 79): "If equality of educational opportunity can be established, democracy will be real and justified."
If community colleges fail in their mission, it will not only be particular students and organizations that fail, it will be the failure of our (already seriously flawed) institution of democracy itself.
Glenn G. Loveland
Instructor of Philosophy and Sociology
Wor-Wic Tech Community College
Salisbury, Md.
"Community Colleges Wonder Whether They Can Keep Doors Open to All" (July 21, 1993) brings to mind Will and Ariel Durant's Lessons of History, page 79: "If equality of educational opportunity can be established, democracy will be real and justified."
The community college isn't just a stop-gap, fail-safe and last resort for students. The community college is a vouchsafe for democracy. If community colleges fail in their mission, it will not only be particular students and organizations that fail, it will be the failure of our (already seriously flawed) institution of democracy itself.
It's now Wor-Wic Community College (sans Tech), as my letter originally indicted.
The following presents my orientations toward the study and the practice of leadership. I tend to equate leadership and management, however, analytically, while all management is leadership, not all leadership is management. To concretely state my orientations, the following might well sum it up: 1) Management is primarily a moral pursuit and, therefore, is Value-laden (this to the extent and degree that every manager ought aspire to being a "philosopher-king"; 2) Management is much more art than science; 3) A manager's understanding of him/herself and of the human condition/situation is his/her primary tool and vehicle; 4) Mankind's systems for developing, selecting and elevating managers/leaders tend to favor the more neurotic and power-oriented among the group, this at the expense of and detriment to the group itself and the TRUE potential leaders in its midst. This aspect is primarily due to mankind's basic insecurities and weak ego functioning, which, as Drucker observes, favors manner over substance, show over reality.
Generally, while not completely so, my orientations lead to a form of psychological reductionist leaning, in that the PERSONALITY ("predisposition to think and act in certain ways") of the manager/ leader is of paramount importance. My orientation toward change, however, is Moralist (change people--which I see as naive in that human beings have been virtually the same for untold eons), but Reformist--meaning that the systems must change. As well, a Moralist orientation ignores the fact that already within any human group there are TRUE leaders--the systems are just not culling them out and elevating them.
Relative to the above, my study and research interests lie in what might first appear to be bipolar areas, but which areas are the juncture of sociology and psychology as in the discipline of social psychology, to wit: 1) What ARE the personality/character traits of "true" leaders?; 2) What sorts of social systems have been developed in the past, and what sorts could be developed now, which would enable the group to utilize "true" leaders?, and; 3) How can the group nurture and develop more "true" leaders?
Same of the fascinating sub-sets (to me, at least) of the above relate to the argument as to whether leadership evolves from "greatness", as in the "great man" or "hero" orientation, or whether the primary reality is that certain people are able to rise to the occasion, as is often held of Churchill and Truman, for example. Also, all of the above leads to a powerful curiosity regarding just WHERE our current bureaupathological careerist orientation is taking us as a society. Such matters clearly relate to the macro orientations of functionalist and conflict theories within sociology.
As regards the interactionist, or micro theoretical orientation, areas of interest include the forms and sorts of "performances" (Goffman) a manager/leader engages in. Here, my orientation is that a manager/leader must do such--in many ways "inventing him/herself" in a real-life drama, but that such creations must be truly a part/parcel of the self/personality of the actor. In management development/training, for instance, I counsel that a manager may adopt many performances, all of which might achieve the desired result, but that the manager cannot "sell" any performance which is not a true part of him/herself, one which is totally imagined and "made out of whole cloth."
For example, in It Doesn't Take A Hero, we "see" General Schwarzkopf at various times in various situations using his size, his rank, his sensitivity, his gift-for-gab, his charm, his knowledge, and his temper to achieve his ends (and all well-and-good as long as his ends serve to better the group). In all of this, except for the truly intense times he "locked horns" with General Powell, one senses his own humor and sense of theatrics in his own actions. In this and other such accounts, one wonders how much rational-cognitive "role-taking" was involved to plan the means-ends scenario, or how much of it was simply intuitive and "natural."
As a personal note, the above interests and orientations began when, as a lad of nine years of age on the New Jersey beachfront, I began earning money cleaning beaches and doing yard work, maintenance and light construction for corporate executives (all presidents and vice-presidents) at their summer estates (Mantoloking and Bay Head, if you know the area). My own relatives on both sides of the family were all notable or renown for various accomplishments, and I found the wealthy beachfront owners, all from "old line" Philadelphia, also to be exceptional people, especially William J. Meinel, President of Heintz Manufacturing, By the time I was fifteen, I had a dozen estates for which I did virtually all the maintenance, repair and light construction, and I kept this business going year-round to the extent possible, with particular effort during summers, up to the end of my masters-level education. Needless to say, I continued to learn from these early employers and early mentors, especially, again, Mr. Meinel, who particularly wished me to became an industrialist. (I've analyzed and written about these experiences. In particular, when I told Mr. Meinel that I planned to study sociology, psychology, and philosophy--and not engineering--he clearly telegraphed, then restrained, an impulse to strike me. He then said, "You think through a task, you do it, and you keep checking on it to make sure it's right, You should be an engineer, an industrialist. You are a fool.")
Entering graduate school, l, was again fortunate to be closely mentored by Dr. Charles M. Grigg, Dean and Director of the Institute for Social Research, for whom I was a project manager while a student. [I was Dr. Grigg's assistant for planning sessions to set up the (then) new Florida International University, managed a major four-state (Florida, Arkansas, West Virginia and New Jersey) federally-funded follow-up evaluation study, implemented several turnarounds of problem-projects, edited external faculty communications, and wrote an Institute-wide "Interviewer Training Manual," for instance.]
And so on, as presented in my resume. A point I wish you to not miss is that at age fifty-five, I embody fully forty-six years of work experience--and all the learning and thinking I could capture from all of it.
In my life, I have maintained the same standards I learned early an. To cite General Tom Weinstein, quoted in It Doesn't Take A Hero (page 72):
Schwarzkopf:
How come you're not a careerist? Why try to live by moral and ethical standards other people don't have?
Weinstein:
When I entered West Point I was a little Jewish boy from New Jersey and I didn't know a damn thing. During the four years there, you remember all that shit they taught us? Well, I really believed it.
Schwarzkopf concludes this, the end of Chapter 5, with, "So did I"
Another quote with which I strongly identify in this book is what Schwarzkopf felt when he was in a bad work situation. He writes, "I told myself over and over that I'd been lucky with bosses in the past that that I'd be lucky again." (page 218)
As I have had more experiences in varied situations across my worklife, I have seen an incredible decline in the integrity and ability of our "leaders/managers" with whom I have come in contact. Such contacts include being threatened. being offered bribes, being outright lied-to by very high level federal government officials, and--while while not having a "smoking gun"--being close enough to the odor of powder to know that I have been quite close to, if not in the midst of, highly corrupt people and organizations.
I don't know if we are doomed as a society and people, or not. I hope, as Sandburg puts it, that we will "lean again" (unfortunately, only to "unlearn" again). The "leadership crisis" of the 1950s experience and literature was not solved/resolved, and our values and activities during the 1980s--the decade of "let's make a deal"--fully, totally, and completely belied our responsibilities as trustees for and of ourselves, our planet, our values, and the future generations.
Following is a favored collection of quotes, including and concluding with some of y further thoughts, regarding management and leadership.
The rights of man are not rights to office and power, but the rights of entry into every avenue that may nourish and test a man's fitness for office and power. A right is not a gift of God or Nature but a privilege which it is good for the group that the individual should have.
Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History , page 79
The people learn, unlearn, learna builder, a wrecker, a builder again,
a juggler of shifting puppets.
In so few eyeblinks
In transition lightning streaks,
the people project midgets into giants,
the people shrink titans into dwarfs.
Faiths blow on the winds
and become shibboleths
and deep growths
with men ready to die
for a living word on the tongue,
for a light alive in the bones,
far dreams fluttering in the wrists.
For liberty and authority they die
though one is fire and the other water
and the balances of freedom and discipline
are a moving target with changing decoys.
Revolt and terror pay a price.
Order and law have a cost.
What is this double use of fire and water?
Where are the rulers who know this riddle?
On the fingers of one hand you can number them.
How often has a governor of the people first
learned to govern himself?
The free man willing to pay and struggle and die
for the freedom for himself and others
Knowing how far to subject himself to discipline
and obedience for the sake of an ordered society
free from tyrants, exploiters
and legalized frauds--
This free man is a rare bird and when you meet
him take a good look at him and try
to figure him out because
Some day when the United States of the Earth
gets going and runs smooth and pretty there
will be more of him than we now have.
Carl Sandburg, "The People, Yes #87"
. . .Civilization means, above all, an unwillingness to inflict unnecessary pain. Within the gambit of that definition, those of us who heedlessly accept the demands of authority cannot yet claim to be civilized men.. . . Our business, if we desire to live a life not utterly devoid of meaning and significance, is to accept nothing which counteracts our basic experience merely because it comes to us from tradition or convention or authority. It may well be that we shall be wrong; but our self-expression is thwarted at the root unless the certainties we are asked to accept coincide with the certainties we experience. That is why the condition of freedom in any state is always [based upon] a widespread and consistent skepticism of the canons upon which power rests.
Harold J. Laski (1929), The Dangers of Obedience
Man is not unique because he does science, and he is unique not because he does art, but because science and art equally are expressions of his marvelous plasticity of mind.We are nature's unique experiment to make the rational intelligence prove itself sounder than the reflex. Knowledge is our destiny. Self-knowledge, at last bringing together the experience of the arts and the explanations of science, waits ahead of us.
Knowledge is not a loose-leaf notebook of facts. Above all, it is a responsibility for the integrity of what we are, primarily of what we are as ethical creatures. The personal commitment of a man to his skill, the intellectual commitment and the emotional equipment working together as one, has made the Ascent of Man.
Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man
While fealty is demanded, loyalty must be earned.
(Idea) Paul A. Breslin, "'Loyalty is Rarely Used in its Original Sense"
What's obscene is not the use of a few individual foul epithets. What's obscene is the abuse of authority by those in power.
Lenny Bruce
It takes more courage to be a productive bureaucrat than it does to be a military commander in war.
A French Field Marshal
The ones who have been successful thought through what the job was that really had to be done instead of having a program. . . . It is the willingness to say, "What is the assignment?"--not "What do I want to do?" but "What has to be done?" It's a certain demanding of oneself a very high standard, and it's a creation of trust. . . . Leaders have a goal, and the goal is not what they want to do. They start out with the question, "What is needed?" I'm dubious about all this chatter about leadership because what people really want is somebody who substitutes manner for substance.
Peter Drucker in Bill Moyers, A World of Ideas, pages 404-405
I'm frustrated to the point of rage--my files bulge with letters about the power of involvement. Sometimes it's planned. . . sometimes it's inadvertent. But the result is always the same: Truly involved people can do anything!
Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos, page 345
[T]he human factors [are] the real stuff of management.Theories of management can work in individual companies--but only because they suit the way in which individual men like to act.
But just as no two chefs run their kitchens the same way, no two managers are the same, even if they all went to the same business (or cookery) school. You can teach the rudiments of cooking, as of management, but you can't make a great cook or a great manager. In both activities, you ignore fundamentals at grave risk--but sometimes succeed, In both, science can be extremely useful, but is no substitute for the art itself, In both, inspired amateurs can outdo professionals. . . . In both, practitioners don't need recipes that detail timing down to the last second, ingredients to the last fraction of an ounce, and procedures down to the last flick of the wrist; they need reliable maxims, instructive anecdotes, and no dogmatism.
Robert Heller, The Great Executive Dream, pages 7-11
Business, after all, is nothing more than a bunch of human relationships.
Lee Iacocca, Talking Straight, page 74
I don't want to quote you the old cliché "Management's an art, not a science," but damnit if it isn't the truth. . . . You have to adapt to personalities or you're finished.
op. cit., page 79
Management is a code of values and judgments.
op. cit., page 89
It all depends on peopIe
op. cit., page 253
The degree to which I can create relationships which facilitate the growth of others as separate persons is a measure of the growth I have achieved myself.
Source lost
In the BBC series segment, Jacob Bronowski-Mathematician , Scientist, Philosopher--Human of intellect beyond measure or estimate--walks toward the camera, out of the dark toward the light, through the corridor of the crematorium of Auschwitz. As he walks and speaks, he gently flips shut several of the open doors of the ovens, In (what appears to be) a $1,200 silk suit, he exits the corridor walking toward a pond (camera across). Given his stride and apparent intent, the viewer mentally gasps, "He's NOT going into the muck!" He DOES, and as he crouches, he grasps and squeezes a bit of the muck through his fingers. During this intense visual--the most POWERFUL I've EVER seen--Bronowski delivers the following.
There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the end justifies the means. That push-button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering, has became the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit: the assertion of dogma that closes the mind, and turns a nation, a civilisation, into a regiment of ghosts--obedient ghosts or tortured ghosts.It is said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That is false, tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave, This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of the gods.
Science is a very human form of knowledge, We are always at the brink of the unknown, we always feel forward for what is to be hoped, Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error, and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken".
I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, [threatened-of-life by the Nazi regime, as were Max Born, Erwin Schrodinger, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Marc Chagall, Enrico Fermi--in this sharing the threat to Galileo and Socrates by other regimes] I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died at Auschwitz, to stand here by the pond as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people. [Each other.]
Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man, pages 370-374
It is a truism that human beings who are very strong intellectually but weak in emotional drives and emotional relationships are singularly ineffective in the world at large. Valuable results flow from the integration of the intellectual activity with the capacity to feel and to relate to other people. Until this integration happens, problem-solving is no good, because there is no way of seeing which are the right problems.
Freeman Dyson, Infinite in All Directions, page 281, Quoting Sir James Lighthill
On the pedagogic "Tree of Knowledge" the "science" of management is preceded in decency of self-establishment only by the "science" of sociology. Both are too prematurely torn from the trunk/womb of philosophy--thinking about things--and management, in particular, fails to honor and take strength and direction for its growth from both philosophy and social science,
For all the efforts of the logical/scientific positivistic/pragmatic elements of our culture to make management a technical/formula~oriented pursuit, this approach is totally wrong-headed, (The McNamara approach to the management of the Vietnam war is an archetypal example of this. In fact, the thinking soldier despises McNamara's command orientation almost as much as he does "Hanoi Jane" Fonda's behavior, as learned from a lecture by James Bond Stockdale.)
Knowledge is NOT the principal thing a manager needs. A manager requires sensitivity to the human condition/situation, a strong set of PERSONAL values, and even a bit of wisdom. A manager who is not well-read and deeply-thought is a threat to his society, a danger to his organization, and a peril to his subordinates. Assuming that "The Good" truly exists, as has been held since probably the First Thinking Man down to Mortimer Adler, and that "The Universe runs on Truth"--the basic logic of both philosophers and astrophysicists-then everyone, and especially those in charge of others, had best pray and work with all their mind, heart, and soul to get lined up with "The True and The Good."
By analogy, as we teach the six steps of the scientific method, we rarely teach how and where the ideas came from in the first place to which these six steps can be applied. (A Nobel-laureate scientist wrote that "Science is the entire use of the mind, no holds barred.") This we teach not, because we know not. The gift of creativity is the most fascinating and complex of human traits, and many hold that it comes from that link by which which are both individual and whole with some force beyond ourselves. And, as any creative mind knows, passion is a major factor of creativity. (The original definition of passion, from the Greek, is "self-inflicted insanity". ) Yet, we do not teach passion either, and, in fact, in the areas wherein creativity and passion are most needed for our very survival, government and business for example, passion is verboten, as if "stick men in suits, ah, so ever in control" could recognize the light, let alone "see the light." (The Beatles' song "Hey Jude" has a line, something like, "He's a fool who plays it cool, by making his world a little colder.")
Management guru Tom Peters argues for passion, as does Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, professor and former chair of Psychology at the University of Chicago, whose work follows from and is in the same genre as work in "peak experience."
Csikszentrnihalyi writes:
... flow--the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, far the sheer sake of doing it.
Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, page 4
The self becomes complex as a result of experiencing flow. Paradoxically, it is when we act freely, for the sake of the action itself rather than for ulterior motives, that we learn to become more than what we were. When we choose a goal and invest ourselves in it to the limits of our concentration, whatever we do will be enjoyable. And once we have tasted this joy, we will redouble our efforts to taste it again. [To this I would add: And share it with others.]
op. cit., page 42
There is no "trick" to high-quality in leadership and high-productivty in management. There is no "formula," no analogy to "method acting". True leadership and management is a highly creative pursuit. Things change and people change: It requires the effort and skill analogous to a lumberjack log-rolling on a stormy river.
A certain mind-set is necessary. This mind-set is that the manager/leader APPRECIATES the opportunity to better the people and things around him/her. The true manager/leader must work toward the ultimate liberation of people and situations, regardless of how much control is initially required to create straightforward systems and a right-thinking group mind. In this regard, it's like parenting: The job is to work yourself out of a job.
INTEGRITY and TRUST are the nutrients of positive organization and personal growth. In this, the nature of the exercise is to keep any and all bad attitudes, wrong-headedness, politics (internal or external), favoritism, corruption, and general stupidity out of the well in the first instance. As with a literal water well, once the poison is in, one plays hell getting it out--if it can be gotten out at all, ("Watergate" was surely only the "tip of the iceberg," and across the near-future we will come to grasp the terrible wrongs now poisoning this society and culture, for instance.)
In all of this, the quest for TRUTH is the engine. Mortimer Adler, in his summa work, Ten Philosophical Mistakes: Basic Errors in Modern Thought--How They Came About, Their Consequences, and How to Avoid Them, begins by quoting his intellectual mentors Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, respectively: "The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold" and ". . . little errors in the beginning lead to serious consequences in the end."
This truth-business is important all around: the physical and social reality, the bosses, the peers, the staff, and the customers. Yet, there is so much wrong-headedness in the way we perceive and do things! To the extent that management is "ego-suck," it is all too often ego-sucking the boss. The management gurus have argued all along--with Tom Peters now absolutely browbeating on it--that the customer is the one to please. Yet, few argue for the level of intensity required to provide leadership of STAFF.
It has been said that "You can fool the boss, but you can't fool your peers, Ah, the ones you REALLY can't fool are the human beings who comprise your STAFF!
Harvey Mackay in "Lesson 47: Why Nothing Gets Done After You Duck Out Early for the Weekend" of his Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt gets at this with a piece which struck me so funny I fell out of my chair, and rolled on the floor laughing with tears running down my face until I had both a headache and a stomach ache. If just more leaders would take it seriously!
Did I say a moment ago, "You aren't running for election"? Well, let's amend that a bit, "You're not running for election on the basis of popularity." How does your dog miraculously know that you are about to take him for a cherished walk when on other occasions your faint stirrings on the couch merely signal a change of channels? The answer is: While you are watching Old Poon only 1 percent of the time, he watches you 99 percent of the time, That's how he makes his living. Your dog is sensitive to your body language. Don't you think you can expect your people to be at least as influenced by your behavior as your dog?If you curse and shout, your managers will curse and shout, If you wear gold chains and a pinkie ring, your sales managers will wear gold chains and a pinkie ring (alas, they might wear them anyway). If you overpromise, they'll overpromise. If you're paternalistic and tolerant of featherbedding, so the people under you will be, too Your behavior will fix it in place long after you're gone. the corporate culture is you.
op. cit. pages 133-134
Mackay, I think, should have also said, "And if you lie, your people will lie, and lie to both the customers and to you."
All of which is a parable of Old Poon (It still cracks me up!) and staff which follows the maxim "As one is led, so one tends to lead."
And the line "The corporate culture is you" triggers another perspective a leader should carry in his/her heart, from Stephen Becker's A Covenant with Death, the concluding paragraph:
Wiggle your fingers, wiggle your toes. Go naked to the market. Rejoice in all mornings. Join hands and kiss. Laugh. Love. If you cannot love, pity. If you cannot pity, have mercy. That man is not your brother: he is you.
Then, there's another Becker, Ernst Becker, who wrote Denial of Death which book analyzed why humankind does good deeds. Years later, toward the end of his life, he was writing Escape from Evil, which analyzes why humankind also does evil even in the effort of doing good, and in the Existential fact of having to do SOMETHING. One of his last requests to his wife was that the manuscript of Escape, which was in his bedside stand, be destroyed. Being a good wife, she collaborated with an associate of Ernst's, and Escape was subsequently published. BOTH Denial and Escape SHOULD/OUGHT be REQUIRED reading for any manager/leader, but it's not part of any MBA program I ever heard of! Which is one of the reasons why the research shows that liberal arts majors make better managers than management majors! (Sorry, I just had to say it.)
From all of this, all the years of THINKING and DOING/DOING and THINKING, (and reading about a book-a-month) I've got a little bit of Sandburgian prose-poetry with which I keep fiddling:
Of all the things which a true manager must do, it is CARE.
Of all the things a manager must cherish, it is integrity.
Of all the things a manager must cultivate, it is trust.
Of all the things a manager must fail-safe, it is the growth of others,
Of all the things a manager must not forget, four remain paramount:
1) Please; 2) Thank you; 3) I'm sorry, and; 4) I give you fair warning.
Of all the things for which a manager must be eternally vigilant, it is the insidious, creeping threat of the Iron Law of Oligarchy.
Of all the things which a manager must understand to the very depth of his soul, it is the distinction between Leadership and Headship.
Of all the things which a manager must not feign, it is knowledge.
Of all the things which a manager must abstain, it is pride.
Of all the things which a manager must disdain, it is unnecessary suffering.
Of all the things which a manager must sustain, it is fairness.
Of all the things which a manager must maintain, it is objectivity.
Of all the things which a manager must retain, it is childlike curiosity.
Of all the things which a manager must remain, it is human.
Glenn G. Loveland
2.2: Epistemology (Theory of Knowledge)
2.3: Free Will versus Determinism
2.5: Political Philosophy (Governance)
2.8: You Want More? (External URL links)
2.0.1: You Think This Course Is A. . . .
This Is An On-Line, Real-Time Existential Experience.
By Another Analogy,
I Am Going To Captain Your Ship.
It's Your Ship--Your Mind.
With Thomas A. Shipka As Our Navigator,
I Am Going To Captain You Through Uncharted Waters Of Your Mind,
Through Mostly Calm Seas, But Possibly Through Some Squalls And Storms.
IF You Do As I Ask--I Cannot Tell, Order, or Make You Do Anything--You Will. . .
Know More Philosophy Than 99.999 % Of All Who Have Ever Lived
Know Thyself Better
Explore Your Mind
Develop Solid Study Habits
Learn How To Learn
Appreciably Increase Your Vocabulary
Participate In A Fair Social System
Have Fun.
(It's Up To You.)
Wor-Wic Introductory Philosophy/Loveland
In Philosophy class, at various points in time, we share ideas about what the reading materials, the ideas therein, mean--what they mean to us. We express the ideas in our own words. This follows Alexander Pope: "Thoughts become clear in passing over the tongue." In this effort, the nature of the exercise is to understand better the course readings. In doing this, sometimes we will overlay our own ideas on the reading material, changing the strict interpretation somewhat. As long as we understand that we are doing so, no harm done. BUT, again, we are working to grasp the text material, not our own ideas.
At other times, we go "blue sky," meaning we just take off and kick around what the material means TO US. The reading material may be the point of departure, the runway, or the launch pad for our own ideas. In that the first injunction of philosophy is "Know thyself," then this is an important part of philosophy, particularly introductory Philosophy, i.e., it's not a graduate level technical exercise.
Yet, the first exercise, UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT MATERIAL, is paramount. Philosophy class isn't "BS class"--which idea I have to disabuse some students of now and then. If it were just a "BS class" then students would leave the course with all the same ideas/attitudes/beliefs with which they came in. They wouldn't have learned anything. Even if students exit with the same ideas, they should have broader and deeper understandings on which to base their ideas, and be better able to verbalize them.
In this process, I like to play, too! And, I've found that if I try to play it neutral, students continue to ask what I think, and if I do not respond, then I am being less than truthful, inauthentic, if you will. So, at various times, relative to specific readings and/or at the end of text Parts, I'll' tell you what I think about the stuff.
But this is EDUCATION, not propaganda. The nature of the exercise is for you to broaden your knowledge and to formulate your own conceptions, not to adopt rnine. (I'm reminded of some graduate students who, either out of respect or out of fear--and possibly out of just not knowing any better--adopted the mannerisms and dress style of their major professors--and sometimes even started smoking the same style pipe, using the same tobacco! The crowd I ran with--iliore independent in nature--thought these mimickers to be childish geeks, the kind of kids we used to slap the crap out of in high school! We also lost respect for professors who would tolerate such blatant apery. Had we tried such foolishness, we assumed our favored professors would have approached us with something like, "If I see you trying to be me one more time, I am going to punch your lights out.")
Therefore, when I share my thoughts (some or most of which you will probably adjudge to be off-the-wall anyway), I entreat, beseech, and implore you to hold in mind the Montaigne quote, used by Eric Hoffer in The True Believer, p. xiii: "All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not [be free to] speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed."
Fall Term 1999
Course: PHL 101-01, Index 248 (3 Credits)
Meets: Monday, Wednesday; 2:30 PM--4:00 PM, AAB 331
Instructor: Glenn G. Loveland, Ph.D.
Text: Shipka, T. A. and Minton, A. J. (1996). Philosophy: Paradox and Discovery (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
This text will be covered in its entirety, at a rate of approximately two (2) class session per chapter, following the procedure discussed below under "Course Requirements" and as per the "Schedule/ Agenda."
This course covers the history of philosophy and addresses the problems of religion, knowledge, reality, morality, and politics as they arise in the thoughts of great Eastern and Western philosophers. Selected issues that underlie personal, social and cultural ferment in the 20th century are explored in the light of Eastern and Western classical philosophy.
This is an Introductory/General/Survey course in Philosophy, the most broad and general area of all thought/ study/learning. The subject matter is Philosophy as a discipline (area of study, body of knowledge, methodology), and the orientations thereof.
The class mode will be primarily interactive/discussive/participatory/dialectic (and somewhat heuristic). This is the "Socratic Method," Socrates arguably being one of the greatest teachers who ever lived, and the mode of most graduate-level seminars, and the mode best reflecting the reality that all "students"--all human beings in "school" and in life--are ultimately responsible for their own learning. This approach is also intended to stimulate INVOLVEMENT, for, as management guru Tom Peters notes:
I'm frustrated to the point of rage--my files bulge with letters about the power of involvement. Sometimes it's planned. .. sometimes it's inadvertent. But the result is always the same: Truly involved people can do anything!
Thriving on Chaos, p. 345
Following the Goals of Wor-Wic Community College (Catalog, "General Information: Goals", p.5), the course will be applicable to both students desiring to meet more or less immediate and concrete career/job ends, and students wishing to continue/further their more general and abstract educational pursuits--not that these ends are separate, distinct, and mutually exclusive.
The course is intended, therefore, to provide students with an orientation toward, and an understanding of, what Philosophy is, its import to life and learning across all ages, its particular import today, a review of the major question-areas of Philosophy, and a survey of thinking/writing/ argument/opinion relative to the five areas.
Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:
1. Explain the rationale/purpose/function of Philosophy in rational thinking/problem-solving
2. Explain the function of Philosophy in "critical thinking"
3. Present/discuss/argue rationally/factually
4. Explain what Philosophy is
5. Describe the import of Philosophy to humankind's pursuits, both the rational and the passional
6. Explain the concept of "objectivity" versus "subjectivity"
7. Explain "Science" vis-a-vis "Art" vis-a-vis "Philosophy"
8. Define the word-concepts of Philosophy.
ATTENDANCE
"If you're not PRESENT to do the job, you have no chance of doing the job." PLEASE make every effort to attend class. PLEASE extend to me the courtesy of letting me know if you must be absent (telephone 410-641-7139, between 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM). Near-perfect attendance of no more than three (3) absences/cuts is worth three (3) percentage points on your final grade. Absences/cuts above the class mean costs you three (3) percentage points on your final grade. (I want to make this a class you WANT to attend. But, if you don't give me a chance, it can't be done.)
OK! Listen up! Philosophy is a course of study which favors abstract as opposed to concrete thinkers, favors deductive versus inductive thinkers, and requires the student to ENGAGE the WRITTEN WORD as one would engage a lover or an adversary--depending on your point of view. Most humans are simply NOT thinkers of ANY sort. Most humans, if thinkers at all, are concrete and inductive thinkers. And, most humans fear the written word only less than they fear numbers, large snakes, and dentists! Furthermore, Philosophy is often written in obtuse/archaic/formal/arcane ("high falutin") phraseology. (This is particularly true in the beginning of the course/text. Trust me, the reading gets easier as the text Parts progress.)
As well, Philosophy deals with IDEAS--which most humans can't deal with anyway--about "things" which most humans have never thought about. AND, to be perfectly honest, while some students may come in loving this stuff, and some will come to at least appreciate parts of it, others simply could not care less, now or ever.
BUT, Philosophy is THE SINGLE most important area of study to engage if you care to have any claim to being a truly educated--not just "degreed"--human being. AND, if you want to find out what sort of head you carry atop your frame, Philosophy is GREAT FUN for probing around in your gray matter. MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE FIRST INJUNCTION OF PHILOSOPHY IS: "KNOW THYSELF".
Therefore, given all of the above, I'VE GOT A DEAL FOR YOU! The text is organized by Chapters under five PARTS. I propose EVERYBODY read the Preface and "Introduction," and EVERYBODY read "The Paradoxes of..." section of each PART and the "Problem Introduction" section of each Chapter. As well, everybody read the author/topic introductions (headnotes/blurbs) for each writer.
THEN, to address the individual author's pieces within each Chapter, we divvy up the class into three (3) subgroups, with each student being a member of one group. (WHAT?) Well, see each Chapter contains 2, 3, 4, or 5 selections by individual Philosophers. BUT, we're going to delimit our readings to three writers per chapter. [I'll handle the fourth and fifth readings when they occur. When there are only two (2) selections, Group One will handle the "Problem Introduction."]
NOW WHAT? So, let's use "Chapter 1: Is There a God?" as an example. Chapter 1 has four (4) readings (St. Anselm, St. Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, and Paul Kurtz). I'll explain St. Anselm, so as a class you only have to worry about Aquinas, Jefferson, and Kurtz. Subgroup 1 reads and explains Aquinas to the class, Subgroup 2 does Jefferson, and Subgroup 3 does Kurtz.
SO WHAT? This way, we cover the book, kick all the stuff around, but each student concentrates on ONE reading per Chapter--along with "The Paradox. . . " of the PART, the "Problem Introduction" of the Chapter, and the individual writer introductions (blurbs).
This gives you the time--and some ease of mind--to really get into a particular reading. I personally think it's "better" to really get into one reading than to labor through them all. This is the "up-side."
The "down-side" is that YOU, and EVERYBODY, gotta do it, or it's gonna work NOT! It's the "Buddy System" in that you stay on top of your selection per Chapter both for yourself AND for your classmates. You know what the alternative is: Everybody Reads Everything. (Students who are going to work for that "A" will probably want to read everything anyway.)
QUIZZES
Six (6) QUIZZES will be administered, each covering one (1) PART of the text, with the first quiz (Quiz #0) covering the Preface and Introduction of the text. Information from this Syllabus may be included in any quiz.
MIDTERM: The Midterm Exam covers the material already tested via the ongoing quizzes as of the time of the Midterm. Date as per "Schedule/Agenda," Class Session #12 (M-10/18).
FINAL: The Final Exam covers the material already tested via the ongoing quizzes as of the time of the Final, exclusive of materials already recovered via the Midterm (not cumulative). Date: Class Session #27 (W-12/15).
One (1) term paper is required. Two (2) general types of term papers are acceptable: 1) Objective, or; 2) Subjective. An objective paper is the usually thought of type, being a library research of some particular Philosophy or Philosopher, idea, or word-concept, or an expanded book report of related additional reading. A subjective paper is self-analytical or self-exploratory of the student or the student's own ideas, past, or background. Another option here is that the creative student can do a project or class performance/demon- stration within the area of creativity. (Grade school type collages are NOT acceptable.) PLEASE do not insult my intelligence or your own, or slight your opportunity to learn, by simply reworking a paper from another class!!
The term paper is generally to a maximum of seven (7) pages. Legible. Cite sources. This is an individual THOUGHT paper. You are entitled to your opinion, but you must support your opinion with reasonable/ reasoned argument. The paper must follow a documentation style acceptable to Wor-Wic. If you have not covered the acceptable styles in a Wor-Wic English class, consult with the Writing Lab. The nature of the exercise is to have sources/references and to cite them appropriately, as well as having an acceptable Bibliography. THIS APPLIES TO A PERSONAL/SUBJECTIVE PAPER AS WELL.
The paper is a course requirement, but it is not included within the overall grading system (see below). It may be used, however, with other class-related input in cases of high borderline grade determination. The paper can harm you in only two instances: 1) Failure to submit the paper lowers your final letter grade by two (2) units; 2) Failure to follow an acceptable documentation style lowers your final letter grade by one (1) unit. Paper due Class Session #22, Monday, 22 November. Papers are not returned, therefore, make a copy if you wish to have one.
The grading scale is (approximately): 90--100%=A; 80--89%=B; 70--79%=C; 60--69%=D; 0--59%=F.
Your grade at midterm is either your quiz score average or your midterm examination score, whichever is higher. Your grade at the end of the course is the afore-determined midterm score averaged with either your quiz average or the final examination score, whichever is higher. Additional percentage points are added or subtracted based on attendance/participation (3%) and class exercises (to be explained at time of implementation).
Course grade is determined by curved, cumulative, ongoing percent of tested material. As per "EXAMS" above, the midterm and final recover material already covered on quizzes. If the midterm and/or final score betters that of the quizzes, the midterm and/or final score is substituted for the score earned on quizzes, WITH THIS EXCEPTION: The "A" grade can be earned only on quiz performance, WITH THIS EXCEPTION: The highest "B" earned on the midterm and/or final will replace the lower quiz score to "A". In other words, exams can only help you, they cannot harm you, but--with the exception of the highest "B"-- the exams can elevate any grade only to "B" with the exception of the curve-setter. Missing more than one quiz lowers your potential to no higher than "C". As well, the average of quizzes across the course must meet or exceed 25% of the overall curved average score to qualify the student for a final grade above "B".
Across the course, the lowest quiz score is replaced by the mean of your quiz scores. This allows for an "off day," not an uncommon human occurrence, but still maintains the import of each quiz. Quizzes and exams may NOT be made-up if missed. This is fair enough, since you are tested twice on the same material. If you miss a quiz, you test on an exam. If you miss an exam, your quiz average holds, minus a letter grade.
This is YOUR education. You will have a "say-so" in this class regarding some matters. And, as in the rest of the world, some things are "not negotiable." But you will never achieve your full self-representation unless you ask. As well, you will be given the opportunity to choose class representatives, and you will be given time for internal meetings. Respect for the rights of others, fair play, reason, and "common sense" are the guidelines. The Instructor will listen to reason and consider options/alternatives. However, the integrity of the subject matter and that of Wor-Wic must be main-tained. We'll negotiate, but I can't "give away the candy store."
PLEASE NOTE
1. Wor-Wic has Learning Assistance available to students. (See p. 12 of the Catalog.) Students having a particular class problem or experiencing general difficulties are urged/encouraged to avail themselves of this service.
2. Philosophy, more so than most other subject areas, covers material which some few students may find uncomfortable or unsettling. Remember that the nature of the exercise in Philosophy is to ask questions and consider ideas. There is no intention of challenging anyone, or disabusing anyone of his/her personal attitudes, opinions, or beliefs, neither within the discipline as a whole, with the text, nor with the Instructor.
3. At http://www.intercom.net/user/loveland resides "Glennie's Student Assist Homepage." This site is chock-full of student-assist and elaborative information relative to the course.
4. Any student experiencing personal problems or discomfort with general course content or the approach or teaching "style" of the Instructor is invited to address such matters with the Instructor in person, and/or with the Instructor via the class representative(s) in the first instance. If these avenues do not resolve the matter, the student can confer with the Head of General Studies, Dr. Judith M. Ferrand. These are the appropriate avenues for "complaints".
"God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man many pervade all the nations of the earth so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere and say this is my country." Ben Franklin
"It is easier to keep up than to catch up."
"A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension." Oliver Wendell Holmes
"The purpose of education is not to fill a pail, it is to light a fire." George Santayana
Page 4
Loveland/Fall 1999
PHL 101-01, 2:30-4:00 PM Monday/Wednesday, AAB 331
SCHEDULE/AGENDA
Class Session #01 (W-09/08)
Introduction to Course
Syllabus, Discussion Groups
ALL: Text Preface (xiii-xvi)
ALL: Introduction (1-11)
Class Session #02 (M-09/13)
Text Part I: Religion
ALL: Paradox (15-16)
Ch1: Is there a God?
ALL: Problem (17-21)
GGL: Anselm
Group 1: Aquinas
Group 2: Jefferson
Group 3: Kurtz
Class Session #03 (W-09/15)
Same as above
Class Session #04 (M-09/20)
Ch 2: The Problem of Evil
ALL: Problem (42-45)
Group 1: Twain
Group 2: Hick
Group 3: Mackie
Class Session #05 (W-09/22)
Same as above
Class Session #06 (M-09/27)
QUIZ #0: Preface; Intro
Class Session #07 (W-09/29)
Ch 3: Faith and Reason
ALL: Problem (75-79)
Group 1: Problem
Group 2: Clifford
Group 3: James
Class Session #08 (M-10/04)
Text Part 2: Knowledge
ALL: Paradox (107-108)
Ch 4: Skepticism and Self
ALL: Problem (109-112)
Group 1: Descartes
Group 2: Ryle
Group 3: Bache
Class Session #09 (W-10/06)
QUIZ #1: Text Pt 1: Religion
Class Session #10 (M-10/11)
Ch 5: Perception & Knowledge
ALL: Problem (148-151)
Group 1: Plato
Group 2: Berkeley
Group 3: Hume
Class Session #11 (W-10/13)
Same as above
Class Session #12 (M-10/18)
MIDTERM EXAMINATION:
Text Preface, Introduction,
Part 1: Religion
Class Session #13 (W-10/20)
Ch 6: Truth
Group 1: James
Group 2: Russell
Group 3: Blanshard
Class Session #14 (M-10/25)
Text Pt 3: Free Will /Dtrmnsm
ALL: Paradox (2170218)
Ch 7: Freedom & Responsibility
GGL: Darrow
Group 1: Sartre
Group 2: James
Group 3: Waller
GGL: Hook
Class Session #15 (W-10/27)
Same as above
Class Session #16 (M-11/01)
Text Part 4: Morality
ALL: Paradox (271-272)
Ch 8: Sources of Morality
ALL: Problem (273-275)
Group 1: Nielsen
Group 2: Benedict
Group 3: Rachels
Class Session #17 (W-11/03)
QUIZ #2: Text Pt 2: Knowledge
Class Session #18 (M-11/08)
Ch 9: Search for Objectivity
ALL: Problem (302-305)
Group 1: Aristotle
GGL: Kant
GGL: Mill
Group 2: Rand
Group 3: Gilligan
Class Session #19 (W-11/10)
Text Pt 5: Political and Social
ALL: Paradox (361-362)
Ch 10: Law & the Individual
ALL: Problem (363-366)
ALL: King
Group 1: Problem
Group 2: Plato
Group 3: King
Class Session #20 (M-11/15)
Quiz #3: Txt Pt 3:FW/Dtrmnsm
Class Session #21 (W-11/17)
Ch 11: Dmcrcy, Fscsm, Cmnsm
ALL: Problem (383-388)
Group 1: Locke
Group 2: Mill
Group 3: Cohen
GGL: Marx and Engels
Class Session #22 (M-11/22)
Quiz#4: Text Part 4: Morality
PAPER DUE
Class Session #23 (M-11/29)
Ch 12: Future Prospects
ALL: Problem (432-435)
Group 1: Weatherford
Group 2: Hick
GGL: Battin
Group 3: Rollin
Class Session #24 (W-12/01)
Same as above
Class Session #25 (M-12/06)
QUIZ #5: Txt Pt 5: Pltcl&Social
Class Session #26 (W-12/08)
Paper Commentary
Catch-up, Review
Class Session #27 (W-12/15)
2:00-4:00 PM
FINAL EXAMINATION
Text Parts 2, 3, 4, 5
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PHL 101-1 (Day)
Fall Term 1999
Page 5
Wor-Wic Community College
Statement of Academic Honesty Policy
Academic honesty is expected of all students. Cheating and plagiarism are violations of academic honesty. Any student found violating the academic policy will receive an automatic "0" for the assignment, and then the matter will be turned over to the Student Disciplinary Committee. Documented evidence of the plagiarism or cheating will be kept in the General Studies Department office.
In both oral and written communications, the following guidelines for avoiding plagiarism must be followed:
1. Any words quoted directly from a source must be in quotation marks and cited.
2. Any paraphrasing or rephrasing of the words and/or ideas of a source must be cited.
3. Any ideas or examples derived from a source that are not in the public domain or of general knowledge must be cited.
4. All papers and presentations must be the student's own work.
There are ambiguities in concepts of plagiarism. Each instructor will be available for consultation regarding any confusion a student may have.
Cheating
Cheating is the act of obtaining information or data improperly or by dishonest or deceitful means. Examples of cheating are copying from another student's test paper, obtaining information illegally on tests, and using crib notes or other deceitful practices.
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Fall Term 1999
Course: PHL 101-02, Index 249 (3 Credits)
Meets: Wednesday; 6:30 PM--9:45 PM, AAB 331
Instructor: Glenn G. Loveland, Ph.D.
Text: Shipka, T. A. and Minton, A. J. (1996). Philosophy: Paradox and Discovery (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
This text will be covered in its entirety, at a rate of approximately one (1) class session per chapter, following the procedure discussed below under "Course Requirements" and as per the "Schedule/ Agenda."
This course covers the history of philosophy and addresses the problems of religion, knowledge, reality, morality, and politics as they arise in the thoughts of great Eastern and Western philosophers. Selected issues that underlie personal, social and cultural ferment in the 20th century are explored in the light of Eastern and Western classical philosophy.
This is an Introductory/General/Survey course in Philosophy, the most broad and general area of all thought/ study/learning. The subject matter is Philosophy as a discipline (area of study, body of knowledge, methodology), and the orientations thereof.
The class mode will be primarily interactive/discussive/participatory/dialectic (and somewhat heuristic). This is the "Socratic Method," Socrates arguably being one of the greatest teachers who ever lived, and the mode of most graduate-level seminars, and the mode best reflecting the reality that all "students"--all human beings in "school" and in life--are ultimately responsible for their own learning. This approach is also intended to stimulate INVOLVEMENT, for, as management guru Tom Peters notes:
I'm frustrated to the point of rage--my files bulge with letters about the power of involvement. Sometimes it's planned. .. sometimes it's inadvertent. But the result is always the same: Truly involved people can do anything!
Thriving on Chaos, p. 345
Following the Goals of Wor-Wic Community College (Catalog, "General Information: Goals", p.5), the course will be applicable to both students desiring to meet more or less immediate and concrete career/job ends, and students wishing to continue/further their more general and abstract educational pursuits--not that these ends are separate, distinct, and mutually exclusive.
The course is intended, therefore, to provide students with an orientation toward, and an understanding of, what Philosophy is, its import to life and learning across all ages, its