(9/8a2) Zettelkasten als Klärgrube – nicht nur abgeklärte Notizen hineintun. Aufschieben des Prüfens und Entscheidens – auch eine Tempofrage. Zettelkasten as a septic tank – don’t put just treated notes in. Suspending of examination and decision making – also a question of speed.

Hello Mr. Hoorn, How great to have a fellow Antinetter. Thank you for your kind greeting. I used the sticky notes because I wanted to be able to show you certain pages that caught my interest when I was pre-reading. After recording my podcast I took them all out. I should have mentioned that. Thank you for pointing that out.

I notice you put sticky markers into the book... Two questions. A) Does this not take too much effort/time for an inspectional read a la Adler? B) What is the purpose of the sticky markers? Warm regards, Mr. Hoorn -- Fellow Antinetter

Good video. Funnily enough, I related it to Mazlow's hierarchy of competence a minute before you mentioned it. (Mr. Hoorn here, btw.) Another connection I made was to van Merriënboer et al. their "Ten Steps to Complex Learning" or "4 Component Instructional Design". Particularly with regards to doing a skill decomposition (by analyzing experts, the theory, etc.) in order to build a map for how best to learn a complex skill, reducing complexity as much as possible while still remaining true to the authentic learning task; i.e., don't learn certain skills in isolation (drill) unless the easiest version of a task still causes cognitive overload. Because if you learn in isolation too much, your brain misses on the nuances of application in harmony (element interactivity). Related to the concept of "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". You can master each skill composite individually but still fail epically at combining them into one activity, which is often required.

Interesting. I suspect it depends on how you use it. Students with a high level of metacognitive capacity could use this to their advantage. Teaching (particularly the Whole-Part-Whole Reteaching technique) is a very useful technique for active recall (don't forget expanding gap spacing and interleaving); it forces you to use all aspects of your cognitive schemas to provide a clear and understandable explanation of what you know to have others understand it. When you struggle to explain it to others or they ask questions and you cannot answer it (or explain it in different ways) you have identified knowledge gaps.These recall techniques serve not only to strengthen the neural connections between concepts in the cognitive schemata (Hebbian plasticity; re-encoding benefits) but, perhaps more importantly, also to identify knowledge gaps making you know what to focus on when improving your knowledge mastery (maybe even what information to drill, depending on the information type).

To flip or not to flip?Answer isn't that simple. This is what the research says:HIGHLIGHTS:->The flipped learning literature suffers from methodological irregularities, confounds, and inconsistencies across studies.->Kapur et al. (2022) conducted a detailed review of the flipped learning literature. They discovered that flipping offers few benefits for teachers who already incorporate a lot of active learning in their instruction.->Equity issues may arise in flipped classrooms if some students can’t do, or don’t do, the assigned pre-class activities.->It’s not clear that “flipping” offers significant benefits for K-12 teachers. Better student outcomes may be obtained by introducing new material in manageable chunks and tightly interweaving the presentation of new content with structured, active learning.

"And the rich get stitched up, when we get cut Man a heal dem broken bones in the bush with the wed mud" Rich are more advantaged than the mass middle class/poor. It's always the middle/lower classes who have to do the dirty work of the elites, it's because we gave our power away in the first place which is why we're treated like toy soldiers. this song is all about equality and self-empowerment in this aspect. Raises the importance of naturopathy science, how old and ancient herbal rememdies and medicinal practices are more advanced and provide better treatment than modern medicine. raises the issue of the supression of ancient medicinnal practices/herbs by corporate structures who just want to generate more income and improperly prescribe harmful substances/drugs to people. The EU is already banning natural herbs that cure all sorts of natural illnesses by natural/healthy means. "Can you read signs? can you read stars? Can you make peace? can you fight war? Can you milk cows, even though you drive cars? huh Can you survive, Against All Odds, Now?" reference to occult/esoteric wisdom - alchemism, astronomy/astrology, tarot reading. those questions are to make us self-reflect on what modern civilization and human beings can do compared to ancient civilizations and cultures. are we moving backwards or moving forwards towards progression mentally, spiritually, emnotionally and physically? are we surviving/beyond the need for survival.. or are we heading towards the path of self-destruction as a species?

"Scholars teach in Universities and claim that they’re smart and cunning Tell them find a cure when we sneeze and that’s when their nose start running" the academic community and university is designed for very purpose of maintaining the “status quo”/ethics of research and the system/preventing progressive ideas from being explored until you can be trusted to know what the “truth” is apparently is to be known by those who came before you. Whoever says that in university your freedom/capacity of thought/speech/action is not limited is blind. Certain ideas are more preferable “healthy” to the system than others, and if you promote and engage with the more agreeable concepts you’ll get through your degree/get accepted by academic community easily. once again, scholars are still in the "problem, reaction and solution" paradigm, rather than focusing on preventions than cures. We've got a long way to go in the evolution of consciousness. PATIENCE.

"The Earth was flat if you went too far you would fall off Now the Earth is round if the shape change again everybody woulda start laugh The average man can’t prove of most of the things that he chooses to speak of And still won’t research and find out the root of the truth that you seek of" commenting on how new structures/theories/inventions are always at conflict with old structures/theories/inventions that refuse to accept new ideas/truths because of mental conditioning (e.g. laugh) society is in to accept everything as fact and never question/research/evolve/change. this is very much predominant in science and history, for example, Galileo was condemned and died for the truth, Copernicus's model that the Earth rotated around the sun, a truth that contradicted biblical truth. it's like what camus was complaining about in the myth of sisyphus essay, where man faces an existential crisis of absurdism when there are no absolute truths and values in the world. humanity is suffering because we're working against eachother instead of working together in order to find out the truth of all things.

I should also mention, that the notion of east/west in verse 1 is also reference to alternative history and sacred texts which reveal that human civilization rose from the east and now sets in the west. criticism against academics and scholars who are paid to rehash and propgandaise an official/revised history, which favours the winners. History is always written by the victors. this also ties into notions of the New world order (satan-west) in conflict with the old world order (God-east). My interpretation of Verse II: "Huh, we born not knowing, are we born knowing all? We growing wiser, are we just growing tall?" Notion of reincarnation ties into this i feel. if you do past-life regression therapy you attain knowledge of previous lives and experiences, the line symbolises an awakening - remembering life before life, life before birth, your life's purpose here on earth. God has a plan for everyone, this universe is intelligently designed as we can see in the fractal universe/mandelbrot set and the notion of consciousness. i see esoteric and occult wisdom in these lines, knowing all things/God consciousness in the notion of the "Akashic records/Library" - universal consciousness reflected in the entire design of this universe and all of creation. it's a scientific fact that memory/knowledge is stored in the universal design - cells/energy/wate, just as energy is not created nor destroyed but transferred.

"So the ones in the west Will never move east And feel like they could be at home Dem get tricked by the beast But a where dem ago flee when the monster is fully grown?" commenting on the conflict between western and eastern nations. particularly the conflict between the U.S./Britain with Islamic nations of the Middle East. once again, the "beast" referring to satan, devil who exploits our differences to keep us fighting amongst eachother, destroying eachother. we don't come from the east, west, north or safe. we come from God, the source, from EARTH. Earth is our home and we're all earthers. by the time they realise this and understnd that they were pawns of the satanic occult groups such as the freemasons, elites or satanic illuminati, who generate order from choas - "as above so below", they can't hide or run from the problems they've helped to create in the first place. the beast is also synomynous with the "ego" - shadow/false self, you yourself are your own greatest enemy. here's a commentary on the ego, from the film "revolver": "The ego is the worst confidence trickster we could ever figure. "I am you". The problem is that the ego hides in the last place that you'd ever look within itself. It disguises its thoughts as your thoughts, its feelings as your feelings. "You think it's you". Peoples' need to protect their own egos knows no bounds. They will lie, cheat, steal, kill, do whatever it takes to maintain what we call ego boundaries. People have no clue that they're imprisoned. They don't know that there is an ego, they don't know the distinction. At first, it's difficult for the mind to accept that there's something beyond itself, that there's something of greater value and greater capacity for discerning truth than itself. In religion, the ego manifests as the devil. And of course no one realizes how smart the ego is, because it created the devil so you could blame someone else. In creating this imaginary external enemy, it usually made a real enemy for ourselves, and that becomes a real danger to the ego, but that's also the ego's creation. There is no such thing as an external enemy no matter what the voice in your head is telling you. All perception of an enemy is a projection of the ego as the enemy. In that sense, you could say that 100 percent of our external enemies are of our creation. "Your greatest enemy is your own inner perception, is your own ignorance, is your own ego"."

"Some of the worst paparazzis I've ever seen and I ever known Put the worst on display so the world can see And that's all they will ever show" similar to the role of the media. always feeding on the negativity/problems of the human race, human development, human actions, human consciousness but never providing a productive solution to these problems projecting people's fears, creating war propaganda. if you've been following the middle east revolution, you'd notice that news stations like fox lied about their coverage on the libyan war and revolution, generating false reports. fabricating lies as truth for the public to blindly consume as truth without questioning. it's like the media/journalists are energy vampires who amplify amplify and feed on negativity and fear. no news is good news. they never truly demonstrate a 60 minute news show on the positive developments, actions and solutions to the people because then it would lead to positive developments in human consciousness, our enlightement as a species because being shown positive things that human beings are doing and have done and will continue to do creates a sense of purpose for us all and unites us, inspires people rather than fear/negativity which keeps us feeling trapped, apathetic, angry, depressed... esp. in a state of victimisation as though we're not empowered to change or that nothing will change, that violence, poverty, world hunger, rape, war pillaging, theft... as if all these things are normal and natural when they're NOT. they're not okay and we shouldn't accept them as being part of reality, part of the norm because we know that it isn't. it's not natural and innate, since it's started by the actions made by conscious individuals and mentally capable human beings. it's man-made.

"You buy a khaki pants And all of a sudden you say a Indiana Jones An' a thief out gold and thief out the scrolls and even the buried bones" criticism on how people change their appearances so easily, acclaim status/right just because they can conform to social appearances - doesn't mean that they actually are who they say they or they really mean what they do/represent. like those televangelists with their fake/unproductive compassion and care. what change are they really doing to help humanity as a whole, when they are truly only looking out for themselves and their own comfort/security, while projecting their own existence/ideologies on others. criticism on the right/ownership of ancient artifacts, knowledge and discoveries. people who claim to own knowledge or ancient artifacts are actually theives who are stealing and exploting humanity, what belongs to everyone.

"This is how the media pillages On the TV the picture is Savages in villages" criticism of the media, how it produces ratings/money from sensationalising/propagandasing/taking advantage of the absurdity of the human condition, the problems of humanity - creating trauma based mind control, programming our thoughts and controlling mass consciousness of society. projecting false/bias stereotypes, prejudice and perspectives on particular socio-cultural groups. Esp. creating prejudice against individuals and cultures who show the truth towards enlightenment and growth in human consciousness - keep the masses asleep/blinded to the truth of their existence as a whole, also their self-empowerment and enlightenment.

"And the scientist still can't explain the pyramids, huh Evangelists making a living on the videos of ribs of the little kids Stereotyping the image of the images And this is what the image is" similar criticism of religious fundamentalists and secular groups who exploit our emotions - FEAR - esp. playing cards on our "differences", negativity, problems to project their own fears, ideologies and keep everyone in the game of the matrix - the game of polarities and paradigm wars on human consciousness/energy. refers to televangelists who exploit the problem of poverty and children who are dying of malnourishment of hunger to generate their own income. not really creating our productive change to create a long-term solution or fix to these problems. feigned/false compassion and care.

"But save the animals in the zoo Cause the chimpanzee dem a make big money" another comment similar to the irony/absurdity of focusing on problems of the universe/space exploration rather than problems which affect humanity. we focus on saving other animals, yet we can't even save our own species? why? because of money.

"Pay no mind to the youths Cause it's not like the future depends on it" sarcasm. esp. if you look at the music video, you'll notice Damian's sarcastic hand gesture, tone and facial experience. mocking the irony of how schools don't provide children with real knowledge of the world which is ironic because their generation will be the future keepers of humanity with old/new responsibilities and purposes to fulfil. once again, we're stuck in this repeitive cycle of stagnation - problem, reaction, solution. it's kind of what aristotle once said about knowledge and teaching: "This discovery of yours, this writing, you give your students not truth, but only the appearance of truth. They will read many things and will have learned nothing. They will therefore seem to know many things, when they are, for the most part, ignorant and hard to get along with, having the show of wisdom without the reality."

"An' a fly go a moon And can't find food for the starving tummies" criticism on how the wealth and resources used on space exploration - is something that humanity can't understand when those billions used for the scientific pursuit/understanding of the universe, can instead be used to feed and clothe the hungry, the impoverish - basically poverty and world hunger would cease. it's sort of like criticisng the fact that we have problems here on this planet that we all need to work together to solve as a species/planet, yet we're not prioritising those problems as our main repsonisbility, something we need to fix, instead the most intelligent bunch/resourceful are spending their energy/time/reousrces on solving the mysteries of the universe instead. it's commenting on the notion of the microcosm within the macrocosm. if we as a species, esp. the intelligent and resurceful of our lot focused on solving problems like poverty, world hunger, war, crime... solve problems that continue to stagnate our human evolution/progress/conciousness, we could put an end to hegelian dialectics of problem, reaction, solution... this repititive state of insanity - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. why do we keep looking outside/external when we have problems in the inside/internal, in our very hearts, minds and homes.. on our own planet Earth? if we solved the problems at home, problems that create the suffering and keep just a few individuals privelaged/intelligent/resourceful over the rest of humanity who is stagnated and moving backwards and keeping humanity in a continous cycle of karma, the wheel of samsara of the human condition... then doesn't that mean that everyone as a whole is enlightened intelligent, resourceful? no one gets left behind and everyone becomes empowered self-sufficient, self-independent, self-enlightened, self-responsible...imagine each and every person self empowered now imagine the entire race of humanity self-empowered... that's billions of buddhas/christs - intellectuals, academics and enlightened individuals working together as a strong force of unity for a common cause. if we can fix those small problems that continue to keep humanity going backwards towards self-destructi, those small problems which greatly impact upon the bigger picture and schemes of things, then we can truly progress towards real change and together explore the universe as a human species. no one gets left behind.

"Some of the smartest dummies Can't read the language of Egyptian mummies" points to the notion of paradoxes, dualism, where even the most knowledgeable, creative, innovative, intelligent and academic can't interpret or make sense of ancient wisdom, the pun "language of the Egyptian mummies" refers to the language of the spiritual - life after death wisdom. the divine, infinite and eternal.

This song has a lot of meaning in it. It mainly is about patience. We can't expect solutions to happen over night or right away. It takes time to figure things out and we can't rush through life. Since it takes so much time to improve life, we need to ignore the stupid distractions of the media, celebrity and other nonsensical distractions so we can find solutions to our problems. I would like to know what other people think about this song because it really struck a chord with me.

The world today is often characterized by a fast-paced, reactive culture. The song encourages a more thoughtful, deliberate approach to life. Patience allows us to step back, reflect, and make informed decisions instead of impulsively reacting to situations.

The song also touches upon personal growth and overcoming challenges. Patience plays a crucial role in learning from mistakes, developing resilience, and ultimately becoming a better person.

The lyrics allude to the slow pace of change and the frustrations that can arise from it. The repetition of "Sabali" emphasizes the need for patience in working towards social progress. Real, lasting change takes time, persistence, and a willingness to work through setbacks.

The song criticizes the tendency to rush to conclusions without fully grasping the complexities of social problems like poverty, inequality, and political corruption. Patience is essential here to delve deeper, research, and understand the root causes rather than relying on superficial opinions.

The song criticizes the tendency to rush into judgment without fully understanding the underlying problems. It also emphasizes the value of research and seeking out the truth from various perspectives.

The illusion of knowledge: The song questions the notion that speaking confidently on a subject equates to understanding it deeply.

"“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica. Ergo, omnis legio diabolica, adiuramus te…cessa decipere humanas creaturas, eisque æternæ perditionìs venenum propinare…Vade, satana, inventor et magister omnis fallaciæ, hostis humanæ salutis…Humiliare sub potenti manu Dei; contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine…quem inferi tremunt…Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, Domine. Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos."

Dr. Sönke AhrensOn page 117 of "How to Take Smart Notes" you write the following: "The slip-box not only confronts us with dis-confirming information, butalso helps with what is known as the feature-positive effect (Allison andMessick 1988; Newman, Wolff, and Hearst 1980; Sainsbury 1971). This isthe phenomenon in which we tend to overstate the importance of informationthat is (mentally) easily available to us and tilts our thinking towards the mostrecently acquired facts, not necessarily the most relevant ones. Withoutexternal help, we would not only take exclusively into account what weknow, but what is on top of our heads.[35] The slip-box constantly remindsus of information we have long forgotten and wouldn’t remember otherwise –so much so, we wouldn’t even look for it."My question for you: Why have you chosen to use the Feature-Positive Effect as the phenomenon to make your point and not the recency bias?The recency bias seems more aligned with your point of our minds favoring recently learned information/knowledge over already existing, perhaps more relevant, cognitive schemata.To my mind, the FPE states that it is easier to detect patterns when the unique stimuli indicating the pattern is present rather than absent... In the following example:Pattern in this sequence: 1235 8593 0591 2531 8532 (all numbers have a 5; the unique feature is present) Pattern in this sequence: 1236 8193 0291 2931 8472 (no numbers contain a 5; the unique feature is absent)The pattern in the first sequence is more easily spotted than the pattern in the second sequence, this is the feature-positive effect. This has not much to do with your point.I do get what you are coming from, namely that we are biased towards what is more readily in mind; however, the extension of this argument with the comparison of relevance vs. time makes the recency bias or availability heuristic more applicable; and also easier to explain in my opinion.Once again, I am simply curious what made you choose the FPE as the phenomenon to explain.I hope you take the time to read this and respond to it. Thanks in advance.Sources in the comments

Hey Matthew, it's a fair point. Without having the whole passage or a previous draft in front of me, it could be simply the outcome of the editing process. It does read like you said: as if I had recency bias in mind (next to other fitting ones), which then got lost after having shortened it for readability. That's my best guess. Even though it is tempting in these cases to come up with some post-hoc, smart sounding reason...

I like the Penguins just fine, and have to confess to enjoying the look of their matte-blank ranks on a shelf when stood all together. I wish they were still priced at the same as a pack of cigarettes, but I guess Allen Lane couldn't have predicted the sorry state of our world. As far as alternatives go, the Oxford World's Classics imprint offers comparable breadth and (often) superior critical material. They're also willing to print interesting variants; one example of this may be found in their offering of both the widely-known 1831 single-volume edition and the original 1818 edition, which contains significant differences. Two other imprints for which to watch out: The Norton Critical Editions are distinctive in all their colourful, oversized splendour, but they offer some of the best value for money if you're seeking an edition of a classic work that also includes a host of useful supplemental documents, critical writings, timelines, and other things that may be of use to those seeking a wider context. This can admittedly get a bit ridiculous in its scope (though I wouldn't have it any other way; the Norton edition of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darknessis around 500 pages long, for instance, with maybe a fifth of that being accounted for by the novella itself. Similarly to the above, the Broadview editions (put out by a Canadian company of the same name) tend to have extremely in-depth supplementary materials. They're also known for offering just as serious and useful editions of comparatively obscure works as they are for well-known classics.

Awesome! I will look into Oxford and the New York Review of Books lines. I have a couple Norton Critical books from school, (one of which is Heart of Darkness, as a matter of fact) and they are crazy good if you are looking for a wide slice of criticism and analysis (thus the critical edition moniker, I guess). For me though, it's really too much for a book you just want to read. I like informative introductions and frequent notes on the personal or literary context (these were great for Monte Cristo), but any more than that begins to weigh things down.

Someone whose true identity is a gamer doesn’t have difficulty trolling people online, having a doomer mindset, and ruining their health in front of a screen for 8-10 hours a day.

Their mind is still programmed with beliefs that serve their outdated goals. It’s difficult for them to believe that your new endeavor will work out because all they know to be possible is what they’ve done.

Excellent video. I do have to mention that Germane Load is an old concept. In the newer model it is called Optimized Intrinsic Cognitive Load -> Working Memory devoted to the creation or automation of cognitive schemata.

Knowledge is a web of associations. If kids don’t have enough facts to work with, they can’t grasp what they read.

The worry most people have with this suggestion is that children are going to get discouraged if they fail. But that is not necessarily the case, and I think teachers, parents, and other adults have a great opportunity to help prevent this. If we demonstrate that needing to put down a book for awhile is not a failure, then we can help children become more willing to experiment and to try things which are currently just out of reach.

Children need to learn to read difficult books, or else once they are in college they won’t be able to do so. That probably means that they need to attempt to read some of these books, even when we know they will likely fail.

But consider a new narrative. Imagine instead that books offer us a way to enter into a prolonged conversation across generations. We might even call this the Great Conversation. Imagine instead that authors have generally meant well, and so when they produced difficult works it is because the subject matter is a difficult one. Imagine instead that the past is a kind of mirror for the present, and that history is a guide to the future. New associations are encouraged by this narrative. New works are continuous with old works; both new and old works have something to teach us; difficult works might be more insightful because they engage with the complexity of the world.

Narratives are how we conceptualize the world. Certain narrative links – links between events that we add in to help explain the world – are picked up through mimesis. We see others think of the world in a particular way, and we start to conceptualize the world in similar terms. And the best solution to a harmful narrative is a more enriching narrative. You have to have a replacement for the narrative you are trying to rid yourself of.

My son is roughly a year old, which means he is starting to walk. He still can’t make it across the room, but he can take a few steps. He has a peculiar habit of eating bananas while standing. This usually means he holds a large chunk of banana in one hand while using the other to hold on to the table. Sometimes, overcome by banana-eating euphoria, he will let go of the table he’s using for stability, and he’ll just stand. Then he notices what he has done, and he promptly falls down. It is reckless to attribute complex thoughts to a developing child, but it seems like he is able to stand until he remembers that he can’t. It’s like his conscious thoughts are preventing him from walking around the room.

And this is what I believe is happening with students and reading, at least in part. They have convinced themselves that they aren’t readers. They have convinced themselves that reading old books, especially difficult old books, is just too arduous, too boring, too pointless. They have convinced themselves that even if the books are good and soul-enriching, there are better things to be doing with their time.

The ubiquity of smartphones and social media have also affected literacy across the board. Children and adults alike are reading in fundamentally different ways. For one, phones have been shown — to no one’s surprise — to interfere with our ability to focus. And apps such as TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram have shifted our reading habits toward short and often fragmentary text.

Testing culture also discourages deep reading, critics say, because it emphasizes close reading of excerpts, for example, to study a particular literary technique, rather than reading entire works.

Gatekeeping Ourselves

I sometimes see this in YouTube comments. When I recommend Plato to beginners in philosophy, I am told that I am being irresponsible, because Plato is too difficult for a beginner. It would be better to recommend a comprehensive survey of philosophy explicitly written for beginners, the critics say, so that people don’t get overwhelmed. But then I see other comments, sometimes on YouTube but often elsewhere, from people who had never read any philosophy, stumbled on one of my videos, and read Plato. Sometimes these are high school students, sometimes college graduates who did not study philosophy, sometimes mid-career adults who didn’t bother with college. The message is remarkably similar. They were previously convinced that philosophy would be too difficult to them, and reading Plato helped them see that they were wrong.

Wonderful article by the philosopher Jared Henderson, who I regularly watch on YouTube.

The more inventive and fecund a great mind is, the more it will shape thelanguage it uses to fit its thought. To express a new idea or insight, a new word isinvented or an old word given a novel meaning. Sometimes in the development ofhis own characteristic vocabulary, a great writer uses a new word for an old ideawhich he has appropriated and assimilated to his own thought. Sometimes theopposite occurs; the traditional word is appropriated or borrowed, but the ideawhich it long expressed is replaced either by a totally new, or at least by a variant,conception.

The foregoing examples illustrate various forms topics take according to thedifferent kinds of subjects they propose for discussion. Some deal with the natureof a thing or its definition, some with its qualities or attributes, some with itscauses, and some with its kinds; some deal with distinctions or differences, andsome with comparisons or contrasts; some propose a general theory for considera-tion, some present a problem, and some state an Issue. Some— such as the lastthree above —are difficult to characterize by any formula.

It is easier to say what a topic is not, than what it is or should be. If it mustalways be a less determinate expression than a sentence, and if it must usually be amore complex expression than a single word or pair of words (which are theverbal expression of terms, such as the great ideas), it would seem to follow thatthe proper expression of a topic is a phrase— often, perhaps, a fairly elaboratephrase involving a number of terms and signifying a number of possible relationsbetween them. This general description of the grammatical form of a topic docsnot, however, convey an adequate notion of the extraordinary variety of possi-ble phrasings.

For example, “The ideal of the educated man’"(Education la) is a simple topic; “The right to property: the ownership of themeans of production” (Labor 7b) is a complex topic; and “The use and criticismof the intellectual tradition: the sifting of truth from erroi; the reaction againstthe authority of the past” (Progress 6c) is a more complex topic.

A topic, in short, must have greater amplitude than any other logical form ofstatement. The familiar grammatical forms of the declarative or interrogativesentence, or even the complex sentence w'hich expresses a dilemma, arc there-fore inappropriate for the statement of topics. Since it must be able to includeall these and more, the statement of a topic must be less determinate in verbalstructure.

A topic is essentially a*sub)ect for discussion. The Greek word topos from which**topic^’ is derived literally means a place. Its literal meaning is retained in suchEnglish words as “topography” and “topology,” which signify the study ofphysical or geometrical places. The conception of a topic as a subject for discus’-sion is a metaphorical extension of this root meaning. A topic is a logical place; itis a place where minds meet to consider some common problem or theme.The minds may agree or disagree; they may argue the matter from differentpoints of view; they may contribute to the discussion in a variety of ways — byoffering examples, by proposing definitions or hypotheses, by stating analyses orarguments, by debating what has already been said, or by advancing a new view.But whatever form each contribution takes, it must be relevant, though it neednot be relevant in the same way or to the same degree. The various contributionsare relevant to each other through their relevance to the common theme orproblem, and this gives unity to the variety of things being said.A topic, then, is a place where minds meet through being relevant to a commonsubject of discussion. It is a place at which an intelligible exchange of thought,insight, or opinion can occur.

The topics are the basic units of the Syntopicon. They perform a doublefunction. The Outline of Topics in each chapter is the analysis of a great idea,setting forth its various meanings, its themes and problems; and the individualtopics serve as the immediate headings under w^hich are assembled the referencesto the discussion of each particular subject in the great books. The topics are themajor subdivisions of the discussion in the sphere of each of the great ideas, as theideas are the main divisions of the whole discussion in the great books. As eachidea represents a general field of discourse— a domain of learning and inquiry—covering a variety of related themes and problems, so, under each idea, the varioustopics represent the themes and problems which are the particular subjects ofdiscussion in that field.

The two mfasi^rfs of intrinsic greatness — scope and significance

The reason which operated against such multiplication of chapters was(as already stated) the desire to avoid excessive duplication among topics andreferences.

Both the great books and the great ideas were chosen to represent the unity andcontinuity of the tradition of western thought. The great l^ks are those whichdeal imaginatively or intellectually with the ideas which arc fundamental through-out this whole tradition. Any important work -ancient, mediaeval, or modern-will necessarily be concerned with these ideas in some uay. What distinguishes thegreat books is the originality, the profundity, and the scope of their treatment ofthese ideas. Other books, important in some special field of learning, may havethese qualities with respect to one idea or even to several related ideas, but thegreat books possess them for a considerable range of ideas, covering a variety ofsubject matters or disciplines; and among the great books the greatest arc thosewith the greatest range of imaginative or intellectual content.

The great majority of terms eliminated were those which did not appear to ,receive extensive or elaborate treatment in the great books. They were terms thatdid not seem to have a lively career —a continuous and complex developmentthroughout the three-thousand-year tradition of the great books.The editors usedthe actual content of the great books as the test whereby to separate a small set oftruly great ideas from a much larger number of important concepts or notions.The reader can apply this test himself by comparing the 1800 concepts listed inthe Inventory of Terms, with the 102 ideas that are treated as the principalterms in the Syntopicon.

THE PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OFSYNTOPICAL CONSTRUCTION

Matthew van der Hoorn Yes totally agree but could be used for creating a draft to work with, that's always the angle I try to take buy hear what you are saying Matthew!

***Deep Processing***-> It's important in learning. It's when our brain constructs meaning and says, "Ah, I get it, this makes sense." -> It's when new knowledge establishes connections to your pre-existing knowledge.-> When done well, It's what makes the knowledge easily retrievable when you need it. How do we achieve deep processing in learning? 👉🏽 STORIES, EXPLANATIONS, EXAMPLES, ANALOGIES and more - they all promote deep meaningful processing. 🤔BUT, it's not always easy to come up with stories and examples. It's also time-consuming. You can ask you AI buddies to help with that. We have it now, let's leverage it. Here's a microlesson developed on 7taps Microlearning about this topic.

Matthew van der Hoorn I agree. However, one of the first things I learned as a student teacher many moons ago was just because I am teaching does not mean anyone is learning. Whole - part - whole, cooperative, Kolb's cycle, etc are simply teaching tools to be used with varying levels of skill.My application of this to the L&D world was making the point that many don't have any understanding of andragogy before embarking on a (often second) career.

Alan Clark Agreed...also; learning = change in behaviour, is another widely held belief.

That teaching = learning. A widely held belief in L&D.

His interest in the human psyche, past and present, led him to study mythology, alchemy, oriental religions and philosophies, and traditional peoples. Later he became interested in parapsychology and the occult.

Andragogy refers to methods and principles used in adult education.[1][2] The word comes from the Greek ἀνδρ- (andr-), meaning "adult male", and ἀγωγός (agogos), meaning "leader of". Therefore, andragogy literally means "leading men (adult males)", whereas "pedagogy" literally means "leading children".[3]