Results of Ruminations

Note: This is the third and final essay in my quasi-epistemological analysis of Truth. The first and second parts are also available. Additionally, this is the last planned daily essay on this website. Additional content can be found at my website. Thank you for reading.  Third Assumption We have a duty to learn as much Truth as possible. The meaning "obligation or duty" is tucked into the Greek word deon- and is usually known through the Kantian system of ethics known as deontology . And though I'm familiar with his work, I can't boast to have read all his works. So if he's on the same wavelength as me on this aspect of the application of his moral philosophy I don't know. Nevertheless, I think it can be rationally asserted that it is incumbent on every human being to learn more about the world. It satisfies the categorical imperative in his maxim "Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal ...

I'm reading a book about Reconstructivists, a particular brand of fundamentalist Christianity that is better known for their effects than for their name. The book, Building God's Kingdom , looks closely at the manifestations of Reconstructivism within the purview of education. It's the backbone of the homeschooling movement, as well as school choice and other cultural and political reverberations of similar ilk. Julie Ingersoll explores this mostly through a close reading and careful history of a fellow named Rousas John Rushdoony and the manifold ways in which his vision of education in America ought to be constrained by biblical teachings and interpretations. He and his followers (even those who disagree with some of his points and modify them to fit their own means--as followers often do) have cast the world in a binary: Theism and humanism. Now, I'm a sectarian humanist, which may sound like a contradiction in terms, but that's because "secular hum...

After having finished both But What if We're Wrong ?  and White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America , I've been thinking a lot about stuff I was wrong about. It led to the question of this post--what are you wrong about?--and, because it requires a level of self-awareness as well as a view of history and current events, it's not really something that I can throw at my students and mull it over with them. (Odds are good that I'll toss that at one of my coworkers, however, and we'll see where that gets us.) The thing about this question that makes it hard for me to get a grip on is that I know I'm not asking what I regret. "I was wrong to order from Burger King" is not my goal with this. Additionally, it's too superficial to say, "I was wrong about my assumptions of the book  Freedom by Jonathan Franzen; it was not a very good read at all, and I was miserable the whole time I tried to read it, eventually abandoning the thing...

Note: This is part two in a three part analysis. Part one can be found here .  Second Assumption The pathways to understanding Truth are legion.  This posit would entail epistemological considerations that I'm not interested in following here, but anyone curious could start here for an overview of the philosophy. Rather, I'm interested in pursuing broader swaths of understanding and knowledge, recognizing that a lot of the road has been paved by philosophers and theologians, but focusing more on my own process of thinking. To begin, I think there's something to be said about prima facie  impulses about basic sensory data. The sun is hot, we can feel it and see it, and those physical stimuli come from a cause which we can point to and agree with. Intersubjective agreement may be necessary on one level, but once there, we're discussing common knowledge, verified through the senses. This kind of truth can be considered a rudimentary Truth--human senses are trigge...

When I talked about dual identities a while ago, I focused on the Batman and a little on the Hulk. I had originally planned on incorporating an analysis of how Peter Parker and Spider-Man intersect as identities, but the essay was going too long by that point. I cut the stuff--which, for me, means highlighting the text and pressing Delete . So whatever I was thinking about apropos of Peter/Spidey, it's gone now. However, I'm at the precipice of beginning another school year  and I've been feeling incipient stirrings of what I can only assume is the (apparently) real phenomenon of a mid-life crisis. My parents were pretty steady, stay-the-course kind of parents, so I don't have a lot of up-close context for these feelings, but I've been struggling a lot with what I understand of myself, my goals, my ambitions, my dreams, and my realities. One of the things that I've always used as part of my identity, with varying degrees of severity, is my obsession with Spid...

I finished reading In Defense of a Liberal Education  by Fareed Zakaria. Having read two books now by different authors (coming from very  different backgrounds) about "the classics", I have to say that I much preferred this second one. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison by any stretch--one book was a quasi-manual for teaching in a prescribed way, the other was an argument for why liberal arts and the humanities ought to be invested--and, in a sense--believed in. The fifth and final chapter of Zakaria's book really made me happy. Perhaps it was an echo-chamber effect--I'm not above confirmation bias--but I felt optimistic about the students I teach and my role in the world. The other book left me disgruntled, abused, and pessimistic; this one made me hopeful. And the last part of the book is where it made the most sense to me. In it, Zakaria goes to great lengths to describe the accusations against the "millennial generation", of which I am bare...

If you don't subscribe to Netflix, here's a write up about the documentary Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press from The Atlantic .  The documentary is pretty good, though, if you're sensitive to profanity and frank discussions of awkward experiences, you may not enjoy it. There are some problems (like most documentaries, it manipulates via music what you're supposed to feel throughout certain sections, and the second half feels too heavy on "broad strokes" style storytelling since the ostensible focal point is Hulk Hogan, and that section is finely detailed. Still, it's a worthwhile viewing. I don't want to talk about free speech, though. I'm interested in a strange, protracted argument that Terry Bollea (the man most people identify as Hulk Hogan) gives during his time on the witness stand. The details are embarrassing, but it isn't the details that Bollea is giving that made me sit up a little, it was the crux of the argument: According ...

Being an abashed Twitter-(over)user, I was delighted when I saw this tweet : I love homework! Not only is Doug Robertson a great resource for connected educators (you can check out his blog right here ; it's entirely education centered, rather than the hodgepodge of stuff that mine features) and a funny guy, he also throws out a lot of ideas online that have helped me think differently about my profession. He let me guest blog on one of his other sites, too, and that's pretty spiffy. But what got me excited about the tweet was not that it was Doug (sorry, Doug), but that it was talking about Revisionist History . I already geeked out about finding Malcolm Gladwell's podcast (another find that occurred because of Twitter, as it so happens), so this shouldn't come as a surprise. What was exciting was that the second season is being released. Eagerly, I listened to the first two episodes, taking extra time to do my chores so that I had an excuse to keep listenin...

Brigham Young: The gospel of Jesus Christ embraces all truth. All truth is for the salvation of the children of men—for the benefit and learning—for their furtherance in the principles of divine knowledge; and divine knowledge is any matter of fact—truth; and all truth pertains to divinity (DBY, 11). Be willing to receive the truth, let it come from whom it may; no difference, not a particle. Just as soon receive the Gospel from Joseph Smith as from Peter, who lived in the days of Jesus. Receive it from one man as soon as another. If God has called an individual and sent him to preach the Gospel that is enough for me to know; it is no matter who it is, all I want is to know the truth (DBY, 11). “Mormonism,” so-called, embraces every principle pertaining to life and salvation, for time and eternity. No matter who has it. If the infidel has got truth it belongs to “Mormonism.” The truth and sound doctrine possessed by the sectarian world, and they have a great deal, all belong t...

I think about God a lot. He's important to me. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, He ought  to be. There are some pieces about God that don't make sense to my feeble mind (which fits nicely into the Isaiah 55: 8-9 verses), which is fine as far as it goes. What really confuses me is that what confuses me doesn't confuse others. Like, there are some questions that nobody has really figured out ("Can God create a burrito so spicy even He couldn't eat it?") and that may ultimately be absurdism. Most everyone in my religious tradition recognizes that there are things we don't know about God, and we're all in the dark together. But there are other things where I get the sense that others don't really understand, but they confidently assert that they do. An example of that would have to be the tension between what Mormons (and other philosophical and religious traditions) call agency  and most everyone else considers free w...

I wonder if Nephi did the wrong thing by killing Laban. Okay, so if you're familiar with the story from the Book of Mormon, you can skip to the next part. If you're unfamiliar, here's the quick version, taken from 1 Nephi chapters 3 and 4 : A prophet, Lehi, told his son, Nephi, to go with his brothers and retrieve a genealogy from a man in Jerusalem named Laban. (Lots of proper nouns, I know. Bear with me.) Laban is a bit of a dirt bag and, after Nephi and his brothers try to reason with him, he steals their money and tries to kill them. A little later, Nephi sneaks into Jerusalem at night, and finds Laban, drunk and asleep. And I was led by the Spirit , not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth, and as I came near unto the house of Laban I beheld a man, and he had fallen to the earth before me, for he was drunken with wine. And when I came to him I found that it was Laban. And I beheld his sword, and I drew it forth from the she...

At the eager age of 21, I married my high school sweetheart. We had known each other since we were 17, she had waited whilst I served a mission in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and was willing and happy and hoping to get married when I returned home. Because I took a two-year hiatus to my education, I was behind her in studies. She graduated a couple of semesters after we wedded, taking a job at a school in the Jordan School District while I rounded out my final year or two of coursework. She had a miscarriage in the summer of 2006, and our first born child came two days before I graduated as part of the class of 2007. Throughout the entirety of our time together as a married couple, we've both worked. In fact, I've never financially supported her. We've worked together to make sure we had enough money, and though I've occasionally earned more than she, it's always been the case that Gayle has provided for the family. Soon after the birth of our first child, I was un...