【甚解小组】【TASK 5】原文抄抄抄 FROM 99

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Pragmatism
First published Sat Aug 16, 2008
Pragmatism was a philosophical tradition that originated in the United States around 1870. The most important of the ‘classical pragmatists’ were Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), William James (1842–1910) and John Dewey (1859-1952). The influence of pragmatism declined during the first two thirds of the twentieth century, but it has undergone a revival since the 1970s with philosophers being increasingly willing to use the writings and ideas of the classical pragmatists, and also a number of thinkers, such as Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam and Robert Brandom developing philosophical views that represent later stages of the pragmatist tradition. The core of pragmatism was the pragmatist maxim, a rule for clarifying the contents of hypotheses by tracing their ‘practical consequences’. In the work of Peirce and James, the most influential application of the pragmatist maxim was to the concept of truth. But the pragmatists have also tended to share a distinctive epistemological outlook, a fallibilist anti-Cartesian approach to the norms that govern inquiry.
1. ‘Pragmatism’ and pragmatismWhen William James published a series of lectures on ‘Pragmatism: A New Name for an Old way of Thinking’ in 1907, he began by identifying ‘The Present Dilemma in Philosophy’ (1907: 9ff), a fundamental and apparently irresoluble clash between two ways of thinking about things. He promised that pragmatism would show us the way to overcome this dilemma and, having thus shown us its importance, he proceeded, in the second lecture, to explain ‘What Pragmatism Means’.  

James's dilemma is a familiar one: it is a form of the question of how we can reconcile the claims of science, on the one hand, with those of religion and morality on the other. James introduces it by observing that the history of philosophy is ‘to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments’, between the ‘tough minded’ and the ‘tender minded’. The tough minded have an empiricist commitment to experience and going by ‘the facts’, while the tender-minded have more of a taste for a priori principles which appeal to the mind. The tender minded tend to be idealistic, optimistic and religious, while the tough minded are normally materialist, pessimistic and irreligious. The tender-minded are ‘free-willist’ and dogmatic; the tough minded are ‘fatalistic’ and sceptical.

By the early twentieth century, ‘never were so many men of a decidedly empiricist proclivity’: ‘our children … are almost born scientific’ (1907: 14f). But this has not weakened religious belief. People need a philosophy that is both empiricist in its adherence to facts yet finds room for religious belief. But all that is on offer is ‘an empirical philosophy that is not religious enough and a religious philosophy that is not empirical enough for your purpose’ (1907: 15f). The challenge is to show how to reconcile ‘the scientific loyalty to facts’ with ‘the old confidence in human values and the resultant spontaneity, whether of the religious or of the romantic type.’ We must reconcile empiricist epistemic responsibility with moral and religious optimism. Pragmatism is presented as the ‘mediating philosophy’ that enables us to overcome the distinction between the tender-minded and the tough-minded: we need to show how adherence to tough-minded epistemic standards does not prevent our adopting the kind of worldview to which the tender-minded aspire. Once we use what he introduced as the ‘pragmatic method’ to clarify our understanding of truth, of free will, or of religious belief the disputes—which we despaired of settling intellectually—begin to dissolve. For James, then, Pragmatism is important because it offers a way of overcoming the dilemma, a way of seeing that, for example, science, morality and religion are not in competition.

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The tough minded have an empiricist commitment to experience and going by ‘the facts’, while the tender-minded have more of a taste for a priori principles which appeal to the mind. The tender minded tend to be idealistic, optimistic and religious, while the tough minded are normally materialist, pessimistic and irreligious. The tender-minded are ‘free-willist’ and dogmatic; the tough minded are ‘fatalistic’ and sceptical.


pragmaticism不一定就是贬义~还有这句的形容词，很好~

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When you ask the question "what career is right for me?" there are a number of things to take into account:

Personality. Is there a good match between your personality and chosen career? This can have a significant impact on whether you find your work fulfilling. There are two main aspects to take into account: whether the career matches your personality (that is, how much you work within your preferences) and to what extent you will need, at times, to stretch outside your preferred style. This is examined in detail in our Careers Report.

Motivation. This is one of the most important factor for long term career satisfaction. Find a job that motivates you and you've found the right career. Motivation covers a wider range of topics, such as:

• Your interests
• What gives you a "sense of achievement"
• Unconscious motivation factors, illuminated by models such as Maslow, Hertzberg or Firo

Skills. Having the right skill set is the key that opens the door to many careers. The skills you acquire are the result of:

• Your innate ability or aptitudes, developed by:
• The training you receive

Values.This might include:

• The lifestyle you want
• Your beliefs, religion or ethical guidelines you follow
• The type of organisation or people you want to work for
• The product or service you want to contribute towards

Constraints. These might include:

• Financial commitments or limitations
• The geographical location where you can work
• Family responsibilities
• Physical disability or restriction
• Your qualifications/education

Ambitions . What are your long term aims? This might include questions such as:

• If and when you want to start a family and "settle down"
• Whether you want a single job for the rest of your life or have the option to change career
• Do you eventually want to set up your own business or climb the ladder inside a large organisation
• When do you want to retire?

Opportunities. Deciding what you want to do is of no use unless there are opportunities for you to pursue. You can find opportunities through actions such as:

• Responding to advertisements for jobs or vocational training/sponsorship
• Unsolicited approaches to organisations to see if there are any vacancies
• Networking through people you know to get referrals
• Creating your own business

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职业选择和太多东西有关了，不只pragmatic 和interest这么简单。

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Alexander Pope (1688-1744)


English essayist, critic, satirist, and one of the greatest poets of Enlightenment. Alexander Pope wrote his first verses at the age of 12. His breakthrough work, AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM (1711), appeared when he was twenty-three. It included the famous line "a little learning is a dangerous thing." Pope's physical defects made him an easy target for heartless mockery, but he was also considered a leading literary critic and the epitome of English Neoclassicism.

"Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,
Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be."
(from An Essay on Criticism)

Alexander Pope was born in London, the son of Alexander Pope, a Roman Catholic linen-merchant, and Edith (Turner) Pope, who was forty-four when Alexander, her only child, was born. Edith Pope belonged to a large Yorkshire family, which divided along Catholic and Protestant lines. His early years Pope spent at Binfield on the edge of Windsor Forest, and recalled this period as a golden age: "Thy forests, Windsor, and thy green retreats, / At once the monarch's and the Muse's seats, / Invite my lays. Be present, sylvan maids! Unlock your springs, and open all your shades." Anecdotes from Pope's life were deemed worthy of collecting during his lifetime. Joseph Spence, a critic, minor poet, and Pope's biographer, tells that Pope was "a child of a particularly sweet temper and had a great deal of sweetness in his look when he was a boy". Due to his melodious voice, he was nicknamed "the Little Nightingale".

Pope's father, the son of an Anglican vicar, had converted to Catholicism, which caused the family many problems. At the time Catholics suffered from repressive legislation and prejudices - they were not allowed to enter any universities or held public employment. Thus Pope had an uneven education, which was often interrupted. From Twyford School he was expelled after writing a satire on one of the teachers. At home, Pope's aunt taught him to read. Latin and Greek he learned from a local priest and later he acquired knowledge of French and Italian poetry. Pope also attended clandestine Catholic schools.

Most of his time Pope spend reading books from his father's library - he "did nothing but write and read," recalled his half-sister. While still at school, Pope wrote a play based on speeches from the Iliad. Samuel Johnson tells that Pope's early epic poem, called Alcander, was burned at the suggestion of Francis Atterbury, who was later exiled for treason i supporting the deposed Stuart monarchy.

In 1700, when his family moved to Binfield in Windsor Forest, Pope contracted tuberculosis through infected milk. It was probably Pott's disease, a tubercular affection of the bones. He also suffered from asthma and headaches, and his humpback was a constant target for his critics in literary battles - Pope was called a "hunchbacked toad". In middle age he was 4ft 6in tall and wore a stiffened canvas bodice to support his spine.

After moving to London, Pope published his first major work, An Essay on Criticism. This discussion was based on neoclassical doctrines and derived standards of taste from the order of nature: "Good nature and good sense must ever join; / To err is human, to forgive divine."

Before becoming one of the members of Scriblerus Club, Pope associated with anti-Catholic Whig friends, but by 1713 he had moved towards the Tories. His friends among Tory intellectuals included Jonathan Switft, Gay, Congreve, and Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford. In 1712 Pope published an early version of THE RAPE OF THE LOCK, an elegant satire about the battle between the sexes, and follies of a young woman with her "puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux". The work was expanded in 1714. Its first version consisted of two cantos (1712) and the final version five cantos (1714). Rape of the Lock originated from a quarrel between two families with whom Pope was acquainted. The cause was not very small - the 7th Lord Petre cut off a lock of Miss Arabella Fermor's hair, and kept it as a trophy. Although Pope did not admit it, the title of the work was most likely influenced by Alessandro Tassoni's mock-epic The Rape of the Bucket, from 1622.

Pope's poem recounts the story of a young woman, Belinda. When she wakes up, Pope describes devotedly her exotic cosmetics and beauty aids. She plays cards, flirts, drinks coffee, and has a lock of hair stolen by an ardent young man. "The meeting points the sacred hair dissever / From the fair head, forever, and forever! / The flashed the living lightning from her eyes, / And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies." For this trivial event Pope gives an extended mock heroic treatment which echoed the Iliad and the Aeneid, and at the same time comments ironically on the contemporary social world, high-society preoccupations, and perhaps suggests a reform. But in real life there was no reconcilation between Lord Petre and Arabella; Petre married another woman.

Pope admired Horace and Vergilius and valued them as models for poetry. His great achievements were the translations of Iliad and Odyssey into English. The success of the translations enabled him to move to Twickenham from anti-Catholic pressure of the Jacobites. However, Pope remained a Catholic even after the death of his father (d. 1717) and mother (d. 1733). Pope's collected works were published in 1717. He was one of the first professional poets to be self-sufficient as a result of his non-dramatic writings.

In Twickenham Pope to studied horticulture and landscape gardening. During his last years, Pope designed a romantic "grot" in a tunnel, which linked the waterfront with his back garden. It was walled with shells and pieces of mirror. Pope's villa, about fifteen miles from London, attracted also a number of writers, including Swift, whom Pope helped with the publication of Gulliver's Travels. With his neighbor, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Pope formed an attachment, but when the friendship cooled down, he started a life long relationship with Martha Blount. Pope had met Martha and her sister Teresa already in 1711. Later in IMITATIONS OF HORACE (1733) Pope referred to his former friend Lady Mary as "Sappho" and wrote: "Give me again my hollow tree, / A crust of bread, and liberty."

In ESSAY ON MAN (1733-34) Pope examined the human condition against Miltonic, cosmic background. Although Pope's perspective is well above our everyday life, and he do not hide his wide knowledge, the dramatic work suggest than humankind is a part of nature and the diversity of living forms: "Each beast, each insect, happy in its own: / Is Heaven unkind to Man, and Man alone?" In MORAL ESSAYS (1731) Pope separated behavior from character: "Not always actions show the man: we find / Who does a kindness is not therefore kind." Pope prepared an edition of his correspondence, doctored to his own advantage. He also employed discreditable artifices to make it appear that the correspondence was published against his wish. With the translation of the Odyssey, Pope was eager to take all the credit, trying to avoid mentioning the contribution of other writers.

In his time Pope was famous for his witty satires and aggressive, bitter quarrels with other writers. When his edition of William Shakespeare was attacked, he answered with the savage burlesque THE DUNCIAD (1728), which was widened in 1742. It ridiculed bad writers, scientists, and critics. "While pensive poets painful vigils keep, / Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep." Pope died on May 30, 1744. Pope left his property to Martha Blount. Before his death, Pope was delirious for a period of time, and he claimed to see an arm coming through the wall. His last epic poem, Brutus, was left unfinished.

With the growth of Romanticism Pope's poetry was increasingly seen as outdated and the "Age of Pope" ended. It was not until the 1930s when serious attempt was made to rediscover the poet's work.

Museums: Pope's grotto and Pope's villa, Cross Deep, Twickenham, Middlesex - the grotto and garden are all that remains of Pope's villa. - Manor House and Pope's Tower, Stanton Harcourt, nr Withey - Pope translated there the fifth volume of Homer's Iliad - For further reading: Alexander Pope by Sir Leslie Stephen (1908); Alexander Pope by E. Sitwell (1930); The Early Career of Alexandr Pope by G. Sherburn (1934); New Light on Pope by A. Ault (1949); On the Poetry of Pope by G. Tillotson (1958); Essential Articles for the Study of Pope, ed. by M. Mack (1968); Alexander Pope: The Education of a Genius by P. Quennell (1968); Alexander Pope: The Critical Heritage, ed. by J. Barnard (1973); An Introduction to Pope by Y. Gooneratne (1976); The Art of Pope, ed. by H. Erskine-Hill and A. Smith (1979); Pope's Imagination by D. Fairer (1984); Alexander Pope: A Life by M. Mack (1985); Alexander Pope: A Literary Life by Felicity Rosslyn (1990); Approaches to Teaching Pope's Poetry, ed. by R. Paul Yoder (1993); Alexander Pope and His Eighteenth-Century Women Readers by Claudia N. Thomas (1994); Alexander Pope: The Critical Heritage, ed. by John Barnard (1995); Resemblance & Disgrace: Alexander Pope and the Deformation of Culture by Helen Deutsch (1996); A Contradiction Still: Representations of Women in the Poetry of Alexander Pope by Christa Knellwolf (1999); Alexander Pope by R. Quintero (1999); The Complete Critical Guide to Alexander Pope by Paul Baines (2001) - See also: Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gay

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差点忘记贴抄抄抄，pope，please bring me good luck again~

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3rd check

b-spUID: 2650042

mark, great job

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Idealism and realism are philosophical theories propounded by the two Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, respectively. In a layman's language, idealism is a theory that professes that reality exists only in ideas. It also states that ideally, everything and everyone should be perfect and flawless. Realism, on the other hand, has a more practical approach of looking at things. Realism states that things and people should be accepted as they are, that is, with all their defects and weaknesses. Now that we know the basic philosophy behind the two theories, let's start a deliberate on "Idealism vs Realism" on various counts.

Difference between Idealism and Realism

• Realists are basically conservative people who follow the conventions of the society and thus, are more secure socially. Idealists, on the other hand, are nonconformists who are most likely to revolt against the set norms.
• Idealism is a theory of the futurists. While, realism is the theory, of the people who live in the present.
• Idealists aim for perfection. They set high goals for themselves and others. They believe that humans have vast potential, which should be harnessed properly to achieve excellence. Realists, on the other hand, settle for mediocrity. Realists only aim for achievable targets. That is why, to expect something extraordinary from them is out of question.
• Idealism is very impractical in today's world. Idealists are basically dreamers, who only look for a paragon and that too in the future. Since they are out of touch with reality, they are most liable to fail. Realists, on the other hand, are more grounded in reality and are better prepared to deal with the world around them.

Idealism vs Realism in Education

There are five basic philosophies of education namely idealism, realism, perennialism, experimentalism and existentialism. Idealism is based on the view that students should be taught wisdom through the study of literature, history, philosophy, and religion. The focus is on making the students intellectually sound and moralistically right, so that they can serve the society in a better way. The teaching methods used are lectures, discussions and dialogs, that is, all the methods which stimulate the mind. Moral lessons are taught by giving examples of people from history. In short, the focus is on education of the mind through intuition and introspection.

Realism, on the other hand, is based on the view that students should learn about the world and the universe by studying science and mathematics. The focus is on making the students understand that reality is in the physical world, that is, what we see around us. Realism emphasizes on providing factual information to the students and teaching them the laws of the nature. The teacher presents the subject very systematically to the students. There is a standard curriculum, which is taught to all the students. Moral lessons are taught in the form of certain rules, which all the students have to follow. Focus is on education through experimentation and critical, scientific thinking.

A combination of realism and idealism and all the other philosophies is a prerequisite for teaching children effectively. Take the example of American schooling, which borrows something or the other from each of the above mentioned philosophies.

Idealism vs Realism in Politics

In today's politics, expecting idealism is against realism. Let's take the example of the current American president. Barrack Obama, in his campaign for the presidential elections, emphasized on two important weaknesses of the Bush administration. He presented before the people how the Bush administration was committing atrocities on people in countries, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and how it was misusing the finances of the people of America. He then went onto present before the people, an idealistic view of the future of USA, under his presidency. He created a utopia of idealism. People believed in this idealistic future and Obama was elected the president. Thus, in politics, idealism is projected as realism and people fall for it as the common people in their heart of hearts want to live in a perfect country, in a perfect neighborhood , in a perfect house with a perfect family. Politicians target people's idealistic nature to create a false sense of realism. Read more philosophy topics.

Thus, in today's world, there cannot be a debate on idealism vs realism, as idealism has virtually vanished from everywhere. If we look at various business organizations, they may pretend that they are working for a social cause. But in reality, the only thing they are concerned about is their profits and turnovers. If we look at individuals, idealistically, no one should be deprived of food, clothing and shelter. But in reality, people die of hunger everyday in certain Asian and African countries. But, still people are optimistic of a better future. It is this optimism that keeps idealism alive and also the debate of "idealism vs realism".