January 24th, 2009 by Greg Steward
Over the past thirty years I have profited greatly from the books and thinking of Mortimer Adler. I was first exposed to him when a local public television station broadcast a 1981 Bill Moyer’s series based upon Adler’s book, “Six Great Ideas: Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Liberty, Equality, and Justice.” There was an episode for each of the six ideas. Stimulated by the discussion, I bought the book. I found Adler’s common sense approach delightful. So much of modern philosophy has become distant from our day-to-day life. In the pages of this book, I found ideas that I could use and live by.
Adler is also known for his work at the Encylopedia Britannica and for his promotion of reading and discussing the “Great Books.” For years, people would come to the Aspen Institute where he taught philosophy to business executives in the context of reading and discussing some of these works.
If you would be inclined to read some of his work, I would suggest starting with the following (in this order):
- Six Great Ideas: Truth-Goodness-Beauty-Liberty-Equality-Justice (1981)
- A Vision of the Future: Twelve Ideas for a Better Life and a Better Society (1984)
- How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading (with Charles Van Doren), Second Edition (1972)
- Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy (1978)
- How to Speak / How to Listen (1983)
- We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution (1987)
- Desires, Right & Wrong: The Ethics of Enough (1991)
The following sites are also worth visiting:
The Mortimer J. Adler Archive
Center for the Study of the Great Ideas
January 12th, 2009 by Greg Steward
There are some attractive feature of social networks, but there are also some troubling aspects. I don’t know how many sites there are like Facebook, Orkut, Hi5, Reunion, My Yearbook, but I was able to list those without even stopping to think. It is not unusual to find in my in-box a request from someone I know (and sometimes am barely acquainted with) to join another social network.
Sometimes, the message attempts to shame me if I don’t join. (“Say yes or John Doe might think you are not his friend.”)
I’m sure there are many articles discussing the downside of social networks. Here are a few troubling aspects that come to mind.
1. Take my email contact list, please.
Some offer as a “feature,” and some require, that they access your email contact list so that invitations can be sent to EVERYONE in your contact list. You give them your email address, which is OK if you trust the site, but then you also give them the password to your email address. Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Ding! Ding! Ding! Danger, Will Robinson! I don’t think so.
If a site requires you to give them your email address and password, just stop, close the window and find another social network to join. If it is an option to send invites to EVERYONE in your contact list by giving them your email address and password, look for the barely visible button that lets you skip that step and press it.
2. Unwise and unhealthy transparency
Another downside is the common feature of carrying on a discussion with another individual that is visible to anyone who visits your page. Think of all the people you might be “friends” with: wife, family, friends, neighbors, schoolmates, co-workers, acquaintances. Do you want any given comment visible to EVERYONE?
I have heard of and witnessed for myself enough examples of people having comments posted on their home page that could be prone to misinterpretation or extreme embarrassment. You might take a look at the settings in your social network site to see what limits can be put on that. It would be nice if sites would at least give you the option to approve any comment or posting before it gets posted.
3. It stretches our finiteness to the breaking point
I am a finite person (although each holiday season moves me closer to being omnipresent). I can only be friends with so many people. Although these social networks enable me to reveal the most intimate details of my life with a vast audience, I am not sure that that alone makes us good friends with each other.
January 10th, 2009 by Greg Steward
Have you ever had someone write something embarrassing, or potentially embarrassing, on your Facebook wall?
You might want to allow your friends to continue to post, but not allow everyone (or anyone) to see what has been posted there.
Here is how to fine tune the settings for your wall to determine who can post and view items there.
1. Click on the “Wall” tab.
2. Towards the top of the Wall section, just below the box where you can update your status, on the right, there is a link to “settings” for the wall. Click on that link.
3. In the section, “Stories Posted by Friends,” there are two sections:
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A check box to allow/disallow friends to post to your wall.
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There is a drop down box under “Who can see my posts made by friends.” Drop the box down and select “customize.” There you can fine-tune who can see what on your wall.
Hope this helps.