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Friday, November 6, 2015

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THE TEN SAGES OF THE WORLD--Singapore








LOUIS PASTEUR, ALBERT EINSTEIN, IBN KHALDOUN, [BEN] JOHNSON, ARISTOTLE, TIRUVALLUVAR, PLATO, CONFUCIUS, SOCRATES, MARIA MONTESSORI.




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5 comments:

x larry said...

the only one i know for pretty sure from this list (a couple i don't know at all) that wasn't a fascist is einstein and possibly pasteur, though i'm not sure. montessori, yeah sure, but does a schoolmarm belong on a list of great sages? plato, it has been said, is the father of fascism. aristotle was probably something like a chomsky, a brainiac with a colossal memory of the tiniest detail (every one of which he of course had to drone on about), confucius was a control freak and no doubt one influence on our singaporean dictator....

x larry said...

oh yeah...
ben jonson, bombastic british bard, darling of robert graves. naff off, i say

Ali said...

x-larry, why do doubt a "schoolmarm"?

x larry said...

hi ali,
i generally dislike, or strongly dislike, schools. montessori, well, some really love her (i even went to a pre-school, of which i have no memory so perhaps not too bad), they're impressed with her innovative (for victorian times) methods. here in england, but also in the u.s. and elsewhere in the world, rudolf steiner is the biggest education guru. once again, a victorian--a reformist, a do-gooder, with some out there ideas about child development (eg he banned the kicking of balls as they resembled human heads), also a racist (in step with his time). what his cult (and that's what i truly believe it to be--witness the glossy eyes of teachers and parents, the parents' right before jumping into their suv's to head off on this or that holiday, but i generalize) now amounts to is cutting-edge 19th century education reform, the most noticeable general features of which are lots of homemade woolen and wooden objects and toys. the two that i've been to, including the famous michael hall south of london, have a strong religious flavor. people are trying, but still...
but yes, i could never have seriously considered maria montessori a sage, except within the narrow confines of education reform, till seeing this. i'm not an expert, so please forgive me my possibly incorrect opinion.
thank you,
xl

x larry said...

because it's almost uncanny (i have read roughly a few pages of aristotle, but mentioned him above), i will share this. i've been watching some noam chomsky tonight, and have just begun a speech on education which looks to be interesting. he has just begun to sketch a history of it, but brings up the founding fathers, specifically madison, whom he compares to aristotle of all people. the comparison is this: they were both faced with a similar problem, namely that if democracy were implemented the poor would vote to take the property of the rich, which would be unjust of course. but (here comes my shame for above comment) they reached roughly the opposite conclusion: madison thought that true democracy must be avoided at all costs, while aristotle believed there should be equality, and laid down some early foundations of a welfare state. i stand corrected. i must begin to read aristotle. if anyone's intersted here is the article. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_EgdShO1K8