The USA is holding to a higher standard of social distancing than the world at large.
Reflected in markers such as that we want to keep schools closed, while the rest of the world is not.
Why is this?
Two heuristics or guides to thought are to use personality traits (OCEAN/the Big Five) to predict what ought to happen if such and such were the case, and to view things through what ought to happen if a group assumes Christian metaphysics as the reality on which we base the rightness or wrongness of our prudent actions.
A problem with trying to ask and answer this title's question is that an ad hoc explanation could go either way and have no compelling force. So to make the analysis a little better, we would have to spell out what the conditions were, and predict what the assumptions would lead to, singularly and in interaction.
One of my children, when he went to college, thought that the philosophy class would be a lot like dinnertime with Dad, where we would socratically talk about ideas, to get to the truth. But, alas, he was being asked to remember dates and pivotal figures and power struggles. It would be fair to say that this child of mine did not enjoy the course, any more than I would have.
Over adult years, this child of mine, now fully grown with serious responsibilities, and whom I respect greatly, has stopped having discussions like these with me. He thought that I was sparring, or playing, with no serious point to it. As if our adult conversations were to the truth as high school wrestling is to hand to hand warfare with bayonets. I was seeing our adult conversations as more analogous to Fort Benning or Parris Island, with the truth as being the next hill to take, at possible cost to our lives.
And as anyone who has trained and fought in the military or as a first responder, there is a joy to being part of a Band of Brothers (or the equivalent), and a joy in fighting a good fight, even where there is pain and suffering and the possible loss of all good things. The stakes are high, in loving and receiving the truth, and in defending the weak and the oppressed and in defending freedom.
When Lewis uses the word 'art', we may fairly substitute 'philosophy' or 'ideas' or even the humble term, 'words'.
Lewis writes:
A work of (whatever) art can be either ‘received’ or ‘used.’ When we ‘receive’ it we exert our senses and imagination and various other powers according to a pattern invented by the artist. When we ‘use’ it we treat it as assistance for our own activities. The one, to use an old-fashioned example, is like being taken for a bicycle ride by a man who may know roads we have never yet explored. The other is like adding one of those little motor attachments to our own bicycle and then going for one of our familiar rides. These rides in themselves may be good, bad, or indifferent. The ‘uses’ which the many make of the arts may or may not be intrinsically vulgar, depraved, or morbid. That’s as may be. ‘Using’ is inferior to ‘reception’ because art, if used rather than received, merely facilitates, brightens, relieves or palliates our life, and does not add to it.
The Good Book: 40 Chapters That Reveal the Bible's Biggest Ideas
Again, a great selection. Our author, Deron Spoo, explains why each chapter is important.
Here they are:
Genesis 1
3
6
12
22
Exodus 3
14
20
Judges 16
1 Samuel 17
Job 1
Psalm 23
51
139
Proverbs 1
Isaiah 53
Jeremiah 1
Daniel 3, 6
Jonah 1
-----
John 1
Luke 2
Matthew 5
6
7
Luke 8
John 3
Luke 15
Mark 15
Matthew 28
Acts 1
2
9
10
Revelation 22
Romans 8
1 Corinthians 13
Galatians 5
James 1
1 John 3.
It's a great list, a great selection.
Someone could read these through every week, at 5 or 6 chapters a day. Deron Spoo explains the importance of each chapter in his book's table of contents.
Likewise with my list, at 6 to 7 chapters a day. Here's my list again. I explain the important of each chapter in the discussion, on the previous post. Here's a link.
Favorite Bible Chapters and the Inverse Square Law. There are various derived laws from the algebraic inverse square law. I'm thinking of Price's Square Root Law and the Pareto Principle. They are EMPIRICAL principles--explaining, after the fact of watching closely, rather than PREDICTIVE laws--which would predict with precision the outcome of an experiment. Which is close enough for an after the fact explanation or making a general plan and trying your best to do something. A similar law is the Bell Curve. Which says, in my folksy explanation, that most events or things we can measure will fall within a stone's throw from what almost everyone does. Dilly Dilly, for most, not the few®. (I do not drink, well, almost never--both to support my recovering friends and for my own good future. Yes, "Jesus drank wine, He and his disciples,"..."But he never hid the whiskey in the toilet!"--Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited.) They are universal--apply to everything. I have 9 grandchildren, and 50% of the time I spend with my grandchildren are with three in particular. How interesting. Your Bible. If you are a regular but not systematic Bible reader, a few sections will be read much more than the rest. And that's ok. We also have the example of lectionaries picking the favorites, and catechisms which select some themes as most important. So what to think? Here's my thought experiment.
The Bible has 1189 chapters.
20% (1189), about 238The Pareto idea is that 238 chapters do 80% of the work.
Sq rt (1189), about 34 The Price Law idea is 34 chapters do 50% of the work.
A. The first draft, toward narrowing down the scriptures to that Sweet Spot selection.
MATTHEW 5, 6, 7, 27, 28 5
LUKE 1, 2, 243
JOHN 1, 3, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 7
ACTS 1, 2, 93
ROMANS 1 - 12.12
1 CORINTHIANS 3, 7, 11-15 7
PHILIPPIANS 21
1 THESSALONIANS 41
1 TIM, 2 TIM, TITUS3
HEBREWS 1-1313
JAMES 1-55
REV 1-3, 19-226
subtot: 66 chapters
GENESIS 1-1515
EXODUS 3 -2017
JOB 1-4242
PSALMS 1-150150
PROVERBS 1-3131
ISAIAH 6, 14, 35, 534
JEREMIAH 311
LAMENTATIONS 1-55
ZECHARIAH 141
MALACHI 3, 42
TOTAL:334 too many (28%)
B. Next draft: Matt 5-7, John 1, 10, 14-17; Romans 1-12, Hebrews 1-13, [34 so far], James 1-5 Rev 1-3, 19-22; Genesis 1-8, Exodus 20, Isaiah 53, Zechariah 14, Malachi 3,4 which is 58 chapters, which is about [3* (sq rt 1189)] Plus all the Psalms and Proverbs 181 chapters added. Three times too large for the Price Square Root Law and it leaves out Ps and Pr.
C. Third draft: Added back Ps 22 (Suffering Servant), Ps 23 (heard in every Christian funeral I’ve ever attended), and Proverbs 31 (a devotional favorite, spoken to women but the mirror image of the rest of Proverbs directed to men).
Matt 5-73
John 1, 10, 14-175
Romans 1-88
James 1-55
Genesis 1-88
Exodus 20, 1
Isaiah 531
Psalm 22, 232 Proverbs 311TOTAL: 34
The number works, but the selection doesn’t. Go to Fourth Draft.
D. Fourth draft:One friend mentioned that the three greatest events in history are not here: the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. Also the revelation of God to Abraham. So I added back Luke 1 (Incarnation), Matthew 27 and 28 (the Crucifixion and Resurrection) and Genesis 11-20 (the story of Abraham).
Matthew 5-7, 27-285
Luke 11
John 1, 10, 14-175
Romans 1-88
James 1-55
Genesis 1-8, 11-2018
Exodus 20 1
Isaiah 531
Psalm 22, 232
Proverbs 311 TOTAL: 47
The square of 47 is about twice the square of 34. But only 12 more chapters. I call it as a win. But see below, "Why the short list is not enough."
A CONTRAST TO THE SELECT FEW CHAPTERS APPROACH. It's all inspired, even the genealogies and strange visions. I'm not going to dispute with God about this.
For my personal Bible reading plan:
One chapter each day:
Genesis - Deuteronomy27 weeks cycle
Joshua - Job42 weeks cycle
Old Testament after Proverbs33 weeks cycle
Gospels13 weeks cycle
New Testament after Gospels25 weeks cycle
And... Thanks Billy Graham for the tip--
Psalms5 per day except
Ps 119 alone (on 25th of month) 1 month cycle (4 1/3 weeks)
Proverbs1 per day 1 month cycle (4 1/3 weeks)
In practice, this works out to once or twice a year through the whole scriptures plus monthly through Psalms and Proverb. Also, in practice, this means that when I skip a day or a week, but come back to regular reading soon, that I'll still keep fresh with the whole Book. The system is forgiving toward not being able to always work the system. The truly biggest problem with this approach is that it takes about a half hour for everything except Psalms and Proverbs, another 15-20 minutes. It's justified because I feel a need to see things from God's point of view instead of any other point of view from culture, friends, or profession. It competes with daily responsibilities; which means that there is a real cost, and not a casual habit. It is feasible, able to be done; it's just not an automatic thing. Also, this is broad and shallow reading. There is some advantage to broad and shallow, such as being reminded of the parts that you don't want to hear, and to be shaken out of a too narrow faith. There is a time and place for deep, prolonged, concentrated reading on one verse at a time, or one word at a time, or one book at a time. In the college Christian group to which I belonged, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, we learned inductive Bible study and Bible memorization. I also learned them from Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ, then) and The Navigators. From all three, I learned the value of "front lines." For a while during the 1980s, I read the book of Job one chapter a day, in addition to anything else, so that I might somehow understand the book. All Job's friends seemed to be right, so why did God say they were wrong? It took some time to understand (better) the difference between being having the right answers and being right before God. Another time honored way of close reading is Lectio Divina, which too has great benefits. One downside of all three methods is that we may easily hear what we want to hear without confronting God's word "against us." Another downside to all methods of Bible reading-is that we might come to believe that the scriptures just dropped down from heaven, which they didn't. They emerged from the life of the people of God, and yes, are God-breathed. There's room for having a historical awareness and awareness of good ways of interpreting versus poor ways of interpreting scripture. The upside to all methods of Bible reading is that if we see past the practice to see Jesus Christ, then frequent reading of scripture can be part of a complete life lived before God, across a complete lifetime, under the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
II. Some technical notes.
A. Applications of the Inverse Square Law
Price's square root law states that half of the literature on a subject will be contributed by the square root of the total number of authors publishing in that area.
The Pareto distribution, named after the Italian civil engineer, economist, and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, is a power-lawprobability distribution that is used in description of social, scientific, geophysical, actuarial, and many other types of observable phenomena. Originally applied to describing the distribution of wealth in a society, fitting the trend that a large portion of wealth is held by a small fraction of the population, the Pareto distribution has colloquially become known and referred to as the Pareto principle, or "80-20 rule", and is sometimes called the "Matthew principle". This rule states that, for example, 80% of the wealth of a society is held by 20% of its population. However, the Pareto distribution only produces this result for a particular power value, (α = log45 ≈ 1.16). While α is variable, empirical observation has found the 80-20 distribution to fit a wide range of cases, including natural phenomena and human activities.
The Matthew effect, Matthew principle, or Matthew effect of accumulated advantage can be observed in many aspects of life and fields of activity. It is sometimes summarized by the adage "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer."[1][2] The concept is applicable to matters of fame or status, but may also be applied literally to cumulative advantage of economic capital.The term was coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton in 1968[3] and takes its name from the Parable of the talents or minas in the biblical Gospel of Matthew. Merton credited his collaborator and wife, sociologist Harriet Zuckerman, as co-author of the concept of the Matthew effect.[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect My principles of selection. In the first draft, I just called to mind parts of the Bible that seemed important somehow. For later drafts, the principles were "what to believe" (orthodoxy); "what to do" (orthopraxy); who Jesus is and what he did taught; and scriptures that have been especially treasured in the larger body of Christ over centuries, inspiring piety, devotion, comfort and commitment to God. B. What is not included, and why the short list is not enough. The rest of Psalms is not (but should be) included because of proven help to prayer. The rest of Proverbs should be included as the most basic instruction in how to live. Hebrews should be included to explain who Jesus is and what he did. Hebrews should also be included because of Heb 6:1,2 a list of the most basic topics of doctrine. 2 Peter 1 should be included because of the list of the most basic virtues of Christian life. Almost all narratives are left out in deference to the interpretive passages that guide our understanding of the narratives (stories). Narratives inspire our faith, but doctrine guides our faith. This lack of narrative takes away many of the great children's stories and sources of inspiration, and cautionary tales. Almost all the prophetic scriptures are left out, because prophecy is all about measuring the way we live against the way God wants us to live, and reprove us for not holding on to the very point of the standards during our lives. Both prophecy in this approach, and grace as an experience of life in the Holy Spirit, address this concern. The prophetic scriptures should be included to focus our minds on final things on which we place our hope, Christ's return, our Blessed Hope; as well as the chastising that God brings to His children who nevertheless wander; and disasters that God ultimately brings on nations that harden their hearts against Him. C. Please consider these three further readings. Walter Bruggemann's The Creative Word: Canon As a Model for Biblical Education. Tom Green's Voices: The Educational Formation of Conscience. My own book, in a free download on Academia.edu, Practice Makes Perfect: Christian Education Viewed as Initiation Into a Practice. The idea is that Christianity is part of a complete way of life, and what that would mean.
ON TEACHING PHILOSOPHY TO UNDERGRADUATES: BEST PRACTICE?
We can use this page to leave comments and banter our ideas.
Here are my original comments from a Facebook exchange hosted by Jeremy Pierce.
Jeremy Pierce with Sophia Pierce:
"Why do my English teachers tell us that you can't write an essay overnight while then expecting us to write essays in a half hour on our exams?"
Steve HaysYes, in-class essay tests subvert the point of an essay test. It shouldn't be a test of how fast you can think and write and try to organize your thoughts under pressure, but how well you understand a topic. Your ability to analyze it. A take-home essay test is the way to go. Jeremy PierceOr do it in class but give them time to do it properly. Bruce Meyer: Or make the topic small enough to do a decent first draft in fifteen minutes. This question raises a good objection to in class essay exams, and I for my part don't test with them. But I do lean heavily on outside of class essays submitted electronically (to be checked by SafeAssign), for the sole purpose of having students HAVE an opinion and then to ARTICULATE A CONTRARY opinion; and then I encourage them to rewrite their essay if the contrary position they came up with persuades them, in which case they make the old contrary position their new "I say that" position. Bruce Meyer: Continuing: I read that a study somewhere (on the internet so it must be true!!) said that good multiple choice tests do a snapshot assessment of the student as do essays, to 95% accuracy. The source of my opinion here (the study I browsed) seemed credible at the time, and if anyone challenged me (enough for me to care) then that study could be found. But the claim has intuitive sense to me, so I felt ok to go with it. // If there's an off-FB discussion that you other persons (Jeremy Pierce and his readers on educational strategies) could continue this discussion on--optimal ways of teaching philosophy to undergraduate non-academic-professional philosophers--I would be much interested. I could even host it on my blog, beinghumaninfaithartscience.blogspot.com. I'll go set up a page to receive comments that we can expand on--just in case anyone is interested.
C.S. Lewis "tried his hand" at Science Fiction (The Perelandra trilogy), Children's Stories (The Chronicles of Narnia), and retelling ancient myth (Till We Have Faces). J.R.R. Tolkien "tried his hand" at Fairy Stories , thus The Lord of the Rings.
I may be writing comic strips, comic books, crime thrillers, and songwriting in folk styles. We'll see what comes of these.
Frank's been living since the time of the presocratic Greeks. He takes on various guises in different lives, different centuries and eras. And he always lives as a true member of society in which he finds himself. This is 1948, and Frank is a private eye, but still always is watching out for the lost souls, waiting to call them to repentance. The difference between God's justice and man's justice is clear to him, and he knows what is more important.
When I wrote this, I deliberately tried to use every cliche in the book. It's fun to write cliches, but not a good plan in general. So suspend the editor in your mind and just enjoy to ride.
Here is the first draft of an argument between the private detective Frank Angelicus and a yet unnamed femme fatale, shamelessly lifted from the heart to heart scenes at the end of The Maltese Falcon. Here's the scenes, to get the vibe.
https://youtu.be/wPT49WXC0Zo
Here's Frank Angelicus. I hope you enjoy it.
Ch. 2
Frank knew trouble when he smelled it. And how. That girl is trouble. Opening a can of worms, that’s what she was doing.
Gosh, Frank, I just don’t know what happens to me sometimes. I try so hard to be a good girl, but the boys, well, the boys seem so sweet, and I just want to make them happy, and…
Listen sister and I mean listen up. You’re on the fast track to nowhere and I mean fast and I mean now. You gotta shake loose of that monkey on your back. Now don’t go telling me that you don’t what I’m talking about because you do, and that’s for sure. Lose the drugs and lose the needle. Drop the heroin, it’s a hot potato and you don’t even know that you’re burning your hands.
Oh my gosh Frank, you used to be so much fun. Now you’re talking just like my old Sunday school teacher, Miss Alice. She was, sigh, so nice, and she smelled so pretty…
Don’t go Miss Alice-ing me, Little Liza From the Farm. We’re not in fly over country anymore. You can’t go around sticking your fork in the sockets and expect to not get burned. Life is too short for that fooling around. Hang up on that sentimental jazz and do what I tell ya. Do ya see what I’m talking about? Listen to me, sweetheart! Do you see what I’m talking about?!!
Oh, Frank, Frank, she sobbed. I can’t bear to hear you talk that way. I can’t just stop and be a good girl. I’m not on the farm any more. I’ve been bad. I’m spoiled. I’ll never be anything but somebody’s rag doll, and I know it. Isn’t it enough? I’m spoiled, and I’m used up, and I’m ugly, Frank.
She cried for mercy from Frank through her tears. She was a sweet young thing, a tender and delicate flower. A whispy breeze from Iowa with a two timing back heel, ready to spin her around at the first sign of a hard body and sweet line. Frank isn’t going for it though. He knows better. He’s seen one too many babe trapped in nice feelings, one too many sweethearts of the rodeo fallen from grace to know that they think they’ve sinned so badly that even God couldn’t keep them from sinking.
They were all sure they were the Unsinkable Titanic, in their fancy skirts and low cut necklines and a way to open any door they want. They were all so sure that nothing would cut them down to size, because nothing could. Nothing could stop them. But the naïve waifs get taken for a ride, used up one side and down the other.
Then they are so proud. They think that they are too good to need Jesus, and then they think that they’ve sinned so much that Jesus couldn’t save them.The proud daughters of Eve, they think they are all so special.But they aren’t, not at all.There’s nothing in there that a miracle wouldn’t cure.And there’s nothing so good and sweet and fresh from the farm that isn’t so corrupt that a beggar with two cents worth of truth couldn’t tell was destined for the pit of hell if she didn’t turn around and find the grace of God.
Listen to me, sister and listen good. I’m only gonna tell you this once. You’re lost, and there’s no two ways about it. But the lostness didn’t start when you was shootin’ up the horses, and it didn’t start when you were being some loser’s punching bag, and it didn’t start when you sold your sweet skin for some extra handicap at the big city races. No, it started when you was suckin’ on your mama's milk, and you yelled because you wanted it now, and you wanted it your way. You the sweet little baby who couldn’t do wrong, but you were born in pride and emptiness and you’ve been sucking up the milk of God’s goodness as if He owed you, just cause you’re you.
Oh, Frankie, (sob) Frankie…
And that’s not all. Remember all the sweet and good things you done? Did you think you were so good and swell for all that? Remember the time you made some home canned relish for old Mrs Graber down by the river? You thought you were doing something special didn’t you? We were just twelve or so, but even then clutching at straws, holding on to a spider web, it’s a wonder that you didn’t go sliding into the waiting jaws of hell right then. You were—I was, we all were—born in this bitterness and we were all just disasters waiting to happen--don't you see?
But Frank (sob) why did God do that? Why did God make me so bad? (sob) I didn’t want to be bad, I just couldn’t help myself.
I know, babe, I know. It’s nothing special with you though. And it’s not God’s doing. You remember when that lady from the city moved into the house for troubled girls, and she had that baby with the handicap, because of the drugs she was using?Do ya, babe?
Yeah Frank (sob) I do.
Well that’s the way it is for us. It wasn’t the kid’s fault now was it?
No, not really.
No, babe, it wasn’t the kid’s fault, not at all. Well, it was—but not in the way you might be thinkin’.
I did a little time of sitting before God quietly to think through some dilemmas.
Here's what I found. It's kind of abstract, but I'm trying to describe how I thought through the disconnected ideas, to try in prayer to hear what God might be saying. This is a lot like what happens when you try to hear a prophetic word, after which you have to match it with scripture. But when you're in the moment of listening, it's like following a dream. Prayer, meditation and scripture study all go back and forth. Scientific thought and philosophy is like this sometimes too.
I tried to start out with asking what has been going on with music in my life. In the time of prayer and quietness, I saw connections. One thing leads to another. There's a natural branching of ideas led to friendships and human connections. As I quieted myself and just tried to trust God to lead me to make connections, I saw these things. There would be a dense network that centered on related, repeating patters, with peers, intimate relations, comics, schoolwork and reading, playing guitar and other music, having an aesthetic appreciation of music of different kinds, and trying out different projects, trying to do different things, pursuant to taking various initiatives.
I was expecting to find moments of shame that have locked me in or kept me down, but nothing of shame came to the surface. Quite unexpectedly to me.
What did emerge, on reflection, is that the primary feature of all the positive emotional aspects of life experiences is the exercise of my will to bring something about. Good things would happen in the trail of taking initiative, even very small good things in the course of life, as well as very large cumulative projects taking years and much support from other people.
I'm reminded of the parable of the Talents. The master gives the servant a supply of talents, and says in so many words, I'm trusting you with these--go out there and see what you can do with them! Try this, try that, try the other thing. Just launch out in good faith, you'll see what works, there's no shame in trying thing. You're smart, you'll figure it out. Just, go do something.
The emergent observation, the apparent result of this experiment in quietness, is that it doesn't really matter what the subject is (repeating: whether it is developing peer relationships, or intimate relationships, or involvement with comics at any level, involvement with music at any level, or the execution of projects at any level); but that what decisively does matter is the exercise of my will to make something happen. And the clarity and unmixed attention and effort that I bring to the purpose to which I am attending, whatever that purpose might be; that clarity, attention and effect will yield (one may expect, even plan on) success in life, and happiness in life, and success at my purpose. I will accomplish the thing that I'm trying to do, one might expect, and there will be a lot of satisfaction and happiness both for me and people attached to me.
I was trying to get the experience of "quietness before God" down into words while I still remembered. So if it's a difficult to understand, that makes sense. If you're interested, I'll discuss these things in a personal conversation, if you ask. Thanks so much.
