After a major in physics and chemistry. I am reminded that AOC won a prestigious micro-biology science prize in her teens.
“Alumni of the International Science and Engineering Fair… have gone on to create major companies, win the Nobel Prize, and now Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become the youngest member of Congress,” said Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the Society for Science & the Public, and publisher of Science News."
JL - Thanks for the link. AOC is truly amazing. I can't think of anything she wouldn't have excelled at.
Like Obama she was undersold into politics. "Community organizer vs Constitutional Law Professor." "Bartender vs. International Science Award Winner" Marketing works I guess.
I'm not trying to put down bartenders however or community organizers for that matter.
A bartender in Lincoln, NE told me that she had a masters degree in philosophy from UNL. I asked her if she was going to get her PHD. She said, "No, I'd just be one of a thousand bartenders with a PHD in philosophy or political science."
I laughed, but of course she was spot on. I suspect many of us have similar stories about bartenders, waiters and cooks we have had the pleasure to chat with.
Philosophy is way under rated, perhaps because of how, (I get the impression that) it is generally taught, as preparation for for an academic specialty, which if it is once again only preparation for an academic specialty, affords little opportunity for growth. I have some similar thoughts about how the scientific method appears to be taught to those not aiming to be scientific professionals. Education at its best cultivates insights and tools that expand our day to day understandings and competences, and expands our bubble of awareness. I would say something similar about how history is often taught, HCR is an exception.
I attended a college that presented the key philosophical ideas, scientific thinking, and history as an ongoing evolutionary process of our current circumstances as tools that we could incorporate into our own kit, and pick up on the state of understanding where others left off; irrespective of our specific career goals, or pursuits of happiness. That's a WORKING, incorporated understanding of how and why those disciplines work, and why they matter; as opposed to prep for winning quiz shows. It seems like those who are attracted to this forum were exposed to that more process-oriented approach thinking as well.
In my view, every human being builds and accepts a working philosophy, though it seems that few think of it in those terms. MAGA bristles with unexamined philosophical propositions, as does (and am I biased in supposing more actively contemplated benchmarks?) does liberalism. (Is that not part and parcel of what liberalism is?). I see science, my college major, as underpinned by an epistemology, a foundational theory of knowledge, and (at it's best) a commitment to intellectual integrity.
Applied Enlightenment Era philosophy is evident in US founding documents, and those tools abidingly and beneficially put to work (when applied with good faith and integrity) in the guidance of American culture. There is no "finish line", and we remain on that journey.
And she was a Social Worker, too!
After a major in physics and chemistry. I am reminded that AOC won a prestigious micro-biology science prize in her teens.
“Alumni of the International Science and Engineering Fair… have gone on to create major companies, win the Nobel Prize, and now Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become the youngest member of Congress,” said Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the Society for Science & the Public, and publisher of Science News."
https://qz.com/1481551/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-won-a-2007-isef-science-fair-prize-for-her-microbiology-research
JL - Thanks for the link. AOC is truly amazing. I can't think of anything she wouldn't have excelled at.
Like Obama she was undersold into politics. "Community organizer vs Constitutional Law Professor." "Bartender vs. International Science Award Winner" Marketing works I guess.
I'm not trying to put down bartenders however or community organizers for that matter.
A bartender in Lincoln, NE told me that she had a masters degree in philosophy from UNL. I asked her if she was going to get her PHD. She said, "No, I'd just be one of a thousand bartenders with a PHD in philosophy or political science."
I laughed, but of course she was spot on. I suspect many of us have similar stories about bartenders, waiters and cooks we have had the pleasure to chat with.
Philosophy is way under rated, perhaps because of how, (I get the impression that) it is generally taught, as preparation for for an academic specialty, which if it is once again only preparation for an academic specialty, affords little opportunity for growth. I have some similar thoughts about how the scientific method appears to be taught to those not aiming to be scientific professionals. Education at its best cultivates insights and tools that expand our day to day understandings and competences, and expands our bubble of awareness. I would say something similar about how history is often taught, HCR is an exception.
I attended a college that presented the key philosophical ideas, scientific thinking, and history as an ongoing evolutionary process of our current circumstances as tools that we could incorporate into our own kit, and pick up on the state of understanding where others left off; irrespective of our specific career goals, or pursuits of happiness. That's a WORKING, incorporated understanding of how and why those disciplines work, and why they matter; as opposed to prep for winning quiz shows. It seems like those who are attracted to this forum were exposed to that more process-oriented approach thinking as well.
In my view, every human being builds and accepts a working philosophy, though it seems that few think of it in those terms. MAGA bristles with unexamined philosophical propositions, as does (and am I biased in supposing more actively contemplated benchmarks?) does liberalism. (Is that not part and parcel of what liberalism is?). I see science, my college major, as underpinned by an epistemology, a foundational theory of knowledge, and (at it's best) a commitment to intellectual integrity.
Applied Enlightenment Era philosophy is evident in US founding documents, and those tools abidingly and beneficially put to work (when applied with good faith and integrity) in the guidance of American culture. There is no "finish line", and we remain on that journey.
Excellent. Thanks for that.
Thank you, from another chemist.
And a chemist before that!