Books; The Looming Tower

Looked through the whole forum and couldn't find a thread on books. Swear we had one...

Just finished The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. Bit late coming to the party here but I just want to say it won a Pulitzer for a reason! Finally something has fully spelled out the al-Qaeda mindset and Islamist movement, its history, and implications for me.

 

yeah, I seem to remember a thread or two on books. Started with someone asking for a book recommendation, I think.

Anyway thanks for the mini-reveiw and suggestion. One book that I would like to read is "Save the World on Your Own Time" by Stanley Fish. It discusses why universities and professors should stay away from teaching politics, morality, civic responsibility, etc. and just teach critical thinking.

 

Good ones.

Google: the looming tower summary

Google: Save the World on Your Own Time summary

And fair on using this forum rather than anything goes.. could retitle it: "Media and Tech" but topic sorting is always a shifting target.

 

Ohhh... RICH! Nice of you to co-mingle them to confuse the unwashed.
Lemme parse:

TRADE SCHOOL! What DOES a PoliSci major learn, Don?

We HOPE that the student has enough Liberal Arts background to apply Critical Thinking to the subject.. and that they are allowed to.

- subcurricula: var Lit courses, and applied criticism to them.

Liberal Arts. The Core Curricula for 'Critical Thinking'...PROVIDED 'Critical Thinking' is actually encouraged and/or allowed.
You wanna start a word war on that... we'll jump right into recent Univ of Delaware case.

 

Well, there ya go... Critical Analysis THERE, Don! You shot me down point by point, as usual.

Wonder if you see the irony in that.

 

I think we're talking about the particular circumstances and mindsets incorporated into the Criminal Justice mindset that led up to so many outright clues being ignored.
Like the Gorlick barrier memo.. like the tabling of the Agents' warning on flight schools. Like the Rick Rescorla warning that AQ would try for the WTC again...because they had a record of that.

But that's just me.. whatta I know!

 

Wow 007! I actually completely agree with you in a rather lengthy post on goverment/politics. Didnt think I'd ever see the day.


As for this:

I think your quantum mechanics point is exactly the point that Stanley Fish is trying to make. Dont teach the conclusion, teach students how to reach their own conclusions. Instruct them in proper research, analysis, questioning, logic, writing skills, etc. In high school, I remember my history teacher saying the US WW2 Japanese internment camps were like the Nazi concentration camps. I was actually schocked because at the time I thought the Nazi concentration camps were the worst thing ever, but I've remembered it for all these years so it was actually a good teaching moment. However, rather than just make a statement like that she could've had us contrast and compare the two types of camps. We would have learned a lot of history in the process and would have been free to reach our own conclusion.

I heard Stanley Fish interviewed on NPR and he applied this same reasoning to morality and ethics. Before hearing his points, I would have thought that applying the same thinking to basic ethics is going too far. However, he had some interesting points and that is why I want to read the book.

As for this:

Again, I dont think Fish is arguing that you de-contextualize history, social studies, or government courses. He thinks that you teach skills and assess the ability to analyze. I dont know how he thinks professors should handle the assessment of their students' abilities to support their conclusions or if he thinks conclusions arent neccesary - that is also why I want to read the book.

As far as 'Fog's comments, I must admit I dont exactly follow what he is saying. However, we all know that there are a lot of useless courses in college and some shockingly useless people with college degrees. If more basics were taught and more rigor applied, this might not be true, or as true.