Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel
It can be among your early morning readings Teaching Plato In Palestine: Philosophy In A Divided World, By Carlos Fraenkel This is a soft data book that can be survived downloading from online publication. As recognized, in this innovative era, technology will certainly alleviate you in doing some tasks. Also it is simply checking out the existence of publication soft data of Teaching Plato In Palestine: Philosophy In A Divided World, By Carlos Fraenkel can be additional attribute to open. It is not only to open and also conserve in the gadget. This moment in the early morning and other spare time are to review the book Teaching Plato In Palestine: Philosophy In A Divided World, By Carlos Fraenkel
Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel
Best Ebook PDF Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel
Teaching Plato in Palestine is part intellectual travelogue, part plea for integrating philosophy into our personal and public life. Philosophical toolkit in tow, Carlos Fraenkel invites readers on a tour around the world as he meets students at Palestinian and Indonesian universities, lapsed Hasidic Jews in New York, teenagers from poor neighborhoods in Brazil, and the descendants of Iroquois warriors in Canada. They turn to Plato and Aristotle, al-Ghaz?l? and Maimonides, Spinoza and Nietzsche for help to tackle big questions: Does God exist? Is piety worth it? Can violence be justified? What is social justice and how can we get there? Who should rule? And how shall we deal with the legacy of colonialism? Fraenkel shows how useful the tools of philosophy can be--particularly in places fraught with conflict--to clarify such questions and explore answers to them. In the course of the discussions, different viewpoints often clash. That's a good thing, Fraenkel argues, as long as we turn our disagreements on moral, religious, and philosophical issues into what he calls a "culture of debate." Conceived as a joint search for the truth, a culture of debate gives us a chance to examine the beliefs and values we were brought up with and often take for granted. It won't lead to easy answers, Fraenkel admits, but debate, if philosophically nuanced, is more attractive than either forcing our views on others or becoming mired in multicultural complacency--and behaving as if differences didn't matter at all.
Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel- Amazon Sales Rank: #359604 in Books
- Brand: Fraenkel, Carlos/ Walzer, Michael (FRW)
- Published on: 2015-05-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.80" h x .80" w x 5.80" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 240 pages
Review Winner of the 2015 Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, Quebec Writers' FederationOne of The Australian's Books of the Year 2015 (selected by Aminatta Forna)"What unites [the classroom conversations] is [Fraenkel's] skill in the art of posing questions designed to perplex and provoke. He lets us overhear the Socratic form of dialogue that Plato invented and that Mr. Fraenkel practices much to his students' pleasure, and ours."--Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal"Fresh, iconoclastic, stimulating debates."--Kirkus"The author urges religious people who aren't bound by literalism, secularists who don't dismiss all religion as anachronism, and inquisitive types of all persuasions to try something. First, accept freedom of expression, recognize your fallibility and prepare yourself to revise received assumptions. And then plunge into debates about morality, faith, governance, rights and other matters that divide us . . . the discussions you engage in, as suggested by his and his students' experiences, will likely broaden your horizons and nourish your intellect."--Rayyan Al-Shawaf, Toronto Star"If you read one book published this year, then you might make it Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World."--Aminatta Forna, The Independent"Teaching Plato in Palestine is a slim, straightforward yet surprisingly rich work of philosophy that will intrigue the amateur as well as the expert."--Sarah Gustafson, Key Reporter"Carlos Fraenkel . . . persuasively shows the value of philosophical work that engages the broader public and other cultures. . . . Each [episode in the book] is beautifully described and the results are utterly captivating."--Daniel A. Bell, Literary Review of Canada"A refreshing perspective."--Frank Freeman, The Hedgehog Review"A lively, informative book."--Alexander Orwin, Claremont Review of Books"Fraenkel offers a bold answer to the question of what philosophy has to offer to the non-philosopher. Philosophy is important not because the corporate world needs sharper analysts; not because it exposes myths and emancipates slaves; not because it draws us closer to God. Rather, we, each and every one of us, should philosophise so that we might become more deeply enmeshed in our friends and neighbours' individual quests for truth. This is an inviting vision."--Taneli Kukkonen, Philosophers' Magazine
From the Back Cover
"Carlos Fraenkel thinks that philosophy is essential to a culture of debate that gets us out of our cultural, religious, and intellectual cloisters. We understand ourselves by arguing with others, and understand others by arguing with ourselves. Fraenkel takes these convictions out of the classroom and tests them around the world--from Makassar to East Jerusalem, from Bahia to Brooklyn. The result is a wonderful, engaging, and readable book about the power of philosophy."--Joshua Cohen, coeditor of The Norton Introduction to Philosophy
"In Teaching Plato in Palestine, a book that is as subversive and gripping as Reading Lolita in Tehran, we learn what happens when you teach philosophy in the most unexpected places. Fraenkel is a philosopher of immense erudition who has great faith in the healing power of philosophy, yet he is by no means a faith healer. He questions and argues, and he makes a powerful case for the Socratic ideal of leading an examined life."--Avishai Margalit, author of The Decent Society
"In this inspiring book, Carlos Fraenkel shows that philosophy can be much more than an academic pursuit and that philosophers can play an important role in public life--not by telling people what to think and do, but by offering intellectual tools to help us think through the big questions we're already grappling with in our conflicted world. Fraenkel's lively narratives are a pleasure to read and take us right into the debates he engaged in from Palestine to Brazil. A wonderful argument for the value of philosophy."--Sari Nusseibeh, Al Quds University, Palestine
"This short, interesting, and well-written book provides an insightful and optimistic view on the possibilities that philosophy offers to bridge religious, ethnic, and cultural divides and, perhaps, through a culture of debate, to lower tensions within and between contemporary societies and even improve individual lives. It is a noble project, and Fraenkel describes his experiences in a lively narrative that combines the personal and philosophical."--Steven Nadler, author of A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age
"Teaching Plato in Palestine shows how philosophical thinking can illuminate important topics--in particular, the problem of finding ways to engage people with opposed ideologies in fruitful debate. The lively narratives, based on the author's experiences of working with various groups interested in using philosophical tools to clarify their thought and action, will engage a wide range of readers."--Gary Gutting, University of Notre Dame
About the Author Carlos Fraenkel teaches philosophy and religion at the University of Oxford and McGill University in Montreal. He is the author of Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Nation, the London Review of Books, and the Times Literary Supplement, among other publications.
Where to Download Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Taqlid and a Culture of Debate By Robin Friedman One of the best recent books I have read is Carlos Fraenkel's deeply learned and thoughtful work, "Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy” (2012), The book aims, in the author's words to “lay the groundwork for understanding and tracing the history of what I call a philosophical religion.” The book is a difficult historical study of the relationship of philosophy, reason, and religion from Plato to Spinoza. Fraenkel teaches philosophy and religion at McGill University and at Oxford. He has a varied background which is reflected in his work as he has lived and studied in Germany, Brazil, Israel, and Paris.While Fraenkel's first book was lengthy and erudite, the book I am reviewing here, "Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World" (2015) is relatively short, and it is written for lay readers. Fraenkel sees philosophy more as a process of thinking than as a particular doctrinal teaching, such as existentialism, idealism, logical positivism. He writes: "What I mean is the practice of philosophy; acquiring techniques of debate -- logical and semantic tools that allow us to clarify our views and to make and respond to arguments ..... and cultivating virtues of debate -- valuing the truth more than winning an argument and trying one's best to understand the viewpoint of the opponent." Fraenkel's goal is to show how the study and practice of philosophical thinking as so understood is not merely a matter for academics but rather might help individuals in their own thought on what is important and might also help cultures and groups of different views to understand each other and to get along better. The goal of getting people of different views without necessarily giving up their own position would be of great worth in our currently polarized country. But the examples Fraenkel offers are taken from different sources, some of which might be even more seemingly intractable.The book is in two parts. In the first part, Fraenkel describes five philosophical workshops he conducted between 2006 -- 2011 to try to show students and non-specialists the value of thinking philosophically. The first chapter, for which the book is named, describes Fraenkels' experience in a Palestinian University in which he encourages students to reflect on their strongly-held religious and political commitments. Fraenkel next describes a three-week visit to Indonesia -- a very different Moslem country where he encouraged his interlocutors to think about the long intellectual history of Islam and its relationships to other religions and to a pluralistic society. In the third chapter, Fraenkel explores a variety of theological and philosophical issues with a small group of Hasidic Jews, from both the Satmar and the Lubavitcher sects, who have become uncomfortable with their Orthodoxy. For me, this was the most personal and fascinating part of the book. Then, Fraenkel visits Brazil, the country of his birth, and describes the workings of the government-mandated program of teaching philosophy in high schools and the different ways such a program might be implemented. In the final chapter, Fraenkel meets with Mohawk Indians on the Canadian-United States border and discusses questions of personal identity, history, and government.The second part of the book consists of a single chapter "Diversity and Debate". It is a philosophical essay in which Fraenkel tries to draw lessons from his experiences teaching philosophical thinking to peoples from different cultures. The most striking part of this chapter is the discussion of taqlid. The medieval Islamic philosopher al-Ghazali came to realize that the thinking of most people, himself included, was based on taqlid -- the views he had uncritically absorbed from his early years from family and surroundings. He came to realize the importance of reflecting and perhaps surmounting taqlid -- seeing for example that had he been raised in a Jewish or Christian instead of an Islamic home and land, he surely would have understood things differently. Taqlid becomes a basis for reflecting on one's unexamined assumptions and ideas, much as Socrates tried to get his fellow Athenians to reflect and to think critically.With taqlid comes a sense of fallibilism -- which means that most human beliefs, even those held most strongly, could be otherwise and might be wrong or subject to change and interpretation. Much contemporary philosophy, including that of the American pragmatists, is heavily influenced by concepts of fallibilism. In his free- flowing essay, Fraenkel uses taqlid and fallibilism to encourage what he calls a culture of debate -- in which people of different points of view talk to each other honestly and in friendship to try to discover the bases for their different approaches to important questions for life to promote both understanding of oneself and others. Fraenkel argues that the culture of debate differs from both multiculturalism and relativism in that it is truth directed -- individuals are encouraged to search for what is true and what is right rather than rest in cultural differences. Fraenkel believes that the project of instilling a culture of debate during the latter years of high school would help people develop the conceptual and reflective skills to understand themselves and others.The book is written in an engaging, accessible manner. Fraenkel encourages the reader to think about important questions and brings wonderful company to bear in the figures of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Maimonides, Nietzsche, al-Ghazali, and more. In this American election year, if nothing else, people need to be reminded to reflect on their ideas in a careful, critical way while being mindful of other points of view. This book will appeal to philosophically-inclined readers who want to reflect on the nature of philosophical thought and on its value.Robin Friedman
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five Stars By Mohammed Zaman Quite a different perspective and positive too.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful. WOrth a quick read By Wee Beastie Very interesting approach but could have been more complete and varied.
See all 3 customer reviews... Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos FraenkelTeaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel PDF
Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel iBooks
Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel ePub
Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel rtf
Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel AZW
Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World, by Carlos Fraenkel Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar