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- What, according to our authors/their characters, is the danger
and/or value (to the individual and/or to society) of reading in
general, and of reading traditional or authoritative texts in
particular? (What was the value of Descartes's education, according to
him?) Are some texts or types of text better or worse than others in
this respect? Is the danger and/or value (or the balance between
danger and value) different for the learned and the ignorant? For the
intelligent and the stupid? What about the illiterate: how do texts
affect them?
- A variation on the above: what, according to our authors/their
characters, is the proper relationship between the learned or educated
and the ignorant or uneducated? (Again, you might want to distinguish
between the ignorant but literate and those who can't read at all.)
What dangers exist for each side separately and/or for society as a
whole if the relationship is improperly managed? To what extent should
the learned or educated try to teach the others, and to what extent
might they hope to succeed? Must there or should there be an
important distinction between these two (or three) groups at all? (In
the case of Descartes, you may have to do some reading between the
lines. For example, what audience do you think he is writing for? What
if anything does he assume or claim or demand about the background of
his audience?)
- Here are several possible sources of human knowledge: the
senses; logic and/or reason and/or the intellect; imagination (i.e.,
in some way producing or entertaining sense-like images which do not
come directly through the senses); reading authoritative texts. Which
of these, according to our authors/their characters, is useful or
reliable and which is not? What is the proper relationship between
them? What is or might be or tends to be the actual relationship? (If
the last two are different, then something is or might be or tends to
be wrong.) What kinds of error stem from or affect the use of these
alleged sources of knowledge, and how, if at all, is it possible to
guard against them? (Note: we will hear a lot more from Descartes on
these topics later in the quarter, but you should be able to say at
least something based on what we've already read.)
- Why, according to our authors/their characters, is it important
(or is it important?) that a text be true? (Are there
different ways in which a text can be ``true''? For example: what
would it take to make the First Meditation true or false?)
What are the responsibilities of the author and of the reader in this
respect? (Remember that Descartes and Cervantes present themselves
both as readers and as writers. Also remember that Don Quixote
is both about a reader, Don Quixote, and addressed to readers: us.)
What problems might be caused by attempting to produce true texts
and/or by looking for truth in texts and/or by testing or questioning
the truth of texts?
- What, according to our authors/their characters, is the
relationship between the interpretation of texts and the
interpretation of nature/of the world/of the evidence of our senses?
How are they (or should they be) similar or different? Do they require
the same or different skills? Would being good at one, or spending a
lot of time at one, help with the other, or would it hurt, or would it
be irrelevant? (The modern university, or part of it, is often split
into natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Would our
authors and/or their characters think that that is a mistake? Don't
assume they would all agree with each other!)
Next: About this document ...
Up: HUMA 11600, Winter 2003,
Previous: Instructions
Abe Stone
2006-01-03