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THROWBACK? “WHAT’S A ‘THROWBACK’?”

May 5, 2018
EDUCATION AND LEARNING, THINKING AND THOUGHT

“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?  Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten…”  George Orwell, 1984

Newspeak influences and limits thought by decreasing the range of expressiveness of the English language, by eliminating ambiguity and nuance from the language, and so reduce the language to simple concepts.  The user’s range of thought is diminished, realized with a minimal vocabulary of limited denotation and connotation.  This is done chiefly by eliminating undesirable words, and by stripping such words as remain of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meaning whatever.  [Wikipedia]

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more or less.”  “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”  “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master–that’s all.”  Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass 

TBT on FB?  Any photo captioned “throwback” and posted by one whose memories are still live, and the feelings wanted to be expressed.  Throwback indicates the time which has passed, or things which happened in past time.  Now it is a time for re-feeling.  

Yes, it means something from the past.  More specifically, it usually means something that is nostalgic, something with memories, something back in the day, something old school.  

Throwback could be a sudden reminder of the past–a person or a thing–that seems to belong to an earlier period of time or that makes one think of an earlier period of time, not always necessarily in one’s own experience, like “a throwback to the 1950s when he saw a [1954] picture of me in my blue suede shoes.”

Blue Suede Shoes 1954

Perhaps it is simply a decorated birthday cake, or wedding dress–designs or “a reversion to an earlier ancestral characteristic.”  “Those tail lights on the new Ferrari remind me of…”   “Don’t her melodies remind you of early Joan Baez?”  “He stands like Shoeless Joe Jackson.”

A person or thing that is similar to an earlier type, like a…throwback.

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“DEFINE YOURSELF!”

October 24, 2016
EDUCATION AND LEARNING, IDEAS, THINKING AND THOUGHT
3 Comments

Stop all the clocks,…
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;…–W. H. Auden

* * *

EXPERT: One who usually has advanced knowledge AND skills in a field and who UNDERSTANDS technical language and information in that field.  (He or she handles THEORY and practical applications with ease.)

PROFESSIONAL (non-expert): One who has the education and the ability to read and to understand difficult and technical information in a field.  (She or he is able to handle practical information and applications with some ease.)

GENERALIST:  A person with a broad general knowledge, especially one with more than superficial knowledge in several areas and the ability to combine ideas from diverse fields.

HUMANIST: Someone trained in the humane letters of the ancient classics, who uses those skills, or studies the humanities as opposed to the sciences.

SOCIALIST: A socialist is one who believes in “socialism” yet finds it difficult to define “socialism.”  (There are “socialists,” and then there are “socialists.”)  (One who collects monthly Social [-ist] Security income checks and complains only about the amount.) 

THEORIST: One who formulates principles or assumptions into some kind of system for understanding, whether scientific or not, or who attempts to provide explanations for “wonderosities” or “events.”

REALIST: One who deals with objective data, “just the facts”; one who “sees” practicalities, using the past and the present to extrapolate for the future.

IDEALIST: One who is not usually a pragmatist/realist, but is one who cherishes noble, often “ideal” principles.  Sometimes the idealist is seen as a visionary reformer, optimist, dreamer, perfectionist, and “romantic” with lofty goals–often impracticalities. 

PLAGIARIST:  One who dishonestly presents words or thoughts of another as if they were those of the writer or the speaker himself or herself.

OPTIMIST:  Someone who always seems to believe that good things will happen, seeing the brightness of the half-full glass, most often taking a favorable view of dire situations while predicting positive outcomes. 

* * *

In 1989, at Stockholm, the 18th Congress of the Socialist International adopted a new Declaration of Principles, saying: Democratic socialism is an international movement for freedom, social justice, and solidarity.  Its goal is to achieve a peaceful world where these basic values can be enhanced and where each individual can live a meaningful life with the full development of his or her personality and talents, and with the guarantee of human and civil rights in a democratic framework of society.”  [–Wikipedia]

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“OH, THAT’S JUST A THEORY!”

March 2, 2016
EDUCATION AND LEARNING, THINKING AND THOUGHT

“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”–Chinese proverb

THEORY: a set of assumptions from which a set of empirical laws (or principles) may be derived.

Good theory leads to new knowledge, serves as a guide to new knowledge by suggesting testable hypotheses. (Theory does produce hypotheses.)

See: Germ theory, Atomic theory, Maslow’s Theory of need.

Theory: is a tool for inquiry; provides a general explanation for phenomena; provides a method of investigation; organizes logically by selecting facts; orders observations and experiences.

Theory DESCRIBES, ANALYZES, PREDICTS

THEORY is what I learn; PRACTICE is what I do.

Properties of theory: generalizability, longevity, reliability, dynamic, adaptability, stimulating (for further knowledge), objectivity, useful (utilitarian), predictability, not true or false but useful or not.

Theory is difficult to define; it is even often difficult to have agreement on the concepts of the definitions.

Theory is not a law, but is a set of assumptions from which a set of empirical laws or principles may be derived–derived by purely logico-mathematical procedures.

Theory is a set of assumptions or generalizations supported by related philosophical assumptions and scientific principles.

Theories serve as a basis for PROJECTING hypotheses which suggest a course of action; the hypotheses are then subjected to scientific investigation; the findings are evaluated to validate NEW scientific principles and philosophical assumptions. [Theory in Action]

Theories tell us what facts to look for, select facts, allow (help) us to ask the right questions.

“Well, that’s all fine and good. But it’s just theoretical.”

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