Toward Understanding
The Archaeology of Emotions: What Can Be Read from Certain Elements of Grave Furnishings
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Patrycja Godlewska
Archaeology in the colloquial sense studies the remains of material culture. It arranges catalogues and verifies often established theses. This perception of the discipline can be misleading and hurtful. Over the centuries, archaeologists have recognized subtly visible elements that may indicate a hidden message. These include certain objects identified as grave offerings, how the deceased was laid out and the location of a particular object on a skeleton. The dead did not bury themselves. This was done by the participants in the funeral. Therefore, consciously or not, they created the image of the deceased that we see at the excavation stage. Certain actions may have manifested themselves through mnemonic procedures. These were intended to give the deceased peace of mind and to protect the living from themselves. Sometimes they expressed concern and feelings of grief and emptiness for the deceased. Some grave furnishings may have carried a range of information. The appropriate arrangement or complete absence of furnishings is a deliberate act or an unintended effect? Post-mortem concentration made any activity around the deceased much more difficult. There was a taboo that was strictly adhered to. The aforementioned procedures were in place from the Palaeolithic to modern times. In this paper, I focus on a few selected examples from different eras, which can testify to the use of mnemonic methods. I consider materials from the centenarians. They are placed in an appropriate cultural and historical context to fully demonstrate the cognitive and interpretative possibilities
The Logic of Arguments in the Humanities: A Philosophical Inquiry
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gerardo M. Acay
Courses and/or subjects classified under the term "humane studies" or humanities fulfill a prominent role and are integral to a liberal arts education; as this is conceived in most colleges and universities in the United States of America – outside of the purely technical or vocational institutions. Briefly, humane studies are taught because in these studies the students are introduced to the various ways in which people have reflected or thought about the social, political, moral, aesthetic, and philosophical problems. It is not the answers or conclusions to such problems the great thinkers in the past arrived at; which of course is important, but how they arrived at them. In short, what sort of arguments are adduced; in particular, the structure and logic of arguments? This paper examines the nature of arguments exemplified, used, or employed, in a discipline pace philosophy as a paradigm illustration of the importance of arguments in the humanities. Here we are not limited to an inquiry in "the transfer and translation of ideas" but to make explicit a philosophical inquiry which then involves an examination of theoretical and practical understanding. The paper concludes with a brief observation/contrast where disciplines i.e. mathematical and natural sciences exhibit decision procedure while social sciences and humanities do not.
How Weary, Stale, Flat, and Unprofitable: An Aesthetics of Education - a Modern Lament
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mark Beatham
O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!” [Hamlet, Act One, Scene Two, 1-6] Abstract: This paper addresses the many ways that modern education has become weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, and the personal and societal consequences of that flattening. It begins by identifying the principal agents of this destruction, the “flatteners,” in various forms, principally through aesthetics, but also in social and educational philosophy, and then describes the consequences and possible alternatives to that flattening. Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who was haunted by a ghost, is higher education’s haunting ghost and the host to our exposé. We see in his hauntings what haunts the modern American university, its intellectual and institutional practices, yes, but also its weak defenses against barbarism. From there, we can reimagine and reclaim spirited education, something that could have reanimated the dour Dane, while avoiding the pitfalls along the way. In addition to Shakespeare, we will use aesthetics (principally in architecture, painting, and sculpture) as a rigorous critical means, and include passionate and articulate critics of modern education, including, Wendell Berry, Neal Postman, C. S. Lewis, C. K. Chesterton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rosaria Butterfield, Roosevelt Montas, Paul Johnson, Roger Scruton, and George Steiner.
