Wednesday, January 6, 2010

January 8, 2010

Hello All,

For today's post, reread the New York Times article "Making College 'Relevant'" and pages 3-35 in Ariadne's Clue. On page 16, Anthony Stevens writes, "Through evolution we have acquired the capacity to use symbols to connote concepts [. . . ] we can relate one concept to another and, through their interplay, create myths, arts, and religions and make new scientific discoveries. Like all psychobiological capacities, symbol formation has an adaptive formation: it promotes our grasp on reality. It enables us not just to adapt passively to reality but to master it, to adjust reality to our needs."

Your question is this: How do the ideas expressed in this quote relate to the purpose of a university education?