On this day
7 years ago ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FACEBOOK
7 years ago ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FACEBOOK
UPDATE: People in Vietnam cannot confirm whether OrWell and Mill were taught in Vietnam, or allowed to be read. They did not respond to my inquiry.
Wendynicolenn Duong
dtersSpnooe280gm ,i7hlt2f2ac290rDefc3bch67mu661ac7cmeu8 801c ·
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FROM SOCRATES TO...THE PIG -- PHILOSOPHY 101!
Today, [for the first time] I sent a "friend" click to [what appears to be] a young man who lives in Hanoi, because of what he put in the intro to himself:
"It is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied" (John Stuart Mill)
I hope he will be reading this and that he is fluent in English, because I can only type in English:
1) The saying is attributed to Stuart Mill. You know what Mill is about: America's capitalism rests on Mill's utilitarianism (Gosh, I have mentioned many "ism's"...SORRY!). Let me go on:
2) "The pig" happens to be a very important character in George Orwell's famous "Animal Farm." When accompanying my law student to Hanoi for a vacationing trip, I saw a copy of it on sale by the peddler lady sitting near the "Hanoi Hilton"
I'd like to ask Co Do Hoang Dieu, a Vietnamese writer and FB friend, whether Mill or Orwell were/are taught in Vietnam today. My guess is No.
3) BTW, the "Socratic Method" (raising questions a la Socratic-Plato style) is the pedagogical base for law teaching in the U.S., something i have adhered to faithfully despite students' grieving during my 10+years of teaching. During my Fulbright lectureship, I tried to explain this concept to students in Hanoi: it's not about memorizing; it's about thinking and asking questions.
The method starts with Socrates' famous saying: "Je ne sais qu'une chose, c'est que je ne sais rien. I only know one thing, and that is I know nothing" (therefore, i must constantly ask). (We need the original in Greek!). Confucius has a similar saying: "To know what you know and to know what you don't know, that's wisdom." (Pls, all FB Viet friends, give me the saying in Vietnamese: something like TRI (know) repeated many times. it's a straight phonetic reading from Chinese text.) I circulated both sayings (together with many others) to law students in Denver and i got a lot of frowns from students who cared very little about philosophy.
I suppose when Socrates and Mill both meet Orwell and his pigs in a Vietnamese classroom, conversing in Greek, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese, you name it (and not just Chinese or Russian), then the country will have its New Wave of true open door policy: "Doi Moi" of the "Doi Moi" (re-renovating the Renovation!).
ARTWORK: Man and the Alphabet, UND C2016 enamel on grained paper. Here is the portrait of the lawyer-philosopher who thinks too much his head and face have turned gray, and letters of the Roman alphabet are dancing all over around him, a la "L'Art Brut" chaotic style! Note that his hair is ld (meaning he was trained in the British Common-Law style, hence wearing a blond wig!)
All reactions:15Hanh Thuc Dam, Phuong Farst and 13 others
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AuthorWendynicolenn Duong
My intellectual lawyer model is "hump-ing" his back from the cargo and burden of life (look at all those dancing letters!), making himself into the hunchback of Notre Dame (without his endearing Esmeralda). Thank you for once existing, Victor Hugo!
Wendynicolenn Duong
dtersSpnooe280gm ,i7hlt2f2ac290rDefc3bch67mu661ac7cmeu8 801c ·
Shared with Public
FROM SOCRATES TO...THE PIG -- PHILOSOPHY 101!
Today, [for the first time] I sent a "friend" click to [what appears to be] a young man who lives in Hanoi, because of what he put in the intro to himself:
"It is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied" (John Stuart Mill)
I hope he will be reading this and that he is fluent in English, because I can only type in English:
1) The saying is attributed to Stuart Mill. You know what Mill is about: America's capitalism rests on Mill's utilitarianism (Gosh, I have mentioned many "ism's"...SORRY!). Let me go on:
2) "The pig" happens to be a very important character in George Orwell's famous "Animal Farm." When accompanying my law student to Hanoi for a vacationing trip, I saw a copy of it on sale by the peddler lady sitting near the "Hanoi Hilton"
I'd like to ask Co Do Hoang Dieu, a Vietnamese writer and FB friend, whether Mill or Orwell were/are taught in Vietnam today. My guess is No.
3) BTW, the "Socratic Method" (raising questions a la Socratic-Plato style) is the pedagogical base for law teaching in the U.S., something i have adhered to faithfully despite students' grieving during my 10+years of teaching. During my Fulbright lectureship, I tried to explain this concept to students in Hanoi: it's not about memorizing; it's about thinking and asking questions.
The method starts with Socrates' famous saying: "Je ne sais qu'une chose, c'est que je ne sais rien. I only know one thing, and that is I know nothing" (therefore, i must constantly ask). (We need the original in Greek!). Confucius has a similar saying: "To know what you know and to know what you don't know, that's wisdom." (Pls, all FB Viet friends, give me the saying in Vietnamese: something like TRI (know) repeated many times. it's a straight phonetic reading from Chinese text.) I circulated both sayings (together with many others) to law students in Denver and i got a lot of frowns from students who cared very little about philosophy.
I suppose when Socrates and Mill both meet Orwell and his pigs in a Vietnamese classroom, conversing in Greek, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese, you name it (and not just Chinese or Russian), then the country will have its New Wave of true open door policy: "Doi Moi" of the "Doi Moi" (re-renovating the Renovation!).
ARTWORK: Man and the Alphabet, UND C2016 enamel on grained paper. Here is the portrait of the lawyer-philosopher who thinks too much his head and face have turned gray, and letters of the Roman alphabet are dancing all over around him, a la "L'Art Brut" chaotic style! Note that his hair is ld (meaning he was trained in the British Common-Law style, hence wearing a blond wig!)
All reactions:15Hanh Thuc Dam, Phuong Farst and 13 others
Write a comment…
AuthorWendynicolenn DuongMy intellectual lawyer model is "hump-ing" his back from the cargo and burden of life (look at all those dancing letters!), making himself into the hunchback of Notre Dame (without his endearing Esmeralda). Thank you for once existing, Victor Hugo!
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