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What do you use to learn about the worldview being expressed in a particular book?...


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I have looked at thegreatbooks.com, and it looks wonderful - but frankly a bit too much to be realistically done here.

 

Is there something I could use that would help explain worldview as a part of the general discussion of the book - rather than having to read a whole separate book?

 

I skimmed Cliff Notes for a couple of books we're reading this year, and I didn't see anything in the bios of the authors. I mean, for example, they mentioned that Jack London supported the views of Nietsche, Marx, etc. - but it didn't explain what those views were, or how those views are expressed in "The Call of the Wild".

 

(Do these things get discussed in Well Educated Mind somewhere? I've only read the novel and poem sections.)

 

Thanks for all your help!

Rhonda

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Omnibus has worldview questions, but those are for specific books. For questions that could apply to any book, try WEM or Teaching the Classics has a World View supplement. To see World view, first you have to ask what the author is saying. What is his message? What does he believe about life after death? What is our purpose on earth? What is the meaning of life? etc. It may help to look at Cliff notes. They won't specifically say this is such and such world view but it will help give the big picture.

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I have found the Wikipedia articles on different worldviews to be a terrific, short, quick way to find out about worldviews -- plus the added bonus at the bottom of the article of a list of works of literature/art which are based on that worldview. Often, just reading the first paragraph is enough. For example, at the start of the year I was trying to remember the difference between nihilism and absurdism, so I looked them up at http://www.wikipedia.com and below is what I found. I also included some links below that to lists of literary/worldview movements, art/worldview movements, and philosophical/worldview schools.

 

Hope that helps! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

"Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a philosophical position that argues that existence is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Nihilists generally assert that objective morality does not exist, and that no action is logically preferable to any other in regard to the moral value of one action over another... They may also claim that there is no reasonable proof or argument for the existence of a higher ruler or creator, or posit that even if higher rulers or creators exist, humanity has no moral obligation to worship them."

 

 

"Absurdism is a philosophy stating that the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe ultimately fail (and, hence, are absurd) because no such meaning exists... Absurdism is related to existentialism and nihilism and has its roots in the 19th century Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard..."

 

 

Some worldview/philosophy terms you may run across:

- gothic

- romanticism

- secularism

- modernism

- post modernism

- Freudianism

- feminism

- existentialism

- surrealism

- naturalism

- nihilism

- absurdism

 

 

And here's a *great* wikipedia list of 1-sentence definitions of many literary movements/worldview terms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_movements

 

 

Wikipedia list of art movements:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_art_movements

 

 

Wikipedia list of philosophies/school of philosophical movements:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_philosophies

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Lori, as always, you amaze me....

 

Do you find this is something you just touch on in your discussions? Or, do you expect these ideas to turn up in essay topics?

 

I mean, I keep trying to remember SWB saying ask a "few" questions from Well-Educated Mind - that high school is an *introduction* - not the end-all, be-all of Great Books Study. And, frankly, I remember being drilled in existentialism in AP English, and being exposed to a few others maybe at church. But the rest? I really have no clue. (blushing - sometimes I'm not sure I'm really cut out for this!)

 

Thanks, Lori!

Rhonda

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To see World view, first you have to ask what the author is saying. What is his message? What does he believe about life after death? What is our purpose on earth? What is the meaning of life? etc.

 

Ok - I think the first question is sort of implied in the WEM questions. I guess I am just feeling compelled not only to describe what *I* think his message is, but what the world has labeled it? Do you think the label is necessary?

 

And, I guess it would be pretty easy to add the other questions in to WEM, too. (Maybe they're there, as well - it's been a while since I worked through our lit for this year, and I didn't do the Rhetoric questions.)

 

Thanks for the info on the TtC Worldviews class. I have TtC here, so I'll have to look that up.

 

Thanks!

Rhonda

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Lori, as always, you amaze me....

 

Do you find this is something you just touch on in your discussions? Or, do you expect these ideas to turn up in essay topics?

 

I mean, I keep trying to remember SWB saying ask a "few" questions from Well-Educated Mind - that high school is an *introduction* - not the end-all, be-all of Great Books Study. And, frankly, I remember being drilled in existentialism in AP English, and being exposed to a few others maybe at church. But the rest? I really have no clue. (blushing - sometimes I'm not sure I'm really cut out for this!)

 

Thanks, Lori!

Rhonda

 

 

Oh heavens no... we just touch on these things. *Once* in awhile a discussion goes more in depth -- but often in a "bunny trail" direction rather than in a directed worldview direction. (lol) And that's with 9th/10th graders. For middle school, it was much more about me pointing out general things -- some symbol used repeatedly; asking where they thought a character's choice would lead; etc.

 

I really like using lit. guides to give me ideas, but we also see a lot just asking those WEM questions. And I'm learning right alongside with the boys as we read/discuss lit. together. Guess that's one reason why I've been really reluctant to just hand over the books to them and have them read/write about them on their own -- I'd be missing out on all that exciting discovery and learning! (lol)

 

As for any papers/essays written on the lit -- just now are the boys beginning to analyze literature via worldview. And the way worldview shows up in a paper at this point is in the initial question (usually from a Progeny Press guide), which they restate as the topic sentence, and then use specific concrete examples from the book to support their answers to the question. Often the papers are really more like a 1-2 paragraph response to a question.

 

 

re: the Great Books guides

As I said, I like having lit. guides to help give me ideas, and to give all of us some great background info and questions to consider. We never end up using every single bit of every single guide. Perhaps you might consider just using a lit. guide once a quarter or once a semester to "go deep". The Garlic Gress Publisher guides are great; Progeny Press lit. guides are really good; the free online Glencoe guides are good; the free Sparknotes online guides give tons of great background and analysis; and we enjoyed the one Great Books guide we've used so far (Beowulf). I see the guides as a tool to help spark some discussion If you're having a great learning adventure using WEM, then stick with that!

 

Just some ramblin' thoughts. :tongue_smilie: Warmest regards, Lori

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