In order to live, man must act; in order to act, he must make choices; in order to make choices, he must define a code of values … He cannot escape from this need; his only alternative is whether the philosophy guiding him is to be chosen by his mind or by chance.
The quote, from Philosophy and Sense of Life by Ayn Rand, is a less pithy (and less fatalistic) version of Socrates: “An unexamined life is not worth living.”
From A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt:
Margaret: In any State that was half good, you would be raised up high, not here, for what you’ve done already. It’s not your fault the State’s three-quarters bad. Then if you elect to suffer for it, you elect yourself a hero.
Thomas More: That’s very neat. But look now … If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we’d live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all … why then perhaps we must stand fast a little — even at the risk of being heroes.
Now, back to grading essays on business ethics …
We all have days where a small thing makes us unaccountably happy. One of those days, for me, was when we acquired a commercial-grade blender. It had but one speed: “on.” After all, when I put something in the blender I just want it to come out, after a few whirling seconds, blended. This marked the end of unnecessary confusion with an old fourteen-speed blender, which always forced me to ponder whether the button labeled “whip” resulted in faster, slower, or roughly equivalent blending action to the one labeled “frappe.” Why could it not simply be labeled “Speed 8″? After all, eighth gear on a ten speed bike is not called “expeditious” but simply 8th, comfortably nestled between 7th and 9th and respecting the natural order of integers.
How did Starbucks determine that “grande” is smaller than “venti” but bigger than “tall”? Even my four year old comprehends that “large” is bigger than “small,” but understandably can’t differentiate between subtle cross-cultural size differentials in translation. Why is Super High a higher frequency than Ultra High but lower than Extra High?
Yet, I have persevered and mastered the stand-ins for what should be facile ordinal comparisons. Until now.
I am confronted with another simplicity-defying reclassification.
Continue reading »Once a day, we receive an email listing the latest classified ads posted by students, faculty, and staff. In between grading final exams for my game theory class, I notice this ad:
“Totally new”?
When I give exams, I ask students to write their names on the back of the exam only. I prefer not to know whose exam I am grading. I guarantee that this policy benefited the student in question.
As for “never use,” I assume that this reflects poor grammar rather than an indictment of Dixit & Skeath.