I. THE WORD TO REMEMBER IS _ _ _ _ _ _

II. SOPHIE DISCOVERS THAT EDUCATION IS BORING, p. 12--why? How does education obscure learning?

PRIMARY SOURCE: FROM HARD TIMES BY DICKENS:

CHAPTER II - MURDERING THE INNOCENTS

THOMAS GRADGRIND, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over...
In such terms Mr. Gradgrind always mentally introduced himself, whether to his private circle of acquaintance, or to the public in general. In such terms, no doubt, substituting the words 'boys and girls,' for 'sir,' Thomas Gradgrind now presented Thomas Gradgrind to the little pitchers before him, who were to be filled so full of facts....

'Girl number twenty,' said Mr. Gradgrind, squarely pointing with his square forefinger, 'I don't know that girl. Who is that girl?'

'Sissy Jupe, sir,' explained number twenty, blushing, standing up, and curtseying.

'Sissy is not a name,' said Mr. Gradgrind. 'Don't call yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia.'

'It's father as calls me Sissy, sir,' returned the young girl in a trembling voice, and with another curtsey.

'Then he has no business to do it,' said Mr. Gradgrind. 'Tell him he mustn't. Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What is your father?'

'He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, sir.'...He is a veterinary surgeon, a farrier, and horsebreaker. Give me your definition of a horse.'

(Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.)

'Girl number twenty unable to define a horse!' said Mr. Gradgrind, for the general behoof of all the little pitchers. 'Girl number twenty possessed of no facts, in reference to one of the commonest of animals! Some boy's definition of a horse. Bitzer, yours.'

The square finger, moving here and there, lighted suddenly on Bitzer, ...whereas the girl was so dark-eyed and dark-haired, that she seemed to receive a deeper and more lustrous colour from the sun, when it shone upon her, the boy was so light-eyed and light-haired that the self-same rays appeared to draw out of him what little colour he ever possessed. His cold eyes would hardly have been eyes, but for the short ends of lashes which, by bringing them into immediate contrast with something paler than themselves, expressed their
form....
'Bitzer,' said Thomas Gradgrind. 'Your definition of a horse.'

'Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.' Thus (and much more) Bitzer.

'Now girl number twenty,' said Mr. Gradgrind. 'You know what a horse is.'

A. ISSUE--WHAT KNOWLEDGE IS OF MOST WORTH?
B. WHAT DOES UTILITARIAN MEAN?

III. THE MYSTERY OF THE LETTERS: BE PREPARED TO FOLLOW PLATO BY HAVING OUR COMMON SENSE ASSUMPTIONS CHALLENGED AS A NECESSARY CONDITION FOR OUR JOURNEY:

"...BESIDE REASON, WE MUST ALSO SET THE RESULTS OF NECESSITY. FOR THIS WORLD CAME INTO BEING FROM A MIXTURE OF NECESSITY AND INTELLIGENCE. INTELLIGENCE CONTROLLED NECESSITY BY PERSUADING IT FOR THE MOST PART TO BRING ABOUT THE BEST RESULT, AND IT WAS BY THIS SUBORDINATION OF NECESSITY TO REASONABLE PERSUASION THAT THE UNIVERSE WAS ORIGINALLY CONSTITUTED AS IT IS. {Timaeus: click here for more details}

(This passage has been termed the most important concept in Greek philosophy. Why?).

A. A PRIORI--WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF PARTICULARS.
B. IS THERE A UNIVERSAL CONSTANT?
C. WHAT ARE SOME PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS:

1--CREATION?
2--LIFE AND DEATH
3-- ‘OUGHT’--RAISES VALUE QUESTIONS, and METAPHYSICAL ONES--such as?

IV.--THE LETTER IS A LONG ONE, THE THEME OF WHICH SUGGESTS THAT PHILOSOPHERS ARE DETECTIVES--HOW DOES THIS INVOLVE SCIENCE? NOTE TOO WHAT QUALITY (AS ARISTOTLE NOTED) ALL PHILOSOPHERS MUST HAVE, (P.15)

V. THE METAPHOR OF THE TOP HAT:

A. WHERE ARE WE NOW?
B. WHERE SHOULD WE BE: THE METAPHOR OF THE RABBIT, HAT AND FUR WILL PROVIDE THE DIRECTION.

VI. PHILOSOPHERS MUST BE IMAGINATIVE: NOTE HOW ARISTOTLE, THE CO-FOUNDER OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY BEGINS HIS METAPHYSICS:

All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the
delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness
they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of
sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not
going to do anything, we prefer seeing (one might say) to everything
else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know
and brings to light many differences between things. {BOOK ONE}

A. EXPERIMENTS:

1--WHO IS FROM MARS?
2--CAN DAD FLY?
3--WHO WOULD BE MOST SURPRISED? WHY?
4--WHO WOULD ACCEPT THE PREMISE THAT DAD CAN FLY? WHY?

B. CONCLUSION: COMPARE ARISTOTLE AND DICKENS. WHY ARE ALL OF US POTENTIAL PHILOSOPHERS? WHAT FRUSTRATES THE POTENTIAL. WORDSWORTH KNEW:

My heart leaps up when I behold  
  A rainbow in the sky:  
So was it when my life began,  
  So is it now I am a man,  
So be it when I shall grow old
Or let me die!  
The child is father of the man:  
And I could wish my days to be  
Bound each to each by natural piety.  

C-WHAT IS THE POEM'S KEY LINE?

D-‘THE GREATEST ADVENTURE IS IN THE MIND--WHO IS 'Q'? MY STAR TREK SITE EXAMINES HIS NATURE:

• GREEK GOD?
• VILLAIN?
• PHILOSOPHER KING?
• GOD
  

C. "FADING INTO COMMON DAY" COMES FROM ANOTHER WORDSWORTH POEM. AS AN EXERCISE FIND "ODE INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY," AND STUDY ESPECIALLY STANZA V.--HABITS ARE DANGEROUS---WHY?

VII. ALL THIS IS ABSOLUTE PROOF OF _ _ _ _ _ _ _ FROM AN ADULT'S POINT OF VIEW; NOTE THE PARADOX THAT WORDSWORTH SUGGESTED:

A. SOCRATES
B. JESUS
C. DR. KING
D. HITLER

VIII. SUMMARY OF THE RABBIT, WHITE HAIR AND WHERE WE NEED TO BE:

A. TO BE AT THE TIP OF THE FUR IS NOT COMFORTABLE FOR THE TRUE BELIEVER AS ERIC HOFFER OUTLINED IN HIS BOOK OF THE SAME NAME.
B. WHERE MUST WE GO?
C. IMPORTANTLY, THE 'TEACHER,' DOES NOT WANT SOPHIE TO GROW UP BY TAKING THE WORLD FOR____ WHY?
D. JOHN STUART MILL'S ESSAY ON LIBERTY (CHAPTER III) OFFERS AN INSTRUCTIVE PARALLEL.
E. NOTICE IN THIS CHAPTER THAT A CERTAIN TENSION BEGINS TO DEVELOP BETWEEN SOPHIE AND HER MOTHER. WHY? (P. 21).