I just read an interesting article by Jonah Lehrer at wired.com about learning styles and praise for the intelligence that struck me as being very relevant to this site’s (and my own personal) credo.
From the article:
The problem with praising kids for their innate intelligence — the “smart” compliment — is that it misrepresents the psychological reality of education. It encourages kids to avoid the most useful kind of learning activities, which is when we learn from our mistakes. Because unless we experience the unpleasant symptoms of being wrong — that surge of Pe activity a few hundred milliseconds after the error, directing our attention to the very thing we’d like to ignore — the mind will never revise its models. We’ll keep on making the same mistakes, forsaking self-improvement for the sake of self-confidence. Samuel Beckett had the right attitude: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”
It would seem that we’ve got the right idea around here. Blundering ahead and making mistakes and learning from them leaves you better off than playing it safe and appearing intelligent. So, take risks, act as if you can’t make mistakes. You may be better off for it.
Click below to link to the full article:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/why-do-some-people-learn-faster-2/
This is a paper that I gave at the 12th annual International Conference on Evil and Human Wickedness, 17-19 March 2011 in Prague. It was published in a volume of papers selected from the proceedings of that conference.
Abstract:
The Arabic term hisba is defined classically within Islamic juridical and theological writing as being the divine or prophetic directive for all Muslims to commanding the right and forbid the wrong [al-amr bi-l-ma’rūf wa-l-nāhy ‘an al-munkar]. The Qur’anic directive which is the origin of this principle is and has been interpreted variously throughout Islamic history: ‘[Believers], you are the best community singled out for people: you order what is right, forbid what is wrong, and believe in God.’ Many of the classical theories of hisba and its proper application were developed as a means for a government to control economic and commercial practices by applying an Islamic orthopraxy to market environments. This official enforcement was the duty of the muhtasib [‘market inspector’]. This is the basis for the discussion of hisba in the works of al-Mawardi in his Ahkam al-Sultaniyya [‘The Ordinances of Government’] and Ibn Taymiyya in his major work on the topic, named simply, Al-Hisbah. This paper analyzes several literary historical anecdotes and modern reports of the application of hisba.
To download the e-book/paper, click the link below.
Live Evil: Of Magic and Men, edited by Sophia Vivienne Kottmayer
Citation (Chicago/Turabian):
Martin III, John D. “Primum Non Nocere: Gray Area in Commanding the Right and Forbidding the Wrong.” In Live Evil: Of Magic and Men, edited by Sophia Vivienne Kottmayer, 79-86. Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2011. https://www.interdisciplinarypress.net/online-store/ebooks/evil-monsters-horror/live-evil-of-magic-and-men [accessed February 23, 2012].
