Animal Farm - George Orwell: Freedoms lost one by one. Commandments changed one by one. Windmills destroyed, first by a storm, then by the Germans - I mean the neighboring farm. Boxer's worked to death, then turned into glue and sold for whiskey money. Pigs walk upright, put on clothes, in the end, they look just like the humans and "Animal Farm" becomes "Manor Farm" again. It's the slow decent to tyranny that's so compelling in this story. Slow, stepwise descent, manipulation of language and shady explanations by the "pigs" in charge, and the low growls of the "dogs" behind them as social pressure. What are you going to do? Two weapons to counter with: truth, courage.
Of Democritus and Heraclitus - Montaigne: "All motion discovers us" - i.e. shows who we are. Caesar is Caesar both at home as well as on the world-stage. We must give an account of our externals, not them of us. Laughing at the world is better because scorn of foolishness is better than weeping and knitting yourself to it (at least in your heart, then you weep over it). Lot of Stoicism in this. All motion discovers us - agreed. World shouldn't infect us - agreed. We're still called to be in the world though (Christians are, at least).
Federalist Papers #49 - Madison or Hamilton (neither wants to take credit for this one, apparently): I don't know if I was just tired when I read this, but it seemed that this one was the least coherent so far. I'm really not sure what they were even arguing for. These elements were involved: branches of government overstepping their limits, appeals to the people as the foundation for change, legislature is the most likely to bully the other branches.
The Republic, Book VII - Plato: Cave described. Captives are forced to watch flickering shadows on the wall, that's the only reality they know. But if you escape, work your way out of the cave, see light of sun (i.e. the world of being, not of becoming), you won't want to come back. Guardians must be compelled to come back down and rule though (Montaigne would disagree, methinks). Arts to produce these guardians: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy. And, like the One ring, dialectic to rule them all. Oh, and contingency bad too because of its relation to 'becoming'. Educational schedule outlined. With this as an influence, it's somewhat easy to predict the Greek tendency toward gnostic disapproval of material world with: devaluing of 'becoming' and study of/trust in the contingent world. No modern science for Plato.
Autobiography of Charles Darwin - Charles Darwin (surprise): He wasn't very special growing up. He loved collecting though, and science in general. He was perpetually bored in school. Most of his true scientific education was through science as a hobby and his informal friendships with the various scientific men of his time. His voyage on the Beagle was "most important event" in his life. Worked constantly while there. At Cambridge for a few years afterwards presenting Beagle work, then married and off to London. Poor health made him retreat to live rest of life in country. His major advantages: unquenchable interest in science, mind that cannot cease to collect and synthesize, patience, common sense. Also an amazing illustration of the communal aspect of biological research. Without the community collecting and sharing samples ad infinitum, the British Empire's maritime system, the leisure time w/in a gentlemen society, etc. - there's no Darwin. There's no Newtons in biology that can just hole-up and genius out some world-changing theories before they're old enough to drink.
The Process of Thought, Ch. X-XII - John Dewey: Concepts are established meanings. Concepts are crucial because they help us to generalize things (instead of being overwhelmed with a new flood of data at each moment) and serve as standards of reference. Education must lead to conceptualizing. Teachers make mistakes of either giving too much detail that gets in the way of forming the general concepts, or talking in terms that are too remote from the students' experience and thus the concepts are meaningless. Good discussion on the relations to scientific method and experimentation, though it need not be "scientific" in the modern sense - that is, dealing only with natural science. Again, a lot seems to depend on how the notion of an idea's "usefulness" is defined. Is he assuming that people are born a "tabula rasa" (blank slate)? How would this all change if there is no blank slate?
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