The Learn Tracker
...life-long learning: structured, organized, searchable...

My name is Edward Tanguay.
I have a Bachelors degree in Philosophy, a Masters in Education, and am currently working as a web developer in Berlin, Germany.

I watch over 200 college-level MOOC lectures per year in subjects such as history , psychology, science, religion, art, philosophy, and IT development in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian, and record my notes here.
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edward [at] tanguay.info

Learning Activity by Month:

The primary goal of this Learn Tracker project is to build a web site which serves as one place to record the notes of everything that I am learning from MOOC classes, to foreign languages, to useful code examples and technical how-to notes, so that I not only have an overview of what I have learned, but can search and recall these notes at any time.

The secondary goal of this Learn Tracker project is to work together with companies, universities, and MOOC providers to build software that allows employees, students, and learners to record what they are learning in an efficient way so that it serves not only as (1) a record of what they have learned, but also (2) a place for them to review and search what they have learned.

Since January 2013, I have watched and recorded notes on over 300 MOOC lectures from over 30 different courses in both English and French, and have watched and recorded notes and flashcards on over 50 foreign language videos in Italian, French and Spanish. (I am curently still adding notes I took from 2013 and plan to be caught up by the end of January 2014.

April 2014 Learn Certificate
Watched and took notes on 23 college lectures:
Learned 21 vocabulary words:
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Learned about 28 people:
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Corrected 16 misspelling:
amonia, aphetimins, Confucionism, pasttimes, atrition, Scandanavia, parsely, Napolean, astroid, milleseconds, Niagra, Machieaveli, resistence, desparate, liberaly, obediant
Recorded 43 Flashcards from MOOC lectures:
  • what are the non-Arab countries in the Middle East
                        
  • what was the name of the greatest minister of the sultan in the Ottoman Empire, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissable only by the sultan himself
                        
  • what was the name of the reorganization of the Ottoman Empire between 1839 and 1876
                        
  • who was Germany's Elvis
                        
  • ...he writes elsewhere... (FRENCH)
                        
  • I would say that... (FRENCH)
                        
  • a lot of things (FRENCH)
                        
  • a phenomenon of any kind (FRENCH)
                        
  • and leads us to assume (FRENCH)
                        
  • as a starting point (FRENCH)
                        
  • as legal rights (FRENCH)
                        
  • be accompanied by mechanisms (FRENCH)
                        
  • but the damage is done (FRENCH)
                        
  • however it is important to do (FRENCH)
                        
  • ideally,... (FRENCH)
                        
  • in all respects (FRENCH)
                        
  • in relation to politics (FRENCH)
                        
  • instead of others (FRENCH)
                        
  • let's try to further clarify this notion, (FRENCH)
                        
  • namely (FRENCH)
                        
  • pr. Dans les faits eux-mêmes (FRENCH)
                        
  • pr. il fait de tous collectivement (FRENCH)
                        
  • pr. mauvaise foi (FRENCH)
                        
  • pr. à partir de la phrase 10 (FRENCH)
                        
  • refers to two or three dimensions (FRENCH)
                        
  • suffice it to say that... (FRENCH)
                        
  • that I highlighted (FRENCH)
                        
  • that strictly overlap (FRENCH)
                        
  • that we just stated (FRENCH)
                        
  • that which they share with Sartre (FRENCH)
                        
  • the connection between means and results (FRENCH)
                        
  • the development of the individual (FRENCH)
                        
  • the relations that they maintained (FRENCH)
                        
  • their religious affiliation (FRENCH)
                        
  • this requirement (FRENCH)
                        
  • we will talk more about this in this course (FRENCH)
                        
  • what is this about? (FRENCH)
                        
  • what values underlie them? (FRENCH)
                        
  • which I did not include in the text (FRENCH)
                        
  • which belonged mainly to the post-war period (FRENCH)
                        
  • who are among the most famous (FRENCH)
                        
  • you have to be more precise (FRENCH)
                        
  • you will see that I... (FRENCH)
                        
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION AUX DROITS DE L'HOMME, Université de Genève
•
les droits de l'homme
•
subjectifs
•
impliquent donc toujours une relation entre deux parties
•
1. le titulaire
•
2. la personne qui est tenue au respect du droit... view all notes
Vocabulary:
exigence, n. ce qui est nécessaire, indispensable (les exigences de la nature) ⇒ "Cette exigence on la retrouve aussi dans la résolution 41/120."
revêtir, v. avoir, prendre telle forme, tel aspect, tel caractère ⇒ "Celle-ci dit, en effet, que les droits de l'homme doivent revêtir un caractère fondamental et procéder de la dignité et de la valeur inhérente à la personne humaine."
éviter, v. passer à côté de quelque chose de dangereux, de pénible ⇒ "Il faut éviter une banalisation des droits de l'homme, une dilution par une prolifération."
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
•
economic growth is not only dependent on a trust in the future and the willingness of people participating in a capitalist system to reinvest their profits in increasing production, economic growth also requires energy and raw materials
•
we often hear that energy and raw materials as we know them today will not exist forever, and we wonder what will happen when they run out and as they begin to run out
•
what has happened, however, historically, is that every time there is a threat that dwindling resources will slow down the economy, there is an increased amount of investment into scientific research to find new resources
•
scientists have for the most part always found ways to exploit existing resources more efficiently or to discover completely new types of raw materials in order that the economy can continue to grow
•
consider the vehicle industry... view all notes
Vocabulary:
joule, n. [jool] a unit of energy, work, or amount of heat equal to the energy expended in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one meter, or in passing an electric current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm for one second ⇒ "A gram of TNT releases 4100-4602 joules upon explosion."
exajoule, n. [EX-ah-jool] a unit of energy (EJ) equal to one quintillion joules, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan had 1.41 EJ, and annual energy consumption in the United States is 94 EJ ⇒ "The annual energy consumption in the United States is about 94 EJ (exajoules), and the annual energy consumption of the world is about 500 EJ."
People:
George Stephenson (1781-1848)
English civil engineer who created steam locomotive
  • 1830: opened Liverpool and Manchester Railway
  • "Father of the Railways"
  • Victorians considered him a great example of diligent application and thirst for improvement
  • rail gauge of 4 feet 8.5 inches is called the "Stephenson gauge" and is the world's standard gauge
Fritz Haber (1868-1934)
German-Jewish chemist who developed method for synthesizing ammonia
  • won 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • enabled Germans to create explosives during WWI since there was a lack of saltpeter to create explosives, and if it wasn't for his discovery, Germany would have been forced to surrender long before 1918
  • food production for half the world's current population depends on this method for producing fertilizer
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
•
the industrial revolution was the result of combining cheap and abundant energy and raw materials
•
this was felt first in agriculture
•
when thinking of the industrial revolution, we usually think of cities and factories and terrible working conditions
•
machines such as tractors began to do the work which had been performed by humans and animals or not performed at all
•
artificial fertilizers... view all notes
People:
Harry Harlow (1905-1981)
American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation, dependency needs, and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys
  • demonstrated the importance of care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development
  • worked at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • research in the 1950s
  • worked with Abraham Maslow (hierarchy of needs)
  • his experiments were controversial since they included rearing infant macaques in isolation chambers for up to 24 months
Monday, April 7, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
•
Critical gambles at the end of 1941
•
the grand strategy for the U.S. up to 1941 was "Germany First", so why did the war with Japan begin?
•
America hoped to deter Japan from attacking
•
put sanctions on Japan constraining oil and vital resources
•
wanted to keep the Japanese from attacking the Soviet Union, which succeeded (!)... view all notes
People:
George Marshall (1880-1959)
Chief military adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt famous for his leadership roles during World War II and after
  • was Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense
  • hailed as the "organizer of victory" by Winston Churchill for his leadership of the Allied victory
  • Marshall's name was given to the Marshall Plan
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
PROBLÈMES MÉTAPHYSIQUES À L'ÉPREUVE DE LA POLITIQUE, 1943-1968, École normale supérieure
•
les problèmes métaphysiques à l'épreuve de la politique commence en 1943
•
L'Être et le Néant (1943)
•
un essai d'ontologie phénoménologique
•
le objectif était d'affirmer que l'existence individuelle précède l'essence individuelle et de démontrer que le libre arbitre existe
•
il faut pour comprendre cet livre de passer par la métaphysique singulière de livre... view all notes
Vocabulary:
entamer, v. commencer, débuter, engager ⇒ "Il s'imposait donc de l'entamer avec le plus célèbre livres de philosophie qui sont publiés en France cette année-là et qui n'est autre que L'être et le néant de Jean Paul Sartre"
People:
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961)
Phénoménologue français, fortement influencé par Edmund Husserl et Martin Heidegger
  • la Phénoménologie de la perception (1944), Merleau-Ponty a voulu montrer que la perception n'était pas la résultante d'atomes causaux de sensations
Emmanuel Lévinas (1906-1995)
Un philosophe français d'origine lituanienne
  • l'un des premiers à introduire en France la pensée de Husserl et celle de Heidegger
Jean Genet (1910-1986)
Auteur français qui soutenu sur Sartre et duquel Sartre a écrit un livre
  • il exalte la perversion, le mal, l'homosexualité et l'érotisme, à travers la célébration de personnages ambivalents au sein de mondes
  • Sartre écrit une œuvre sur lui (Saint Genet, comédien et martyr), en faisant l'« exemplum » de sa philosophie existentialiste. Ce livre déprimera profondément Genet et l'empêchera d'écrire, selon ses propres dires8, pendant près de dix ans tant sa « mécanique cérébrale y était décortiquée » (Genet faisant ici allusion à la théorie des « tourniquets » développée par Sartre à son sujet).
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST, Tel Aviv University
•
What is the Middle East?
•
in the Middle East, both geography and time has been defined by outsiders
•
geography
•
if you look at cities from the perspective of Istanbul, Cairo or Tel Aviv, it's not apparent that they are in the middle or at the east of anything
•
the term Middle East makes sense if you are looking at this area of the world from Paris, London or Washington... view all notes
People:
Mustafa Reşid Pasha (1800-1858)
Ottoman statesman and diplomat, known best as the chief architect behind the Ottoman government reforms known as Tanzimat
  • born in Istanbul
  • 1834: ambassador to France
  • 1836: ambassador to the United Kingdom
  • was Grand Vizier six times
Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914)
United States Navy flag officer, geostrategist, and historian
  • the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century
  • his concept of sea power was based on the idea that countries with greater naval power will have greater worldwide impact
  • book: The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
  • 1902: first used the term "Middle East" in an article
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
PROBLÈMES MÉTAPHYSIQUES À L'ÉPREUVE DE LA POLITIQUE, 1943-1968, École normale supérieure
•
violences du système colonial
•
mystification
•
cet oubli, cette minimisation, cette façon de ne pas voir
•
jamais celle-ci n'a été aussi forte qu'appliquée au système colonial
•
la mystification tente de s'en sortir en distinguant les bons des mauvaise colons... view all notes
People:
Frantz Fanon (1925-1961)
Un psychiatre et essayiste français martiniquais fortement impliqué dans la lutte pour l'indépendance de l'Algérie
  • durant toute sa vie, il cherche à analyser les conséquences psychologiques de la colonisation à la fois sur le colon et sur le colonisé
  • Sartre a écrit une préface pour son livre "les damnés de la terre"
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MUSIC OF THE BEATLES, University of Rochester
•
1960-1962 Hamburg and Liverpool
•
the Liverpool scene was extremely active, but was made up of many amateurs who had day jobs, a rich musical environment
•
conducive to young musicians
•
pop music in West Germany in late 1950s and early 1960s
•
Schlager scene... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
•
one of the most important developments in the industrial revolution was the changes that took place in agriculture
•
it enabled smaller and smaller number of farmers to produce more and more food
•
this enabled other people to move to the city to start working in offices and producing all kinds of cars, refrigerators, etc.
•
this created a new problem:
•
the modern, capitalist economy must constantly grow... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION AUX DROITS DE L'HOMME, Université de Genève
•
Déclaration Universelle des Droits
•
adoptée par l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies le 10 décembre 1948 à Paris au palais de Chaillot
•
tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits
•
est normative et non descriptive
•
ils sont doués de raison et de conscience... view all notes
People:
George Martin (1926-)
English record producer who helped produce the Beatles first albums
  • the "Fifth Beatle"
  • considered one of the greatest record producers of all time, with 30 number one hit singles in the United Kingdom and 23 number one hits in the United States
  • head of EMI's Parlophone label
  • Brian Epstein contacted him about Beatles
Brian Epstein (1934-1967)
English music entrepreneur, managed the Beatles until his death in 1967
  • discovered Beatles during lunchtime Cavern Club performance
  • secured meeting with George Martin, head of EMI's Parlophone label
  • often stepped in to mediate personal disputes among the group
  • Beatles had unquestioned loyalty to Epstein which led to them sometimes not reading contracts they signed
Francisco Suárez (1548-1617)
Un philosophe et théologien jésuite espagnol, l'un des plus grands scolastiques après Thomas d'Aquin
  • il écrivit abondamment, sur un grand nombre de sujets
  • pendant sa vie, il est considéré comme le plus grand philosophe et théologien de l'époque
  • ses écrits d'exercer une influence considérable, notamment sur Descartes et Leibniz
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
•
why did the Allies win WWII?
•
which model of government would be most effective in mobilizing its resources to pass the ultimate test of survival in an all out war
•
Germany: War of Annihilation
•
Nazis had a vision of a New World Order, one in which a master race which they defined would be on top, and all the other races would be subordinate
•
1942: large area of Europe under their control... view all notes
People:
Harry Hopkins (1890-1946)
Franklin Roosevelt's chief diplomatic advisor during WWII
  • in WWII was key policy maker in the $50 billion Lend-Lease program that sent aid to the Allies
  • one of the architects of the New Deal program
  • directed the WPA (Works Progress Administation) which became the largest employer in the country
Friday, April 18, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE NEW NORDIC DIET , University of Copenhagen
•
why there is a need for a Nordic Diet
•
many diseases today are diet related
•
concern for the environment and the planet's health calls for an update for the food culture in many countries
•
goals are to improve:
•
health... view all notes
Vocabulary:
silage, n. fermented, high-moisture stored fodder which can be fed to ruminants, or cud-chewing animals such as cattle and sheep ⇒ "Beans and lentils can often be used to make silage for livestock."
legume, n. a plant grown agriculturally, primarily for their food grain seed (e.g. beans or lentils) and for livestock forage and silage, well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soybeans, and peanuts ⇒ "Legumes are among the best protein sources in the plant kingdom."
selenium, n. a chemical element with symbol Se and atomic number 34, discovered in 1817 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, dietary selenium comes from nuts, cereals, meat, mushrooms, fish, and eggs ⇒ "Fish and shellfish are a good source of vitamin D, iodine, and selenium."
fatty acid, n. a carboxylic acid with a long aliphatic tail, which is either saturated or unsaturated, the most widely distributed fatty acid is oleic acid, which is abundant in some vegetable oils (e.g., olive, palm, peanut, and sunflower seed) and which makes up about 46 percent of human fat, mono-unsaturated fats are the good fats, e.g. olive oil and canola oil, fats to steer clear of are the saturated fats such as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils ⇒ "Fatty acids that have double bonds come in two forms: trans and cis."
oleic acid, n. [oh-LAY-ik] a fatty acid that occurs naturally in various animal and vegetable fats and oils ⇒ "Oleic acid is emitted by the decaying corpses of a number of insects, including bees and triggers the instincts of living workers to remove the dead bodies from the hive."
carboxylic acid, n. [kar-BOX-il-ik] carboxylic acids are a group of important organic chemicals, e.g. vinegar contains ethanoic acid, which is a carboxylic acid ⇒ "A fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with a long aliphatic tail."
aliphatic, adj. aliphatic compounds are those in which the protein side chain contains only carbon or hydrogen atoms, aliphatic compounds can be saturated, like hexane, or unsaturated, like hexene ⇒ "A fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with a long aliphatic tail."
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
CALVIN: HISTOIRE ET RÉCEPTION D'UNE RÉFORME, Université de Genève
•
quel est le sens de la vie humaine, il y a deux parties:
•
1. connaissance de Dieu
•
Calvin aime bien ce terme "la sagesse"
•
mais il déteste le terme "théologie"
•
si on avait voulu insulter Calvin, la meilleure chose à faire, ça aurait été de lui dire: vous n'êtes qu'un théologien... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST, Tel Aviv University
•
it is customary in the writing of Middle East history to start the modern era with Napoleon invading Egypt in 1798
•
this issued in a long period of rapid and radical change
•
but there is an assumption that the beginning Middle East history with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt
•
that the modern era was created through European influence and supremacy on an era that is in decline and stagnant
•
Benedetto Croce: history is always writing about contemporary history... view all notes
People:
Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531)
Un réformateur religieux suisse qui en 1523 parvient à faire adopter la Réforme par le canton de Zurich
  • il était le principaux réformateur en Suisse alémanique, tandis que Guillaume Farel et Jean Calvin sont les principaux réformateurs en Suisse romande
  • en 1525 Felix Manz, Conrad Grebel, George Blaurock pensait que Zwingli n'était pas assez radicale, et ils ont formé les Frères suisses, qui ont devenu les Mennonites
Felix Manz (1498-1527)
Le cofondateur des Frères suisses (qui ont devenu les Mennonites), considéré comme l'un des pères et premier martyr de l'anabaptisme
  • participe aux premiers baptêmes d'adultes célébrés à Zurich le 21 janvier 1525 dans la maison de sa mère
  • en mars 1526, le conseil de Zurich signe un édit rendant le baptême d'adulte punissable de mort par noyade4. Felix Manz est exécuté le 5 janvier 1527
Benedetto Croce (1866-1952)
Italian philosopher who wrote on history writing and aesthetics
  • originally supported Mussolini in 1922 but by 1925 created the Manifesto of the AntiFascist Intellectuals
  • history should be written by philosophers, history is "philosophy in motion", there is no cosmic design or ultimate plan in history, and that science of history is a farce
Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566)
The tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1520-1566) whose conquests were checked at the Siege of Vienna in 1529
  • under his rule, the Ottoman fleet dominated the seas from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and through the Persian Gulf
  • after him, the Ottoman Empire was in a linear state of decline
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
PROBLÈMES MÉTAPHYSIQUES À L'ÉPREUVE DE LA POLITIQUE, 1943-1968, École normale supérieure
•
Camus et Merleau-Ponty
•
a connu avec Sartre une amitié
•
mais aussi une rupture très profonde motivée d'abord par des questions politiques
•
il partagent avec Sartre: le problème de l'existence, c'est à dire l'existentialisme
•
mais qu'ils n'en proposent pas la même solution... view all notes
Vocabulary:
épaisseur, adj. troisième dimension d'un solide avec la longueur et la largeur; qui est replié plusieurs fois, par ex. un papier ⇒ "C'est par notre corps que nous sommes au monde parmi les hommes et que le temps lui-même n'est pas une pure distance, un pur arrachement, un pur projet, mais aussi une épaisseur et une vie."
People:
Albert Camus (1913-1960)
Philosophe et nouvelliste français, et un journaliste militant engagé dans la Résistance française
  • il a développé un humanisme fondé sur la prise de conscience de l'absurde de la condition humaine
  • sa critique du totalitarisme soviétique lui vaut les anathèmes des communistes et coupe les ponts avec Jean-Paul Sartre
Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)
Un philosophe autrichien de naissance puis prussien, fondateur de la phénoménologie
  • Martin Heidegger fut son élève
  • Jean-Paul Sartre développera la phénoménologie dans un sens existentiel, en subissant l'influence de Heidegger
Monday, April 21, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
•
the industrial revolution gave humankind control of enormous sources of energy and raw materials
•
this liberated humankind from its dependence on the surrounding ecosystem, humans could now:
•
cut down forests and jungles
•
drain swamps
•
dam rivers... view all notes
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
ART HISTORY FOR ARTISTS, ANIMATORS AND GAMERS, California Institute of the Arts
•
Jacques-Louis David, "Intervention of the Sabine Women", 1799
•
very complicated painting
•
very large, almost cinematic in its scale
•
tells of a complicated story drawn from Roman history
•
observe the feet of the figures... view all notes
Vocabulary:
métier, n. [may-tee-AY] any activity that is pursued as a trade or profession, a calling ⇒ "It caused me to think anew about the different ways artists look at art based on their métier."
orthogonal, adj. relating to or composed of right angles ⇒ "He used the convergence of othagonal lines to create the illusion of depth."
People:
Piero della Francesca (1415-1492)
Early Renaissance painter whose painting was characterized by its serene humanism, its use of geometric forms and perspective
  • also a mathematician and geometer, but appreciated today for his art
  • his most famous work is the cycle of frescoes "The Legend of the True Cross" in the church of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Arezzo
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
Preeminent Neoclassical French painter moved from Rococo frivolity to classical austerity
  • became active supporter of French Revolution and friend of Robespierre
  • was effectively a dictator of the arts under the French Republic (1792-1804)
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
ANDY WARHOL, The University of Edinburgh
•
Andy Warhol's early life
•
interest in celebrities began at a young age
•
collected signed portraits of Hollywood stars
•
Mae West
•
Shirley Temple... view all notes
People:
Mae West (1893-1980)
American actress and sex symbol known for her bawdy double entendres
  • controversial and had constant problems with censorship and the repetitive sameness of consumer culture
Shirley Temple (1928-2014)
American actress who began who film career in 1932 at the age of three
  • as an adult, she entered politics and became a diplomat, serving as United States Ambassador to Ghana and later to Czechoslovakia
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
PROBLÈMES MÉTAPHYSIQUES À L'ÉPREUVE DE LA POLITIQUE, 1943-1968, École normale supérieure
•
la guerre
•
1943, les auteurs étaient au cœur de la seconde guerre mondiale
•
la guerre a imprimé leur marque sur l'écriture de la philosophie
•
Simone Weil
•
a écrit les textes entre 1933-1941... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
WHAT MANAGERS CAN LEARN FROM GREAT PHILOSOPHERS, École Centrale Paris
•
a CEO is in charge of change
•
we have to understand the deep nature of change in order to be a good manager of change
•
Parmenides was convinced that change is not possible
•
Heraclitus believed in ever-present change
•
Machiavelli... view all notes
People:
Simone Weil (1909-1943)
Une philosophe française et juive qui à emmené ses parents en sécurité aux États-Unis et a participé à la Résistance
  • 1925, le baccalauréat de philosophie
Georges Canguilhem (1904-1995)
Un philosophe et médecin français qui dit que le vivant ne saurait être déduit des lois physico-chimiques
  • il faut partir du vivant lui-même pour comprendre la vie
  • il reçu à l'École normale supérieure en 1924 avec Jean-Paul Sartre
Parmenides (515-450 BC)
Founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy (universal unity of being), taught that change is impossible
  • existence is timeless, uniform, necessary, and unchanging
Heraclitus (535-475 BC)
Taught that there is ever-present change in the universe
  • "No man ever steps in the same river twice"
  • self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom
  • lonely life
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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Zero Hour, or "Stunde Null"
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"everything is destroyed and we are starting over from scratch"
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total war
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means if your military situation is unstable, you might not just lose the war, you might lose everything, e.g. be enslaved or murdered
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nations in arms... view all notes
Vocabulary:
rankle, v. to cause irritation or deep bitterness ⇒ "The Soviets took chunks out of the expanded German Reich and moved the whole country of Poland about 150 miles to the west, which rankled the British and French who had gone to war in 1939 to fight for the security of Poland."
prescient, adj. [PRESS-ee-ahnt] having knowledge of coming events;, foreseeing, conscious beforehand ⇒ "F.A. Hayek's message in the book 'The Road to Serfdom' suggested that visions like those of James Burnham are extremely prescient, and that people need to fight it."
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
DESIGN: CREATION OF ARTIFACTS IN SOCIETY, University of Pennsylvania
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what are artifacts?
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objects that were created by humans
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as opposed to artifacts found in nature
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e.g. a fossil of a fish is an object but not an artifact
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in contrast, an ice cream scoop is an object and an artifact... view all notes
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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one of the most important changes for human life over the last two centuries has been the eroding of the family and community by the industrial revolution, and their replacement by the state and the market
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from the earliest times, over a million years ago, humans most always lived in small, intimate communities, most of whose members were related to one another
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the cognitive revolution, 70,000 years ago, and the agricultural revolution 12,000 years ago, did not change that
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in fact these first two revolutions emphasized close and dependent family and community relationships
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families and communities remained the basic building blocks of human societies, whether you lived in the country or city, families remained the base unit of human organization... view all notes
Vocabulary:
vendetta, n. a feud between two families or clans that arises out of a slaying and is perpetuated by retaliatory acts of revenge ⇒ "In the Ottoman Empire, family vendettas were often used to maintain order instead of maintaining a large police force and imperial courts."
brigand, n. a robber or bandit, especially one of an outlaw band ⇒ "A local nobleman might draft everyone in the village to construct his castle without pay, yet later, you count on this nobleman to defend you from brigands, robbers, and barbarians."
vet, v. the process of performing a background check on someone before offering them employment, conferring an award ⇒ "Throughout most of history in most cultures, if you wanted to get married, or even if you didn't want to get married, the family often chose for you your partner, or at least vetted your prospective husband or wife."
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