Chapter II: A Review by Doug Renselle of Boris Sidis' 'Philistine & Genius,' a work treating his trials and tribulations with public and media reactions to his son William James Sidis, published in May, 1911.


A Review
of
Chapter II
of
Boris Sidis'
Philistine and Genius
by Doug Renselle
—
Start of Review
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII

Move to any Chapter of Boris Sidis' Philistine & Genius,
or to beginning of its review via this set of links
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Chapter II
Back to Fundamentals & Classical Greek Philosophy.
©Quantonics' contrived chapter title.

PAGE
QUOTEs
(Most quotes verbatim Boris Sidis, some paraphrased.)
COMMENTs
(Relevant to Pirsig, William James Sidis, and Quantonics Thinking Modes.)

7 "That the groundwork of man's character is laid in his childhood appears as a trivial platitude. I am almost ashamed to bring it before you. And yet, as I look round me and find how apt we are to forget this simple precept which is so fundamental in our life, I cannot help calling your attention to it. If we consider the matter, we can well understand the reason why its full significance is not realized. We must remember that all science begins with axioms which are apparently truisms. What is more of a truism than the axioms of Geometry and Mechanics — that the whole is greater than the part [Synthetically, integrably,...], that things which are equal to the same thing are" (Our bold emphasis. Our bracketed notes.)

Boris exposes his own classical, monist fundamentalism. But wisely he uses 'truisms,' not 'absolutes.' Unfortunately, he falls into Aristotle's 'identity' tar pit.

8
"equal to one another [Identity.], or that a body remains in the same state unless an external force changes it? And yet the whole of Mathematics and Mechanics is built on those simple [Classical, non-quantum.] axioms.

"The elements of science are just such obvious platitudes. What is needed is to use them as efficient tools and by their means draw the consequent effects. The same holds true in the science of education. The axiom or the law of early training is not new, it is well known, but it is unfortunately too often neglected and forgotten, and its significance is almost completely lost.

"It is certainly surprising bow this law of early training is so disregarded, so totally ignored in the education of the child. Not only do we neglect to lay the necessary solid basis in the early life of the child, a solid basis ready for the future"
(Our bold emphasis. Our bracketed notes.)

And whole of mathematics is suspect as a result.

It is much work, and most of us are lazy, so socialists, philistines and pseudagogues (e.g. National 'Education' Association) gain control.

9
"structure, we do not even take care to clear the ground. In fact, we even make the child's soul a dunghill, full of vermin of superstitions, fears and prejudices, — a hideous heap saturated with the spirit of credulity.

"We regard the child's mind as a tabula rasa, a vacant lot, and empty on it all our rubbish and refuse. We labor under the delusion that stories and fairy tales, myths and deceptions about life and man are good for the child's mind. Is it a wonder that on such a foundation men can only put up shacks and shanties? We forget the simple fact that what is harmful for the adult is still more harmful to the child. Surely what is poisonous to the grown-up mind cannot be useful food to the young. If credulity in old wives' tales, lack of individuality, sheepish submissiveness, barrack-discipline, unquestioned"

(Our bold emphasis.)

Juxtapose Boris' view that philistines regard mind as a bucket to be rotely filled with our view of mind as a quantum stage of various patterns of quantum coherence.

We agree, as long as decisions about what is educationally harmful are not bureaucratized and socialized. Households must have cohesion with, but local autonomy over governments, churches, institutions, and organizations. If quantum science teaches us anything, it teaches us Mae-wan Ho's edict, "both global cohesion, and local autonomy." (paraphrased) See page 153 of Mae-wan Ho's, the Rainbow and the Worm, where she says,

"We may now offer a tentative answer to at least part of a question which was posed at the beginning of this book: what is it that constitutes a whole or an individual? It is a domain of [both] coherent, [and] autonomous activity. Defined thus, it opens the way to envisaging individuals which are aggregates of individuals, as, for example, a population or a society engaging in coherent activities. As coherence maximizes both local freedom and global cohesion, it defines a relationship between the individual and the collective which has previously been deemed contradictory or impossible...Perhaps sociology needs a new set of premisses altogether." Also see, Ho, 'How Rational Can Rational Morphology Be?,' Rivista di Bologia, 81, 1988a: 11-55.

10
"and uncritical belief in authority, meaningless imitation of jingles and gibberish, memorization of mother-goose wisdom, repetition of incomprehensible prayers and articles of creed, unintelligent aping of good manners, silly games, prejudices and superstitions and fears of the supernormal and supernatural, are censured in adults, why should we approve their cultivation in the young?

"At home and at school we drill into the child's mind uncritical beliefs in stories and tales, fictions and figments, fables and myths, creeds and dogmas which poison the very sources of the child's mind. At home and at school we give the child over as a prey to all sorts of fatal germs of mental diseases and moral depravity. We leave the child's mind an open field to be sown with dragon's teeth which bring forth a whole crop of pernicious"

11 "tendencies, — love and admiration of successful evil, and adoration of the rule of brute force. From the dragon's teeth sown in early childhood there rises in later life a whole brood of flint-hearted men who blindly jostle and fight and mercilessly tear one another, to obtain for some greedy Jason, some witch of a Medea [Princess and sorceress of Colchis, Jason's consort, mother of his children, helped him obtain Golden Fleece, burned Jason's lover Creusa to death with a 'spelled' gown, then killed Jason's/Medea's children in revenge for his infidelity.] their coveted golden fleece." (Our bold emphasis. Our bracketed notes.)
I.e., Iliad's wrath, Iliad's "mhnin aeide thea Peladew Achilos..."
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©Quantonics, Inc., 2000-2012 — Rev. 26Aug2009 PDR — Created: 5May2000 PDR
(14Apr2006 rev - Adjust colors. Release table constraints.)
(26Aug2009 rev - Make page current.)

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PAGE	QUOTEs (Most quotes verbatim Boris Sidis, some paraphrased.)	COMMENTs (Relevant to Pirsig, William James Sidis, and Quantonics Thinking Modes.)
7	"That the groundwork of man's character is laid in his childhood appears as a trivial platitude. I am almost ashamed to bring it before you. And yet, as I look round me and find how apt we are to forget this simple precept which is so fundamental in our life, I cannot help calling your attention to it. If we consider the matter, we can well understand the reason why its full significance is not realized. We must remember that all science begins with axioms which are apparently truisms. What is more of a truism than the axioms of Geometry and Mechanics — that the whole is greater than the part [Synthetically, integrably,...], that things which are equal to the same thing are"	(Our bold emphasis. Our bracketed notes.) Boris exposes his own classical, monist fundamentalism. But wisely he uses 'truisms,' not 'absolutes.' Unfortunately, he falls into Aristotle's 'identity' tar pit.
8	"equal to one another [Identity.], or that a body remains in the same state unless an external force changes it? And yet the whole of Mathematics and Mechanics is built on those simple [Classical, non-quantum.] axioms. "The elements of science are just such obvious platitudes. What is needed is to use them as efficient tools and by their means draw the consequent effects. The same holds true in the science of education. The axiom or the law of early training is not new, it is well known, but it is unfortunately too often neglected and forgotten, and its significance is almost completely lost. "It is certainly surprising bow this law of early training is so disregarded, so totally ignored in the education of the child. Not only do we neglect to lay the necessary solid basis in the early life of the child, a solid basis ready for the future"	(Our bold emphasis. Our bracketed notes.) And whole of mathematics is suspect as a result. It is much work, and most of us are lazy, so socialists, philistines and pseudagogues (e.g. National 'Education' Association) gain control.
9	"structure, we do not even take care to clear the ground. In fact, we even make the child's soul a dunghill, full of vermin of superstitions, fears and prejudices, — a hideous heap saturated with the spirit of credulity. "We regard the child's mind as a tabula rasa, a vacant lot, and empty on it all our rubbish and refuse. We labor under the delusion that stories and fairy tales, myths and deceptions about life and man are good for the child's mind. Is it a wonder that on such a foundation men can only put up shacks and shanties? We forget the simple fact that what is harmful for the adult is still more harmful to the child. Surely what is poisonous to the grown-up mind cannot be useful food to the young. If credulity in old wives' tales, lack of individuality, sheepish submissiveness, barrack-discipline, unquestioned"	(Our bold emphasis.) Juxtapose Boris' view that philistines regard mind as a bucket to be rotely filled with our view of mind as a quantum stage of various patterns of quantum coherence. We agree, as long as decisions about what is educationally harmful are not bureaucratized and socialized. Households must have cohesion with, but local autonomy over governments, churches, institutions, and organizations. If quantum science teaches us anything, it teaches us Mae-wan Ho's edict, "both global cohesion, and local autonomy." (paraphrased) See page 153 of Mae-wan Ho's, the Rainbow and the Worm, where she says, "We may now offer a tentative answer to at least part of a question which was posed at the beginning of this book: what is it that constitutes a whole or an individual? It is a domain of [both] coherent, [and] autonomous activity. Defined thus, it opens the way to envisaging individuals which are aggregates of individuals, as, for example, a population or a society engaging in coherent activities. As coherence maximizes both local freedom and global cohesion, it defines a relationship between the individual and the collective which has previously been deemed contradictory or impossible...Perhaps sociology needs a new set of premisses altogether." Also see, Ho, 'How Rational Can Rational Morphology Be?,' Rivista di Bologia, 81, 1988a: 11-55.
10	"and uncritical belief in authority, meaningless imitation of jingles and gibberish, memorization of mother-goose wisdom, repetition of incomprehensible prayers and articles of creed, unintelligent aping of good manners, silly games, prejudices and superstitions and fears of the supernormal and supernatural, are censured in adults, why should we approve their cultivation in the young? "At home and at school we drill into the child's mind uncritical beliefs in stories and tales, fictions and figments, fables and myths, creeds and dogmas which poison the very sources of the child's mind. At home and at school we give the child over as a prey to all sorts of fatal germs of mental diseases and moral depravity. We leave the child's mind an open field to be sown with dragon's teeth which bring forth a whole crop of pernicious"
11	"tendencies, — love and admiration of successful evil, and adoration of the rule of brute force. From the dragon's teeth sown in early childhood there rises in later life a whole brood of flint-hearted men who blindly jostle and fight and mercilessly tear one another, to obtain for some greedy Jason, some witch of a Medea [Princess and sorceress of Colchis, Jason's consort, mother of his children, helped him obtain Golden Fleece, burned Jason's lover Creusa to death with a 'spelled' gown, then killed Jason's/Medea's children in revenge for his infidelity.] their coveted golden fleece."	(Our bold emphasis. Our bracketed notes.) I.e., Iliad's wrath, Iliad's "*mhnin* aeide thea Peladew Achilos..."