Write a journal entry on these five topics above, one page for each topic.
You may write informally and creatively and in first-person narrative. Still, you must write grammatically.
Page one describes where you are and the little and big things that you see.
Page two speculates on the grander significance of the little things. Use your intuition to speculate on universal significance—this is your transcendental moment (your intuition). What larger significance do you come to from the small things you observe?
Page three imagines your life in relation to the larger significance of things explored on page two.
Page four examines the purpose and role of education in your life. What education means to your and your life—i.e., What it means to you in the larger significance of life, as you imagined it above.
Page five reflects on lessons of significance from this class, thus far. Lessons that contribute to your sense of education, as you imagined it in point 4. These lessons may come from readings and issues discussed, such as lectures topics, etc. You may use quotations, citing your sources (page #).
Prep for your walk:
Prepare as you would for a hike in the woods—comfy shoes, water, sunscreen, hat, snack.
Security: Know the walking site you choose. Choose a safe place. You may take a companion for additional security.
Plus: Cell phone camera, note pad and pencil, or other means of recording your experience and descriptions.
Your Walk:
When you arrive at your walking site, take a panoramic-view photo of it. (Photo 1)
Walk as long as you like. Get a feel for the area. A feel for what is nature in the area, as you walk through it. Stop occasionally to inspect the little things you encounter along your walk. Describe these things or at least one of them at length in your journal. Allow your mind to wander. Take a cell phone pic of the thing(s) you describe. (Photo 2)
Allow your mind to intuit greater significance in the little things—to see or sense universal significance.
See your life in that universal picture. What does it look like? Who are you? Where is it headed?
How does your education fit into this picture of your life? What are its purposes, and how would you manage it?
Where does this class fit into your education and its purposes? What use can you make of this class?
Submit your five-part journal and add a sixth page to embed your two photos (panorama and detail); add captions to the photos so I can know what I’m looking at.
Reflection:
This walk is about reading the world and reading your life in that world.
This is practical philosophy—philosophy we can all engage in.
Notes on the Transcendental Experience
Moving from individual experience to universal insight.
Hence, transcending the self, the particular, to experiencing something larger, “nature,” the universe.
Pairs:
Particulars and Universals
The Specific and the General
The concrete and the abstract
Little Picture and Big Picture of things
Nature is the universal. You are the particular.
How do you tap the universal? Take a walk to find out.
Readings include Leaves of Grass by Whitman, as well as A Voice From The South by Cooper
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