The document discusses the concept of beauty and questions whether it has an evolutionary purpose. It notes that beauty is subjective but cultures tend to have norms of beauty. It argues that celebrities presented as beautiful rely on advantages ordinary people don't have access to, so their beauty may be an illusion created by resources like trainers, makeup artists, and plastic surgery. The document asks readers to consider what feelings of beauty different images conjure in them to think about what decides their own views of beauty.
The author came to speak at Temple University in October, 2016. Many of us in Liberal Arts decided to teach his book, Between The World and Me, to encourage students to hear him speak. Here is a powerpoint I created on the book.
The author came to speak at Temple University in October, 2016. Many of us in Liberal Arts decided to teach his book, Between The World and Me, to encourage students to hear him speak. Here is a powerpoint I created on the book.
An overview on the American presence in the Vietnam war with an emphasis on failed strategy in fighting the war, particularly the so-called "war of attrition."
I developed this powerpoint from smaller ones I had used to teach various sections of Freud's theory. Students have a very difficult time with The Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis.
I developed this powerpoint when I taught River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins. Most of the students found Dawkins to be fascinating, but they weren't so hot on the actual book.
This powerpoint is based on key chapters in Weisman's The World Without Us. I teach the book as a supplementary text to Jane Jacobs, The Life and Death of American Cities.
This powerpoint helps to provide the backstory to the Iliad, and illustrates the key gods in the text along with their affiliation for Greeks or Trojans.
When I teach On the Origin of Species, I follow a trajectory that is indicated on the powerpoint. I also make sure that students get the background for evolutionary biology. In 2009 to 2010, I used the powerpoint to emphasize the Dialogues with Darwin project that I did along with some IH faculty with the American Philosophical Society. (See preceding powerpoint.)
This exhibit was part of a project I did with several other faculty members. The students went to this exhibit on Darwin, then wrote a blog about a particular facet of the exhibit on the APS website. My students looks at the ethics of natural selection.
I won a grant so that I could feature language arts in my classroom. I decided to create a literary magazine in which I taught different forms of poetry. Each student worked on all the different styles. By the fourth marking period, I chose the poems that represented each student's perspective on their lives in their neighborhood, and created a magazine for them to take home. I also gave copies to my school
An overview on the American presence in the Vietnam war with an emphasis on failed strategy in fighting the war, particularly the so-called "war of attrition."
I developed this powerpoint from smaller ones I had used to teach various sections of Freud's theory. Students have a very difficult time with The Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis.
I developed this powerpoint when I taught River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins. Most of the students found Dawkins to be fascinating, but they weren't so hot on the actual book.
This powerpoint is based on key chapters in Weisman's The World Without Us. I teach the book as a supplementary text to Jane Jacobs, The Life and Death of American Cities.
This powerpoint helps to provide the backstory to the Iliad, and illustrates the key gods in the text along with their affiliation for Greeks or Trojans.
When I teach On the Origin of Species, I follow a trajectory that is indicated on the powerpoint. I also make sure that students get the background for evolutionary biology. In 2009 to 2010, I used the powerpoint to emphasize the Dialogues with Darwin project that I did along with some IH faculty with the American Philosophical Society. (See preceding powerpoint.)
This exhibit was part of a project I did with several other faculty members. The students went to this exhibit on Darwin, then wrote a blog about a particular facet of the exhibit on the APS website. My students looks at the ethics of natural selection.
I won a grant so that I could feature language arts in my classroom. I decided to create a literary magazine in which I taught different forms of poetry. Each student worked on all the different styles. By the fourth marking period, I chose the poems that represented each student's perspective on their lives in their neighborhood, and created a magazine for them to take home. I also gave copies to my school
1. *
How Do You Recognize Beauty?
Bertolino-Mosaic 852-Pollan 1
2. * Pollan asks if beauty has a purpose.
* He believes there is a co-evolutionary design.
* That which is beautiful gains advantage and the one
who recognizes the beauty grants the advantage to
the item, creature and so forth.
* This begs the question: does something have to be
beautiful in order to compete successfully according
to the rules of natural selection?
* Perhaps we need to think about our own
relationship to beauty.
*
Bertolino-Mosaic 852-Pollan 2
3. * Clearly beauty is subjective, yet each culture
seems to have some absolute norms for beauty.
* We have celebrities shoved in our faces, told
that their beauty is superior to ours, but we
also know that it is their job to be beautiful, so
they will have advantages to maintain that
beauty that others cannot have.
* Celebrities have personal trainers, time to
work out, make up artists, the best clothes
designers, money, personal chefs, massage
therapists, access to every beauty fad,
personal photographers with special lighting,
luxurious furniture, travel to exotic places and,
of course, plastic surgeons.
* So it is possible we aren’t seeing beauty at all,
but the illusion of beauty.
* And since we are bombarded with these
images, after a while we convince ourselves
that beauty is exactly what they seem to be.
Bertolino-Mosaic 852-Pollan
* 3
4. * Look at the following slides. Do these images
conjure up feelings of beauty in you? Why or
why not?
* The purpose of this exercise is for you to think
about beauty. It may not fit some social norm,
but if it works for you, that is all that matters,
right?
* Is beauty something you decide for yourself or
do you unconsciously let others decide for you?
*
Bertolino-Mosaic 852-Pollan 4