Some exciting news to pass on. Bishop Grosseteste University is funding a PhD studentship for studies on Grosseteste and the Science of Learning. The Ordered Universe project is delighted to advertise this – please circulate it to any and all who would be interested and qualified. Enquiries about the position should go, as the advertContinue reading “PhD Position for Grosseteste Studies”
Category Archives: Education
The Ordered Universe of UBC, Vancouver
Friday last saw the Ordered Universe project hosted at a very civilised Dinner-and-Lecture evening at St. Johns College, University of British Columbia, in Vancouver. Tom McLeish, Co-investigator of the project had been in the Vancouver area all week on a lecture tour organised by the Canadian Science and Christian Affiliation (CSCA). After four events based around his bookContinue reading “The Ordered Universe of UBC, Vancouver”
“Education is all about changing your mind.”
This is a quotation from Kathy Bader, one of the PhD students involved in the Ordered Universe Project. It sums up an almost self-evident truth, and nonetheless it’s something one can sometimes forget when it comes to thinking about choosing between courses or jobs or generally between things to which one could devote one’s timeContinue reading ““Education is all about changing your mind.””
‘Writing is thinking.’
Collaborative reading sessions very much form the backbone of Ordered Universe Symposia. The members of the interdisciplinary working group sit around a large table and go through the draft translations provided by Sigbjorn Sonnesyn, and they often find themselves discussing how to best render individual Latin terms in English. The ideal translation conveys what GrossetesteContinue reading “‘Writing is thinking.’”
Who was the first real physicist?
A post from Brian Tanner – one of the most common searches we encounter on the Ordered Universe blog is ‘who was the first physicist/scientist’ or variants thereof – Brian offers some options: Perhaps it is because my son is Director of Cross-Curricula Learning at St Albans School, that on Friday March 4th, I foundContinue reading “Who was the first real physicist?”
About What It Takes: Assumptions About Skill Sets in the Humanities and Sciences
From relatively early on in school, young people start to think of themselves as ‘more sciency’ or ‘more of a humanities or languages person’. With these two poles, to one of which many students sooner or later find themselves gravitating, we tend to associate different personality attributes and skills. For humanities subjects, creative and outside-the-boxContinue reading “About What It Takes: Assumptions About Skill Sets in the Humanities and Sciences”
(Medieval) Science and some Spin-Off Contemplations about Ethics and Interdisciplinarity
During the introductory session on the Liberal Arts and modern scientific methodologies, Giles posed the question to the group whether failure of a scientific theory could ever be due to moral rather than intellectual failure. Whilst Giles is the one to turn to if you’re interested in the motivation behind this question, I’d like toContinue reading “(Medieval) Science and some Spin-Off Contemplations about Ethics and Interdisciplinarity”
Education Revisited – Lessons to Learn from the Medieval Curriculum
In the De artibus liberalibus (On the Liberal Arts), Grosseteste positions the Liberal Arts as having their proper, natural place in scholarly thought and the educational curriculum. In the set of the seven Liberal Arts, the so called trivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric is complemented by the mathematical arts, that is, the quadrivium ofContinue reading “Education Revisited – Lessons to Learn from the Medieval Curriculum”
What a wonderful world – aha-moments triggered by insights into a medieval thinker’s mind
In the aftermath of Ordered Universe gatherings I find myself time and again struck by how little appreciation I normally give to the complexity of the natural world. So many fundamental properties of the physical universe I usually take for granted, without even giving it a thought that someone would have some sort of explanatoryContinue reading “What a wonderful world – aha-moments triggered by insights into a medieval thinker’s mind”
It was the week before Christmas…
…and fast becoming a typical, if active, one in the life of a Durham Grosseteste Project member. An unexpected realisation is dawning – that the feel of the project reminds me of other scientific research programmes I have been involved in. I mean that I have the sense of collabrating on a project with aContinue reading “It was the week before Christmas…”