Book Description
Vartan Gregorian's tale starts with a childhood of poverty, deprivation, and enchantment in the Armenian quarter of Tabriz, Iran. As the world reeled from depression into six years of warfare, his mother died, leaving his grandmother Voski as the loving staff of his life. Through unlettered example and instruction, he learned about the first of his many worlds: the strenuousness required for survival, the fairy tale that explained existence, the place and name of his own star in the night sky, how to maneuver as a member of a Christian minority in a benevolent Muslim kingdom, the beauty and inspiration of Armenian Church liturgy, the exciting foreign world of ten-year-old American westerns, the richness of life on the streets.
He learned the magic of the innumerable worlds he could find in books -- and he wanted to visit them all. As the spell books cast on him grew more powerful, so did the constraints imposed by his father's indifference to his dreams of redirecting his life through learning.
So, one day when he was fifteen years old, he presented himself at an Armenian-French lycee in Beirut, Lebanon, to start the arduous task of becoming a person of learning and consequence.
This book tells not only how he reached that school but also about the many people who guided, supported, taught, and helped him on an extravagantly absorbing and varied journey from Tabriz to Beirut to Palo Alto to Tenafly to London, from Stanford University to San Francisco State University to the University of Texas at Austin to the University of Pennsylvania to the New York Public Library to Brown University and, currently, to the presidency of Carnegie Corporation of New York.
With witty stories and memorable encounters, Dr. Gregorian describes his public and private lives as one education after another. He has written a love story about life.
Customer Reviews:
A Horatio Alger Story Set in Academia.......2007-08-20
Although Dr. Gregorian was a poor Armenian boy from Tabriz, Iran, he had a rich cultural heritage. Influential hometown people, who seemed captivated by his charm and intellectual brilliance, helped him, not only just to survive, but to get a good education, leading him, by way of Beirut, to the U.S. and Stanford University where, after graduating in only 2-1/2 years (while also learning English), he got a Ph.D. in humanities and history. His teaching career began at San Francisco State College, where, 41 years ago, I had the privilege of being one of his students in modern European history. This was during the years of the student uprising that occurred during 1966 to 1968 at S.F. State. Since Dr. Gregorian is a historian, this memoir is made all the more richer by historical commentary that Dr. Gregorian provides vis-à-vis autobiographical events. His teaching career moves from S.F. State (where he took a year off to go to Afghanistan to study and write a classic book on Afghanistan) to the University of Texas at Austin, then to the University of Pennsylvania where he became Provost. This story makes the trials, tribulations and infighting that go on in universities actually interesting. When Dr. Gregorian took over the presidency of the New York Public Library in 1981, it was suffering from extreme neglect due to New York's financial crises in the late 1970's when NYC was on the edge of bankruptcy. Besides his talent for creative administration, his personal virtues attract the rich and famous (i.e., Brooke Astor, Barbara Walters) to help him achieve his financial objectives for restoring the library. He turned the New York Public Library from a dissipated, physically crumbling institution back to a vibrant educational center in New York City. If you live in New York City, you might have noticed the regeneration of Bryant Park; he was responsible for that. Following nine years as President of Brown University, Dr. Gregorian became President of the Carneige Corporation, where he is today. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Gratuated from Penn Grad school during his reign.......2006-01-16
Education, street smart (partially due to his street friends of youth), networking ability, social skills, socializing selectively among the most influential, are contributors to this author's achievements in life thus far.
It would be worth while for Mr. Gregorian to use his skills and experiences in helping today's independent Armenia.
An improbable Yet Authentic Armenian-American Success Story.......2005-05-24
Vartan Gregorian's autobiographic tract, "A Road to Home," tells an extraordinary story. It is the quintessential American Success Story. Here is an Armenian immigrant who comes from a village in Northern Iran, with his high school education completed in Jemaran, the Armenian School of considerable note in Beirut, who earns a BA and a PhD from Stanford (in history, specialty: Afghanistan), teaches at San Francisco State and UT, Austin, ends up being Dean, Provost and almost the President of U. Penn., rescues and forges the renaissance of the New York City public library system from imminent disaster by taking over as president for eight years, becomes the president of Brown University for the next nine years and along the way, turns down the Chancellorship of UC Berkeley, the Presidency of Columbia Univ., Univ. of Miami, Univ. of Michigan, Univ. of Rochester and many others, before becoming president of the Carnegie Corporation.
That pinnacle of academic positions of leadership, the presidency of a university, is not a chance given to very many people. That privilege of being the visionary leader of an institution of higher learning (as well as its chief fund raiser) is reserved to the best of the best and Vartan Gregorian has been one of the most sought after candidates for that post over the last twenty years being on almost everyone's short list! To say that he went from humble beginnings to the very top of the intellectual and academic life in America is to considerably understate the miracles that have paved the way of this deserving and gifted man's life journey. The perilous road that has lead him to the zenith of what America has to offer a scholar is depicted with great humility and panache in the pages of "The Road to Home," a Simon and Schuster 2003 publication. Everyone interested in how fate outstrips logic and predictability ought to read this book. Here is the chronicle of how the brilliance of a kid is first noted and appreciated enough somehow (by a French consular Attache' who happens to be Armenian) and then rewarded and protected by a long chain of benefactors and friends in the middle East (mostly Armenians) and in America (Armenians and many more non Armenians) both, catapulting a strange boy in great need for love and acceptance to shine as an intellectual and scholar, to conquer the toughest of tasks as an administrator, mediator, moderator, visionary, fund raiser, diplomat, keeper of the faith, lighter of the torch of knowledge and learning in Philadelphia, in New York City, in Providence, Rhode Island and in New York City again where, since 1997, he has been the president of the Carnegie Corporation which is a philanthropic organization of great weight and import in the cultural life of America and indeed the world. There are many immigrant stories that make America's spinning roulette wheel of success seem impossible to believe. Here is another such spectacular tale told by the master communicator himself, the staunch believer in education, the power of books, the beauty of scholarship and a man who has found his niche in high society and academe in America against impossible odds.
Imagine a young boy in Tabriz, Iran, born in 1934 to Armenian parents in this Northern Province of Persia known as Azerbaijan. His mother, Shoushig, dies when he is six and a half years old. Together with his little sister Ojik, he is raised by their maternal grandmother, Voski Mirzaian. Her's is the strongest and most lasting influence on this poor boy's life. She is mother and father and grandmother to them since their father is never around, working elsewhere, such as near oil fields, to make ends meet, and is never a warm father anyway, even when he is around. In fact, he is a strange, cold, distant, remarried man who never encourages little Vartanig, never teaches him anything (even though he gives private English lessons to others), never gives him any sort of advice or love of any sort! These circumstances alone ought to be enough to scar a man for life and make it hard for him to have sufficient self-confidence to make it in this cruel world. Add to that the changing of hands of their province between Persia and Soviet Russia, the Second World War, depravity, being part of a Christian Minority in an overwhelmingly Muslim city and country, poverty, lack of food, clothing, proper shelter, constant peril and it is a miracle indeed that this boy grew up to amount to anything at all. The details of these harrowing times are depicted with great care and meticulous detail in the first fifth of the book, The Road to Home. Here we have the familiar positive influence of the Armenian Church, becoming an acolyte and developing a very warm relationship with the steady, ancient tradition of the liturgy and faith that is the hallmark of the Armenian Apostolic tradition. The solace Vartanig derives from these experiences acts as a counterweight to the lack of love and nourishment at home under his father's roof with his younger wife who cares very little for him or his sister. Vartan has his grandmother who teaches him wisdom, myth, faith, morality, history and traditional Armenian tall tails all brewed in one living magic cauldron. Stars and winds and ghosts and other mythological figures intermingle and fire up this precocious boy's imagination as a steady nightly diet administered by his grandmother and her tender loving care. It is remarkable how much of this he reproduces more than fifty years later in the pages of his autobiography. His is a genuine and profound love for his grandmother. Plus, he is far too intelligent not to absorb all he can learn from her about life and this world naturally. Vartan grows and observes the changing world around him. Soviet communists come and go, muslem extremism is always suspected to be a palpable threat to the Armenians and to all Christian boys and girls in particular. Pedophiliacs must be avoided and are rumored to be all around. Street fights with Muslim boys are routine. Vartan reaches his teen years, attending school with worn out shoes, without money to buy books but able to read everything written in Armenian he can get his hands on at the library of the Armenian church and community center. He then starts to write for the Armenian newspaper "Alik" as well about daily affairs and even deliver eulogies at the funeral of important Armenian citizens of Tabriz. From these surroundings, he is somehow able to extricate himself at the age of fifteen at the bold suggestion of the French Vice-consul, Edgar Maloyan, who instructs him he go to Beirut and attend high school at Jemaran. The first turning point or plot point of this story is his grandmother authorizing his departure knowing that it is best for him and his future to leave their village and embrace the larger world. The crown jewel of Armenian schools in Beirut in the fifties with an emphasis on French (and Arabic) instruction and a thorough Armenian education including classical Armenian and Armenian history and culture beyond a normal high school degree was Nshan Palanjian Jemaran. But such a school was simply unreachable for a poor boy from Tabriz whose father would not be of any help and who spoke no Arabic or French to begin with! But he did manage to go to Beirut on his own with just $50 to his name, find people to sponsor him, to take him under their wings, nurture him, find money for him, donate food, arrange make shift dwelling at some sort of "Hotel Luxe" until boarding school facilities were inaugurated a few years hence, and even teach him French on the side so that he could catch up and graduate a few years behind schedule but brilliantly. This unlikely passage to Beirut and an institution of higher learning, makes Vartan think of the words of Graham Greene who once said and he quotes: " There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in." That was Vartan's moment.
It is at Jemaran that his knack for being noticed, appreciated, aided and nurtured takes root in earnest. In Beirut, in the early and middle nineteen fifties, around the intellectual community of Jemaran, many notable Armenians take on his cause. Chief among them is Simon Vratsian, the principal of the school. Vartan becomes one of the unofficial secretaries of this honorable Armenian intellectual who was the last prime minister of the first Armenian Republic before Armenia fell into the clutches of the Soviet empire in 1920. Vartan reads and learns all he can get his hands on at Jemaran. In addition, he writes many of Vratsian's letters since Simon is almost blind by then. Vartan, through this experience, if nothing else, becomes groomed for academic administration since he is exposed to it at a very early age and in all its multiple facets of fund raising and community affairs and public relations and vision and rigor and all other aspects of pedagogy. Vartan, in need of a father figure, in need of people to believe in him and encourage him, finds many in Beirut and in Jemaran, all of which is delicately and precisely depicted in The Road to Home. He completes the entire venerable "Hayakidagan" (Armenology) course, reads voraciously, learns about life in the fast and wild town which Beirut was in the 1950s and graduates with honors ready to be shipped out to the West coast where he is accepted in Stanford. Le Petit Paris, as Beirut is referred to, makes a man out of him and a man hungry for knowledge.
The next fifth of the book is about his spectacular career at Stanford both as an undergraduate and graduate student. Again, his brilliance and remarkable attributes are detected by professors who become his champions for life! He is helped by these historians and scholars throughout his academic journey. They see a future for him he cannot even imagine and take it upon themselves to walk him through the steps to achieve greatness! Vartan is appreciated and guided by giants in his field who pave the way for him and are always rewarded by how well he does, given these opportunities. Instead of being supported by Jemaran throughout his stay at Stanford, he receives University support at the end of two years, finishes his BA that quickly and starts his graduate program right then and there. He has a rich life at Stanford, which molds him further as a man and as a scholar. He meets his future wife there and marries her in such spectacular fashion that I do not want to spoil it by paraphrasing the story here. You will have to read pages 132-135 to see for yourself. Clare Russell learns Armenian and becomes his mate for life from that time on. Theirs is a happy marriage and one where the journey is shared and burdens distributed and hardships met with equal courage and valor on both their parts.
And its not that Vartan does not put Clare in harm's way! For starters, he receives a substantial travel and research grant to spend time in London, Paris, Beirut, Kabul and Karachi. His aim is to gather the raw data for his thesis on Afghanistan's transition to becoming a modern state. He takes Clare along for this trip but she is already pregnant so by the time they arrive in Beirut, she gives birth and stays there while Vartan goes to Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and back on his own. This remarkable woman now has to fend for herself in a hotel room (where the giant cockroaches are described in vivid detail in the book) with a newborn son! She does so with the help of all the same cast of characters associated with Jemaran and the thriving Armenian community in Beirut when Vartan was there alone 6 years earlier. History repeats itself, Vartan avails himself of the generosity and friendship of old acquaintances and his research makes very good progress.
Back to California they come and a job as a history instructor at San Francisco State University. Why? Because there are no jobs that can be arranged at AUB or Jemaran in Beirut! Vartan would have loved staying in Beirut. He tries and his meteoric rise to the top of US academic circles is because there are no suitable teaching jobs for him in Beirut! Lucky for us, one could say. Vartan faces the middle to late sixties in San Francisco. A less than ideal choice given the turmoil at the local Universities then, the hippy movement, the sit ins, the Black Panthers, the anti-war movement... It is a mess and a new assistant professor has to face it all in a hot seat that was SF State. Not as bad as Berkeley, as the book explains, but close.
It is no surprise then that the newly minted PhD who is barely able to make ends meet with an academic salary at a state school (living with a wife and son) and teaching part time here and there including Stanford and other colleges, welcomes the chance to go to the university of Texas, after a short stint at UCLA and teach at a research university with a graduate program and be a historian. His book "The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1880-1946" was just then accepted for publication by Stanford University press. In the meantime, He visits Beirut again and Armenia and hopes to write a book on the modern history of that country. Instead, he gets involved in University politics down in Austin. He is asked to help the dean and that work eventually lands him in the middle of political infighting within factions of the faculty and the administration. The Road to Home describes this in great detail in chapter 10. Vartan Gregorian, learns to be an active player in University politics at UT. He then takes an endowed chair in Armenian studies at U Penn. and escapes the firings and turmoil that leave no friendly faces down in Texas. He also joins the history department of this prestigious ivy league school and embarks on the fast track career to high level university administration. He first becomes the founding dean of the college of arts and sciences at the age of thirty five! This is followed by heroic efforts at organizing the university for the bicentennial of our nation in 1976, a major fund raising campaign, and the attainment of the top academic post of Provost. Dr. Gregorian learns what its like to deal with the board of Trustees of a university and all the internal politics and machinations that would make the chatter at the Tower of Babel sound like a Gregorian Chant. He perseveres, helps solve many of U Penn's problems and sets a very good course for the university. Alas, there is opposition to his ascension to the post of President. In the meantime, he agonizes over the offer of being Berkeley's Chancellor, a lifelong dream of his and ultimate goal throughout his early academic career. He decides to stay at Penn because he is told he should finish what he started. He is told that he is a shoe in for the presidency. He should just wait and assume the helm. Alas, he is blocked at the end and many of the fat cats who are trustees of the university who do not like him are, let us say, blue bloods, who do not believe he would have the "social graces" (or the looks, perhaps) for such a job... Hmm... racism? You bet! Discrimination against a darker skinned, curly haired, short Armenian man whose brilliance and dedication and virtues they could not see? Surely! Philadelphia is well depicted in this book as being full of "Mayflower" syndrome suffering WASPs. Poor Vartan falls victim to their ingrate state.
But, the star of this story ascends far beyond a stuffy old school's board room antics and lands as the savior of the New York City Public Library system. This eighty nine distinct branch or property system which was at the verge of collapse and irreversible decay is resurrected under the able leadership of Dr. Gregorian for eight long years of fourteen hour days and double lunches and double dinners and fund raising and consciousness raising activities and innovations and vision setting leadership. At the completion of that renovation campaign he finally accepts the presidency of an Ivy League School, Brown University, in Providence Rhode Island. His nine years there reorient that school towards a far more successful path and improve its minority and gender distribution and hiring practices and many other modern innovations that take Brown to a far higher ground of success than it was in 1989 when Dr. Gregorian took over its helm.
The latest chapter in the career of this tireless and remarkable man dedicated to academia, scholarship, libraries, books, teaching and a life of the mind is to head up the Carnegie Corporation, which is a charitable organization of the first caliber dedicated to the betterment of the world through the dissemination of knowledge. Dr. Gregorian is a happy man from all appearances. He is a tireless advocate for causes he believes in with a passion. His enthusiasm is contagious. He sets courses for action and follows through with them till the end. He is a no nonsense achiever who has aided many a worthwhile cause with absolute dedication and imperturbable resolve. He has never rested on his laurels nor has he taken the easy way out.
One could imagine that being an Armenian and an immigrant gave Dr. Gregorian the advantage over more traditional local talent. He sure had something to prove and he was hungry throughout the journey. He appreciated all that was done for him and he took none of it for granted. He wanted to make his life mean something. He knew of the Armenian genocide and the displacement of his people. He knew that an Armenian owes his being alive to divine fate and that squandering his life away and the opportunities so many had sacrificed so much to make possible for him would be cruelly wasted if it were not his task to make them all proud. As this book shows, one can not praise this dedicated administrator enough for all the potential he has unleashed in New York, Philadelphia and Rhode Island by untiring dedication and a principled approach to the betterment of this land of freedom he has adopted as his own.
My only criticism of the book is that it leaves so much out! There is so much more one would have liked to hear him describe and discuss. For instance, and this is just the tip of the iceberg, how did he perceive the differences between the Armenians he met in Beirut from the Iranian Armenians he knew back in Tabriz and Teheran? How about the Armenian communities in the SF bay area and Philadelphia, NY and Providence? Any differences and similarities there, he would care to dissect for us? What happened to his book on Armenia? Are there notes left of that work? His research and plans? Is that water under the bridge now? Did he ever produce any graduate students of his own in Texas or U Penn? What are his PhD students up to, if he has had any? That is, what is his intellectual legacy as a scholar? And another thing, what does he think of Afghanistan today? The book makes reference to 9-11 and to unrelated speeches he has given in 2002. How about Afghanistan? He was, after all, a world expert in this arena at one point not so long ago. Similarly, what efforts has he made on behalf of the Armenian cause or for free and independent Armenia since 1991? What are his views on how Armenia's intellectual capital can be preserved or augmented? What can we do and what course of action would he suggest given his vast experience at administering universities and charitable organizations? It would help a lot if he would write publicly and let everyone know what he sees as a best coarse of action. Dr. Gregorian is an asset of immeasurable proportions to a community that can only be awed and proud to call him one of their own. In short, read The Road to Home. Its message to all Armenians and Americans seems to be, you can find a home (after all) if you keep your eyes wide open in this land of vast opportunity.
Gregorian is enchanting in this delightful memoir.......2005-02-25
I first learned of Vartan Gregorian when he became provost of the University of Pennsylvania while I was attending grad school there. He was a colorful figure who seemed to be as much at odds with the university as the contentious students during the turbulent late 70's. Later, he went on to head the New York Public Library and then Brown University. He seemed to have a magical way to become influential and well-liked. After reading this book, I liked him a lot and wished I'd had a chance to know him while I was at Penn. Gregorian is a man of letters and great charisma.
Gregorian's story of his life is as charming as his public persona. From the opening lines about his life in Tabriz, Iran as a member of the Armenian minority community there, to his wise grandmother who raised him, his life is exciting and fraught with tragedy and pitfalls. His mother dies in childbirth and his father essentially abandons the family. Somehow, Vartan manages to find an education despite great difficulties and he is sponsored finally to go to the Armenian University in Beirut. From there, his career as a professor and man of letters takes off and he soars, always helped by friends of influence who provide that wind under his wings. And he's grateful. He moves some thirty times (not thirty jobs, as he points out) and goes from Stanford to Texas to Penn, to New York and places in between. All along he meets luminaries like Jackie Kennedy Onassis, the Queen of England, makes friends with former BU president John Silber and yet seems to stay folksy and unaffected by all the glitter.
The book is highly readable and a fine memoir--whether you've heard of Gregorian or not, this is a wonderful tale about a man who overcame ridiculously bad odds to become one of America's most influential public figures in education. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
One of the best!.......2004-01-20
This is one of the best autobiographies, that I have ever read. The book is full of content as supposed to words that just fill papers. Vartan Gregorian begins by describing a life filled with poverty and pain in a small city in Iran. He takes the reader through the journey that he took for more than 4 decades, and allows the reader to live through his words. He is a true inspiration to the world and especially to the Armenian community. Through his life experiences put into words, he demonstrates the true power of optimisim, hard work and motivation. This is a book that one does not want to put down. I strongly recommend this book.
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Ms With Thanks A Book Of Gratitude And Friendship
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Thank You!: Thoughts on Friendship and Gratitude (Gift Book)
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Thank You, God For Christmas (16-Page Coloring Books)
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Thanks for the Game
Henry Cotton
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ASIN: 0283986409 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Computer User, published by MSP Communications on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 659 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Title: 'Half-Life 2:' mortally wounded? Thanks to Hacker Hijinks, a key new game is stuck in development.(Game Master)
Author: Paul Hyman
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Computer User (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: MSP Communications
Volume: 22
Issue: 1
Page: 22(1)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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This digital document is an article from Los Angeles Business Journal, published by Thomson Gale on December 4, 2006. The length of the article is 448 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Title: NFL agreement means Fiki guys get a bigger kick; the makers of a tabletop football game score field goal thanks to license.(Fiki Sports)
Author: Leslie Jones
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Los Angeles Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 4, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 28
Issue: 49
Page: 3(1)
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This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by Thomson Gale on September 14, 2007. The length of the article is 775 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Title: Short game nets big results.(Sports)(Thatcher leads Tour money list thanks to his improved putting)
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The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: September 14, 2007
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Color Your Own Thank You Postcards
Anna Pomaska
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Hollywood Goes on Location
Leon Smith
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The scholars who defend or dispute moral relativism, the idea that a moral principle cannot be applied to people whose culture does not accept it, have concerned themselves with either the philosophical or anthropological aspects of relativism. This study shows that in order to arrive at a definitive appraisal of moral relativism, it is necessary to understand and investigate both its anthropological and philosophical aspects. Carefully examining the arguments for and against moral relativism, Cook exposes not only that anthropologists have failed in their attempt to support relativism with evidence of cultural differences, but that moral absolutists have been equally unsuccessful in their attempts to refute it. He argues that these conflicting positions are both guilty of an artificial and unrealistic view of morality and proposes a more subtle and complex account of morality.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent!!!.......2001-06-26
In this book, John Cook demonstrate that absolute morality doesn't necessarily have to be linked to ethnocentrism. Though he doesn't mention it, and I don't know if Cook is familiar with G. E. Moore, he practically shows how that equating cultural values with ethics would inevitably fall in the naturallistic fallacy.
His views on "projection error" are quite important and should be discussed in ethics today, and should not be ignored. He establishes a difference between moral absolutism and ethnocentrism, and proves that relativists have no basis for their position.
Certainly, this is one of the greatest contributions I've ever seen in the field of Ethics.
Important Questions, No Answers -- which is how it has to be.......2001-04-20
John Cook provides one of the most thorough analyses of the philosophical foundations of the pseudo-debate between moral absolutism and moral and cultural relativism. He does a fine job of debunking the salient arguments of each side. He suggests, but fails to develop adaquately, the notion that they are both culturally and politically constructed sides; and he does not venture far enough into either the philosophical or the real-life consequences of the unhelpful absolutist-relativist distinction. Absolutist and relativist positions are divisions inside modern cultures, not between cultures. We need to address the whys and so-whats of this. Cook has given us a valuable foundation on which the build the exploration of such questions. If only the diction, and especially the syntax, would be better ...
Misleading title.......2001-03-29
When buying this book I was very interested in learning which are some key cultural differencies with moral implications and the title of this book promised to provide me such information.
However I found that the real subject is the Relativistic approach versus the Ethnocentric one: which is mainly, from my point of view, a discussion between two philosophical parties without supporting the real matter.
Important arguments but annoying rhetoric.......2000-11-22
In "Morality and Cultural Differences" John W. Cook offers a philosophical assessment of anthropological arguments for moral relativism.
Cook's initial chapters explore, in good philosophical fashion, what it is we are really asserting when we assert moral relativism. Those who attack relativism usually miss their target because they misunderstand its fundamental assertion. This assertion Cook identifies as the anthropological observation that we learn morality through the process of "enculturative conditioning," that is to say, children learn morality not by an impartial search for truth but by taking on the rules and judgements of their elders. Since the process of becoming moral is not truth-oriented but culture-oriented, relativists point out, moral judgements are only correct within particular cultures, not universally.
Cook then subjects the view of moral relativism to searching criticism and exposes many of the strange paradoxes which result from it. He looks at the history of anthropology and shows that pioneers like Franz Boas did not espouse relativism, although his disciples thought he did. He demonstrates how Boas was actually concerned with the projection of (our) motives onto the actions of people in other cultures, not with relativizing the morality of other peoples' motives.
His concludes that the deadlock between moral relativists and moral absolutists comes from them both sharing a distorted view of what morality really is. Both start with the idea that morality is concerned primarily with classing actions as right or wrong according to abstract principles determined by an outside authority. Instead he follows Arthur Murphy and Iris Murdoch in espousing a view of morality that is more concerned with character and how kindly we respond to others than with how accurately we follow abstract principles. Indeed as he sees it, a moral sense properly speaking, often develops in a struggle against the "enculturative conditioning" described above. Thus moral relativism is not so much wrong as incoherent. If rules aren't the center of morality, then the cultural relativity of rules is no argument for a relativity of morals.
As the book goes on, Cook makes it increasingly clear that for him moral growth is pretty much the same thing as becoming a secular liberal. The description of his ideal moral community of "Islandia" gives an unintentionally hilarious portrait of liberal self-infatuation. The smugness can get irritating, and uncharitable readers could be forgiven for taking Cook's argument to be "Of course morality isn't relative-it's just obvious that we creative, sensitive liberals are better people than those complacent Republican yahoos in flyover country." But contrary to what they think, liberals have no monopoly on moral growth.
In the end, I believe that Cook's central idea is right. Following or not following rules is only part, and not the most important part, of morality. Rules serve character and human feeling, not the other way around. If that is so, the diversity of customs and mores is no argument for a diversity of moralities. Read the book, listen closely to the arguments, and laugh off the smug liberal platitudes.
Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Behaviour Research and Therapy, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Description:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between thought-action fusion (TAF) and religiosity in Christians and Jews (Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform). There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that religiosity is related to obsessive cognitions in Christian samples, but conceptual and empirical ambiguities complicate the interpretation of that literature and its application to non-Christian groups. As predicted on the basis of previous research, Christians scored higher than Jews on moral TAF. This effect was large and not explained by differences in self-reported religiosity. The Jewish groups did not differ from each other. Furthermore, religiosity was significantly associated with TAF only within the Christian group. These results qualify the presumed association between religiosity and obsessive cognitions. General religiosity is not associated with TAF; it rather depends on what religious group. Moreover, large group differences in a supposed maladaptive construct without evidence of corresponding differences in prevalence rates call into question the assumption that TAF is always a marker of pathology.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Metaphysics, published by Philosophy Education Society, Inc. on December 1, 1999. The length of the article is 682 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Morality and Cultural Differences.(Review) (book review)
Author: Roger Paden
Publication:
The Review of Metaphysics (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1999
Publisher: Philosophy Education Society, Inc.
Volume: 53
Issue: 2
Page: 437
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Social Theory and Practice, published by Social Theory and Practice-Florida State University on July 1, 2002. The length of the article is 7103 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Political morality and culture: what difference do differences make?(Martha Nussbaum, Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach; Ayelet Shachar, Multicultural Jurisdictions: Cultural Differences and Women's Rights )(Book Review)
Author: Monique Deveaux
Publication:
Social Theory and Practice (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 2002
Publisher: Social Theory and Practice-Florida State University
Volume: 28
Issue: 3
Page: 503(16)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Showcasing the breathtaking work of French digital artists, Creating Photomontages with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook will both inspire and educate as you explore the endless photomontage possibilities with Photoshop. Translated from French into English for the first time, this lavish collection of groundbreaking digital creations by well-known French artists is a visual smorgasbord for digital imaging professionals, graphic artists, photographers, and anyone involved in the creation of digital images or animations. Photomontages are multiple images artfully combined. When joined together, they assume a new and more complex definition that, if done well, is both believable and aesthetically thrilling. The stunning digital photomontages within this book offer a challenging and beautiful glimpse into a vibrant culture known for pushing the limits of imagination with photography, graphics, and art. Filled with splendor, energy, and creative risks, the images will change the way you see and perform your own work. But Creating Photomontages with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook is more than a full-color feast for the eyes. It gives intermediate-to-advanced Photoshop users invaluable guidance through all aspects of the photomontage creation process--from an initial concept (including inspiration and specifications) through its step-by-step practical execution (photographing, retouching, special effects, and so forth)--and provides insight into the vision behind each creation and how that vision evolved to became a dynamic reality. This one-of-a-kind collection will compel you to explore new and inventive techniques for Photoshop, one of the most vital, powerful, and sophisticated tools in the graphics industry. Your photography, illustrations, advertisements, animations, and art-for-art's-sake creations will never again be the same. Reflecting the very best of French graphic design and digital graphics professionals, this book takes you to the heart of what's possible with photomontage and digital technology through Photoshop. It is suitable for your coffee table or your desktop--wherever you most thrive on creative inspiration.
Customer Reviews:
Basic mumbo jumbo.......2006-02-28
I was excited to receive this book - I love learning about how other users master the techniques of Photoshop. Boy was I disappointed! I've seen these illustrations before - rehashed and rehashed - and if you're using Photoshop CS or CS2, don't waste your time. If you're still working with Photoshop 4 and have never done a collage, I guess you should buy this book. although you'll learn more on Adobe's tutorial website than you'll learn from this book!
it's ok.......2006-01-30
The book is not bad ,but the sample is too simple...but it has detailed walkthroughs of the creation ..so maybe it's very useful for the people who just begin to learning photoshop.
Great projects, great book........2005-12-21
I liked the projects in this book, as they really showed you how to use Photoshop to achieve professional results. Anyone who wants to learn how to combine many different images into one slick final presentation should check out this helpful guide.
Wide Range in Subject Matter and Creative Techniques.......2005-07-23
The creation of a photomontage is one of the most creative and distinctive forms of digital art. Most photographers use Adobe Photoshop to edit and enhance their photographs and creating photomontages with Photoshop is a natural evolution.
As with all books in the O'Relly Designer's Notebook Series, the eight professional artists featured in this book discuss in detail, with full color examples, how he or she created their digital art. These artists represent a wide range in subject matter and creative techniques; from a beautiful and baroque-styled photomontage of an angel bathed in candlelight to a fun and playful photomontage of a frog drenched in a rainstorm. Each artist discusses the techniques he or she used to obtain their individual style; from setup, lighting and photographing the scene to the finishing touches in Photoshop.
The photomontage starring the frog, entitled On The Web Rain or Shine, was created by Bernard Rossi. He shared his technique for superimposing three separate photographs of the same scene of the frog; one dry, one wet and one with falling raindrops. Of course, he accomplished this using layers in Photoshop.
Another featured artist, Patrick Collandre, created a photomontage entitled Exotic Products which represented the interrelationship between software applications. Collandre began by discussing the special challenge in photographing live fish and a uniquely shaped aquarium. Next, certain sections of each photograph were isolated, masked and blended together using layers in Photoshop.
My favorite was the beautiful photomontage of a candlelit angel entitled From Woman To angel. Texture was the secret ingredient that the artist, Odile Pascal, used to eliminate the symmetry that gives most digital art that "computer generated" look. He discussed in detail the filter effects and the stacking order of the layers that he used to create his textured, timeworn look with Photoshop.
The eight artists featured in this book are Patrick Collandre, Didier Crete, Guillaume Daveau, Lamia Dhib, Tai-Marc Le Thanh, Eric Mahe, Odile Pascal and Bernard Rossi. The book was translated by William Rodarmor from the original, Photomontages creatifs avec Photoshop - Les cahiers des Designers 04.
Artistic guide.......2005-03-11
The book takes nine projects from ordinary pictures to artistic presentations. Each project follows a different artist's design and thought processes, which is really pretty cool - it is effectively nine different authors rolled into one book.
This is not so much a tutorial as it is an artistic guide. Unlike the traditional "how to" books which tell you how to get from point A to B, this book seems more geared toward the artistic elements and how to use Photoshop (among other digital tools) to realize your goal.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Bookwatch, published by Midwest Book Review on May 1, 2005. The length of the article is 561 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.(Excel: The Missing Manual)(Google Hacks)(Revolution In The Valley: The Insanely Great Story Of How The Mac Was Made)(Linux Server Security)(Internet Annoyances)(Home Networking Annoyances)(Creating Photomontages With Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook)(Book Review)
Publication:
The Bookwatch (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2005
Publisher: Midwest Book Review
Page: NA
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Customer Reviews:
I've been tricked!.......2007-09-18
I was under the impression that I bought the real book, and I only got the crappy rewiev. Amazon should remove this article, or at least point out what the customer really is buying. I will never use Amazon again.
I've been ripped off!.......2006-09-25
$5.99 for a one page document that only tells you about the other documents you thought you bought what a rip off. Amazon should be ashamed.
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