text:
The federal government's embattled anti-discrimination legislation is now facing scepticism from crossbench MPs.
While both are reserving their position, independents Andrew Wilkie and Tony Windsor have picked up on the attacks being made against the controversial draft legislation.
Mr Wilkie said the legislation ''has attracted a remarkable amount of criticism from a very broad range of people and organisations''.
''Going by the criticism to date, I assume the bill will be significantly amended or dropped altogether,'' he said, adding that he would wait for the final version before adopting a firm position.
Mr Windsor said he had some concerns about what was being proposed, and had mentioned the issue to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Mr Windsor pointed to ABC chairman and former NSW chief justice Jim Spigelman's criticisms about the legislation's dangers for freedom of speech.
The legislation consolidates several anti-discrimination laws, including one on racial discrimination, which refers to treatment that offends. The proposed law extends ''offending'' into the definition of discrimination for all purposes.
Ms Gillard said the government had put out an exposure draft of the bill and people's views would be considered. ''We would not have gone down an exposure draft route if we didn't want people's feedback,'' she said. But ''we're not starting from a blank page. We put out there what we thought was most worthy of consideration, but we put it out there for feedback.''
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott reiterated the Coalition's ''deep concerns''. ''We do not need any additional restrictions on free speech in this country.''
It was in the Liberal Party's DNA to support free speech, Mr Abbott said. ''The last thing we need is anything that shuts down legitimate debate in this country.''
The parliamentary inquiry into the legislation has a hearing in Melbourne on Wednesday.


text:
LabArchives necesitaba un nuevo diseño de botón o icono y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 20 diseños de 9 diseñadores freelance.
LabArchives (http://www.labarchives.com)
LabArchives is currently beta-testing an innovative web-based software for management of laboratory data. Since our users are primarily in an academic setting, we would seek a "hip" and potentially somewhat irreverent look while still retaining professionalism, since we will have some corporate customers.
Laboratory scientists, primarily in the academic setting, but also some corporate.
LabArchives uses the metaphor of a Notebook for Data storage. Each Notebook is segmented by Folders. Folders contain Pages, and Pages contain Entries. Users navigate the Notebook using an "Explorer" similar to that of Windows File Explorer. See the attachment Screenshot.jpg
The application allows users to "Share" their notebook with other users and they can do so at the Notebook, Folder, Page or Entry levels. A shared item is indicated by the icon display.
We are looking for the creation of 32x32 and 16x16 pixel icons to be used primarily by the "Explorer" but also in other locations in the application. Icons should use colors complementary to our application's current scheme. We would also like vector based artwork files to be provided. (Adobe Illustrator format)
The attachment screenshot.jpg should give you an a good feel for what we need.
Specially, we need the following icons
· Inbox folder
· Search results folder
· Notebook
· Notebook Shared
· Folder
· Folder Shared
· Page
· Page Shared
· Entry
· Entry Shared
Entry Management icons
* Insert/Add Entry
* Edit Entry
* Delete Entry
* Share an Entry
* Print an Entry
* View Revisions to an Entry
Page Management Icons
* Print Page
* Share Page
* View Revisions for Page
* Favicon.ico

subset: commoncrawl


text:
John Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821 / London, England)
» Click to list general statistics » OR, select a date :
Specimen Of An Induction To A Poem
Lo! I must tell a tale of chivalry;
For large white plumes are dancing in mine eye.
Not like the formal crest of latter days:
But bending in a thousand graceful ways;
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- Hits: Number of visitors who read the poem on the given date.
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text: As an artist, I have always been drawn to the essence of an emotion elicited by my subject. Recently, since moving to the gulf coast, I have been fascinated with the clouds that play along the coast as well as the variety of palms, flora and vegetation. Weather it is with a brush or a camera, the guidelines to my imagery remains the same. A well thought out composition and the direction of the light is essential. What is it that I can offer the viewer that draws them in, can cause them to recount a memory and speaks to them directly? Whether it's a painting evoking the power of the thoroughbred racing with the heart of a champion; or an orchid that suggest human emotions, my paintings as well as my photographs are my way to illicit human emotions that we all relate to, feel and respond to in our own way. Figures twisted together, an American flag rendered with honor, passion and sorrow, how does a subject sit in the atmosphere…how does the light play upon the surface that makes it come alive. People tell me what they see and often it's entirely different than what I was trying to express…and is it not the ultimate compliment for an artist to have a work speak directly and intimately to another?Francine (Stuart) Mabie (née Costantini) was born in New York City and raised in the Catskills. She received her Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in studio art.


text:
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text:
Cervélo - Kirsten Wild wins Open De Suede World Cup
Cervélo TestTeam sprint ace Kirsten Wild (NED) won the Open De Suéde World Cup today. The 132 km race ended in a bunch sprint where Wild was able to beat Adrie Visser (NED) HTC Columbia and Emma Johansson (SWE). During the race there where several break aways but they never got enough space. In the final, Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) made a solo attack but Cervélo TestTeam brought Vos back in the bunch in the streets of Vargarda and Wild was able to win her second world cup race. In fact so far this year there have been eight world cup competitions and Cervélo TestTeam has won half of them, this weekend making it three in a row.
We had more options today and we also had some riders in a break away group. Though there was a lot of action today, our team had control over the race and we always had somebody there, explained Kirsten Wild after her successful win today. When Vos attacked in the final I was a bit afraid but then when our team started the chaining at the front we saw her coming closer. I was really proud of my team today, riding in our train behind such strong girls was really cool, it was like our team trial on Friday. In the last meters Sarah Düster, who was my last lead out person, brought me into position perfectly and I was able to win this race.
Again a victory, our second this week, we can't do no better than that, said a smiling Egon van Kessel, Sports Director. In the beginning there was a lot of raining but it subsided and things dried up about halfway through the race Emma Pooley (GBR) attacked, as we had planned on the first lap to put some pressure on, but the wrong team was chasing her. So we pulled it back. Then we had another attack of 6 riders and after that another attack this time with Sarah Düster. We could see that this group wasnt working together so we knew that the bunch sprint would become pretty big.
But in the last lap on the last hill there was a really strong and surprising attack by Marianne Vos (NED). We started chasing her but could not close the gap. So with 3 km to go we went full gas with the entire team at the front. We pulled really hard and we took her back 600 meters before the finish. Throughout the race there was really good teamwork today, what they did was amazing. I am happy for Kirsten, this is the first world cup shes won this year and she really deserved it.
Geert Broekhuizen - Public Relations


text:
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On-line version ISSN 2304-8557
Print version ISSN 0023-270X
Koers (Online) vol.78 n.2 Pretoria Jan. 2013
(Ir)rationalism: At the cross-roads of historical and systematic reflection
(Ir)rasionalisme: By die kruispad van historiese en sistematiese denke
Danie F.M. Strauss
Department of Philosophy, University of the Free State, South Africa
This article is dedicated to Ponti Venter for his contribution to the historical roots and systematic implications of philosophical problems. A discussion with him about four decades ago prompted me to investigate the Greek roots of our distinction of thought and being. In the analysis below, a brief sketch was given of the initial identification of thought and being in the thought of Parmenides and the consequences it had for the rationalistic tradition since the Renaissance, particularly in connection with the view that the universe itself has a rational structure. Two options were pursued in our analysis of rationalism: (1) to contrast it with empiricism and (2) to relate it to universality and the problem of what is individual. By distinguishing between conceptual and concept-transcending knowledge, an alternative systematic characterisation of rationalism (and irrationalism) is proposed, namely that it absolutises conceptual knowledge (whilst irrationalism deifies concept-transcending knowledge). This view allows for an acknowledgement of the ontic horizon of human experience, co-constituted by the dimensions of modal aspects and type laws, without elevating human understanding to become the law-giver of the world.
Hierdie artikel is opgedra aan Ponti Venter vir sy bydrae tot die verstaan van die historiese wortels en sistematiese implikasies van wysgerige probleme. 'n Gesprek van sowat vier dekades gelede het my aangespoor om ondersoek na die Griekse agtergrond van ons onderskeiding tussen denke en syn in te stel. In die ontleding hieronder is 'n oorsigtelike skets van die aanvanklike identifisering van denke en syn in die gedagtegang van Parmenides geen die konsekwensies wat dit vir die rasionalistiese tradisie sedert die Renaissance gehad het gegee, veral in verband met die siening dat die heelal self 'n rasionele struktuur sou besit. Ons ontleding van die aard van die rasionalisme het twee opsies ondersoek: (1) kontrasteer dit met die empirisme en (2) let op die verband tussen universaliteit en dit wat individueel is. Deur te onderskei tussen begripskennis en begripstransenderende kennis word 'n alternatiewe sistematese karakterisering van rasionalisme (en irrasionalisme) voorgestel, naamlik dat dit begripskennis verabsoluteer (terwyl die irrasionalisme begripstransenderende kennis vergoddelik). Hierdie siening laat ruimte vir die erkenning van die ontiese horison van die menslike ervaring, mede-bepaald deur die dimensies van modale aspekte en tipe-wette, sonder om die menslike verstand tot die wetgewer van die wêreld te verhef.
It is a privilege to contribute to the Festschrift - a special issue of Koers, dedicated to the philosophical work of Ponti Venter. About 40 years ago we attended the same 'Werk Colleges' (seminars of Professor Van Riessen) in Amsterdam (Free University) as part of the doctoral program that we both followed. What struck me from the beginning was the piercing way in which Ponti always went to the root of an issue and then produced a challenging stance.
This contribution aims at exploring something contemplated in a discussion after one of Van Riessen's seminars. It will serve as a starting point for a classical philosophical problem, namely the relationship between thought and being and the facilitating role this issue played in coming to terms with the nature of and difference between rationalism and irrationalism. This angle of approach will pay attention to issues within the domains of systematic philosophy and the history of philosophy. Ponti also grappled with these issues. Our attention will be drawn to the distortions giving birth to rationalistic and irrationalistic orientations.
Because Parmenides, in his well-known didactical poem, identified thought and being and since being in this poem is described in spatial terms, the problem of rationality from early Greek philosophy onwards was related to reflections on the nature of space. As an alternative to 'continuous extension' Ponti proposed the idea of 'position' ('place'). The immediate effect of this conversation was that it prompted me to return to the sources of Western philosophy, namely to the early Greek philosophers.
The general habit of saying that rationalism is an absolutisation of (human) reason is not very illuminating, because the term 'reason' is not explained. What is reason? And what is rationality? Bernays introduced a meaningful consideration when he claimed that the crucial feature of rationality is found in the conceptual element (Bernays 1974:601). This remark opens up the possibility to account for the nature of concept formation, which, in turn will lead us on the path to a number of related concerns.
It will turn out that concepts are dependent upon distinguishing and identifying universal features. Universality, however, is nowhere encountered 'on its own', for it is always accompanied by what is individual. Yet, if concepts are constituted by universality, then it is evident that the individual side of entities - normally captured in the article 'this' - exceeds the grasp of concepts. The awareness of this chair (its individual side) unbreakably belongs to the being a chair (universal side) of this chair. Since Aristotle, the dominant legacy in Western thought holds that knowledge coincides with conceptual knowledge, which implies that what is individual cannot be known.
The mistaken restriction of knowledge to conceptual knowledge may be seen as a key characteristic of rationalism. Once this content is given to the term rationalism, the natural question of how knowledge is restricted to what is individual should be designated. It will be argued that this is just the other side of the rationalistic coin, because one can define irrationalism as an over-estimation of knowing what is individual and unique. The contrast between universality and what is individual implicitly explores key features of the aspects of number and space, for what is unique and individual highlights the quantitative intuition of being distinct. Within every multiplicity discrete individuals are discernible. Likewise, the awareness of universality rests on our intuition of space ('place' in the above-mentioned conversation between Ponti and myself), in the specified form of all places, everywhere. These distinctions will also appear to be significant for comprehending the elevation of human (conceptual) understanding to be the (formal) law-giver of nature (Immanuel Kant). The law conformity of entities is simply the correlate of the universality of laws for the existence of (natural and social) entities. It will therefore also be argued that order and orderliness (both universal traits) are not themselves rational, although they are intelligible. Historicism relativised universality with its focus on the unique and unrepeatable, thus simply advancing what we shall identify as an irrationalistic alternative to the dominant rationalism of the Enlightenment.
Against this background a few systematic considerations will be introduced, centred in the distinction between two kinds of knowledge: conceptual knowledge and concept-transcending knowledge. Proceeding from a non-reductionist ontology this alternative will attempt to rescue the soundness of these two kinds of knowledge and thus contribute to a more articulated understanding of both rationalism and irrationalism. The aim is thus to arrive at a non-distortive and non-reductionistic ontology.
We proceed now by first looking at some of the Greek roots of the problem of (ir)rationalism. This will provide us with background knowledge for the argument that space does play a key role in concept formation as well as in the definition of rationalism. Without an awareness of space, universality (at all places, wherever, everywhere) will not be understandable.
Space (place), multiplicity and movement
Parmenides, the Greek Eleatic philosopher, focused his philosophical reflections on (static) being and thinking. Regarding being he held the view that a thing is its place. The property 'place' is only applicable to a (material) body and when a body is absent there is no subject to which the feature 'place' can be attributed.
This explains why Greek (nature) philosophy did not acknowledge an empty space - if the body, which is supposed to be identical to its place, is not present, then it is plain that there simply is no place (equal to no body). What developed here was a metaphysics of spatial place, identified by Parmenides with thinking: 'for thinking and being is the same' (Diels & Kranz 1959-1960, B Fragment 3). In the second Fragment it is asserted that what is is and that non-being is not. The space metaphysics in the thought of Parmenides acquired a fuller content when being is described as unborn and immutable, for in the now it is together present as a whole, as one, and as something coherent (continuous) (Diels & Kranz 1959-1960, B Fragm. 8:3-8). The remarkable fact is that although being is characterised as a coherent whole, its unity, which is fully homogenous, cannot be divided (Diels & Kranz 1959-1960, B Fragm. 8:23). Parmenides explored this space metaphysics in his attack both on multiplicity and on movement.
Yet it was Zeno, a member of the school of Parmenides, who first realised that wholeness (being a totality) can be divided and in fact entails the feature of an infinite divisibility (see Diels & Kranz 1959-1960, B Fragm. 3). The two parts of this Fragment both proceed from the assumption that there is a multiplicity, but they reach opposite conclusions.
Aristotle explains discreteness in terms of things in succession such that 'there is nothing of their own kind intermediate between them'. That 'which is intermediate between points is always a line' (Phys. 231 b 7-10 in Aristotle 2001:316). A line is therefore constituted by the pattern of point-linepoint-line-point-line .... From this Aristotle concludes that a continuous whole is infinitely divisible: 'Moreover, it is plain that everything continuous is divisible into divisibles that are infinitely divisible' (Phys. 231 b 15-18 in Aristotle 2001:316).
In the first case there must be as many things as there are, in which case their number is limited, and in the second case there are always others in between such that the number of existing things is unlimited. Frankel is justified in using the whole-parts relation to explain what is here at stake (Frankel 1968:425ff): if one starts from the (multiple but limited number of) parts and then proceeds to the whole that is constituted by this limited number of parts, then they add up to the whole. But if the different parts are further divided, this process of division can proceed indefinitely, and then the multiplicity is unlimited.1
Reason and reality
Throughout the history of philosophy and also within the various academic disciplines the dominant theoretical frameworks - since Thomas Kuhn, preferably designated as paradigms - struggled to articulate their respective understandings of the unity and diversity of reality. The word 'reality' is related to the Latin term for a thing (res). One of the misleading consequences of this connection is that existence is sometimes only ascribed to concrete entities (things). Whatever else there may be does not truly 'exist'. This approach surfaced in particular during and after the Renaissance: just compare the representative conviction of Descartes, who holds that number and all universals are modes of thought (Principles of Philosophy, Part I, LVII in Descartes 1965:187). Descartes does acknowledge certain attributes as existing within things, whilst at the same time reifying certain aspects to substances, namely his well-known res extensa and res cogitans (extended substance and thinking substance).
Whilst the substance concept largely dominated ancient Greek and Medieval philosophy, the rise and development of the modern natural sciences shifted focus towards functional relationships between things. Naturally this was enhanced by the mathematical formulation of natural laws and law-conforming relations, which even prompted scholars to think that the universe itself has a rational structure.
Van Huyssteen refers to Davies who believes that the 'true miracle of nature' is found 'in the ingenious and unswerving lawfulness of the cosmos' (Van Huyssteen 1998:66). Van Huyssteen accepts this view by declaring: 'What is astounding, however, is to what a great extent our world is truly rational, that is, in conformity with human reason (p. 68). Three pages further he elaborates on this view:
It is indeed fascinating to see, precisely through the fact that the rational nature of our universe is reflected in its basic mathematical structure, that Davies ultimately comes to the point where he has to acknowledge the limits of this reasonableness. (Van Huyssteen 1998:71)
The crucial point in this stance is given in the idea that our world is truly rational in the sense that it is in conformity with human reason. To be in conformity with human reason presupposes that human reason acquired the status of being a law for the world which is conforming to this law. This view asserts that human understanding actually operates as a law (-giver) for the world. Although Van Huyssteen formulated this conviction within the context of his postmodern orientation, it is actually derived from the rationalistic tradition since the Renaissance - the line of Descartes, Hobbes up to Kant. The nominalistic denial of universality outside the human mind caused Descartes to hold that number and all universals are modes of thought (Principles of Philosophy, Part I, LVII inDescartes 1965:187). Kant defended the radical view that human understanding is the law-giver of nature, whilst it was already within the thought of Hobbes that the new (modern) motive of logical creation surfaced. Let us explain this in more detail.
The thought experiment conducted by Galileo eventually contributed to Kant's idea that human understanding is the formal law-giver of nature. In 1638 he imagined a body in motion on a path extended into infinity. According to him - and this argument constitutes his law of inertia - such a body will continue its movement if nothing hampers it. This prompted Immanuel Kant to contemplate the question: how is it possible that one can produce a thought experiment merely proceeding from the spontaneous subjectivity of human thought and then deduce from it a natural law and apply it to moving bodies? Does this experiment entail that human knowledge serves as the law-giver of nature and that our understanding contains structural features preceding our experience?
This is what traditionally was designated as what is a priori to experience, that is, what precedes experience. Kant did not hesitate to affirm the claim that there are a priori elements of human understanding making possible our knowledge of reality.
The position assumed by Kant is an attempt to reconcile the extremes of assigning priority to human thinking or assigning it to sensory experience. An important element in the tradition of rationalism is found in the conviction that there are cognitions that are not derived from the senses since they find their origin purely within conceptual human understanding. Traditionally the basic opposition was between rationalism and empiricism, where the latter gave priority to our experience.2 By implementing the classical opposition between form and matter (content) Kant delivered the matter of human sensibility to a multiplicity of (individual) chaotic impressions (thus accommodating the empiricist tradition of Locke, Berkeley and Hume and continuing the nominalistic stripping of reality from its universal order and law-conforming orderliness), whilst at the same time postulating that the formal side represents something supra-empirical. This applies first of all to what Kant called the forms of intuition (time and space) and secondly to the 12 categories of human understanding distinguished by Kant. His view that human understanding creates its laws (a priori) not out of nature, but prescribes them to nature (Kant 1961:320; § 36)3 explains why it is still alleged that the world has a rational structure. Because this view elevates the human subject to the level of law-giver it is also designated as subjectivistic. However, such a view appears to contain an untenable circularity, aptly captured by Roy Clouser: 'Unless there were already laws governing the mind that were not its creations, what would explain the uniformity of the ways the mind imposes laws on experience?' (Clouser 2005:368).
In post-Kantian freedom idealism Fichte, Schelling and Hegel elaborated the rationalistic element by ascribing to human thought the capacity to conceptually bring forth the content of the world independent of experience. According to Hegel the idea is the unity of concept and reality (Hegel 1949:239).4 This position once more evinces the perennial philosophical problem of thought and being. Cassirer remarks that it appears as if the circle of philosophical contemplation found its closure and reached its aim in identifying reality and reason: 'Hegel believed that this is the point where his "Wissenschaft der Logik" is positioned' (Cassirer 1957:10).
Understanding rationalism: Two options
Option 1
The one option is to juxtapose thought and experience (thinking and sensing) - when the former acquires priority it is designated as rationalistic and when the latter is given priority it is known as empiricistic. Windelband mentions Hobbes (De corpore, Ch. 6), who accepted the methodological orientation of Galileo, as being a rationalistic in opposition to the empiricism of Bacon (Windelband 1935:327, note 1). This opposition may also be explained with reference to the alternative views of Descartes and Hume. In a typical rationalist mode of thought Descartes holds: 'At all events it is certain that I seem to see light, hear a noise, and feel heat; this cannot be false, and this is what in me is properly called perceiving (sentire), which is nothing else than thinking'(Meditation II; Descartes 1965:90, my italics). The contrasting view of Hume is: 'To hate, to love, to think, to feel, to see; all this is nothing but to perceive' (Hume 1962:113). Either sensing is reduced to thinking or thinking (and everything else) is reduced to sensing.
Although Greek philosophy already gave prominence to reason (nous) the term rationalism was not employed yet. Anaxagoras characterised the eternal and immaterial form origin of the world as the Nous, which has all knowledge and the greatest power. It is not determined by any limits and it is not mixed with germs of matter because it is self-sufficient (Diels & Kranz 1959-1960, B Fragment 6, 11, 12, 14). Later on, when Plato compared the good with the sun, it becomes clear that the onticforms (eidè) owe their existence, being and knowability to the idea of the good. Viewed in coherence with the nature of the divine workman of Timaeus the idea of the good (agathon) has its seat in the divine demiurg (work master/ craftsman). The active operation of the nous with its focus on ordering is portrayed by Jäger as focused on the relation of the nous to the agathon. This illustrates the influence of Anaxagoras (and Socrates, nous and dynamics): through the primordial design of the idea tou agathou the workman, as the divine nous, is the origin of the eidè, and therefore the form-giver of the world of the senses (see Jäger 1967:106ff).5
Thomas Aquinas held that the unity of ideas cannot be obtained by assuming just one idea in God. Rather, he holds, the multiplicity of ideas is constituted in such a way that the Divine Mind, as first form, observes the multiple possible ways according to which it can be copied (Questiones Disputate de Veritate, IB, 2 in MacKenna 1956).
The first time the word 'rationalist' (rationaliste) was explicitly used was apparently in 1539 when it was already employed in opposition to experience (the empirical: empirique). A rationalist was seen as a person who assigned a greater value to pure thought than to experience. For some time, since the beginning of the 17th century, the term rationalism acquired a more specific theological meaning. An English source from the year 1646 mentions the rationalists as a new sect within the sphere of the Presbyterians and Independents whose adherents accepted their own reason as their point of departure (Böhling 1992:45).
At the time when the term rationalism was liberated from its theological use, it opened the way to describe the great philosophical systems of the 17th and 18th centuries. Simultaneously, atheists and those liberated in their thought introduced the term rationalism during the 19th century as a slogan against the superstition of traditional religions, whilst believing that they had reason and science on their side. Historians now also extrapolate the meaning of this term by generalising it mainly into the epoch of the Enlightenment. Rationalism combines the key elements of the Enlightenment, such as its criticism of understanding, its optimism and its faith in progress (Böhling 1992:46; see also Lecky 1910).
Perhaps this insight may help us also to understand why Habermas, in his desire to make an ongoing plea for the dignity of rationality as it is embedded in communicative action, does not really want to transcend this essential trait of modernity, although he is willing to let go of the optimistic utilitarian spirit that marked its emergence in the period of Enlightenment:
The concept of modernity no longer comes with a promise of happiness. But despite all the talk of postmodernity, there are no visible rational alternatives of this form of life. What else is left for us, then, but at least to search out practical improvements within this form of life? (Habermas 1994:107).
Earlier in the 20th century we find a remarkable trust in human rationality. After Heidegger moved beyond the rationalism of Husserl, the latter experienced it with a sense of hopelessness positioned by him within the broader context of a crisis of Europe and of the academic disciplines. According to him this crisis is rooted in a misguided rationalism ('einem sich verirrenden Rationalismus'):
In order to comprehend what is wrong in the present crisis the concept Europe once again has to be viewed by means of the historical directedness towards the infinite aims of reason; it must be demonstrated how the European world was borne from reason-ideas, that is, out of the spirit of philosophy. The crisis will then clearly emerge as the apparent failure of rationalism. The basis of this failure of a rational culture, however, ... is not inherent to rationalism, since it is only found in its externalization, in its decay into naturalism and objectivism. The crisis of European existence provides only two options: the decline of Europe in the alienation from its own rational existential meaning, the decay into an animosity towards the spiritual and a lapse into barbarism, or the rebirth of European existence through the spirit of philosophy, particularly through a heroism of reason that will consistently triumph over naturalism. (Husserl 1954:347-348)
Option 2
The position of Husserl points in the direction of the other option open to an understanding of rationalism, which surfaces when we consider the connection between understanding and the difference between what is universal and what is individual. The problem of what is universal relates to the nature of concepts, for our argument is that concepts are bound to universal features. Yet in our everyday experience we always find universality and what is individual side by side (this horse is a horse). Since we do have knowledge of what is individual (we know ourselves in our uniqueness), the restriction of knowledge to conceptual knowledge is clearly problematic. The historically significant lines of development outlined below will elucidate this issue.
Traditionally, reason is said to be focused on the universal scope of conceptual knowledge. Already Aristotle had to switch from his purely individual proten ousian (primary substance) to the secondary substance, namely the universal substantial form of individual entities. By tradition, concepts are believed to be 'blind' to what is individual, explaining why Aristotle holds that knowledge is only possible of the universal essence of things, the just-mentioned secondary substance, the to ti en einai (De Anima, 412 b 16; cf. 414 a 9-11 in Aristotle 2001). Nicolai Hartmann nonetheless points out that Aristotle does not have a concept of a concept (Hartmann 1957:101). As general form knowledge, true knowledge cannot be obtained from matter. In his Metaphysics, Aristotle first eliminates all determinations of being and then concludes that matter as such is unknowable. He explains that when it comes to (individual) 'concrete thing[s]', 'of these there is no definition'. Whatever is known 'are always stated and recognized by means of the universal formula [secondary substance]. But matter is unknowable in itself' (Metaph. 1036 a 1-10 in Aristotle 2001:799). Aristotle therefore ultimately holds that knowledge is restricted to conceptual knowledge, made possible by what is universal.
Cysarz points out that under the influence of Xenocrates an early goal of Aristotle was to accept an individual substrate, a 'próte usía' which could be neither defined nor mathematically proven. It is precisely that which every child but no computer achieves: distinguish a rabbit from a dog. For this reason, so he concludes, a pure science of what is individual is impossible (Cysarz 1983:12-13).
Medieval Scholasticism continued this view by assigning universality to the human mind or intellect and what is individual to what could be sensed. What is individual is considered to be inexpressible (omne individuum est ineffabile). A well-known South African philosopher captures this legacy in a work on logic and epistemology and highlights the 'individual delimitation' (De Vleeschauwer 1952:213). Regarding what is individual, he holds that our intellectual capacities must fail because 'knowledge of what is individual is simply impossible' (according to De Vleeschauwer, philosophy had clarity about this issue since its inception, De Vleeschauwer 1952:213).
Within the development of modern philosophy one may see the 18th century, the era of Enlightenment, as a period in which conceptual rationalism dominated the scene. It echoes the new spirit of rational criticism, exemplified in what Kant said in the Foreword to the first edition (1781) of his Critique of Pure Reason:
Our age is, in every sense of the word, the age of criticism and everything must submit to it. Religion, on the strength of its sanctity, and law on the strength of its majesty, try to withdraw themselves from it; but by doing so they arouse just suspicions, and cannot claim that sincere respect which reason pays to those only who have been able to stand its free and open examination. (Kant 1961:21)
The rise of historicism during the transition from the 18th to the 19th century made possible a new appreciation of what is unique, individual and contingent as an attempt to escape from the grip of conceptual knowledge and its entailed universality. In the Third Part of the Fourth Volume of his work on the problem of knowledge within philosophy and the modern sciences, Ernst Cassirer dedicates the first chapter to the emergence of historicism and the second one to the ideas of B.G. Niebuhr, Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm von Humboldt (see Cassirer 1957:225ff, 233ff). Cysarz characterises the 19th century as the era of individuality (Cysarz 1983:16). He could have added the issue of continuous change, with reference to Darwin's theory of evolution.
During the 19th century, the tension between the general nature of concepts and what is uniquely historical could not be reconciled. Habermas mentions that, analogous to
Peirce, Dilthey also struggled with the relationship between universality and what is individual (see Habermas 1970:200201). He explains that hermeneutical understanding must grasp an inexpressible individual meaning in categories that are unavoidably general (Habermas 1970:201).6
Yet, as Cysarz correctly remarks, every (professional) practice must proceed in an individual manner. What is healed in medical praxis is not illness, but the individual sick person, even though this cannot happen outside the matrix of general norms (standards) (Cysarz 1983:13). This remark highlights an important fact, namely that whatever is universal is always accompanied by what is individual and vice versa. An individual sick person shows, in its being sick, that it shares in the universal feature of sickness. A succinct way to capture this situation is to say that this sick person (individual side) has an illness (universal side). Clearly, sickness, even in its abnormality, displays universal abnormal traits. Disorderliness depends like a parasite on what is normal.
The challenge facing a systematic account of rationalism
Our preceding analysis made it clear that an account of the nature of an ism such as rationalism cannot avoid taking into account the relevant historical perspectives. In pursuing this avenue particular distinctions emerged, such as that between the 'rational' and the 'empirical'. Poser (1998) relates this distinction to the difference between Descartes and Leibniz in his discussion of what he calls the 'rationalistic ideal of science'. Leibniz criticised Descartes by introducing his concept of a scientia generalis (general science). However, he articulated a distinction between necessary truths of reason and contingent truths of fact (Leibniz 1976:646; Monadology, 33ff). A similar distinction is found in the thought of Locke, namely that between empirical factual knowledge and knowledge of the necessary eternal relations between ideas (Locke 1964:324326; IV, i, 9), as well as his introduction of intuition as the foundation of exact scientific knowledge (for instance in the demonstrations in mathematics, cf. Locke 1964:330-331; IV, ii, 14-15). This distinction contradicts his empiricist orientation because with the aid of intuitive demonstration one can arrive at a kind of knowledge that 'is the clearest and most certain human frailty is capable of' (Locke 1964:326).
The position assumed by Leibniz anticipated the views of Kant: just consider the following statement of Leibniz (1965):
Now reflection is nothing but an attention to what is in us, and the senses do not give us what we already bring with us. This being so, can we deny that there is a great deal that is innate in our mind, since we are innate, so to speak, to ourselves, and since there is in ourselves being, unity, substance, duration, change, activity, perception, pleasure, and a thousand other objects of our intellectual ideas? And since these objects are immediate to our understanding and are always present, ... why be surprised that we say that these ideas, and everything which depends on them, are innate in us?' (p. 146, cf. p. 173)
On the verge of anticipating Kant's criticism of Hume's empiricism, Leibniz, more than 30 years before the first appearance of Hume's A treatise of human nature (1739), wrote as follows in his New Essays:
Now all the examples which confirm a general truth, whatever their number, do not suffice to establish the universal necessity of that same truth, for it does not follow that what has happened will always happen in the same way. (quoted from Stich 1975:45, cf. Kant 1787:5)
Paul Bernays, the co-worker of the famous German mathematician David Hilbert, points out that rationality cannot be understood apart from concepts: the 'proper characteristic of rationality' is 'to be found in the conceptual element' (Bernays 1974:601). This view supports what we saw above, namely that in general rationality is crucially connected to conceptual knowledge and to universality. Universality, in turn, cannot be understood apart from its connection to what is individual.
Note that we rather speak of 'what is individual' than of 'individuality' because the latter is still a universal feature. In being an individual every individual, in a universal way, evinces its uniqueness. We noted that in our everyday experience we fully understand the difference between a chair (a universal feature) and this chair (its individual side).
A systematic perspective
From a historical perspective we have directed our attention to the opposition of thought and experience which, owing to an over-emphasis of the one or the other, may lead to rationalism or to empiricism. Yet, this juxtaposition does not say anything substantial about rationalism as such. For this reason we extended our investigation in order to reflect on the context within which rationalism is positioned. This reflection pointed at the connections between rationality, conceptuality, universality and what is individual.
The tradition of reformational philosophy provides the starting point for an understanding of these issues. For this reason we briefly look at points of connection in this regard in order to advance an alternative approach in terms of the distinction between conceptual knowledge and concept-transcending knowledge.
Within the tradition of reformational philosophy, the emphasis on making sound distinctions created an equally important sensitivity with regard to reductionism in all its negative variants. Both Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven articulated their views in terms of well-thought-out systematic distinctions and they both attached specific meanings to terms capturing those philosophical stances in which a distorted account is given of universally accessible states of affairs.
Interestingly, Vollenhoven explicitly mentions that rationalists from the 18th century, such as J.G. Walch in his introduction to philosophy of 1727, maintain 'that what he and those who thought like him - the rationalists - had to say was built on the state of affairs' (Vollenhoven 2005:5).
He briefly discusses the slogan of Descartes, cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am), by pointing out that some are of the 'opinion that this "therefore" denotes a connection of identity'. But according to him this is incorrect, 'for Descartes does not identify being and thinking' since besides thinking he 'also presupposes extension'; therefore, for Descartes 'thinking is only a component of being' (Vollenhoven 2005:10).
Yet Vollenhoven (2005) on the same page points out that:
Descartes meant this in a rationalistic way, that is, in the sense that thinking is the essence of being; an opinion that we, of course, reject, as much as we reject the division of being indicated here. (p. 10)
This does not entail that Vollenhoven think it is 'rationalistic' 'to subsume thinking and knowing under being, for it makes good sense to speak of a non-thinking and a non-knowing being. There are clearly many things - for example, minerals, plants, and animals - that are but that do not know'. Vollenhoven therefore concludes negatively 'that knowing is not the same as being' and positively 'that knowing is a component of being' (Vollenhoven 2005:10).7
In general Dooyeweerd refers to the strict correlation of the law side (cosmonomic side) and factual side of reality in order to explain how he understands both rationalism and irrationalism. In the first Volume of his Magnum Opus, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought (NC), he states that in a rationalistic type of thinking 'the subject-side of reality within the special modal aspects is reduced to the nomos-side' (Dooyeweerd 1997:98). In the context of his philosophy of time he rejects both rationalistic and irrationalistic conceptions because the former 'absolutizes the cosmonomic side and the latter the factual-subjective side of time' (Dooyeweerd 1997:28; see also Dooyeweerd 1940:196).
However, Dooyeweerd did not properly distinguish between law and law-conformity (lawfulness). He frequently exchanged these expressions. Earlier we remarked that universal conditions ought to be distinguished from the universal way in which individual entities show that they conform to these conditions or laws. By identifying law and law conformity Dooyeweerd strips factual reality of its universal side. For this reason he often explicitly speaks of the individual factual side.
Although concretely existing things and processes function within all aspects of reality, they at the same time transcend the theoretical grasp of anyone of these modal aspects in which such entities and processes function. We have theoretical access to them through the gateway of the modal aspects which therefore also serve as modes of explanation for our investigations.
Concept formation is made possible by the universality of specific (logically identifiable and distinguishable) features. The universality here involved could be either that of a universal order for, holding for the type of entities subject to it, or it can refer to the universal orderliness of things, reflecting the universal way in which entities show that they are subjected to the applicable order for their existence. Since conceptual knowledge is tied up with these two forms of universality (order for and orderliness of), the individual side of entities simply transcends the possibilities of conceptual knowledge. When we acknowledge that what is individual exceeds our conceptual grasp, it does not imply that we do not have knowledge of what is individual. But if this knowledge cannot be conceptual, it must be concept transcending. This kind of knowledge may also be designated as idea knowledge.
Proper conceptual knowledge of a triangle or a human being includes those universal features found in all triangles and all human beings. Since this kind of knowledge does not preclude concept-transcending knowledge (idea knowledge), a balanced (and non-reductionist) understanding of reality should acknowledge both.
On the basis of this characterisation and distinction we can now introduce a more advanced definition of rationalism and irrationalism:
1. Rationalism deifies (absolutises) conceptual knowledge.
2. Irrationalism deifies (absolutises) concept-transcending knowledge.
An additional perspective on idea knowledge is obtained when the various ways in which terms derived from the different modal aspects of reality are employed. The most basic option is to consider modal (aspectual) terms in their reference to phenomena appearing within the domain of any specific aspect. For example, no one will doubt that our awareness of the 'one and the many' presupposes the meaning of number. Counting a number of things usually follows a sequential pattern that exhibits an order of succession, albeit in a cardinal (how many: one, two three, etc.) or ordinal sense (how many-th: first, second, third, etc.) (see Maddy 1997:17). But when Plato discusses the hypothesis that the One is without multiplicity (subsequently further explored by Plotinus), the numerical term 'one' points beyond the arithmetical aspect towards the origin of the universe. In this case the numerical one is stretched beyond the confines of the quantitative aspect of reality, revealing that it is actually employed in a concept-transcending sense. In a similar way one may reflect on the mere conceptual use of spatial terms and ways in which spatial terms are employed in order to refer to realities exceeding the boundaries of the spatial aspect.
We have noted earlier that although Greek philosophy initially wrestled with an idea of wholeness not allowing division, the ripened conception of Aristotle saw that anything continuous could be divided into divisible parts (see Aristotle, Phys. 234 a 8 inAristotle 2001:322). His general and encompassing description reads: 'Everything continuous is divisible into divisibles that are infinitely divisible' (Aristotle, Phys. 231 b 15-18 in Aristotle 2001:317).
If all the divided parts are taken together they constitute a genuine whole or totality. A conceptual use of the terms whole or totality will refer to spatial figures, such as lines or two-dimensional figures. Suppose now that we use these spatial terms in order to refer to the existence of something in all it aspects (of which the spatial is but one amongst many others). Then we may speak of that something in its totality. The referent of this term encompasses more than the spatial aspect alone and therefore represents a concept-transcending use of a modal spatial term.
Although the relationship between what is universal and what is individual may suggest that an over-estimation of either could be captured in the opposition between universalism and individualism,8 it is preferable to reserve the latter opposition as an indication of alternative basic denominators for the diversity of ontic aspects and entities - alongside ismic orientations such as physicalism, vitalism, psychologism, logicism, economism, aestheticism, and so on.
Dooyeweerd uses the correlation of law side and individual factual side to characterise the difference between rationalism and irrationalism. We noted that he denies universality at the factual side of reality and consistently identifies the orderliness of entities, their lawfulness, law-conformity of factual universality, with the law side of reality. This explains why Dooyeweerd consistently refers to the individual subject side of reality. However, when it is realised that law-conformity is a feature of factual reality, then it is no longer possible to deny the universal side of factual reality. In the atom-ness of an atom this (individual) atom in a (universal) way shows that it is subject to the universal law (conditions) for being an atom (where being an atom represents the universal side of an atom). But then a more appropriate understanding of rationalism is to define it as an absolutisation of conceptual knowledge. Likewise, irrationalism should then be seen as an absolutisation of concept-transcending knowledge. Of course rationalism then cannot any longer be defined as an absolutisation of the law side of reality, as Dooyeweerd did, because universality is also present at the factual side of reality. Furthermore, it is then also insufficient to define irrationalism as an absolutisation of the factual side of reality.
In other words, it seems as though it is more nuanced to advance our proposal, namely to hold that rationalism leaves no room for true concept-transcending knowledge whilst irrationalism leaves no room for genuine conceptual knowledge. In terms of this perspective an acknowledgement of the horizon of human experience and the dimensions of (ontic) modal aspects and type laws is meaningful. It at once avoids elevating human understanding to the a law-giver of the world, which ultimately is a full-blown rationalistic conviction.
Concluding remark
It is remarkable to what an extent an analysis of the nature of rationalism and irrationalism succeeds in bringing widely varying features and theoretical orientations to the fore. The uniqueness of number and space played a key role since the awareness of what is individual derives from the numerical meaning of discreteness (being distinct), whereas the awareness of universality derives from our spatial awareness of place, to be sure, all places, wherever. It appeared that we have to question the long-standing legacy in Western philosophy which restricts knowledge to conceptual knowledge. Knowledge is not blind to what is individual; it is only conceptual knowledge that cannot grasp what is individual. Yet, when we realise that knowledge differentiates into two kinds of knowledge, namely conceptual knowledge and concept-transcending knowledge, it turns out that we can avoid the one-sidedness present in both rationalistic and irrationalistic approaches.
Competing interests
The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.
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Danie Strauss
PO Box 339
Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Received: 01 Nov. 2012
Accepted: 03 May 2013
Published: 03 July 2013
1.Bertrand Russell concedes: 'The relation of whole and part is, it would seem, an indefinable and ultimate relation' (Russell1956:138).
2.Ponti Venter often refers to both rationalism and irrationalism and his writings evince the consistent interplay of historical and systematic considerations (see, for example, Venter, 1995, 1999, 2002, 2012).
3.Cassirer explains this view of Kant with reference to the following statement of the latter: 'das wir "von den Dingen nur das a priori erkennen, was wir selbst in ihr legen"' [concerning things we can only know a priori that which we ourselves have embedded in them] (Cassirer 1957:239).
4.Hegel phrases it also as follows: 'Idea is the unity of concept and reality, the realized concept as such' (Hegel 1931:155).
5.In his negative theological approach Plotinus feared that the word demiurg may introduce multiplicity into the absolute One (first hypostasis). As a result he rather applies the term demiurg as designation of the Nous (second hypostasis). See Theiler (1966:127) and also Plotinus (En. 1I, 3, 18; II, 9, 6; V, 9, 3; MacKenna 1956).
6.'Das hermeneutische Verstehen muß in unvermeidlichallgemeinen Kategorien einen unveräusserlich individuellen Sinn erfassen.' [Hermeneutic understanding must enter an inalienable individual sense inevitable in general categories].
7.Embedded in a different context Mekkes emphasised the difference between integral knowing and mere thinking (see Mekkes 1970:12, 13, 84, 86, 89, 123, 128-9, 138, 141, 153-154, 159, 168, 172, 180, 195, 205, 218-219, 221, 226, 230).
8.Vollenhoven uses the terms universalism and individualism to indicate an over-estimation of individuality and universality, respectively.


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Nannerth Fawr Farm with its delightful holiday cottages is a traditional 200 acre organic Welsh hill farm, set in the peaceful Wye Valley Mid Wales. With the spectacular hills of the Elan Valley behind, tranquil pastures in front and bordered by the River Wye, this spot is a haven for birds and wildlife. So come on over and have an adventure in beautiful Mid Wales.
Nannerth Country Holidays is a family run business on our farm adjoining the Elan Valley. Choose from a delightful self catering cottage, a well designed barn conversion or an airy roof top apartment all of which have been renovated from traditional stone, timber and slate buildings to create comfortable, sustainable self catering country cottages of a very high standard. Attractively furnished and decorated, the properties are grouped around the old farmyard garden and have wonderful views of the stunning countryside. 4* graded with Visit Wales.
All the images on this site have been taken on Nannerth Fawr farm, except those on the Things to Do pages illustrating things to do in the area. Thanks to all guests who provided lovely pictures.
Nannerth Fawr Farm is in the upper Wye Valley, 3.5 miles north west of the market town of Rhayader or Rhaeadr Gwy. In the heart of Welsh 'kite country' we border the Elan Valley and are surrounded by the hills and moors of the Cambrian Mountains. The seaside university town of Aberystwyth is an hour to the west; Hereford and the beautiful marches an hour to the east; Snowdonia lies to the north and the Brecon Beacons to the south.
October 16th - 19th 2014....
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Quality Accommodation
Converted from the original farm buildings, the 4* holiday properties have the well built and attractive feel of stone, slate and oak, combined with high quality furnishings and fittings. Each has its own garden area and easy access to the farmyard facilities. Prices are inclusive of heating, electricity and linen.
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It wasn't supposed to happen this way.
The Me Generation's twilight years were supposed to be a bookend for the Golden Age of the American Dream they inherited after the country triumphed in World War II. For all but a few, that dream is fast slipping away, as a surge in layoffs and the collapse of the housing and financial markets leave them with few options and little time to recover and rebuild.
"I don't think there's any way around it: The baby boomers are going to be in bad shape," said Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "The only way that they're going to be able to come out OK is if they can work later in their lives. Even then it's going to be tough because very often it's going to be at considerably lower wages."
The statistics are bleak.
The housing market collapse has wiped out some $3 trillion in home equity that once formed the bulk of most boomers' life savings. The incineration of another $11 trillion in stock market wealth has cut a wide swath through the individually managed accounts that have largely replaced the employer-managed pensions that supported their parents' generation in retirement.
Some 3.8 million workers 45 or older were unemployed as of February — up from 2 million when the recession began 15 months ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many are now burning through what remains of their savings and raiding retirement accounts to pay college tuition or to meet basic household expenses.
As the economy and stock market continue to spiral downward, some boomers who have fallen off the track they spent decades pursuing are angry and searching for clues as to where they went wrong. Those who followed the rules, climbed the ladder or just showed up at work every day for 30 years assumed they were assured of a solid middle-class life.
That's what Bruce Hosking, 61, expected when he retired two years ago after 40 years as a photojournalist, the last 20 at the Tampa Tribune.
"Retirement to me never meant kicking back and playing golf or any of that nonsense," he said. "Retirement meant doing what I want to do rather than someone else telling me what to do. I was looking forward to actually sitting back and enjoying the fruits of my labors. We were OK, but we weren't going to be taking world cruises. And we're not OK now. Like lots of people."
Hosking says business is slowing at the commercial construction company where his wife has worked for 18 years as an office manager. He's been producing videos to stay busy, but heavy losses in his retirement account have forced him to look for another source of income.
"My nightmare would be (that) I'd be at the end of the checkout line asking you, 'Paper or plastic?'" he said. "This year is either going to make or break us. If the economy doesn't turn around, we're going to be with the rest of the people who face the possibility of starting to sell off our valuables to stay alive."
Hosking is part of a wave of retired or part-time working boomers who thought they were free to enjoy deciding how to spend their remaining years. With retirement accounts shredded, many once-retired boomers are returning to the work force. Some may have to continue working as long as they are physically and mentally able.
"We rarely saw job seekers who were 68, 70, 72, and now we're seeing them with some regularity," said Bob Skladany, a career counselor and head of research at RetirementJobs.com, a site that caters to older workers. "They report that they cannot afford to live."
Millions of younger, still-employed boomers, who thought their retirement plans were on track, also may have to abandon the idea of ever retiring.
In past economic downturns, many 50-something workers faced a decision about accepting "early retirement," complete with a financial package designed to tide them over to their next job or top off a retirement account. With corporate profits tanking, many employers have simply dispensed with the niceties of severance pay.
"They gave me no help. Nothing. Just 'Have a nice day," said Joanne, 51, who asked that we use only her first name. "It was a horrible way to treat people. It was unbelievable."
Joanne said she suspected her job as a technology consultant was at risk when she was asked to train someone else to do the work who was "half my age, with half my qualifications. The clients will suffer, but that's not my problem."
Barred by a non-compete agreement from contacting former clients and unable to sell or rent her condo, Joanne has been looking for part-time assignments to replace her $60,000-a-year salary.
"All I'm asking for is 10 hours to get me through next week so I can pay my COBRA (health insurance)," she said. "That part is very is very frustrating. I'm not asking for a whole job."
It's a stark turnabout for the generation born to postwar families in tracts of newly built suburban cocoons, with new cars in the driveway and "space age" appliances in the kitchen. Watching their country land a man on the moon in the 1960s, it was a time of seemingly endless possibilities.
Early in their careers, boomers survived the financial upheaval of the 1970s. Then came the great wealth creation of the 1980s and 1990s, the Internet bubble and bust and the biggest housing boom in a century. Those who stashed savings in IRAs and 401(k) accounts largely took the advice of financial services professionals to buy and hold stocks for the long term. Spurred by the real estate industry's exaltation of the American Dream of homeownership, they plowed money into buying, improving and expanding their houses, confident that it was the best investment they could make for their families and their future.
Now the collapse of the job, stock and housing markets is breaking this generation's grip on all rungs of the economic ladder. Since they entered the working world, boomers have been conditioned to believe that recessions last no more than 16 months; the return to prosperity is always just around the corner. Economic reversals are temporary — a furlough from the plant where you will eventually return to work, or a brief hiatus "between jobs" until things pick up again. To be sure, many of those who lost jobs in past downturns suffered emotionally and financially. But for most, it was a temporary setback.
This time feels different. Many of those now coping with unemployment are confronting the prospect that the career they spent 30 years building may be ending prematurely. And the salary that fully valued their lifetime of skills and experience may represent the high-water mark of their earning power.
"It feels different because it is so widespread, and is affecting almost every industry," said Deborah Russell, director of workforce issues at AARP, the advocacy group for the over-50 set. "For people like blue-collar workers in the Midwest — these folks have not just lost their jobs, even the function of what they did no longer exists. So even being able to transfer those skills to, say, another employer in the auto industry — it just doesn't exist."Video: From exec to janitor, boomer holds head high
White-collar boomers, including those with advanced degrees, top credentials and decades of carefully groomed resumes, are confronting a job market they've never seen before. Mark Cendella, founder and CEO of TheLadders.com, a job service specializing in positions that pay $100,000 or more, says subscribers have become increasingly apprehensive as the pace of layoffs continues to rise.
"In the last 12 months we're seeing the anxiety level and the stress that comes through in e-mails have gone way, way, way up," he said. "The uncertainty has skyrocketed."
Despite the global impact of the downward economic spiral, some boomers report they have a tough time discussing their plight with co-workers, family and friends. A neighbor's financial setback often isn't evident until the foreclosure sign goes up on the front yard. That isolation can only make matters worse, said Russell.
"There's a personal pride in working," she said. "And losing your job is embarrassing — even it if it's beyond your control and has nothing to do with your performance. If people isolate themselves and don't reach out for help that can be a real issue."
Though the recession officially began in over a year ago, the pace of job losses began accelerating in October. As the number of job seekers has risen, the number of openings continues to shrink – down some 50 percent from when the recession began in December 2007. That means nearly five people are competing for each opening, up sharply from a ratio of less than 2-to-1 little more than a year ago.
That's left some boomers stunned by the speed at which their jobs and careers seem to be melting away.
It's also left them startled by the chilly response from employers to the lifetime of skills and experience they've accumulated, a portfolio many assumed would be their biggest asset in a job search. With employers' profits shrinking, those years of experience turn out to be a liability to hiring managers who associate older workers with higher cost. In response, many boomers have begun paring back their resumes, dropping mention of decades-old accomplishments and advanced degrees as they reach further down the employment ladder.
Wes Masterson, 47, of Spokane, Wash., lost his job late last year as a salesman for a Mississippi company that makes uniforms. He said business began to slow last year, but his sales results were only down by single digits when he got word that the company was eliminating his territory and moving his accounts in-house.
"It just kind of hit me in the face," he said. "In November, out of nowhere, the V.P. of sales called me up and came out and told me they're going to eliminate the Pacific Northwest position."
Since then he's been pounding the pavement and has surfaced a few leads. But even though he's willing to take less than his former $80,000 salary, he's finding employers balk when they find out how old he is. A car rental company recently turned him down flat when he applied for an entry-level opening.
"The day I filled out the application it was, 'Sorry, you don't fit into our scheme,'" he said. "With all the experience I have, and willing to work for less money, it just kind of blew me away. If you look on the job boards, everything is two to five years experience. They feel the younger kids are easier to train and aren't going to cost them as much in health care and benefits."
As he widens his search, Masterson is considering going back to school part-time for his MBA to increase his options and his appeal to potential employers. It's a shift that employment professionals say is picking up speed as more boomers realize the need to "recareer" and embark on a late-in-life second act.
Two-year community colleges and specialized trade and technical schools report a surge in enrollments, in part due to an influx of laid-off, older workers, forcing some schools to turn away applicants.
Trying out something new is something boomers are supposed to feel comfortable with. This is, after all, the generation that came of age amid the turbulence and exhilaration of a decade of wrenching social change. The boomer generation's current search for "reinvention" is not without success stories.
After a career as an administrative assistant for several large corporations, Lynn Gorham, 51, decided to stay home and help her husband with his home remodeling business and raise their two daughters, 16 and 13. Last year, when the family's business began to slow, Gorham decided she needed to go back to work after a 13-year hiatus.
But after eight months of looking full time, she had landed just four interviews.
"You can send out your resume all day, but it's that interview that counts," she said. "I had to be careful with the word 'experience.' You don't want to make it sound like you're older than you are. So the interview skills are really critical."
To better target her job search, Gorham spent time taking stock after a potential employer had her take a personality test and skills assessment.
"I had to research to find out where I really needed to be," she said. "It focused on my customer service skills and my math ability. Are you flexible, are you a morning person? That kind of thing. It made me stop and think, 'I really do need to be looking at jobs like this one.'"
After interviewing in July with a local company that arranges housing for students at local trade schools, she was one of three finalists but didn't make the cut. But in January, when the position opened up again, she landed the job — just in time.
"We were just about down to our last dime; we were borrowing from my kids' savings accounts," she said. "I think this is where I'll be for awhile. I think it'll be a new career path."
Still, the path to reinvention is not an easy one.
"Re-education is just not an option for many people," said Skladany, at RetirementJobs.com. "It costs money. It may preclude you from being able to work. And frankly, not everyone wants to do the kind of occupation that these certificates provide. A lot of older workers don't want to go back and become an auto body specialist."
That's left many boomers facing what Skladany calls "Plan B," which translates as "any job I can get."
"But a lot of the plan B jobs have evaporated — like retail, financial, clerical," he said. "So these people are going into non-traditional jobs: home personal care aids, customer service, telephone-based positions. These are high turnover, undesirable jobs that a lot of older workers are going after."
"Plan B" used to involve tapping a financial cushion that was too thin for many boomers even before the economy collapsed. But the swift destruction of trillions in wealth has exposed the massive shift of risk from employer to employee that came with the decades-long phase-out of traditional company-managed, defined-benefit retirement plans to individually managed, defined-contribution plans.
"It's a real rude awakening," said Baker, co-author of a report on the impact of the housing bubble's collapse on the wealth of baby boomers. "An awful lot of people just didn't think this was possible. Everyone appreciated that there's more risk with defined-contribution accounts. But this is bringing it home with a sledgehammer."
Many boomers are now taking a hard, second look at the relentless advice of the financial services industry to stash savings in IRAs and 401(k)s and buy and hold stocks for the long-term. As financial planners and stock brokers confidently pointed to the stock market's decades-long track record of solid gains, others warned that boomers face risks that their parents' generation avoided through reliance on a professionally managed, employer-guaranteed pension.
The lesson may be that that planning, accumulating and managing a retirement fund is a full-time job best left to professionals. Most people just don't have the skills or temperament to pull it off, according to Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
"Evidence indicates that people make mistakes every step of the way," she recently told a congressional panel. "They don't join the plan, they don't contribute enough, they don't diversify their holdings, they overinvest in company stock, they take out money when they switch jobs and they don't annuitize at retirement."
As even the most seasoned, professional money managers lick their wounds from a historic market collapse, boomers approaching retirement are facing the biggest risk of all: that the market collapse will leave them without enough time to recover and rebuild their savings before they lose their job or their health.
For many boomers, homeownership was supposed to be the final fallback, a financial backstop that would help make up for any shortfall in retirement savings. As the housing boom picked up speed, buyers and sellers were assured by the real estate industry — from homebuilders to real estate agents — that house prices had never fallen, year-over-year, since the Great Depression.
Now, with housing prices down nearly 20 percent nationally and still falling sharply in many areas, that fallback plan has failed millions of boomers. Though some clearly reached too far, the housing collapse has destroyed the savings of millions more who were prudent borrowers.
"I know people who went for those interest-only loans. I know better. I have an MBA in finance," said Joanne. "I actually went way under my head on buying something. It's very, very upsetting. ... I've lost almost my life savings. And how was I supposed to know that? That part is probably the hardest."
With few signs of an upturn, policymakers in Washington are pinning their hopes on the economic stimulus package and the ongoing effort to shore up the battered financial system. But those offer little comfort in the short run.
"I'm very pessimistic about it," said Masterson, the former salesman. "I think the stimulus plans that they've come out with are full of pork. I don't think they're the right thing to do. The tax cuts don't help me because I don't have a job."
But with few alternatives, and time running out, boomers are left with little choice but to soldier on in their job searches.
"Just keep looking," said Gorham. "It's a numbers game. After so long, it'll happen."


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|Pesto Mixture
Step 1.
Part 1 of 2 - Pesto Mixture
- Boil water in a medium sized pot and salt it.
- Upon boiling, blanch the basil leaves for 1 minute, then chill them in a container with ice cubes and water.
- Squeeze the excess water from the basil leaves, then blend them with corn oil, roasted nuts, garlic, cheese, salt and pepper using the MultiTalent 6 Food Processor.
- Make sure ingredients are packed together before blending them into a paste.
Step 2.
Part 2 of 2 - Pasta
- Boil water in a medium sized pot and salt it.
- Add pasta once the water boils, and cook the pasta according to the recommended timing on the packaging.
- In a slightly heated medium sized pan, add cooking oil and lightly fry the garlic.
- Turn down the heat to allow more time for the pasta to cook till it almost reaches its desired timing.
- When the pasta is left with about a minute to being fully cooked, add 5 tablespoons of pesto mixture and tossed it evenly into the pan with garlic.
- After the pasta is cooked, strain and toss it together with the pesto. Add some liquid from the water from the pasta if needed, to moisten the pasta.
- Garnish with parsley, cheese, olive oil, rock salt and cracked pepper.
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text:
Author Archive
Happy Birthday, Joseph Judea!
Posted November 4, 2014on:
Joseph turns 3 years old today. THREE. How did this even happen? How did time go by so quickly? Seriously, we have to stop all this craziness. I just can't even handle it.
Sweet Joseph {Joe Joe; Joe; Judea},
I will never be able to fully put into words just how much you mean to me. You bring me so much joy. I love your enthusiasm for literally everything, especially anything that is blue or has an engine. Over this past year, you have started talking like crazy. My favorite is when you go into pretend play and act like BatMan or a Kratt Brother. And I can't help but laugh every time you stick your little index finger in the air and say "Um, I know…." You are such a little man.
For as much as I love you, there are your sisters. I always imagined that you and the girls would be close, but I never realized how fiercely you would love one another. Don't get me wrong, y'all fight like cats and dogs, but at the end of the day there is a beautiful, tender bond between the three of you that will never be broken.
Then there is you daddy. Your daddy who loves to wrestle you and do all the boy things you love that frankly the girls and I will never do. While you are a mama's boy through and through, I love to see how your relationship with daddy is growing. Watching you two play t-ball, or sword fighting, or action heroes. It's blessing to know that you have such an amazing, Godly man leading you.
Joseph, sweet boy, I pray that you would always know that you are so treasured, so loved, and so perfectly matched for our family. My prayer is that you cling to the Lord and follow Him all your days. That you grow in character, faith and leadership. That you are strong, but know that strength is always caring for those weaker than you.
I love you papi.
Y'all… This world. This world has gone straight up crazy with a side of down right awful. It absolutely breaks my heart to listen to the news. Between ISIS, Ferguson, Ebola, and children being abused I'm just done. I get it. This world is a fallen place, filled with sinful people. We can't actually expect things to get better, we can't expect this world to be a place we want to stay. Because this isn't our home, this isn't what we were meant to live with.
But, it's where we are. It's what we have to deal with till Christ returns. And never before have I so felt the desire "come Lord Jesus, come" as I have in the past year. One day He will, and all things will be made new.
Still, bad news sucks. And right now there is a lot of bad news out there.
Yet, if you look just hard enough, there is some good news.
Like this really bizarre ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Sure, I know that people have found the "bad" in the challenge, but y'all, there is a LOT of good here too. Frankly, we just need some good right now. It's like when your life is crumbling down and you start laughing at the most ridiculous thing ever. It's not really all that funny, but you laugh and laugh because your mind, body, and soul are just too dang tired from all the hard. And laughter is medicine. Right now, I'm just taking this Ice Bucket Challenge as a bit of medicine to get me through the bad news out there. It's not perfect. It's not a fix all. But goodness does it make me laugh. And I need a good laugh.
And if you keep looking, you'll find more good things.
Like snuggling up to your pup (who by all standards is far from being a pup in both age and size but who are you to tell him that?) ::
Or finding this gem on the internet early in the morning::
Or this video that always makes me laugh (because after taking German for three years in college, I realize it's one crazy language) ::
Obviously, if that last video didn't make you laugh as hard as I did, then we clearly don't have the same sense of humor. And you should watch this one ::
The good doesn't always outweigh the bad. And we can't always hide behind good, with fingers crossed that if we don't look at the bad then it isn't really there. But, we still need to take a break. We still need to laugh. We still need to hold on to the hope that something better is coming.
Anniversary Extravaganza 2014!
Posted August 11, 2014on:
Can we just take a step back real quick? Have Jon and I seriously been married for nine years? I can remember on our first anniversary saying how I couldn't imagine what it would be like to celebrate 10 years of marriage. And here we are, finishing the last lap before the big 1-0.
Before I launch into what was an amazing anniversary trip, I'll let you read about my thoughts on being married for nine years.
On to the good stuff….
Jonathan and I got the chance to visit the Pacific Northwest for 5 days.
We spent time in downtown Portland, Seattle and the Olympic National Park.
We ate delicious seafood, played in freezing cold water, and spent hours just dreaming about life.
My sister, Shelly, suggested we eat at this fantastic Parisian bistro called Le Panier right off the Market in Seattle. French? Coffee? Pastry? Win-win-win. A chocolate croissant with coffee is pretty much my definition of heaven on earth.
We got to see my high school best friend/maid of honor, Carrie, who recently moved to Seattle with her family.
We traipsed through the forest, and went for trail runs.
If y'all are like me and didn't know much (or really anything) about Olympic National Park, it is gorgeous. Seriously, the trees alone are worth the visit. Add in the cool breeze, the fact that there's a rainforest, plus views of the ocean and mountains. Words can't describe how beautiful this place is.
Our trip was such a good, soulful, rejuvenating time. A time of reflection, a time of planning, a time spent between best friends and ardent loves. Even a week later, I'm walking on cloud nine.
A special thanks to our family who made this trip possible. Thanks for loving on our kids and hosting Cousin Camp. Thanks for flying us out to the PNW and showing us the ropes. Thanks for the support and encouragement we need to keep making this thing called marriage work.
- In: Life
- 2 Comments
Jonathan and I have been married for nine years.
Nine years.
Calculated a little differently, that's 108 months; or 472 weeks; or 3309 days. Or, just a really long(ish) time.
Y'all know I don't front about things that are hard. I don't put on a shiny face or pretend like things are blissful, when in fact, they aren't. I'm honest for a myriad of reasons, especially when it comes to life's hardships, because I think being dishonest about the hardships of life sets us up for failure. And when it comes to marriage, there are hardships.
Here's the thing we need to make really, really clear. Hard isn't bad.
Did you get that?
Hard isn't bad.
Just because marriage is hard, doesn't mean it's bad. Just because it's hard, doesn't mean you bail out, give up, move on. It's just the opposite. You press in, you give more, you hold on.
And when hard happens, it can lead to great.
There was a time when I thought my marriage would never be "great". Sure, we'd stay married, we'd raise babies together, walk through life together. But I wasn't sure that in ten years we could look back and say we had a great marriage.
Then all hell broke loose. We spent 8 months wrapping our heads around our new life. Our hard life. We dealt with depression, with anger, with loneliness, with guilt, with all the feelings you can feel. And it was HARD. Like, super hard. Yet, somehow, in that hardness, in that anguish, our marriage came back. We started talking again. Like, really talking. We started opening up, started praying together. It was as though we started fresh, but with this whole beautiful, messy history to look back on.
Slowly, things got better. Sure, we still argued (let me rephrase that, argue), but things are different. Now it's a whole lot less arguing about each other, and a whole lot more arguing for each other. For the first time ever, I think Jonathan and I are playing for the same team, going after the same things, holding each other up. And it's beautiful. And it's wonderful. And it's still hard.
But, hard it's bad.
Because when things are hard and you fight even more for it, you realize just how much you want that one thing. Just how valuable that person is to you. It makes the hard not bad. In fact, it turns it into great.
It's Hard to Have a Blog
Posted August 10, 2014on:
One of the things I love most about this little sphere of world I've made for myself is how I can so openly share life with all y'all (yep, yep, I did just make y'all a double plural). I've told some of my deepest secrets/shames, some of my greatest dreams, some of my hardest struggles, some of my highest victories.
Yet, I've realized over the last year or two, it's hard to have a blog. Especially when you're willing to be vulnerable and raw. Because now, now people know. They know the bad and the good, the struggles and the pains. And honestly, that can be kinda exhausting.
It's hard to have a blog. But, like most things that are hard, it's so, so good too.
And while I've tried and failed many times to stay the course, to write more often, I'm trying again. Putting myself out there and opening up once again because all y'all (see I did it again) have just been the best and I can't quit you.
- In: Life
- 7 Comments
Folks, I'm teaching Kindergarten this fall. The story of how I came to this new adventure is long and winding, but as has been the story of my life, it was just so perfectly God.
This past spring Jonathan and I began praying about school for this next year. We weren't sure if we could stay at Veritas or if we would need to homeschool full-time. My prayer started off that I would have peace with either decision and then I started praying that God would make the decision completely, perfectly clear.
Oh, He did.
At the end of May, I applied as a kindergarten teacher at Veritas. At the beginning of June, I interviewed. By the end of June, I was offered the position.
If you had told me ten years ago that I would be teaching kindergarten, I would not have believed you. It's something I never expected. And yet… and yet, I am absolutely thrilled. Like, butterflies-in-my-stomach excited. Tomorrow I meet the rest of the teachers on the kindergarten team and next week kicks off our week-long Paideia Conference where I get to meet my students.
You know, it's funny, how life moves and changes. How God stops at nothing to bring you to a point that you never expected. But when you stand still, looking back at what lead you to this spot, you see how perfectly He wove things together. As a dreamer, I like to plan big dreams. Yet, something God has shown me over the past 10 months is that my plans are small. So, so small, compared to His. And while I can dream, it's so much better if I just let Him move in my life. Because, even when things seem out of control, when hope seems lost, when darkness feels like it's winning, it's not. It's all part of His plan to change, to move, to do something incredible.
This next path, of teaching kindergarten, is His plan. Laid out perfectly by Him and I cannot wait to see where it leads. I have a feeling it's going to be better than I could ever imagine.
Funny, how life changes. Just like that. How things go up or down, in a single breath. I suppose that's what life changing events are. Events that alter the course of everything.
Jonathan got a job.
Did you read that?
Jonathan got a job!
He started working this past week for Cisco. From home. Like, as in, he works in the other room. A-maz-ing. Seriously. And such a huge answer to prayer. Not only did God provide the best job, He provided the best job that allows us to stay connected as a family.
I just can't get over it.
Not just the job part, really. I mean, that does completely blow me away. But, honestly, deep down, I can't get over just how much God loves me. The past 9 months have been hard. Seriously, hard. I've wept. I've been lower than I thought possible. Life has felt like too much, felt too damn hard. I've failed repeatedly. I've hit rock bottom on many, many levels.
Yet, there, at the end, at the bottom, in the worst possible times, there He was. Whispering "I love you. You, Sarah, are Mine. I will stop at nothing to save you, to sanctify you. I, the God of All, love you, the woman with nothing."
Time and again, He's shown His crazy love for me. Through my friends (oh, precious friends, you'll never truly understand how you did more than I could ever repay), through His Word, through the church He gave me. It's humbling to know that you are so loved, so cherished, so desired.
And part of it is terrifying. Terrifying that I'll give my heart away to someone (or something) other than my beautiful, wonderful Jesus. But, (and what a strong word that is) BUT, He has sealed my heart. Even when I am prone to wonder, prone to leave the God I love, His love is strong enough to cover and seal me to Himself.
It's a story worth repeating. And repeating. His love is strong enough. His love is everlasting. His love redeems. His love sets right. His love saves.
Here is by far my favorite hymn (sung by one of my favorite bands). My favorite lyric is ::
O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.
Repeat the story. Repeat it over and over again. His love. His love. HIS LOVE.