{"id":4647,"date":"2015-04-17T15:38:15","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T15:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=4647"},"modified":"2015-04-17T16:51:10","modified_gmt":"2015-04-17T16:51:10","slug":"an-entrepreneurial-worldview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/an-entrepreneurial-worldview\/","title":{"rendered":"An Entrepreneurial Worldview"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was somewhat captivated by the answer to the question raised by the publisher in the abstract to A Brief Guide to Ideas<\/em> by William Raeper and Linda Smith. The question is simple enough, \u201cPhilosophy\u2014Dry and remote?\u201d[1]<\/a> It is obviously a rhetorical question; after all, there is the expectation that the answer is, \u201cYes! Philosophy is dry and remote.\u201d But, \u201cNo!\u201d responds the book reviewer with the suggestion, \u201cThink again.\u201d What is the publisher trying to do, \u00a0sell books? The astonishing claim is made that philosophy is \u201cas relevant as tonight\u2019s news, as immediate as the choices you make in a career.\u201d Philosophy, then, is about what \u201cmakes the world tick,\u201d or as the authors note, \u201cphilosophy is about ideas.\u201d[2]<\/a> In the introduction the authors express what this means and set the tenor for the book\u2019s content:<\/p>\n

Philosophy is not just about how to think; it is about how to live. Philosophy takes a closer look at the ideas behind how we live our lives. What we think is true affects our view of ourselves and how we treat other people and the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was deeply moved (challenged) when I read this brief paragraph. In the margin I wrote the word \u201cworldview\u201d as I got a different perspective on how ideas shape who I am.<\/p>\n

In retrospect I began thinking about why I have such an aversion to philosophy. Perhaps it was my first introduction, as a farm boy who I had never strayed more than fifty miles from home, to philosophy. I clearly recall the \u201cdry,\u201d staid, somber, and definitely unexcitable professor of my undergraduate introduction to philosophy. He always wrote his sedated comments on the blackboard; however, mostly he just played from hand-to-hand with the chalk until, by the end of the class, he would have calk dust everywhere. He always wore heavily \u00a0starched white shirts and a tie (no jacket). I know it ought not be so, but the only real memory I have of the class was his entry on one occasion into the classroom. Perhaps he was hurried in his preparations but he entered with six to eight inches of the starched shirt protruding out from his unzipped fly. Can you imagine trying to listen to a lecture as the prof flipped the chalk from hand-to-hand with the starched shirt serving like the main sail on a sailboat? Fortunately somewhere in the lecture as he turned to write on the board, he caught a glimpse of the protruding shirt and tucked it back in place without speaking a word or any change of expression.<\/p>\n

I do not tell this little antidote with a disrespect attitude ; I do remember the beautiful rock garden on campus prepared and maintained by the doctor of philosophy and the deep sense of reverence for God and creation that I always felt when in the his presence. \u00a0He just did not \u201cturn me on\u201d to philosophy. \u00a0Perhaps my aversion stems more from a temperament that is not interested in discussing the \u201creality\u201d of a sound that might have occurred somewhere in isolation in a forest.<\/p>\n

In A Brief Guide to Ideas<\/em> Raeper and Smith\u00a0make us aware that ideas are powerful and shape who we are and how we view the world (worldview). It is not how \u201cpractical\u201d or \u201cimpractical\u201d the ideas may be or how common sense trumps all other application of ideas. One is\u00a0formed not just the ideas one\u00a0accepts or considers to be foundational concepts of life; it is also ideas that we reject or castigate as false, deceitful, or even evil that establishes how we view the world. If philosophy is the \u201clove of wisdom\u201d then the philosopher is in pursuit of ideas developing the skill of learning and thinking.<\/p>\n

The Brief Guide to Ideas<\/em> is arranged and written to easily engage the reader. As the authors note, the book is neither comprehensive in the ideas it covers nor exhaustive in an idea\u2019s meaning. There are sixteen\u00a0topics (very selective) with three essays written on each topic. \u00a0I found the brief introduction to\u00a0each topic by the author to be very helpful before engaging the historical writings of philosophical thinkers that relate to the topic. The topics do have a chronological aspect but do not need to be read in any specific order. I read two specific topics that interested me: \u201cHow and What can we Know? Epistemology,\u201d and \u201cAnything Goes: Relativism versus Certainty.\u201d \u00a0Ideas shape who and what we are and how we view life.<\/p>\n

As I was previewing the book, I listened to an interview with Jack Welch on the Fox News Network. Jack Welch with his wife, Suzy, recently published a book about ideas and life: The Real-Life MBA: Your No-BS Guide to Winning the Game, Building a Team and Growing Your Career<\/em>.\u201d Hearing the interview and reading the editorial reviews makes the book an inviting read. \u201cWinning, building and growing\u201d are all ideas we want to understand and apply to our worldview. Welch was asked about how people, specifically young college age career minded people, can meet the challenges in the contemporary social and business environment. He responded with some \u201cwisdom\u201d ideas that could easily shape who we are personally and in the business world, especially in tumultuous and uncertain times. Welch referred to the fact that many young people express to him that they want to be entrepreneurs and question how they can succeed on this path. He noted that he only asks those interested in entrepreneurship one question, \u201cWhat is your big idea?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ideas are the key to an entrepreneurial view of life and the world.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> William Raeper and Linda Smith, A Brief Guide to Ideas<\/em> (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997), back cover.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was somewhat captivated by the answer to the question raised by the publisher in the abstract to A Brief Guide to Ideas by William Raeper and Linda Smith. The question is simple enough, \u201cPhilosophy\u2014Dry and remote?\u201d[1] It is obviously a rhetorical question; after all, there is the expectation that the answer is, \u201cYes! Philosophy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,87],"class_list":["post-4647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-raepersmith","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4647"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4656,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647\/revisions\/4656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}