The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
Claude Levi-StraussRead
Our students wanted to know everything: but only the newest theory seemed to them worth bothering with. Knowing nothing of the intellectual achievements of the past, they kept fresh and intact their enthusiasm for 'the latest thing'. Fashion dominated their interest: they valued ideas not for themselves but for the prestige that they could wring from them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques students' obsession with contemporary ideas while ignoring historical intellectual contributions.
Claude Levi-Strauss highlights a concern regarding students who focus exclusively on modern theories and trends, neglecting the rich intellectual heritage that has shaped current thoughts. This fixation on the 'latest thing' suggests a superficial engagement with knowledge, where prestige and novelty take precedence over genuine understanding and appreciation of ideas.
Themes
EducationModernityPrestigeKnowledgeIdeas
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the importance of historical context in education, this quote could emphasize the need for a balanced view of knowledge.
More from Claude Levi-Strauss
All quotes →Objects are what matter. Only they carry the evidence that throughout the centuries something really happened among human beings.
Claude Levi-StraussRead
Civilization has ceased to be that delicate flower which was preserved and painstakingly cultivated in one or two sheltered areas of a soil rich in wild species ... Mankind has opted for monoculture; it is in the process of creating a mass civilization, as beetroot is grown in the mass. Henceforth, man's daily bill of fare will consist only of this one item.
Claude Levi-StraussRead
The world began without man, and it will complete itself without him.
Claude Levi-StraussRead
Nor must we forget that in science there are no final truths.
Claude Levi-StraussRead
The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.
Claude Levi-StraussRead
Similar quotes
I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowlege among the people. no other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom, and happiness.
Thomas JeffersonRead
I read. I order books from the States. I literally go into bookstores, close my eyes, and take things off the shelf. If I don't like the book after a bit, I don't finish it. But I like to be surprised.
Stanley KubrickRead
When you're a kid, you learn whatever your parents think until you start taking in media. Because all your friends are your age as well, media is the third parent that you ever have. So I think about that a lot, what visual imagery is teaching us, and media in general having a huge impact.
Lucy DacusRead
For every fresh stage in our lives we need a fresh education, and there is no stage for which so little educational preparation is made as that which follows the reproductive period.
Havelock EllisRead
In order to translate a sentence from English into French two things are necessary. First, we must understand thoroughly the English sentence. Second, we must be familiar with the forms of expression peculiar to the French language. The situation is very similar when we attempt to express in mathematical symbols a condition proposed in words. First, we must understand thoroughly the condition. Second, we must be familiar with the forms of mathematical expression.
George PolyaRead
We talk of globalization, and how much money is needed for the education of children in the world, their liberation and rehabilitation just $9 billion which is four days of military expense. Just four days. Nine billion dollars is nothing. But what Americans spent on ice cream just 20 percent of this. One fifth of what you spend on ice creams could bring the children out of the clutches of their masters and put them to school.
Kailash SatyarthiRead