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Practically Idealistic blog
 
The title for this blog originated with use of the term “practical idealist” in this 1996 opinion piece, which asked: “To what kind of work should a practical idealist aspire?” A century and a half earlier, Emerson, in his 1841 essay Circles, wrote: “There are degrees in idealism.  We learn first to play with it academically. . . .  Then we see in the heyday of youth and poetry that it may be true, that it is true in gleams and fragments.  Then, its countenance waxes stern and grand, and we see that it must be true.  It now shows itself ethical and practical.”  John Dewey and Mahatma Gandhi embraced practical idealism in the 20th century, as did UN Secretary General U Thant.  Al Gore invoked it in a 1998 speech. In the context of this blog, the term is meant to convey idealism tempered but not overwhelmed by realism: a search for the ideal on a path guided by common sense.
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Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Discussing “Self-Evident Truths”

A 2017 book, Self-Evident Truths: Contesting Equal Rights from the Revolution to the Civil War, has been mentioned on this blog, for example in March 2017.

Over the next week, author Richard D. Brown (my father) will be discussing the book and related history on several occasions, at which everyone is welcome: 

   November 1 (tonight, 7:30 p.m.) at the David Library in Washington Crossing, PA;

   November 5 (3 p.m.) at the Litchfield Historical Society;

   November 6 (6:30 p.m.) at the Yale Bookstore (Facebook); and 

   November 8 (6 p.m.) at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford.

7:52 am edt 


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