Where is the news leading us?Norman Cousins (1915-1990)1lBackground knowledgelThe authors political view “Norman Cousins (1915 1990) was an American political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate.” - Wiki“Cousins longstanding leadership as a global peacemaker is explored as well as envisioning a world within which peace and mutual respect could exist amongst all people we can achieve only those goals we dare to envision. News people provide us with the only picture we have of ourselves and of the world. lDifferent levels of understanding we/I and think 20l1st: a religious understanding Proverbs 23:7 states, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” “Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. Or, as the Buddha said in the opening line of the Dhammapada（句法经） (1:1): “We are what we think. All that we are is the result of our thoughts.” 21l2nd level: a philosophical understanding lRen Descartes (1596-1650)lDescartes most famous statement is: Cogito ergo sum French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am; OR I am thinking, therefore I exist.lHe has been dubbed the “Father of Modern Philosophy,“ and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which continue to be studied closely to this day. 22l我思故我在l意思是：“当我怀疑一切事物的存在时， 我却不用怀疑我本身的思想，因为此时我 唯一可以确定的事就是我自己思想的存在 ”23l3rd interpretation: lYou are what you think you are:lThe implied meaning: your attitude manipulate your way of doing things and your future achievements. lYour attitude influences how you relate yourself to the external world.lE.g.: Cousins own example of combating the serious disease: the power of belief24lL 60 (Para 12 )lThe acquired culture is not transmitted in our genes. lThe acquired culture (i.e., the good life in a good society) can never be attained and possessed once and for all. It will not automatically be ingrained in our blood/our genetic system. lSo, the wisdom of the good life in a good society needs to be transmitted through the media. 25lPara 13lBernard de Chartres (1080?-1167), suggested that we used history boosting ourselves up on our experiences : “like dwarfs seated on the shoulders of giants”lHumanist and philosopher, head of the celebrated school of Chartres, in France, whose attempt to reconcile the thought of Plato with that of Aristotle made him the principal representative of 12th-century Platonism in the West. 26lPlato was the teacher of Aristotle.lAristotle once said: “Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth” 吾爱吾师，吾更爱真理。lAristotle refutes Platos Theory of Ideas on three basic grounds: that the existence of Ideas contradicts itself by denying the possibility of negations; that his illustrations of Ideas are merely empty metaphors; and that the theory uses impermanent abstractions to create examples of perception. 27lBernard is a Platonist and yet the representative of a “ return to Nature “ which curiously anticipates the humanism of the early Renaissance. John of Salisbury (Metalogicus, iv . 35) attributes to him two treatises, of which one contrasts the eternity of ideas with the finite nature of things, and the other is an attempt to reconcile Plato and Aristotle. http:/historymedren.about.com/od/bentries/a/11_be rnardchart.htm28lDwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants (Latin: nanos gigantum humeris insidentes) This is a Western metaphor meaning “One who develops future intellectual pursuits by understanding the research and works created by notable thinkers of the past”; a contemporary interpretation. However, the metaphor was first recorded in the twelfth century and attributed to Bernard of Chartres. It was famously used by the seventeenth- century scientist Isaac Newton .29Central Concerns of Positive Psychology 积极心理学关注的主要问题Positive PsychologyPositive InstitutionsPositive Individual TraitsPositive emotions30Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment 真正的幸福31lNegative emotion always has the ability to trump positive emotion (Csikszentmihalyi)l There seems to be an ideal ratio of positive to negative 3:1 for human flourishing(Barbara Fredrickson)32lThe high prevalence worldwide of depression among young people, the small rise in life satisfaction, and the synergy between learning and positive emotion all argue that the skills for happiness should be taught in school. (Seligman,2009)33