Précis

Exercise 1

Our country is both poor and multilingual. Poverty will be eradicated through hard work and
courage, while different languages can help us understand the diversity of cultures and norms
developed. Moreover, it can also help improve the quality of the education system provided that
we do not enforce it on minorities which would otherwise lead to socio-political distress.

58 words

Exercise 2

Philosophy is the pursuit of truth, which can be pursued by satisfying certain prerequisites.
Firstly, a man has to be able to differentiate between reality and delusion, and between
temporary and perennial things. In addition, it requires a person to pursue the process of self-
purification by renouncing worldly pleasures. Moreover, this journey also requires a person to
attain the six treasures of life as a pre-condition: peace of mind, self-control, patience, poise,
faith in spiritual things and surrendering of oneself. Lastly, this pursuit expects the aspirant to
destroy one’s self-ego and attain higher levels by owning the world.

98 words

Exercise 3

Paragraph
The present time is one in which the prevailing mood is a feeling of impotent perplexity. We see
ourselves drifting towards a war that hardly anyone desires—a war that, as we all know, must
bring disaster to the great majority of mankind. But like a rabbit fascinated by a snake, we stare
at the peril without knowing what to do to avert it. We tell each other horror stories of atom
bombs and hydrogen bombs, of cities exterminated, of Russian hordes, of famine and ferocity
everywhere. But although our reason tells us we ought to shudder at such a prospect, there is
another part of us that enjoys it, and so we have no firm will to avert misfortune, and there is a
deep division in our souls between the sane and the insane parts. In quiet times the insane parts
can slumber throughout the day and wake only at night. But in times like ours they invade our
waking time as well, and all rational thinking becomes pale and divorced from the will. Our lives
become balanced on a sharp edge of hypothesis—if there is to be a war one way of life is
reasonable; if not, another. To the great majority of mankind such a hypothetical existence is
intolerably uncomfortable, and in practice they adopt one hypothesis or the other, but without
complete conviction. A youth who finds scholastic education boring will say to himself: ‘Why
bother? I shall be killed in battle before long.’ A young woman who might live constructively
thinks to herself that she had better have a good time while she can since presently she will be
raped by Russian soldiery until she dies. Parents wonder whether the sacrifices called for by their
children’s upbringing are worthwhile since they are likely to prove futile. Those who are lucky
enough to possess capital are apt to spend it on riotous living, since they foresee a catastrophic
depreciation in which it would become worthless. In this way uncertainty balks the impulse to
every irksome effort, and generates a tone of frivolous misery mistakenly thought to be pleasure,
which turns outward and becomes hatred of those who are felt to be its cause. Through this
hatred it brings daily nearer the catastrophe which it dreads. The nations seem caught in a tragic
fate, as though, like characters in a Greek drama, they were blinded by some offended god.
Bewildered by mental fog, they march towards the precipice while they imagine that they are
marching away from it.

Précis
The present times are perplexing. War is on the horizon. While we know about the dire consequences of
war, there is part in us that is enjoying the prospect of having a war. The result is a weak resolve towards
controlling escalation. Man has two parts, the sane part and the insane part. The insane part is repressed
during the day by the sane during normal times. However, in the prospect of war, the insane part takes
control. Under such conditions, people make decisions on the basis hypothetical scenarios. The present
times become much more important than the gloomy future. Uncertainty leads to misery, which is
sometimes misunderstood as pleasure. The misery leads to breeding hatred for the orchestrators. As a
result, nations are befooled towards the catastrophic war rather than drifting away.

Exercise 4

Passage
Western civilization embraces North and South America, Europe excluding Russia, and the British self-
governing dominions. In this civilization the United States leads the van; all the characteristics that
distinguish the West from the East are most marked and furthest developed in America. We are
accustomed to take progress for granted: to assume without hesitation that the changes which have
happened during the last hundred years were unquestionably for the better, and that further changes for
the better are sure to follow indefinitely. On the Continent of Europe, the war and its consequences have
administered a blow to this confident belief, and men have begun to look back to the time before 1914 as
a golden age, not likely to recur for centuries. In England there has been much less of this shock to
optimism, and in America still less. For those of us who have been accused to take progress for granted, it
is especially interesting to visit a country like China, which has remained where we were one hundred and
fifty years ago, and to ask ourselves whether, on the balance, the changes which have happened to us have
brought any real improvement.

The civilization of China, as everyone knows, is based upon the teaching of Confucius, who flourished
five hundred years before Christ. Like the Greeks and Romans, he did not think of human society as
naturally progressive; on the contrary, he believed that in remote antiquity rulers had been wise, and the
people had been happy to a degree which the degenerate present could admire but hardly achieve. This, of
course, was a delusion. But the practical result was that Confucius, like other teachers of antiquity, aimed
at creating a stable society, maintaining a certain level of excellence, but not always striving after new
successes. In this he was more successful than any other man who ever lived. His personality has been
stamped on Chinese civilization from his day to our own. During his lifetime the Chinese occupied only a
small part of present-day China, and were divided into a number of warring states. During the next three
hundred years they established themselves throughout what is now China proper, and founded an empire
exceeding in territory and population any other that existed until the last fifty years. In spite of barbarian
invasions, Mongol and Manchu dynasties, and occasional longer or shorter periods of chaos and civil war,
the Confucian system survived, bringing with it art and literature and a civilized way of life. It is only in
our own day, through contact with the West and with the westernized Japanese, that this system has
begun to break down.

Précis
Western civilization is the embodiment of growth and progress. Progress is always considered to be for
better in the modern times. However, this belief saw a great setback in wake of the world wars. Those,
who take progress for granted, need to observe China very closely. Chinese has remained stagnant for one
hundred and fifty years. The base of this stagnancy is the teachings of Confucius. Confucius belied in the
stability of society; he believed that societies should not always strive for new successes. Much like many
of the ancient philosophers, he also believed in the goodness of leaders of the time. Although the belief in
the goodness of the leaders of antiquity is wrong, his teachings transformed Chinese civilization with art,
literature and culture. Moreover, it also grew enormously in size. Apart from a few interventions in the
past and the current Western contact, China has always preserved their ancient teachings.

Exercise 5

Passage
The harm that is done to education by politics arises chiefly from two sources: first, that the interests of
some partial group are placed before the interests of mankind; second, that there is too great a love of
uniformity both in the herd and in the bureaucrat. Of these two evils, the first is at present the greater; but
if the first were overcome, the second might become very grave.

It has been the custom for education to favour one’s own State, one’s own religion, the male sex, and the
rich. In countries where various religions exist side by side, the State is not able to favour any one of them
in its schools, but this has led to the creation of schools belonging to various sects, or, as in New York
City and Boston, to distortion, in the Catholic interest, of the history taught in the public schools.1 The
male sex can no longer be favoured as it used to be. But education, outside Russia, is still so conducted as
to further the interests of the rich; and of course everywhere it teaches an exclusive loyalty to one’s own
State.

The result of this state of affairs is that education has become part of the struggle for power between
religions, classes, and nations. The pupil is not considered for his own sake, but as a recruit: the
educational machine is not concerned with his welfare, but with ulterior political purposes. There is no
reason to suppose that the State will ever place the interests of the child before its own interests; we have,
therefore, to inquire whether there is any possibility of a State whose interests, where education is
concerned, will be approximately identical with those of the child.

Words: 290

Précis
Politics affects education negatively in two ways. Firstly, group interests are preferred over humanitarian
interests. Secondly, there is prevalence of love for uniformity in politics. The former is more widespread;
however, the latter is deadly. Education has always been used to further state’s interest, its religion, the
patriarchy and for the supremacy of the rich. Students are merely considered as tool for politically defined
goals. His interests are largely overlooked. Although it is impossible that state will ever comprise its own
interest for the sake of child’s interest, a much more balanced approach need to be formed.

Words: 97

Exercise 6

Passage
Before considering how to educate, it is well to be clear as to the sort of result which we wish to achieve .
Dr Arnold wanted ‘humbleness of mind’, a quality not possessed by Aristotle’s ‘magnanimous man’.
Nietzsche’s ideal is not that of Christianity. No more is Kant’s: for while Christ enjoins love, Kant
teaches that no action of which love is the motive can be truly virtuous. And even people who agree as to
the ingredients of a good character may differ as to their relative importance. One man will emphasize
courage, another learning, another kindliness, and another rectitude. One man, like the elder Brutus, will
put duty to the State above family affection; another, like Confucius, will put family affection first. All
these divergences will produce differences as to education. We must have some conception of the kind of
person we wish to produce, before we can have any definite opinion as to the education which we
consider best.

Of course, an educator may be foolish, in the sense that he produces results other than those at which he
was aiming. Uriah Heep was the outcome of lessons in humility at a Charity School, which had had an
effect quite different from what was intended. But in the main the ablest educators have been fairly
successful. Take as examples the Chinese literati, the modern Japanese, the Jesuits, Dr Arnold, and the
men who direct the policy of the American public schools. All these, in their various ways, have been
highly successful. The results aimed at in the different cases were utterly different, but in the main the
results were achieved. It may be worthwhile to spend a few moments on these different systems, before
attempting to decide what we should ourselves regard as the aims which education should have in view.

Total Words: 302

Précis
It is important to understand the objectives of education before installing an education system. People’s
understanding of good character widely differs which leads to the prevalence of different systems.
Therefore, it is necessary to predefine the goals and subsequently the system which a society considers
the best. Educators have largely been successful in achieving their intended goals: for instance, the
Chinese, the American and Japanese system. Although the result of each system has been different, the
main goal has been achieved in all of the cases. It is also noteworthy to understand the different system
before defining goals of an education system.

Total Words: 101

Exercise 7

Passage
There is one thing more required for the highest courage, and that is what I called just now an impersonal
outlook on life. The man whose hopes and fears are all centred upon himself can hardly view death with
equanimity, since it extinguishes his whole emotional universe. Here, again, we are met by a tradition
urging the cheap and easy way of repression: the saint must learn to renounce Self, must mortify the flesh,
and forgo instinctive joys. This can be done, but its consequences are bad. Having renounced pleasure for
himself, the ascetic saint renounces it for others also, which is easier. Envy persists underground, and
leads him to the view that suffering is ennobling, and may therefore be legitimately inflicted. Hence arises
a complete inversion of values: what is good is thought bad, and what is bad is thought good. The source
of all the harm is that the good life has been sought in obedience to a negative imperative, not in
broadening and developing natural desires and instincts. There are certain things in human nature which
take us beyond Self without effort. The commonest of these is love, more particularly parental love,
which in some is so generalized as to embrace the whole human race. Another is knowledge. There is no
reason to suppose that Galileo was particularly benevolent, yet he lived for an end which was not defeated
by his death. Another is art. But in fact every interest in something outside a man’s own body makes his
life to that degree impersonal. For this reason, paradoxical as it may seem, a man of wide and vivid
interests finds less difficulty in leaving life than is experienced by some miserable hypochondriac whose
interests are bounded by his own ailments. Thus the perfection of courage is found in the man of many
interests, who feels his ego to be but a small part of the world, not through despising himself, but through
valuing much that is not himself. This can hardly happen except where instinct is free and intelligence is
active. From the union of the two grows a comprehensiveness of outlook unknown both to the voluptuary
and to the ascetic; and to such an outlook personal death appears a trivial matter. Such courage is positive
and instinctive, not negative and repressive. It is courage in this positive sense that I regard as one of the
major ingredients in a perfect character.

Total Words: 406

Précis
Beside others, an impersonal outlook on life is necessary for the highest courage. A selfish man can never
view the matter of death with ease. In this regard, traditions guide a man towards self-renunciation. A
saint is taught control his urges, desire and joys. However, this approach forms a negative approach
towards life. Envy leads a man to impose this rule on others, once one masters it. There are other things in
the universe that help a man to grow beyond himself. These things include: love, knowledge and art.
These things broaden a man’s horizons which eventually lead him towards the perfection of courage.
There are two pre-requisites for perfection of courage: one, instinct is free; two, intelligence is active.
These two help him to move beyond trivial matters of personal death. Such courage is an important
component of the perfect character.

Total Words: 142

Exercise 8

Passage
One of the great defects of traditional morality has been the low estimate it placed upon intelligence. The
Greeks did not err in this respect, but the Church led men to think that nothing matters except virtue, and
virtue consists in abstinence from a certain list of actions arbitrarily labelled ‘sin’. So long as this attitude
persists, it is impossible to make men realize that intelligence does more good than an artificial
conventional ‘virtue’. When I speak of intelligence, I include both actual knowledge and receptivity to
knowledge. The two are, in fact, closely connected. Ignorant adults are unteachable; on such matters as
hygiene or diet, for example, they are totally incapable of believing what science has to say. The more a
man has learnt, the easier it is for him to learn still more—always assuming that he has not been taught in
a spirit of dogmatism. Ignorant people have never been compelled to change their mental habits, and have
stiffened into an unchangeable attitude. It is not only that they are credulous where they should be
sceptical; it is just as much that they are incredulous where they should be receptive. No doubt the word
‘intelligence’ properly signifies rather an aptitude for acquiring knowledge than knowledge already
acquired; but I do not think this aptitude is acquired except by exercise, any more than the aptitude of a
pianist or an acrobat. It is, of course, possible to impart information in ways that do not train intelligence;
it is not only possible, but easy, and frequently done. But I do not believe that it is possible to train
intelligence without imparting information, or at any rate causing knowledge to be acquired. And without
intelligence our complex modern world cannot subsist; still less can it make progress. I regard the
cultivation of intelligence, therefore, as one of the major purposes of education. This might seem a
commonplace, but in fact it is not. The desire to instil what are regarded as correct beliefs has made
educationists too often indifferent to the training of intelligence. To make this clear, it is necessary to
define intelligence a little more closely, so as to discover the mental habits which it requires. For this
purpose I shall consider only the aptitude for acquiring knowledge, not the store of actual knowledge
which might legitimately be included in the definition of intelligence.

Précis
Intelligence has remained undermined due to religious teaching for a long time. Church has
overemphasized the importance of socially constructed virtues over intelligence. Intelligence finds its
base in actual knowledge and receptivity towards knowledge. Those men, who learn without being
influenced by dogma or religion, are much more appreciative of acquiring aptitude towards unbiased
knowledge. Moreover, the aptitude or the receptivity towards knowledge may only be acquired through
psycho-motor skills: rigorous practice and exercise. This proclivity towards acquiring knowledge is
essential for the development of intelligence and intelligence is essential for human progress and even
existence. It is therefore imperative that we delineate intelligence and demarcate the prerequisites for its
growth. For this, it is decided here to focus more on the tendency towards acquiring knowledge than on
knowledge itself, the latter is embodied in the definition of intelligence by default.

Exercise 9

Passage
There is only too much reason to fear that Western civilization, if not the whole world, is likely in the
near future to go through a period of immense sorrow and suffering and pain—a period during which, if
we are not careful to remember them, the things that we are attempting to preserve may be forgotten in
bitterness and poverty and disorder. Courage, hope, and unshakable conviction will be necessary if we are
to emerge from the dark time spiritually undamaged. It is worthwhile, before the actual danger is upon us,
to collect our thoughts, to marshal our hopes, and to plant in our hearts a firm belief in our ideals. It is not
the first time that such disasters have threatened the Western World. The fall of Rome was another such
time, and in that time, as now, varying moods of despair, escape, and robust faith were exemplified in the
writings of leading men. What emerged and became the kernel of the new civilization was the Christian
Church. Many pagans were noble in their thoughts and admirable in their aspirations, but they lacked
dynamic force. Plotinus, the founder of neo-Platonism, was the most remarkable of the pagans of that
time. In his youth he hoped to play some part in world affairs and accompanied the emperor in a
campaign against Persia, but the Roman soldiers murdered the emperor and decided to go home. Plotinus
found his way home as best he could, and decided to have done with practical affairs. He then retired into
meditation and wrote books full of beauty, extolling the eternal world and the inactive contemplation of
it. Such philosophy, however admirable in itself, offered no cure for the ills from which the empire was
suffering. I think Plotinus was right in urging contemplation of eternal things, but he was wrong in
thinking of this as enough to constitute a good life. Contemplation, if it is to be wholesome and valuable,
must be married to practice; it must inspire action and ennoble the aims of practical statesmanship. While
it remains secluded in the cloister it is only a means of escape.

Total words= 357

PRECIS
The whole world, particularly western civilization, is likely to see times of despair in the coming future.
Courage, dedication and conviction might help in getting out of these difficult times. The world has seen
plenty of difficulty times in the past. One particular event is the fall of Rome. This event received
different reactions from both the pagans and the Christian Church. Plotinus, left the practical portion of
life after he witnessed the murder of the king, resorted to contemplation over practice. While
contemplation was important, it provided little to secure the then eroding Roman civilization. Church on
the other hand focused on practicality, therefore was the cradle for civilization in the coming times.
Contemplation and practicality together form base for statesmanship while, contemplation in the absence
of practicality leads to escapism.
Total words: 132

Exercise 10

Passage
Aristotle, so far as I know, was the first man to proclaim explicitly that man is a rational animal. His
reason for this view was one which does not now seem very impressive; it was, that some people can do
sums. He thought that there are three kinds of soul: the vegetable soul, possessed by all living things, both
plants and animals, and concerned only with nourishment and growth; the animal soul, concerned with
locomotion, and shared by man with the lower animals; and finally the rational soul, or intellect, which is
the Divine mind, but in which men participate to a greater or less degree in proportion to their wisdom. It
is in virtue of the intellect that man is a rational animal. The intellect is shown in various ways, but most
emphatically by mastery of arithmetic. The Greek system of numerals was very bad, so that the
multiplication table was quite difficult, and complicated calculations could only be made by very clever
people. Nowadays, however, calculating machines do sums better than even the cleverest people, yet no
one contends that these useful instruments are immortal, or work by divine inspiration. As arithmetic has
grown easier, it has come to be less respected. The consequence is that, though many philosophers
continue to tell us what fine fellows we are, it is no longer on account of our arithmetical skill that they
praise us.

Since the fashion of the age no longer allows us to point to calculating boys as evidence that man is
rational and the soul, at least in part, immortal, let us look elsewhere. Where shall we look first? Shall we
look among eminent statesmen, who have so triumphantly guided the world into its present condition? Or
shall we choose the men of letters? Or the philosophers? All these have their claims, but I think we should
begin with those whom all right thinking people acknowledge to be the wisest as well as the best of men,
namely the clergy. If they fail to be rational, what hope is there for us lesser mortals? And alas—though I
say it with all due respect—there have been times when their wisdom has not been very obvious, and,
strange to say, these were especially the times when the power of the clergy was greatest.

Précis
Aristotle claimed that man is a rational. The basis he found for this claim was man’s ability to do
arithmetic calculations which is an exception to other living beings. However, with the invention of
calculators this foundation is seems illogical. There is a need to find other bases for our claims to
rationality. For this purpose, men of different professions are taken into the consideration: philosophers,
men of letters and clergy. Clergy, of all people, should be the wisest, since they arbitrarily assume the
task of guiding the humanity. Unfortunately, there has been a dearth of wisdom in clergy and this was
more evident when they were in power.

Exercise 11
Passage
There have been at different times and among different people many varying conceptions of the good life.
To some extent the differences were amenable to argument; this was when men differed as to the means
to achieve a given end. Some think that prison is a good way of preventing crime; others hold that
education would be better. A difference of this sort can be decided by sufficient evidence. But some
differences cannot be tested in this way. Tolstoy condemned all war; others had held the life of a soldier
doing battle for the right to be very noble. Here there was probably involved a real difference as to ends.
Those who praise the soldier usually consider the punishment of sinners a good thing in itself; Tolstoy did
not think so. On such a matter no argument is possible. I cannot, therefore, prove that my view of the
good life is right; I can only state my view, and hope that as many as possible will agree. My view is this:
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

Knowledge and love are both indefinitely extensible; therefore, however good a life may be, a better life
can be imagined. Neither love without knowledge, nor knowledge without love can produce a good life.
In the Middle Ages, when pestilence appeared in a country, holy men advised the population to assemble
in churches and pray for deliverance; the result was that the infection spread with extraodinary rapidity
among the crowded masses of supplicants. This was an example of love without knowledge. The late war
afforded an example of knowledge without love. In each case, the result was death on a large scale.

Although both love and knowledge are necessary, love is in a sense more fundamental, since it will lead
intelligent people to seek knowledge, in order to find out how to benefit those whom they love. But if
people are not intelligent, they will be content to believe what they have been told, and may do harm in
spite of the most genuine benevolence. Medicine affords, perhaps, the best example of what I mean. An
able physician is more useful to a patient than the most devoted friend, and progress in medical
knowledge does more for the health of the community than ill-informed philanthropy. Nevertheless, an
element of benevolence is essential even here if any but the rich are to profit by scientific discoveries.

Our distinction between epistemological and metaphysical arguments for idealism can also be associated
with a distinction between two major kinds of motives for idealism: those which are grounded in self-
conceptions, i.e., in convictions about the role that the self or the human being plays in the world, and
those based on what might correspondingly be called world-convictions, i.e., on conceptions about the
way the world is constituted objectively or at least appears to be constituted to a human subject.
Concerning motives based on selfconceptions of human beings, idealism has seemed hard to avoid by
many who have taken freedom in one of its many guises (freedom of choice, freedom of the will, freedom
as autonomy) to be an integral part of any conception of the self worth pursuing, because the belief in the
reality of freedom often goes together with a commitment to some version of mental causation, and it is
tempting to think that the easiest (or at least the most economical) way to account for mental causation
consists in ―mentalizing‖ or idealizing all of reality, thus leading to ontological idealism, or at least to
maintain that the kind of causal determinism that seems to conflict with freedom is only one of our ways
of representing the world, thus leading to epistemological idealism. Motives for idealism based on world-
convictions can be found in many different attitudes towards objectivity. If one is to believe in science as
the best and only way to get an objective (subject-independent) conception of reality, one might still turn
to idealism, at least epistemological idealism, because of the conditions supposed to be necessary in order
to make sense of the very concept of a law (of nature) or of the normativity of logical inferences for
nature itself. If one believes in the non-conventional reality of normative facts one might also be drawn to
idealism in order to account for their non-physical reality—Plato‘s idealism, which asserts the reality of
non-physical Ideas to explain the status of norms and then reduces all other reality to mere simulacra of
the former might be considered a forerunner of ontological idealism motivated by concern for the reality
of norms. An inclination toward idealism might even arise from considerations pertaining to the
ontological status of aesthetic values (is beauty an objective attribute of objects?) or from the inability or
the unwillingness to think of the constitution of social and cultural phenomena like society or religion in
terms of physical theory. In short: There are about as many motives and reasons for endorsing idealism as
there are different aspects of reality to be known or explained.