Study? Fuggedaboudit!

“Forgetting is the
friend of learning.”

Nate Kornell, a psychologist at Williams College, in the New York Times.

paradox, the two-faced figure. From the Greek, meaning “contrary to received wisdom.”

A recent study seems to show that concentrated study in one place leads to less learning than bursts of study with intervals of unlearning. It’s the re-learning that makes the material stick, apparently. The study’s lead author, Nate Kornell, sums up the conclusion in a neat paradox. To learn, you must forget.

The paradox and its Siamese-twin cousin, the oxymoron, show that the world is neither black-and-white nor gray. It’s black on white, a jumble of realities and beliefs. The ancient Greeks called these perceptions doxa, a term that survives in the Christian Doxology, a statement of belief.

Some ages tolerate a riot of doxa. Other ages burn Korans and call political opponents traitors. Want to think like an Aristotle? Take everything you believe and construct a cogent argument against it.

Do it when you’re supposed to be cramming for an exam or studying a memo. You’ll learn a lot. 

Comments

[Fredrique]

So does "doxa" mean reality, or a concept of reality?

[Figaro]

Ooh, now we're into philosophy. In rhetoric, "doxa" constitutes a kind of public belief--hence my translation, "received wisdom." A paradox goes against this public opinion, this belief about reality.

[Wren]

Is "Fuggedaboudit" a rhetorical term???

[Figaro]

Absolutely. It's New Yorkerese for "forget about it."

[Mary]

Wikipedia says "doxa" means "glory."

[Figaro]

Well, Mary, this may be the first time in history that Wikipedia is wrong.

[Richard]

Doxa is the root for the words "orthodoxy" and "heterodoxy," etc. Jay, you refer in Thank You for Arguing to "commonplaces" in much the way the Sophists referred to doxa. Did you deliberately conflate the two concepts?

[Figaro]

Yes, Richard, I conflated "commonplace" and "doxa" to reflect my interpretation of Aristotle, whose "topoi," or topics ("places" in Greek) have a lot to do with common beliefs.

[Marco]

I wonder what ages Figaro is referring to that "tolerate the riot of doxa." If burning Korans is evidence of the contrary, then I doubt there has ever been such an age.

[Figaro]

Maybe we're talking about matters of degree. Some eras are more tolerant than others. Twenty years ago, we weren't burning Korans in this country.

[Marco]

Good point, but the initial argument—this being an intolerant age—begs the question. Does one man represent a nation wholly?

[Figaro]

Our reaction to him does. How many Koran-burnings have you seen on television?

[Replica watch]

Good point, but the initial argument—this being an intolerant age—begs the question. Does one man represent a nation wholly?http://www.soowatch.com