As Jedi, we don’t have much in the way of authoritative texts or dogma. That being said, much of our “path” comes down to what we learn and interpret at the Temple, or from other places. Interacting with information requires discernment in what we use as a source and how we extract meaning. Please complete all of the following assignments.
Part 1:
Watch Leiden University's Lecture on the importance of hermeneutics and respond with your reflections on the following prompts:
1. Explain the speaker's assertion that scientific claims don't have meaning?
2. What, according to classical hermeneutics, is the correct interpretation? Do you agree with this?
3. Can good (not perfect) hermeneutic approaches change over time?
4. Give an example of a common misconception or poor hermeneutic approach?
Part 2:
Select two examples of Jedi literature from the list below:
- A Modern-day Jedi's Book of Change (text)
- Practical Jediism (text)
- Tellahane's Holocron (text)
- The Art of Senan (text)
- The Jedi Ashtavakra Gita (text, video, audio)
- The Jedi 'Avadhuta' Gita (text, video, audio)
- The Jedi Book of Life (text)
- The Way of the Force (text, video, audio)
Analyze them by assessing the information source according to each of the parameters below:
- Expertise (who or what generated the information, is it primary, secondary, or greater than tertiary, and how much bias or heuristic error might exist in them).
- Era (how old is the information as an indicator of how likely it is to have remained unchanged, considering how fast it might change).
- Extent (the bigger it is, the more accurate it might be; if the prior elements are met?).
