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Thinking Paths · Beta

Human Nature

Character, motives, habits, and strength beyond appearances.

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Character and adaptability

Ten readings on character, habits, flexibility, and the distance between image and conduct.

10 readings

What you will practice: Use a specific detail to interpret character, consider another explanation, and distinguish adaptability from surrender.

  • The Analects · Confucius
  • Tao Te Ching · Laozi
  • Essays · Michel de Montaigne
  • The Analects · Confucius
  • Pride and Prejudice · Jane Austen
  • Silas Marner · George Eliot
  • Aesop’s Fables · Aesop (fable tradition)
  • Silas Marner · George Eliot
  • Meditations · Marcus Aurelius
  • The Prince · Niccolò Machiavelli
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Belonging and responsibility

Examine rejection, self-image, social pressure, and the boundary between explaining and excusing conduct.

10 readings

What you will practice: Explain how circumstances shape a choice while preserving responsibility and considering another interpretation.

  • Frankenstein · Mary Shelley
  • The Souls of Black Folk · W. E. B. Du Bois
  • Pride and Prejudice · Jane Austen
  • Essays · Michel de Montaigne
  • Essays — First Series · Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Meditations · Marcus Aurelius
  • Pride and Prejudice · Jane Austen
  • The Analects · Confucius
  • Silas Marner · George Eliot
  • Silas Marner · George Eliot
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Appearances, motives, and habits

Start with an observer’s guesses, then test first impressions against conduct, habits, and care.

10 readings

What you will practice: Support an interpretation of someone’s conduct with a specific detail and a plausible competing explanation.

  • Frankenstein · Mary Shelley
  • Pride and Prejudice · Jane Austen
  • The Prince · Niccolò Machiavelli
  • Aesop’s Fables · Aesop (fable tradition)
  • Indian Boyhood · Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa)
  • Pride and Prejudice · Jane Austen
  • Essays — First Series · Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Silas Marner · George Eliot
  • Meditations · Marcus Aurelius
  • How We Think · John Dewey
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