Diving Bell #5

1. Read The Ladies of Hong Kong. Think of a place you know by smell. Can you adequately describe it? Which situation is more horrific? Bauby's or Jean-Paul K. Please explain your answer.

I know the Indian food restaurant, The Pavilion, by smell. It is always filled with a warm, spicy aroma mixed with the sweeter smell of tea. Bauby’s condition seems more horrific because he will never again have the chance to live and fix those mistakes of not appreciating his life enough that he dwells upon every day.

2. After reading Wax Museum, why do you think Bauby is "fond of all these torturers"?

I think he is fond of them because they take time out of the lives they are living to help him continue living his.

3. Read The Mythmaker and explain why you think Bauby has admiration for Olivier. What is the connection between memory and emotion?

I think he admires Oliver for his ability to instantly change his life story to anything he wishes. Emotions bring us back to the memories that affected us the most, good or bad, and because of their power they are always the ones we learn the most from.

4. Why do you think Bauby likes the song A Day in the Life? Why do humans always wait for life's crescendo? Why do you think he places this chapter towards the end of the book?

He likes it because it leads up to something big and meaningful. Humans wait because they feel they do not have the power to control what that crescendo will be and they don’t’ realize that anything worth having is something you need to work for. I think he did this because that the message he wants to leave his readers with so they can learn from it.

5. Read Season of Renewal. Why is he savoring the last week of August? Is there something we can learn from him beause of his reaction to the end of vacation?

He is savoring it because he has never been able to truly enjoy it until now when he knows that he does not have to go back to work. We can learn that we too should savor it and we should not let the idea of work ruin our time of relaxation.

Diving Bell #4

1. After reading Vegetable, respond to Bauby's statement: "I belonged on a vegetable stall and not the human race." Why do you think it is necessary for humans to put people into categories? Is our language so limiting in describing the world that we need a way to ourganize our thoughts?

I think it is necessary for humans to put people into categories because it helps them to explain people they do not fully understand and it makes them feel better than others when they are put in the better categories.

2. Bauby claims that, "Capturing the moment, these small slices of life...I hoard all these letters like treaure." What do you hoard and why?

I hoard my most beautiful and most simple possessions (like my books, my music, my candles, and my nick-knacks) by keeping them on display in my rooms that I can see them every day because, even though I would not be devastated if I lost them, it still comforts me to have all the materials that I am most fond of cluttered in one place.

3. Read Outing and respond to Bauby's statement: "I know who he is, but who is he really?" Is he getting any closer to understanding what makes people tick? Also, why will Bauby never tire of the smell of French Fries?

While Bauby may not be closer to understanding what makes people tick, he seems to understand that you can never really know a person until really spend some time with them on a personal level. Bauby will never tire of the smell of French Fries because it is a connection back to humanity and t the way his life used to be when he could eat things like French Fries.

4. Read Twenty to One. Bauby claims that, "the memory of that event has only come back to me now, now doubly painful: regret for a vanished past and, above all, remorse for lost opportunities." Do you ever look back on something in your life as a "small near miss"? Is it ever beneficial to have regrets?

I look back on many things as “small near misses” but I
Believe it is beneficial to have regrets because it helps you to make sure you don’t make many more “small near misses” in the future.

5. Read Duck Hunt and explain what Bauby means by the statement: "I must have butterfly hearing."

Bauby means that he is able to recognize his imaginative mind (his butterfly) and understand that it is always there, and know when it is growing.

6. Read Sunday. Why do you think Bauby dreads this day?

Bauby dreads this day because there is nothing for him to do to distract him from the painful reality of his condition.

White Man's Burden

Please take a few moments and comment on the film we saw in class. In particular, did any part of the film make you 'think twice'? Please explain your answer.

Not much about the film we saw in really made me think twice. The only thing that seemed weird was the scene where John Travolta is driving through the rich neighborhood with all the black people on the sidewalks and no mix of races at all. Other than that there was nothing about the movie that really seemed strange. In this day and age it all made perfect sense. (Although seeing John Travolta say “yo dog” did put me off a little.)

Diving Bell #3

1. What is significant about the last line in Guardian Angel?

Do to his condition Bauby is really beginning to feel detached from the rest of society, he cannot communicate with others the way he would like to, it is as though he is not even there, as though he is not even apart of the world.

2. What is ironic about the photograph he recieves from his father in The Photo?

The photograph was taken when he was a child on vacation in the same location that he is now a prisoner.

3. Do Bauby's dreams give us any insight into his condition? Be specific.

The dream seems to suggest the feeling he has in his condition that he is not in control of his own life, because in the dream he is unable to control the events that happen to him, like being captured by the cult, drinking the alcohol, being unable to move or speak, and almost getting arrested. There is nothing he can do about it.

4. Where is Bauby's butterfly in My Lucky Day?

His butterfly is in his hospital room, completely conscious of the situation he faces and the misery of his condition.

5. After reading, Our Very Own Madonna and Through a Glass, Darkly, Bauby seems to have regrets about not appreciating small moments from his earlier life. Can you think of a moment from your own life that you did not truly appreciate until it was over? How can we learn to live so that we appreciate significant moments. Is this even possible?

There was a time when I very young when I could enjoy life without regrets, oblivious to the horrors of humanity, when I was happy. It is possible to learn to appreciate significant moments, as long as you can take the time to step back from your life, or even just a moment in your life, and be thankful for what you’ve got then and there, and appreciate it before you lose it.

Diving Bell #2

1. What do you think of Bauby's line in Bathtime when he states, "But I see in the clothing a symbol of continuing life. And proof that I still want to be myself. If I must drool, I may as well drool on cashmere."

I think that to him his clothing is a vital connection back t his own life and wearing it is a way to help him be comforted and help him deal and move on with his situation.
2. Considering how Bauby wrote the book, does it matter that he happened to speak French? How would have the writing of the book been different if he spoke Japanese or Chinese?

It matters that he spoke French, or really it matters that he spoke a language with a simple alphabet and distinct words, because if he spoke a language like Japanese or Chinese with thousands of different characters that can mean many different things, it would have been nearly impossible for him to communicate his thoughts through his system of blinking the alphabet.
3. Why does Bauby find his appearance humorous?

He finds it humorous because it is the final blow that fate has given him and nothing could get much worse, so with nothing left to lose he treats it all like a joke, his last attempt to muster up the will for moving on.
4. After reading the Chapter, Cinecitta, think of a place where, if given one last opportunity, you could spend an afternoon. Why did you choose this place? Please describe it in detail.

If I could visit one place alone for an entire afternoon, I would go to the beach near Province Town that stretches the farthest out into the ocean, at night when it is completely dark. Here the smell of salt is strong, yet the air is sweet and pleasant. This beach is big and as you approach it, about fifteen feet in (about a quarter of the way to the water), the sand slopes down very suddenly about 3 to 4 feet, onto more sand that is level with the sea. At night time this place becomes deserted and there are no buildings, or even lights (save for those of distant passing ships), for as far as the eye can see, which is not very far in the pitch blackness. The moon is the only source of light and it illuminates very softly, causing most of the beach to glow with a bluish tint. The sand is close to white in this light and the water is very dark. The sky is black and the starts are usually very clear. The waves here are huge and they crash with a powerful sound, but not so powerful that it is disorienting; it is a calming sound that seems somewhat distant. What I like most about being at the beach is the feeling of isolation, as though you are disconnected from the rest of the world. Behind you there is only blackness where the grass which stretches back to road should be, and in front of you is the massive ocean which seems to extent into oblivion. Because the beach is so long you cannot see either end of it, it just fades away into the darkness. It is like being in a dream or in outer space; you feel separate from the Earth, separate from your body even. You drink in the sensation of solitude and it fills you with a strange and incomprehensible feeling of comfort.

5. After reading Tourists, please think of why we don't make more of an effort to connect with those that might look or act different than us.

It gives humans a somewhat sick comfort to believe they are better than someone else, but they also feel that they could never relate to people who look and act different because they could never understand them.

6. Read Sausage and then consider the following: if you couldn't eat again, what meal would you miss the most? Please describe what it looks and tastes like.

If I couldn’t eat again the meal I would miss the most would be my favorite rare steak dinner. This dinner includes many pleasures like steaming roles, creamy gravy, and soft, sweet baby carrots, but the highlights of the dinner are of course the tender red steak and, even more importantly, the butter, salted, hand mashed potatoes that melt in your mouth. Also, to top it off, and of course only if I was of age, the finest Spanish pinot noir, flavorful, and aged to perfection.

Diving Bell #1

a) What is 'Locked-in syndrome'? Why would one consider Bauby's condition a prison? What is the significance of The Butterfly?

This syndrome occurs when the body is completely paralyzed while the mind functions perfectly. It is considered a prison because while one still has the capability to know, understand, and think, they cannot act upon those thoughts. The Butterfly is the boundlessness of the mind which is not limited by the body or the Earth.

b) What was Bauby's "frightening truth'?

The knowledge that he would never again be able to return to the comforts of his old lifestyle.

c) In your opinion, how do you think Bauby should measure progress? Why do you think Bauby ends the chapter "Prayer" with the phrase, "I set out for the kingdom of slumber with this wonderful talisman, which shields me from all harm."

I think he should measure progress in his ability to accept his current condition and the steps he takes to improve it or make the best of it. I think he ends the chapter this way to show that there is something left in the world that still gives him comfort and faith, the prayer of his daughter.

Abel on Perception

1. According to Abel, what is perception?
It is the result of our brain organizing the information it takes in into reasonable data, influenced by experience, prejudices, and culture.
2. What does Abel mean by “seeing as?”
It is how our brain interprets what we see from experience, prejudices, and culture.
3. To see what is the case, what is required? Please define each term.
Context (what it is that we are seeing), inference (why we are seeing what we are seeing), concepts (our idea of what we are seeing), experience (thing we have seen before that relate to what we are seeing), interpretation (what we understand about what we are seeing).
4. What did Nietzsche mean by “the fallacy of the immaculate perception?” How does Psychologist Joseph Jastrow prove this point? When have we done this in class?
No perception is perfect or correct, it is always influenced by experience, prejudices, and culture. He created a drawing that could be interpreted as two different things, making neither interpretation correct or incorrect. We did this when we took Dr. Gilligan’s test on perception and different people in the class had different interpretations of questions on the test.
5. What does Abel mean when he writes: “there is no sharp line dividing perception and illusion?”
Sometimes there are too many different interpretations in perception to be able to know what is truth.
6. Why is perception selective by nature?
Because we perceive what we expect we will perceive, or what we think is the right thing to perceive by our own standards.
7. What does Abel mean when he says: “to perceive is to solve a problem?”
He means that the things we try to perceive are issues that our brain must make sense of before we can understand them.
8. What is the role of social conditioning in determining how things “naturally look?”
What we perceive as the way things “naturally look” is determined by what our society has conditioned us to believe is the way thing “naturally look”.
9. What is significant of the Durer rhinoceros story? How was the influence of convention demonstrated when some tribes were given a photograph?
Even when the James Bruce finally saw a real rhinoceros and saw how different it was from Durer’s model of one, he still drew it similar to the model because he had always thought that that was how a rhinoceros should look. The tribes could not perceive the image of people in the photo because it was not the perception of people that their minds were used to and had always agreed upon.
10. How does convention influence perspective drawing?
Artists draw things to look the way they have agreed upon in their minds that they should look.
11. What does Abel mean when he writes: believing is seeing? How might this point be seen in the study of the natural and the social sciences?
What you have been conditioned to believe affects your perception of things and situations. This point could mean that the studies of natural and social sciences are affected by the beliefs of the scientists studying them.
12. What does Abel mean by “hearing as…”?
It is how our brain interprets what we hear from experience, prejudices, and culture.

Seven Seconds in the Bronx: The Delicate Art of Mind-Reading

1. Three Fatal Mistakes: This section shows the importance in the way we perceive others. It shows how most of the time we are able to correctly perceive the attitudes and truths of the people we see even if we only see them for a moment. However it also explains that this ability to perceive others is not always right and when we get it wrong the results can be devastating. Mind reading failures “aren’t always as obvious and spectacular as other breakdowns in rapid cognition.”
2. The theory of Mind Reading: This section shows how there is science behind our perceptions of others. It explains that certain facial features and combinations of facial features are genetically programmed into every being and they can be used to determine many things about how that being feels or what it is thinking. In his travels to Japan, Brazil, Argentina, and even remote tribes in the jungles of the Far East, Paul Ekman discovered that when he showed people pictures of men and women making a variety of distinctive faces, “everywhere he went, people agreed on what those expressions meant.”
3. The Naked Face: This section shows how the science behind reading minds through facial expressions can be used in everyday life. It explains that although some people are very good at concealing their true emotions even in their facial expressions, no matter how good they are a flicker of their true feelings will show on their face even if it’s just for a nanosecond. It then explains that by watching people on cameras frame by frame, this truth can be used to detect lies of criminals, people lying about future attempts of suicide, or other crucial deceptions. In his experimenting with this new idea, Paul Ekmin filmed psychiatric patients including a woman named Mary who had attempted suicide three times and found that “when Mary’s doctor asked her about her plans for the future, a look of utter despair flashed across her face so quickly that it was almost imperceptible.”
4. A Man, a Woman, and a Light Switch: This section shows what happens when mind-reading fails, as it does in autistic people. It explains that when this happens, a person loses all ability to understand the expressions on someone’s face, causing the face to become meaningless to them and making it seem like just another inanimate object. A leading expert on autism, Ami Klin, describes what it is like to talk to one of his autistic patients and explains how “even though he is looking at me, I don’t have the sense of being scrutinized or monitored. He focuses very much on what I say. The words mean a great deal to him. But he doesn’t focus at all on the way my words contextualized with facial expressions and nonverbal cues.”
5. Arguing with a Dog: This section shows how mind-reading can fail for not only autistic people but cognitively normative people as well. It explains how this can happen when those people are under serious, usually life-threatening pressure. Their blood pressure rises to extreme speeds and it causes their system to breakdown and prevent them from accurately processing the information of their surroundings. This is often times the explanation for violent, unjustified acts by police officers after high-speed chases, “In the extreme excitement of the chase, he stopped reading Russ’s mind. His vision and his thinking narrowed. He constructed a rigid system that said that a young black man in a car running from the police had to be a dangerous criminal, and all evidence to the contrary that would ordinarily have been factored into his thinking – the fact that Russ was just sitting in his car and that he had never gone above seventy miles per hour – did not register at all. Arousal leaves us mind-blind.”
6. Running Out of White space: This section shows how time is a key factor in the loss of mind-reading ability in a person. It explains that in a situation, the more time the person has to react to threats, the more logically and intelligently they are likely to respond. When faced with a test that was part of an experiment conducted by the psychologist Keith Payne to see what happens when the time of possible response to questions was shortened, people found it harder to do things correctly, “Instead of letting people respond at their own pace, he forced them to make a decision within 500 milliseconds – half a second. Now people began to make errors.”
7. “Something in My Mind Just Told Me I Didn’t Have to Shoot Yet”: This section shows how with practice, the danger of mind-blindness can easily be avoided. It explains that people are capable of training their subconscious mind, just as they train their conscious mind, to react to certain situations in a more reasonable and controlled manor. “This is the gift of training and experience – the ability to extract an enormous amount of meaningful information from the very thinnest slice of experience. Every moment – every blink – is composed of a series of discrete moving parts, and every one of those parts offers an opportunity for intervention, for reform, and for correction.
8. Tragedy on Wheeler Avenue: This section summarizes the effects of everything explained in the sections before it on the way people perceive each other in a moment. It describes the story of the policemen who killed an innocent, unarmed man because they thought he had a gun, and explains the thoughts that would have been running through their heads in the two and a half seconds in which the event took place. Their thoughts show how people can lose their ability to mind-read when under pressure in situations, and the outcome shows the consequences people pay for it. “They were driving past, so they couldn’t see him well, but right away they began to construct a system to explain his behavior.”

Dr. Gillian

What were your impressions of the lecture and Test from Dr. Gillian? In your opinion, what should the average person know about how our brain perceives the world? What are the larger implications of this?

I enjoyed the lecture and test that Dr. Gillian gave us in class. I thought it was a good way to show us that are brains can sometimes trick us into seeing things the way it wants to and not everything is as it seems. The average person should know that the brain sometimes does this. The overall lesson and implication of this idea is to teach people to be open to the possibility that not everything they see is exactly what they believe it is, and there may be a hidden truth, both inm visual things and even in everyday situations and issues that we are forced to face.

Chapter 3: Waren Harding Error

1. Describe how Warren Harding rose through the Republican Party to become President in 1920.
His handsome, sharp looks caused people to immediately associate him with the idea of what a president should be.
2. Why does the author believe that people were in error in promoting Harding to higher office?
Because it though he looked the part of president, he certainty did not have the knowledge to run the country well.
3. What was the point of the “Implicit Association Test (IAT)?”
To show that on a subconscious level, appearance affects everyone’s judgment.
4. What are the advantages to completing the IAT on computer? Why does Gladwell believe the IAT has become “so popular in recent years?”
It can calculate the exact hesitation of a person in answering the questions which can show the significant differences in associations of words. It has become popular because it has shown what an impact appearance truly has in everyday life.
5. Why, according to Gladwell, did he become mortified upon completion of the first part of the IAT test on race? What occurred on the second part of the IAT test?
He believed that because he hesitated when trying to associate good words with blacks on the second part of the IAT test, he was therefore racist.
6. Did it make any difference how many times Gladwell took the test? What does the author believe is the reason for our answers on the IAT (i.e. what does the IAT measure)?
It did not make a difference how many times he took the test. It measures our subconscious associations of different things which have been the result of the world around us.
7. If Gladwell is correct, that your unconscious acts as a computer that “crunches all the data” from our lives and “it forms an opinion”; would you consider this to your true self? Please explain your answer.
I would not consider it to be apart of your true self because it is an effect of human nature in forming an opinion from the things around you. So in it is not something you choose to control yourself, it is just human nature, like the urge to smile when happy.
8. Does Gladwell feel that it matters if one has a “strongly pro-white pattern of associations?
Yes, because it could subconsciously affect their decisions in everyday life.
9. How does the Warren Harding error impact the business world?
It means that minorities, women, and short people will have trouble obtaining good jobs.
10. How does Bob Golomb’s strategy defeat the Warren Harding error?
He tries, consciously, to separate appearances from his judgments of people, and treat them all the same.
11. What were the results of the Ayres study? What does Gladwell believe to be the explanation for these results?
People’s subconscious discriminations greatly affect their behavior. But it is only because those discriminations are what they have gathered from general experiences.
12. How does Gladwell believe you can change your score on the race IAT? How, according to Gladwell, can we apply this rule to our everyday lives? Do you agree?
Before you take the test, find ways to associate black people with positive images. We can expose ourselves to minorities in order to get comfortable with them. I agree, I think the more comfortable you are with someone, the easier it is to like them, and believe they are a good person.

The Mouse Who Ate The Cheese

Based on our conversation in class, what is the point of the story: "The Mouse That Ate The Cheese?"

The point of the story is to give examples of the definitions for knowing something. The story shows how you can know something through empirical knowledge, like how Bill knows that the mouse ate the cheese because he saw the mouse eat the cheese. The story also shows how you can know something through rational knowledge, like how Adrian and Virginia know the mouse ate the cheese because they were told by Bill, an authoritative figure, that the mouse ate the cheese. On the other hand the story shows how you cannot know something but assume a logical conclusion about what might be true, like how Alice assumed that the mouse ate the cheese but did not really know for sure because she did not actually see it and no one told her. The story also shows how you cannot know something unless you believe it, like how George did not believe that the mouse ate the cheese even though Bill, an authoritative figure, told him so, there fore he does not know it.

Study Questions

1. How does Bertrand Russell differentiate between “knowledge by acquaintance” and “knowledge by description”? (check out the footnote at bottom of p. 19)
Russell claims that “knowledge by acquaintance” is direct and immediate and consists of raw “feelings”, while “knowledge by description” is descriptive of fact and couched in propositions.
2. How does Abel distinguish between “knowing how” and “knowing that”?
Abel claims that “knowing that” is a propositional knowledge, while “knowing how” cannot be fully specified in propositional knowledge.
3. What does he mean when he asks: “can knowing how theoretically always be reduced to knowing that? What is Abel’s answer? What do you think?
By this he means “can you know how to do something and always know why it is able to be done?” (like in the example of riding a bicycle). His answer is that this is not always true. I agree with that answer because I think that there are some things that you know through an emotional state that cannot be explained rationally.
4. How does language become a problem of knowledge?
It is not possible to fully state the rules for some ordinary English usages which we all know how to employ.
5. What do you think William James means when he says: “Life defies our phrases?”
Some experiences cannot not be explained rationally.
6. What, according to Abel, is the difference between “experience” and “propositional knowledge”?
Abel claims that “experience” includes everything we do and everything that happens to us, encompassing sensations and emotions, while “propositional knowledge” describes and explains experiences.
7. What are Abel’s Four Conditions for propositional knowledge? Where have we seen this before? Why does he add a Fourth Condition?
The proposition must be true, must be believed, must be justified, and must not be undermined by other evidence. These were seen when we were studying Plato’s definition of “Truth”. He adds the Fourth Condition because it is so easy for someone to mistake something they truly thought they “knew”.
8. What are Abel’s Nine Good Reasons or Evidence which serve as the Basis of Knowledge? Please give an example for each that is not in the book!
Sense perception (I know the food taste bad because I can taste it), logic (I know the Earth is round because I can prove it), intuition (I know it is wrong to steel because my intuition tells me so), self-awareness (I know I am hungry because I feel it), memory (I know where the house is because I remember how to get there), authority (I know WWI happened because the teacher told me so), consensus gentium (I know Bob is a mean person because everyone says so), revelation (I know that I must do this because it is the will of the gods), faith (I know I will go to heaven when I die because I have faith).

TOK Notes

Academic Knowledge

Plato: “knowledge” had to be describe and communicated with certainty

Platonic Knowledge/ Knowledge by Description/ Propositonal Knowledge (formal statement of convincing knowledge, “knowing that”)

Test/ Conditions for Knowing:
1.) Justified- authority, empirical, rational, memory
2.) True
3.) Belief
All are necessary but not sufficient by themselves

Truth:
1.) Public- Dog has to be friendly to all (if you say “I know my dog is nice)
2.) Independent- separate from personal beliefs
3.) Eternal- But must be true now and forever

Empiricism/ Experimental
Induction:
See it
Smell it
Feel it
Touch it
Hear it
Taste it
(the senses)
(I see my watch say 7:30, the bus arrives, therefore the bus must arrive at 7:30)

Rationalism (Deduction, General Theory)/ Academic
Instructed
A prior knowledge
Knowledge that comes before
(the bus schedual says the bus arrives at 7:30, therefore the bus arrives at 7:30)

No Corn

So far I have not been able to find a processed food that ddi not contain some form of corn, but I'll keep looking.

Corn

Flour Tortilla: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, vegetable shortening (may contain one or more of the following: hydrogenated soybean oil, soybean oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, hydrogenated cottonseed oil with mono- and diglycerides added), contains 2% or less of the following: sugar, leavening (sodium aluminum sulfate, calcium sulfate, sodium phosphate, baking soda, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), salt, wheat gluten, dough conditioners (sodium metabisulfite, distilled monoglycerides).

Fries

How would Gladwell respond to the responsibility question from September 15th?

I think Gladwell would respond to the responsibility question from September 15th first by saying that none of the information in The Omnivor’s Delema surprised him since he is clearly highly educated about mass produced food as shown in his article. Then I believe he would say that the producer of the knowledge of what goes into food has the responsibility of not telling you about transparently because when the revolution of turning fast food into healthy food occurs, if they tell you the food is healthy, you wont want to eat it because people associate bad food with good taste and good food with bad taste, and there wont really be a revolution at all. I also believe Gladwell would say that if we were to discover of this information that is being kept from us that our responsibility as a knower would be to try and be open to the possibility that even healthy foods can taste good.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

Did any information in the book come as a surprise to you? If so, why do you think that specific piece of knowledge was kept from you? Does the producer of this knowledge have any responsibility? What is your responsibility as a knower?

Though nothing I read in the book really came as much of a surprise to me, I still was unaware of a lot of the information the book contained. I believe the knowledge from the book that I was unaware of was kept from me so that I would not have to be concerned about the consequences involved in the process of producing the foods I eat, and therefore I would continue to consume these foods for the profit of corporate businesses, oblivious of the truth about these foods which would otherwise cause me to reconsider the choices I make in the grocery store. The producer of this knowledge that I am so oblivious to has a responsibility to disclose that information to me so that I may have a better understanding of what I put into my body. And I too have a responsibility as a knower of this information to use it to my own advantage to make sure that what I put into my body is in my own best interest.

How Do We Know What We Know?

Everything I know comes from the observations I make. I analyze what I see around me and I draw conclusions based on the facts I find. This method can be applied to any aspect of my life, for example, I learn many thing from the people around me, whether it be at school or anywhere else, people tell me things, (like how teachers tell me things they want me to learn and how friends tell me things they want me to know), I digest what they say, contemplate it, judge it, and decide if its valuable enough to hold on to and store in my memory. This method can also be applied to reading a book or watching a movie, analyze the information being gathered, decide if it’s useful, and keep it or lose it. It’s a very scientific way to think about the world but its how I know what I know.

Do Parents Matter?

How would Gladwell respond to the identity question from August 27th? How would Levitt and Dubner respond?

Gladwell would respond to my answer of the identity question from August 27th with disagreement, and by talking about how it is not our family that creates our identity, but our surrounding environment outside our household. Gladwell would argue that the experiences we have outside our family environment, mainly with other human beings beside our family, affect us the most in the long run, and would probably note that these experiences would be very closely related to our sex, name (if it was ridiculous enough), and nationality. Levitt and Dubner would most likely agree with some aspects of my answer but not all, they would argue that it is in fact your family that determines your identity. Levitt and Dubner would say that it all depends on what kinds of genes run in your family and which ones you get that make the difference, and they too would probably take into account the fact that sex and nationality would greatly affect that, (though not so much your name).

What defines us?

What were your impressions of the first class? Are we our Name, our Family, our Sex, our Nationality or our Location? If not, then what is responsible for our identity? Do we have an identity apart from our community?

Our name, family, sex, nationality, and location are very important to our identity, but they are not what entirely defines us. Our name, family, and nationality can show our background and even our class. Our sex can usually affect how we act and can most definately play a part in the way we look at the world around us. Even our location will often have times a great influence on us and our ideas about the world as we develope. However these are only peices of our definition; they are important but there are even more significant aspects of us that truely define who we are. What really defines us is something seperat from our community (our name, family, sex, nationality, and location), though it is often times affected by that. It is our actions. And what is meant by actions is not every physical move we make, but the things we do that truely make a differnce, to the world, to others, and to ourselves. These actions define us because they are the representation of the inner thoughts and emotions that have affected us the most, because they meant the most to us, and therefore have caused us to turn them into actions. These actions define us because they come from the deepest part of our sole, the purpose of our existance in our own perspective. This defines us. What we do defines us.

TOK