1. What would Michael Pollan (Remember? The Omnivore's Dilemma) say about the first paragraph in Chapter 5?
She would probably comment on the irony of the cattle using their milk and hormones to provide for the factory at Farnham Royal.
2. Do you see any similarities with hoe the World State views death as compared to the Hindus? How does Lenina's remembrance of hypopedia compare with that of Plato's Republic?
The similarity is that both seem to believe that humans serve a purpose to the earth both during and after life. Lenina remembers that her hypnopedia told her that everyone is happy in their class and Plato’s Republic argued that with the right conditioning this could be true and it would create a society where everyone would be happy.
3. What do you think of Lenina's and Henry night out on the town?
I thought their night out was rather unfulfilling because they were doing the same thing as everyone else and I would not be able to do that every night like they do.
4. Why do you think Huxley uses the word "pneumatic" to refer to some female characters?
I think he uses this word because he feels the women are too spirited and he likes women who are more subtle like him.
5. What is Solidarity Service and what are Bernard's feelings towards it?
It is like a religious group that holds sermons to inspire people and Bernard seems to think that no matter what he does he will always fail to be inspired by it and that causes him to feel even more isolated.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Abel Chapter 15
1. Why is history being rewritten constantly?
It is being rewritten both because new facts are being discovered all the time and because it is being reinterpreted to make it more meaningful all the time because people assume it is always being written incorrectly.
2. What factors influence the process by which the historian picks and chooses his/her "facts"? Please provide a specific example for each factor.
Human interest in what is important and what is not changes over time, like how we now care more about how peasants lived in France than the love affairs their kings were having at that time. Our explanations for why events happened change over time as well, like how we now have the Marxist hypothesis that the American Civil War was a class conflict. Our view of basic historical segment changes over time, like how Braudel chooses the “Mediterranean” as his unit. The personal interests of historians are ever changing. And the audience for whom a historian writes changes as well.
3. What is the "Baconian fallacy?"What would the Positivists think? Would Carr agree with Namier?
The fallacy is the assumption that all a historian must do is collect facts. Positivists would probably believe in this fallacy because they think it is the historian’s job to regurgitate fatcs. Carr would agree with Namier because he believes it is the historian’s job to interpret the facts as well as produce them.
4. How does History differ from Geology?
History is different because while in geology facts are simply stated, in history the historian must give meaning and purpose to facts.
5. According to Abel: "The patterns to be found in past events are selected by the historian; like the hypothesis of the scientist, they may be suggested, but are neither imposed nor dictated, by "the facts (p. 166-7)." Based on your experience with the Cheques Lab, how far do you agree with this explanation of history?
I completely agree with this explanation because in the checks lad we chose to recognize certain patterns, like the dates of the check, over other patterns, like the names of the animals at the top of the checks.
6. In your opinion, "how will future historians so elect to describe what is going on now(p. 167)?"
I think they will do so in the manner historians from our day have done it and historians before them, because I think the process of studying history remains very much the same throughout time and it really only the facts that change.
7. What is historical pluralism?
It is the belief that not all events are related to one another.
8. The list of events (or non-events) listed on p. 168 makes Abel ask the question: "Is there, then, no hard core or bed-rock of indisputable facts that the historian must recognize." Does it matter if there ever was a man named Trotsky?
It seems that it would not really matter if there ever was a man named Trotsky because historians have chosen to say there was and since no one fact of history appears to better than another because there is no hard core of indisputable facts, it would not matter if he really existed or not, as long as historians choose to say he did.
9. How is a historian like a physicist?
Both choose what facts are most important to consider, neither will ever know everything about their subject of study, and both recognize that there are multiple interpretations and explanations for the things they study.
10. What are the Five Frameworks or Hypotheses of History? Please provide an example from your HL or SL history class of each.
History is cyclical like the similar roles single party states have played in changing the economy of countries like Russia, Germany, and China. In history, events are caused by some factor within the environment of where they occur, like how the Italians had the upper hand in fighting the Allied forces because they could hide in the mountain ranges surrounding Italy and the Allied forces were not used to fighting on mountains. History is constantly progressing, like how new information and new interest about Soviet Russia has caused us to discover different perspectives about what was happening at that time that we may not have considered before. History is a great drama of sin and redemption, like how Hitler was arrested for his part in WWI and then redeemed himself by winning the elections in Germany and becoming chancellor. And societies within history act as a single organism, like how when one part of Russia was affected by the famine, it spread to rest of ZZRussia and caused the whole country to suffer.
11. Do you believe in Historical Inevitability?
I believe that the nature of humans has caused historical inevitability because we are simply too predictable. However I do not believe that historical inevitability is a fact and I believe that if people were motivated enough and worked hard enough at it, any war could be prevented.
12. What does Abel mean when he says: "No crucial experiment can test the validity of a theory of history, any more than it can the truth of a metaphysical theory (p. 174)."?
He means that theories of history are made up of materials and facts which were decided to be more important than other materials or facts but in fact there is no way to know which materials or facts are better than the others and therefore there is no way to know which historical theories are the best.
13. Abel writes: "Macaulay regards history as a branch of literature (p. 174)." How would Jill Lepore of Just the Facts, Ma'am respond? Please provide to specific quote from the article to justify your claim.
Lepore would agree with this statement because she believes that history is simply stating facts in an interesting and interpretive way so that people will care about them. This opinion can clearly be seen when she talks about how Jane Austin wrote a comical history of King Henry which was more interesting than his actual history.
14. How does the footnote at the bottom of page 175 relate to the Shaper from Grendel?
Like these different religious groups who tell different stories about the Crussades and who emphasize different things as being good or bad to produce the desired story of how their group was the better in the event, so does the Shaper emphasize certain points in his songs in Grendel to make it appear as though Hrothgar was the greatest hero of all time. It shows how history is subject to multiple interpretations.
It is being rewritten both because new facts are being discovered all the time and because it is being reinterpreted to make it more meaningful all the time because people assume it is always being written incorrectly.
2. What factors influence the process by which the historian picks and chooses his/her "facts"? Please provide a specific example for each factor.
Human interest in what is important and what is not changes over time, like how we now care more about how peasants lived in France than the love affairs their kings were having at that time. Our explanations for why events happened change over time as well, like how we now have the Marxist hypothesis that the American Civil War was a class conflict. Our view of basic historical segment changes over time, like how Braudel chooses the “Mediterranean” as his unit. The personal interests of historians are ever changing. And the audience for whom a historian writes changes as well.
3. What is the "Baconian fallacy?"What would the Positivists think? Would Carr agree with Namier?
The fallacy is the assumption that all a historian must do is collect facts. Positivists would probably believe in this fallacy because they think it is the historian’s job to regurgitate fatcs. Carr would agree with Namier because he believes it is the historian’s job to interpret the facts as well as produce them.
4. How does History differ from Geology?
History is different because while in geology facts are simply stated, in history the historian must give meaning and purpose to facts.
5. According to Abel: "The patterns to be found in past events are selected by the historian; like the hypothesis of the scientist, they may be suggested, but are neither imposed nor dictated, by "the facts (p. 166-7)." Based on your experience with the Cheques Lab, how far do you agree with this explanation of history?
I completely agree with this explanation because in the checks lad we chose to recognize certain patterns, like the dates of the check, over other patterns, like the names of the animals at the top of the checks.
6. In your opinion, "how will future historians so elect to describe what is going on now(p. 167)?"
I think they will do so in the manner historians from our day have done it and historians before them, because I think the process of studying history remains very much the same throughout time and it really only the facts that change.
7. What is historical pluralism?
It is the belief that not all events are related to one another.
8. The list of events (or non-events) listed on p. 168 makes Abel ask the question: "Is there, then, no hard core or bed-rock of indisputable facts that the historian must recognize." Does it matter if there ever was a man named Trotsky?
It seems that it would not really matter if there ever was a man named Trotsky because historians have chosen to say there was and since no one fact of history appears to better than another because there is no hard core of indisputable facts, it would not matter if he really existed or not, as long as historians choose to say he did.
9. How is a historian like a physicist?
Both choose what facts are most important to consider, neither will ever know everything about their subject of study, and both recognize that there are multiple interpretations and explanations for the things they study.
10. What are the Five Frameworks or Hypotheses of History? Please provide an example from your HL or SL history class of each.
History is cyclical like the similar roles single party states have played in changing the economy of countries like Russia, Germany, and China. In history, events are caused by some factor within the environment of where they occur, like how the Italians had the upper hand in fighting the Allied forces because they could hide in the mountain ranges surrounding Italy and the Allied forces were not used to fighting on mountains. History is constantly progressing, like how new information and new interest about Soviet Russia has caused us to discover different perspectives about what was happening at that time that we may not have considered before. History is a great drama of sin and redemption, like how Hitler was arrested for his part in WWI and then redeemed himself by winning the elections in Germany and becoming chancellor. And societies within history act as a single organism, like how when one part of Russia was affected by the famine, it spread to rest of ZZRussia and caused the whole country to suffer.
11. Do you believe in Historical Inevitability?
I believe that the nature of humans has caused historical inevitability because we are simply too predictable. However I do not believe that historical inevitability is a fact and I believe that if people were motivated enough and worked hard enough at it, any war could be prevented.
12. What does Abel mean when he says: "No crucial experiment can test the validity of a theory of history, any more than it can the truth of a metaphysical theory (p. 174)."?
He means that theories of history are made up of materials and facts which were decided to be more important than other materials or facts but in fact there is no way to know which materials or facts are better than the others and therefore there is no way to know which historical theories are the best.
13. Abel writes: "Macaulay regards history as a branch of literature (p. 174)." How would Jill Lepore of Just the Facts, Ma'am respond? Please provide to specific quote from the article to justify your claim.
Lepore would agree with this statement because she believes that history is simply stating facts in an interesting and interpretive way so that people will care about them. This opinion can clearly be seen when she talks about how Jane Austin wrote a comical history of King Henry which was more interesting than his actual history.
14. How does the footnote at the bottom of page 175 relate to the Shaper from Grendel?
Like these different religious groups who tell different stories about the Crussades and who emphasize different things as being good or bad to produce the desired story of how their group was the better in the event, so does the Shaper emphasize certain points in his songs in Grendel to make it appear as though Hrothgar was the greatest hero of all time. It shows how history is subject to multiple interpretations.
Nacirema
1. Yesterday we were given an anthological report to read on a mysterious and self destructive culture. We read through the report and commented on all the customs of the culture and how strange we found them to be. As we read, images of what we assumed were natives of the country were displayed on a projector in front of us and it was accompanied by foreign, tribal sounding music. When we were finished reading the report and discussing what we thought of the culture we were told that the country was actually our own United States of America. When reading this report we were unable to identify the culture as our own because of the language used to describe the culture. For example in the report the culture is referred to as “self destructive” and “uncivilized” and because we would never consider our own culture to be like this it was impossible for us to assume anyone else would. We were also unable to recognize this because of the atmosphere we were in while reading the report which was set by the images we saw and the music we heard. These foreign things caused us to assume we had to be reading about a foreign country and so we did.
2. This reaction to the report we read suggests a lot about the Social Sciences like Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology. It suggests that a strength of these sciences is that they can be used to display the strange tendencies of any culture, even our own, and make us realize how destructive we are being as a society. However it also suggests that there are some faults with these sciences in the fact that most of the time the results of these sciences are designed to appeal to our society an d be accepted by us and therefore they may be biased against other cultures because that is what we as a society want to hear because we define our own culture by comparing it to the faults of other cultures to show how much better we are.
2. This reaction to the report we read suggests a lot about the Social Sciences like Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology. It suggests that a strength of these sciences is that they can be used to display the strange tendencies of any culture, even our own, and make us realize how destructive we are being as a society. However it also suggests that there are some faults with these sciences in the fact that most of the time the results of these sciences are designed to appeal to our society an d be accepted by us and therefore they may be biased against other cultures because that is what we as a society want to hear because we define our own culture by comparing it to the faults of other cultures to show how much better we are.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Brave New World chapter 4
Part 1
1. What puzzles Lenina about Bernard Marx's behavior?
She is puzzled because he is shy about the idea of sex and in a world that is so publicly accepting of the idea and does not consider it to be a private matter.
2. Please provide examples of Lenina using what she learned from hypnopaedia.
When she flies over the Gamma workers she exclaims that kaki is an ugly color and she says hwo happy she is that she is not a Gamma.
3. Where are Lenina and Henry going?
They are going to play Obstacle Golf.
Part 2:
1. What makes Bernard Marx distressed? Why?
He is distressed because he has the appearance of a Gamma but the mind of an Alpha. This causes him to be alienated from his colleges and he often times feels alone and inadequate.
2. Where does Helmholtz Watson work? What is his job?
He works at the center for propaganda and his job is to write catchy phrases about everyday things.
3. What does Bernard have in common with Helmholtz Watson?
They both have excess in their minds and therefore are more aware of the world around them and are very different from other humans.
4. What is troubling Helmholtz?
He wants to write something more meaningful than propaganda but he does not know what it is he wants to say.
1. What puzzles Lenina about Bernard Marx's behavior?
She is puzzled because he is shy about the idea of sex and in a world that is so publicly accepting of the idea and does not consider it to be a private matter.
2. Please provide examples of Lenina using what she learned from hypnopaedia.
When she flies over the Gamma workers she exclaims that kaki is an ugly color and she says hwo happy she is that she is not a Gamma.
3. Where are Lenina and Henry going?
They are going to play Obstacle Golf.
Part 2:
1. What makes Bernard Marx distressed? Why?
He is distressed because he has the appearance of a Gamma but the mind of an Alpha. This causes him to be alienated from his colleges and he often times feels alone and inadequate.
2. Where does Helmholtz Watson work? What is his job?
He works at the center for propaganda and his job is to write catchy phrases about everyday things.
3. What does Bernard have in common with Helmholtz Watson?
They both have excess in their minds and therefore are more aware of the world around them and are very different from other humans.
4. What is troubling Helmholtz?
He wants to write something more meaningful than propaganda but he does not know what it is he wants to say.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Brave New World chapter 3
A) Sex, Monogamy & Romance
They treat sex as though it is a game and they do not believe in monogamy or romance because they believe that every person should be able to have every other person they desire without consequence.
B) Sports
They believe that the only purpose of sports is to increase consumer production and consumption to further advance their economy.
C) Entertainment
Like sports, all their forms of entertainment serve the purpose of advancing their economy by proving more products for the consumers.
D) Parenthood
Parenting does not exist for them. They view it as a cause of weakness in humans who cannot be coddled.
E) Materialism
For them, it is a part of everyday life and it is expected of them to be materialistic because that is their norm.
F) Religion
Their only religion is their worship of the founding father of their society known to them as Ford.
G) Intoxicants
Similar to materialism, this is considered to be a natural part of everyday life for them and they are expected to exercise them.
The State came to be as it is because of the efforts of the one known as Ford. Ford first presented his ideas for the perfect society, including the cast system, to the government in England at the time but was rejected by them and most of society at that time therefore decided to build support and wage a war to become ultimate ruler so that he could establish his ideas as truth. He waged war for nine years and then realized that brute force was not the answer. So he decided to eliminate his competitors by completely extinguishing them through chemical warfare. After he eliminated them, Ford used different means of propaganda to become ultimate leader and once in power whipped out all knowledge of history in art and books and set up his own society where e brain washed humans into complete obedience.
They treat sex as though it is a game and they do not believe in monogamy or romance because they believe that every person should be able to have every other person they desire without consequence.
B) Sports
They believe that the only purpose of sports is to increase consumer production and consumption to further advance their economy.
C) Entertainment
Like sports, all their forms of entertainment serve the purpose of advancing their economy by proving more products for the consumers.
D) Parenthood
Parenting does not exist for them. They view it as a cause of weakness in humans who cannot be coddled.
E) Materialism
For them, it is a part of everyday life and it is expected of them to be materialistic because that is their norm.
F) Religion
Their only religion is their worship of the founding father of their society known to them as Ford.
G) Intoxicants
Similar to materialism, this is considered to be a natural part of everyday life for them and they are expected to exercise them.
The State came to be as it is because of the efforts of the one known as Ford. Ford first presented his ideas for the perfect society, including the cast system, to the government in England at the time but was rejected by them and most of society at that time therefore decided to build support and wage a war to become ultimate ruler so that he could establish his ideas as truth. He waged war for nine years and then realized that brute force was not the answer. So he decided to eliminate his competitors by completely extinguishing them through chemical warfare. After he eliminated them, Ford used different means of propaganda to become ultimate leader and once in power whipped out all knowledge of history in art and books and set up his own society where e brain washed humans into complete obedience.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Brave New World Chapter 2
1. How do babies sent to the Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms develop an "instinctive hatred of books and flowers?" Why were Deltas exposed to such treatment?
They are exposed to the books and flowers and then shocked to condition them to hate them. This is done so that they will not waste time reading and so they will not have a love of nature that might keep them buying factory goods.
2. What is a State Conditioning Center? Does it remind you of anything from Plato's Republic?
It is the place where humans are broken up into their classes and conditioned accordingly. It reminds me of Plato’s idea of the different schools for the different classes in society.
3. What is hypnopaedia? Why wasn't it used for Science? What was it used for? Does it remind you of anything from Plato's Republic?
It is when something is recited to a person while they sleep so that they memorize it. It could not be used for Science because although it was memorized the person had no idea what it meant. It was used for substituting the minds of children with simple but influential suggestions about their preferences as a social class throughout their life. It reminds me of Plato’s idea of telling children where they belong in society and trying to drill into their heads their purpose for the society.
4. How does the Caste system work in the World State? What are the similarities and differences between this and the Hindu Caste system?
There are five different cast levels: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. It is similar to Hinduism because once you are assigned to a level you are stuck there for your entire life and the levels range from respected to the unrespected classes.
5. What does the Director mean when he says, "Not so much like drops of water....rather, drops of liquid sealing wax."?
He means that the suggestions which are whispered into the children’s’ heads will subtly overcome their mind until that is all their minds are made up of.
They are exposed to the books and flowers and then shocked to condition them to hate them. This is done so that they will not waste time reading and so they will not have a love of nature that might keep them buying factory goods.
2. What is a State Conditioning Center? Does it remind you of anything from Plato's Republic?
It is the place where humans are broken up into their classes and conditioned accordingly. It reminds me of Plato’s idea of the different schools for the different classes in society.
3. What is hypnopaedia? Why wasn't it used for Science? What was it used for? Does it remind you of anything from Plato's Republic?
It is when something is recited to a person while they sleep so that they memorize it. It could not be used for Science because although it was memorized the person had no idea what it meant. It was used for substituting the minds of children with simple but influential suggestions about their preferences as a social class throughout their life. It reminds me of Plato’s idea of telling children where they belong in society and trying to drill into their heads their purpose for the society.
4. How does the Caste system work in the World State? What are the similarities and differences between this and the Hindu Caste system?
There are five different cast levels: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. It is similar to Hinduism because once you are assigned to a level you are stuck there for your entire life and the levels range from respected to the unrespected classes.
5. What does the Director mean when he says, "Not so much like drops of water....rather, drops of liquid sealing wax."?
He means that the suggestions which are whispered into the children’s’ heads will subtly overcome their mind until that is all their minds are made up of.
Monday, November 2, 2009
The Way We Are
The claim “We see and understand things not as they are but as we are,” suggests that when it comes to the different ways of knowing, our personal biases and differences in the way we gain knowledge, influence the very knowledge we gain. This idea is very prominent in terms of knowing by perception and knowing by reason. Both these ways of knowing can be influenced by the person exercising them and can therefore change the knowledge they are trying to gain from what is actually true.
In knowing by perception the knowledge we gain can be warped by the way in which we see the world and the fact that that may differ from how the world actually is. Our perception of the world is influenced itself by our experiences in life which have affect our thoughts about the world and how we see it. For example I may have one bad experience with a clown who scared me as a child and therefore I may perceive all clowns as being scary because of that experience even though many of them may be very kind. These experiences affect our process of taking in information from the outside world and translating it into knowledge. When we induce or deduce what we see, that process may be affected by our previous experiences with the world and it may blind us to seeing things as they really are without bias or assumptions. A possible counterclaim to this argument which could be made by someone who has not studied the effects of perception on the knowledge we gain, may be that people are clever enough to know that they are making hasty assumptions about something they see and therefore can identify and put aside their biases when obtaining knowledge. However, people often do not realize just how subtle and undetectable these biases can be and therefore do not know that they are affecting their perception of the world. For example in the online test designed to see if Americans are naturally racist, which we took in our TOK class, it was found that even though the people taking it did not think they were racist it still took them longer to categorize an African American person as good and a white person as bad than it did when they were asked to do the opposite. Their past experiences of seeing the amount of racism which once existed in America had an effect on how they perceive African Americans without them even knowing it.
In knowing by reason, the assumptions and biases again have an on the way we gain knowledge. In this case they affect the process of reasoning we go through to come to a conclusion about this knowledge and what it is. Our biases about a certain situation or matter can influence our reasoning when we are trying to determine the truth of the matter through what we already know. For example in the check exercise we did in TOK class, we tried to reason what the story of the family was through examining some of their checks and coming to conclusion about what they meant. We did not realize at the time but our previous assumption that because the family seemed wealthy they must be stable, influenced our process of reasoning by causing us to disregard some of the more unpleasant checks like the one for marriage counseling and drug rehab when drawing our conclusion. Our biases about the family affected out reasoning about what their story was from the evidence we were given. A possible counterclaim to this argument from someone who has not studied knowledge by reason could be that people do not ever make these assumptions about something they don’t know much about and therefore have nothing to influence their reasoning process when they are trying to reach a conclusion about that something. However, it is oftentimes unrealized just how many assumptions we make about a situation we only have bits and pieces of information about, and how strongly they influence us when we are trying to put those pieces together and reason a conclusion about the situation. The case of the check exercise is the perfect example of this.
This is how our personal biases and differences in the way we gain knowledge, influence the very knowledge we gain in different situations of the ways of knowing. In terms of perception, our previous experiences influence the way in which we see the world and the knowledge we gain through seeing it. Also, in terms of reason our assumptions about a situation can influence our conclusion about it and the process we use to reach that conclusion. This is what was meant by the claim “We see and understand things not as they are but as we are.”
In knowing by perception the knowledge we gain can be warped by the way in which we see the world and the fact that that may differ from how the world actually is. Our perception of the world is influenced itself by our experiences in life which have affect our thoughts about the world and how we see it. For example I may have one bad experience with a clown who scared me as a child and therefore I may perceive all clowns as being scary because of that experience even though many of them may be very kind. These experiences affect our process of taking in information from the outside world and translating it into knowledge. When we induce or deduce what we see, that process may be affected by our previous experiences with the world and it may blind us to seeing things as they really are without bias or assumptions. A possible counterclaim to this argument which could be made by someone who has not studied the effects of perception on the knowledge we gain, may be that people are clever enough to know that they are making hasty assumptions about something they see and therefore can identify and put aside their biases when obtaining knowledge. However, people often do not realize just how subtle and undetectable these biases can be and therefore do not know that they are affecting their perception of the world. For example in the online test designed to see if Americans are naturally racist, which we took in our TOK class, it was found that even though the people taking it did not think they were racist it still took them longer to categorize an African American person as good and a white person as bad than it did when they were asked to do the opposite. Their past experiences of seeing the amount of racism which once existed in America had an effect on how they perceive African Americans without them even knowing it.
In knowing by reason, the assumptions and biases again have an on the way we gain knowledge. In this case they affect the process of reasoning we go through to come to a conclusion about this knowledge and what it is. Our biases about a certain situation or matter can influence our reasoning when we are trying to determine the truth of the matter through what we already know. For example in the check exercise we did in TOK class, we tried to reason what the story of the family was through examining some of their checks and coming to conclusion about what they meant. We did not realize at the time but our previous assumption that because the family seemed wealthy they must be stable, influenced our process of reasoning by causing us to disregard some of the more unpleasant checks like the one for marriage counseling and drug rehab when drawing our conclusion. Our biases about the family affected out reasoning about what their story was from the evidence we were given. A possible counterclaim to this argument from someone who has not studied knowledge by reason could be that people do not ever make these assumptions about something they don’t know much about and therefore have nothing to influence their reasoning process when they are trying to reach a conclusion about that something. However, it is oftentimes unrealized just how many assumptions we make about a situation we only have bits and pieces of information about, and how strongly they influence us when we are trying to put those pieces together and reason a conclusion about the situation. The case of the check exercise is the perfect example of this.
This is how our personal biases and differences in the way we gain knowledge, influence the very knowledge we gain in different situations of the ways of knowing. In terms of perception, our previous experiences influence the way in which we see the world and the knowledge we gain through seeing it. Also, in terms of reason our assumptions about a situation can influence our conclusion about it and the process we use to reach that conclusion. This is what was meant by the claim “We see and understand things not as they are but as we are.”
Check Exercise
I found that in the check exercise there were a lot of differences and similarities between the way in which we carried out the exercise and the process of analyzing and qualities of history. Some similarities were that, like historians, we were supplied with bits and pieces of information which we had to examine and make logical assumptions about to draw the best possible conclusion we could about what the documents entailed about the family we were investigating. It was also similar in the way we made multiple hypotheses as we gained different information by acquiring more checks and how, in the end, we took all of our hypotheses and combined them into a logical conclusion about what they meant. Another similarity was that overall process we followed in getting the information and analyzing it reflected the history diagram we discussed in class which defined history and showed how it was evaluated. Some differences between the way in which we carried out the exercise and the process of analyzing and qualities of history, were the fact that we had such a constricting time limit because although it is true that a historian may have a certain deadline for a historical paper or analysis, it would certainly not be within ten minutes of when they relieved the information they were to evaluate and that is what we were expected to do. Also in our situation we there was no way for us to gain any information outside of what the checks implied (for example going to the mortuary listed on one of the checks and asking who died on the date given on the check), but in the situation of a real historian trying to discover what happened with the family they would have the freedom to use many other outside sources of information beside the checks. Another difference in our situation was that we had a group of people working at once to come to a finite conclusion only once whereas in real life there would be many different groups of historians analyzing the same evidence and evaluating and editing each other’s conclusions about the evidence multiple times to try and reach the best conclusion possible. These are the differences and similarities between the check exercise we did in class and the way in which history is analyzed in life.
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