1. What did Lenina do when she got back to the rest-house?
She took so much somma that it kept her in the trance of a somma-holiday for eighteen hours because she was incapable of dealing with the realities of life she had just faced for the first time.
2. What does Bernard ask his Fordship, Mustapha Mond?
He asks him to allow John and Linda to return with him to London as a part of some scientific investigation into their situation.
3. What does John say when he is by Lenina's bedside? Why is this significant?
He recites a passage from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This could possibly foreshadow the death of John and Lenina since they are being compared to two characters who are doomed from the very beginning of Shakespeare’s story.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Brave New Wold Chapter 8
1. How would you describe John's upbringing? Why do you think he says that he is "Alone, always alone." (p. 137). How does Bernard feel about John?
John was thrown into a world he could never have any true place in. He had a cruel childhood being brought up by a woman who had been conditioned to hate the idea of motherhood. His manliness was constantly being challenged by his mother’s lovers who bullied him and took away the one comfort he had in his life, the love and attention of his mother. He tried very hard to fit into his community but was rejected. All of his experiences lead him to believe that forcing himself to suffer was the only way to gain some sort of enlightenment on his sad situation. He was torn between the world and customs of the Indians and those of his mother’s previous life in the civilized world. He says he is alone because he was raised by the customs of both these worlds combined therefore no one from either of these places could truly understand him because he would have some qualities of the other world. So he was always being rejected by both sides and therefore could never belong anywhere and was always alone.
2. Why does John say at the end of the chapter, "O brave new world!" (p. 139)?
He says this because he believes that the civilized world is full of opportunity for him and he will truly be happy and fulfilled there. It is in a way a fresh start for him.
John was thrown into a world he could never have any true place in. He had a cruel childhood being brought up by a woman who had been conditioned to hate the idea of motherhood. His manliness was constantly being challenged by his mother’s lovers who bullied him and took away the one comfort he had in his life, the love and attention of his mother. He tried very hard to fit into his community but was rejected. All of his experiences lead him to believe that forcing himself to suffer was the only way to gain some sort of enlightenment on his sad situation. He was torn between the world and customs of the Indians and those of his mother’s previous life in the civilized world. He says he is alone because he was raised by the customs of both these worlds combined therefore no one from either of these places could truly understand him because he would have some qualities of the other world. So he was always being rejected by both sides and therefore could never belong anywhere and was always alone.
2. Why does John say at the end of the chapter, "O brave new world!" (p. 139)?
He says this because he believes that the civilized world is full of opportunity for him and he will truly be happy and fulfilled there. It is in a way a fresh start for him.
Brave New World Chapter 7
1. How does Lenina feel about their appointed guide?
She does not like him because he is unclean and he smells. She is not familiar with him and is scared of him because he is extremely different from civilized people.
2. How does Lenina react to "naked Indian"(p. 110)? Does it remind you of anyone else we have studied?
She is shocked that old people can look like that because no old person she knows looks like the Indian. She is similar to Prince Siddhārtha in the way he reacted when he saw old age for the first time.
3. How does Bernard react to the pueblo of Malpais?
He is fairly calm while Lenina is disgusted by it. He gives the impression as though he has seen it before.
4. Who is Linda? What is her relationship to Tomakin?
She is the woman that the D.H.C. lost in the reservations and she had a child of his there and has lived there ever since. Tomakin is Thomas who is the D.H.C. who is the father of her child.
5. Why does Linda believe that "everything they do is mad"(p. 121)? Please be specific.
She believes this because everything the Indians do is opposite to what her society did. For example, each person is only suppose to have one other person for intercourse even though in Linda’s society everyone had everyone else.
She does not like him because he is unclean and he smells. She is not familiar with him and is scared of him because he is extremely different from civilized people.
2. How does Lenina react to "naked Indian"(p. 110)? Does it remind you of anyone else we have studied?
She is shocked that old people can look like that because no old person she knows looks like the Indian. She is similar to Prince Siddhārtha in the way he reacted when he saw old age for the first time.
3. How does Bernard react to the pueblo of Malpais?
He is fairly calm while Lenina is disgusted by it. He gives the impression as though he has seen it before.
4. Who is Linda? What is her relationship to Tomakin?
She is the woman that the D.H.C. lost in the reservations and she had a child of his there and has lived there ever since. Tomakin is Thomas who is the D.H.C. who is the father of her child.
5. Why does Linda believe that "everything they do is mad"(p. 121)? Please be specific.
She believes this because everything the Indians do is opposite to what her society did. For example, each person is only suppose to have one other person for intercourse even though in Linda’s society everyone had everyone else.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Brave New World Chapter 6
Part I
1. Why does Lenina think Bernard Marx "odd" - please use specific references from this chapter in your answer.
She thinks he is odd because he is so personal about things like sex, shown by his embarrassment when Lenina talked about their date in public. She also thinks this because he is so unsocial, shown by his unwillingness to talk to the bots in the changing room.
2. Please provide more lines from Lenina that she learned from hypnopedia (there are some great ones in this chapter!). Do any of them remind you of sayings that we may use - please don't use commercial jingles. i.e. "1-800-54-Giant!"
“A gramme in time saves nine”, “A gramme is always better than damn”, “Everyone works for everyone else”, “Thank Ford”, “Never put off till tomorrow what fun you can have today”, and “When the individual feels the community reels”. These remind me of sayings we have such as “Thank God”, “Never put off to till tomorrow what you can do today”, and “Kill two birds with one stone”.
3. What is Fanny's explanation for Bernard's behavior?
She says there was alcohol in his blood-surrogate.
Part II
4. What did the Director tell Bernard about his own trip to the Reservation? Why did it initially make Bernard feel uncomfortable?
He told him that he went with a girl she got lost one night in a storm and was never found even though he severely hurt his knee trying to look for her. This made Bernard initially uncomfortable because a man as important as the Director had done the forbidden act of thinking of the past just because his disapproval Bernard had such a strong affect on him.
5. What does the Director threaten Bernard with if he doesn't change his behavior? Why does it elate Bernard?
He threatens to have him transferred to Iceland. It make Bernard happy because he was able to have such a strong effect on the Director and he knew the threat was not legitimate.
Part III
6. How does the Warden describe the Reservation?
He explained that it was divided into different sections, that it was separated from the civilized world by a deadly electric fence, that the savages there still spoke different languages and were of mixed breeds, still married and were born into families, and that there were many wild and dangerous beasts there.
1. Why does Lenina think Bernard Marx "odd" - please use specific references from this chapter in your answer.
She thinks he is odd because he is so personal about things like sex, shown by his embarrassment when Lenina talked about their date in public. She also thinks this because he is so unsocial, shown by his unwillingness to talk to the bots in the changing room.
2. Please provide more lines from Lenina that she learned from hypnopedia (there are some great ones in this chapter!). Do any of them remind you of sayings that we may use - please don't use commercial jingles. i.e. "1-800-54-Giant!"
“A gramme in time saves nine”, “A gramme is always better than damn”, “Everyone works for everyone else”, “Thank Ford”, “Never put off till tomorrow what fun you can have today”, and “When the individual feels the community reels”. These remind me of sayings we have such as “Thank God”, “Never put off to till tomorrow what you can do today”, and “Kill two birds with one stone”.
3. What is Fanny's explanation for Bernard's behavior?
She says there was alcohol in his blood-surrogate.
Part II
4. What did the Director tell Bernard about his own trip to the Reservation? Why did it initially make Bernard feel uncomfortable?
He told him that he went with a girl she got lost one night in a storm and was never found even though he severely hurt his knee trying to look for her. This made Bernard initially uncomfortable because a man as important as the Director had done the forbidden act of thinking of the past just because his disapproval Bernard had such a strong affect on him.
5. What does the Director threaten Bernard with if he doesn't change his behavior? Why does it elate Bernard?
He threatens to have him transferred to Iceland. It make Bernard happy because he was able to have such a strong effect on the Director and he knew the threat was not legitimate.
Part III
6. How does the Warden describe the Reservation?
He explained that it was divided into different sections, that it was separated from the civilized world by a deadly electric fence, that the savages there still spoke different languages and were of mixed breeds, still married and were born into families, and that there were many wild and dangerous beasts there.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
TOK Essay
"People need to believe that order can be glimpsed in the chaos of events" (adapted from John Gray, Heresies, 2004). In what ways and to what extent would you say this claim is relevant in at least two areas of knowledge?
This statement can be applied to two areas of knowledge, the natural sciences and the social sciences. It could be argued that the very purpose of the natural sciences is to find order in the chaos of natural events and therefore this statement can be readily applied in this area of knowledge. In Reuben Abel’s book Man is the Measure, Abel claims that science explains facts by taking a general law combined with specific conditions of nature to logically deduce the facts. This shows how scientists are taking the chaotic situations of their natural environment and finding a way to explain them with order and reason, therefore glimpsing the order within that chaos. An example of this is the expedition that was taken to find water on the moon in October 2009, when NASA launched a missile into the surface of the moon to break up the rocky ground and collect samples to discover if they contained any water content. NASA was trying to find supportive evidence that the Moon was once a part of the Earth by studying the composition of its water molecules. In the end they discovered that it was strikingly similar to water on Earth and this was the evidence they had hoped to find. This supports this claim because it is an example of how scientists try and make sense of the chaos that is our universe. Despite how much they do not understand they are working they are looking for an order and explanation for the way the universe is.
Another example of this statement in the natural sciences is the Climategate Scandal. E-mails of many climate change researchers asking other climate change researchers to manipulate their data to make global warming seem like more of a threat than it actually is were discovered by computer hackers and posted online for the rest of the world to see. This supports this claim because it shows that these scientists were trying to create order by fooling other people into believing they had to organize themselves to deal with the issue of global warming. In the chaos of environmental change these people took drastic measures to ensure there would be some organization of support for environmental awareness. The implication of this statement in the natural sciences is that the world and universe we live in is completely chaotic and we may never truly understand it despite how much we try to organize it.
In the social sciences, it could be argued that people devote their time to trying to find an order to the chaotic event that is mankind. In Man is the Measure, Abel claims that the purpose of the social sciences is to formulate general conditions under which events occur either by or within human beings. This shows how scientists in the social sciences, similar to those in the natural sciences, are trying to make sense of a chaotic phenomenon such as human behavior and are therefore looking for the order within chaos. An example of this claim in social sciences is the documentary titled 18 with a Bullet, which studied the trends and behavior of gangs in El Salvador. A group of social science scientists and a camera crew went to a city called San Salvador in El Salvador and spent months following and interviewing a gang called 18 to learn about their culture and see how their social system was set up. These scientists were looking to find trends that would predict the behavior of the gang members in certain situations and they were looking for explanations for the violence they encouraged within their culture. This example supports this claim in the social sciences because it shows how these people were trying to find a rhyme and reason to human behavior in such a violent and chaotic environment. They were looking for the order within the social system of such a chaotic group of individuals.
Another example of this statement in the social sciences is the Stanford Prison experiment. In this experiment student volunteers were chosen to participate due to their background of being generally good people with no real criminal record; some of these students were assigned to be guards while others were assigned to be prisoners. Social scientists observed the behavior of the students in this prisonlike environment and discovered that guard students very quickly began abusing the prison students to the point where they had to stop the experiment. This behavior lead these scientists to believe that even good humans are easily susceptible to becoming evil in a sadistic environment. This experiment exemplifies how this statement applies to the social sciences because it shows these people in the experiment felt the need to organize themselves in such a chaotic environment as a prison in order to survive. They felt the need to find order in chaos. The implication of this statement in the social sciences is that humans resort to order and system in any chaotic situation despite the outcome of their actions.
A counterclaim to the relevance of this statement in both the natural and social sciences is that the statement is false to begin with. It could be argued that people do not attempt to find order in situations of chaos and therefore they would not feel that it is necessary to do so. An example that may support this claim would be anarchist societies which strive to abolish all systems of order and embrace the idea of chaos in a way. However, this claim can be disputed with the fact that the majority of human societies do not promote anarchy and that that suggests the majority of humanity would be likely to support this claim of finding order in chaos. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to say that this statement is readily applicable to both the natural sciences and the social sciences.
This statement can be applied to two areas of knowledge, the natural sciences and the social sciences. It could be argued that the very purpose of the natural sciences is to find order in the chaos of natural events and therefore this statement can be readily applied in this area of knowledge. In Reuben Abel’s book Man is the Measure, Abel claims that science explains facts by taking a general law combined with specific conditions of nature to logically deduce the facts. This shows how scientists are taking the chaotic situations of their natural environment and finding a way to explain them with order and reason, therefore glimpsing the order within that chaos. An example of this is the expedition that was taken to find water on the moon in October 2009, when NASA launched a missile into the surface of the moon to break up the rocky ground and collect samples to discover if they contained any water content. NASA was trying to find supportive evidence that the Moon was once a part of the Earth by studying the composition of its water molecules. In the end they discovered that it was strikingly similar to water on Earth and this was the evidence they had hoped to find. This supports this claim because it is an example of how scientists try and make sense of the chaos that is our universe. Despite how much they do not understand they are working they are looking for an order and explanation for the way the universe is.
Another example of this statement in the natural sciences is the Climategate Scandal. E-mails of many climate change researchers asking other climate change researchers to manipulate their data to make global warming seem like more of a threat than it actually is were discovered by computer hackers and posted online for the rest of the world to see. This supports this claim because it shows that these scientists were trying to create order by fooling other people into believing they had to organize themselves to deal with the issue of global warming. In the chaos of environmental change these people took drastic measures to ensure there would be some organization of support for environmental awareness. The implication of this statement in the natural sciences is that the world and universe we live in is completely chaotic and we may never truly understand it despite how much we try to organize it.
In the social sciences, it could be argued that people devote their time to trying to find an order to the chaotic event that is mankind. In Man is the Measure, Abel claims that the purpose of the social sciences is to formulate general conditions under which events occur either by or within human beings. This shows how scientists in the social sciences, similar to those in the natural sciences, are trying to make sense of a chaotic phenomenon such as human behavior and are therefore looking for the order within chaos. An example of this claim in social sciences is the documentary titled 18 with a Bullet, which studied the trends and behavior of gangs in El Salvador. A group of social science scientists and a camera crew went to a city called San Salvador in El Salvador and spent months following and interviewing a gang called 18 to learn about their culture and see how their social system was set up. These scientists were looking to find trends that would predict the behavior of the gang members in certain situations and they were looking for explanations for the violence they encouraged within their culture. This example supports this claim in the social sciences because it shows how these people were trying to find a rhyme and reason to human behavior in such a violent and chaotic environment. They were looking for the order within the social system of such a chaotic group of individuals.
Another example of this statement in the social sciences is the Stanford Prison experiment. In this experiment student volunteers were chosen to participate due to their background of being generally good people with no real criminal record; some of these students were assigned to be guards while others were assigned to be prisoners. Social scientists observed the behavior of the students in this prisonlike environment and discovered that guard students very quickly began abusing the prison students to the point where they had to stop the experiment. This behavior lead these scientists to believe that even good humans are easily susceptible to becoming evil in a sadistic environment. This experiment exemplifies how this statement applies to the social sciences because it shows these people in the experiment felt the need to organize themselves in such a chaotic environment as a prison in order to survive. They felt the need to find order in chaos. The implication of this statement in the social sciences is that humans resort to order and system in any chaotic situation despite the outcome of their actions.
A counterclaim to the relevance of this statement in both the natural and social sciences is that the statement is false to begin with. It could be argued that people do not attempt to find order in situations of chaos and therefore they would not feel that it is necessary to do so. An example that may support this claim would be anarchist societies which strive to abolish all systems of order and embrace the idea of chaos in a way. However, this claim can be disputed with the fact that the majority of human societies do not promote anarchy and that that suggests the majority of humanity would be likely to support this claim of finding order in chaos. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to say that this statement is readily applicable to both the natural sciences and the social sciences.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Brave New World Chapter 5
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.
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.
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.
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