Being a Liberal Studies major, I have learned through my 201 and so far through my 301 class that we must think critically of all aspect in our lives in order to get through life and a teaching career with an optimistic mindset rather than a pessimistic mindset.
The theme for this quarters class is “What Makes Humans Bad?” This is an open ended question that allows us to wonder what exactly knowledge is. Due to the fact that we are on this earth to discover and we are in this class to discover some more and to learn, we have made it a point to digest this knowledge and come to an understanding of the world that we live in, the good and the bad. Looking at humans as a whole in this world, I must agree that more people have a pessimistic mindset in which they fear being wrong and the desire for approval. Our consciousness is fact to us that we are aware and we have minds of our own, it is what makes us human.
To quickly get back to the theme of the class though, I must say I maybe do not fully understand the meaning of this. We are automatically assuming that people are bad without giving even ourselves the chance to be good. I do not believe that people are “bad” nor do I believe people are “good.” Instead, I like to believe that people are people. Even the bad and the criminals can love and love goes along with good. Also even the good may sin and hate therefore making them. Yet, to say that humans are bad I believe is too rash of a statement. Humans are exactly that, they are human; there are some that may be “more good” and some that may be “more bad.” Yet, I may just have it all wrong.
I believe I have an optimistic mindset on our class about knowledge, for I am open to learning, I am open to making mistakes and I am open to being wrong about my theories and ideas. With the Humanities, Social Science, and Natural Science disciplines comes an area of subjects so diverse, giving us the best opportunity to discover in the most knowledge filled way. Looking at life through one lens keeps it too narrow for growth.
What opened my eyes a lot was in Chapter 4 of Consciousness A Very Short Introduction by Susan Blackmore. In this chapter my eyes were opened to the reality of our knowledge and to the extent we believe we know things. The concept of the grand illusion, believing we have a rich and detailed stream of pictures passing through our consciousness one after another (Blackmore, 61), and our perception, our ability to see, hear and be aware, of things that exist can just be all wrong. Often times we go through life only seeing what we want to see, creating so many gaps, inability to see something right before our eyes, although they are in our memories (Blackmore, 55), not noticing what may be very important to know. This is essentially how we take life, as this big grand illusion, seeing things with our own perspective and creating unconscious gaps. This makes what we think we know very faulty. For, looking only through one lens in a world we've come to perceive as something unreal with so many blindspots can justify much of what we know as humans. Shakespeare said “all the worlds a stage” implying that life is like a play with a written script that we all follow. Blackmore makes the point that life is a grand illusion theory, that we see only what we want to see. The most fascinating part of this concept was that after we see something and take in the whole thing, once we move we only remember a gist of it, forgetting the detail. Yet, the most interesting aspect of all of this is that every day we are gaining knowledge and we are also never forgetting it. For once we have knowledge, there is no losing it.
Personal Knowledge Inventory Table:
Angela, I like the template you chose to engage the reader--very colorful--and the color and size of the text makes it very readable. Consider introducing the reader to the blog in an engaging way besides focusing on fulfilling the course requirement. If you were to share this with professional others, how might you engage them to want to read your blog?
ReplyDeleteThe paragraph is the type of writing you want for the blog, making it more analytical and explanatory than it is currently. For example, when you write, "The concept of the grand illusion,[define the term] and our perception [define the term] of things that exist can just be all wrong. [Explain why.] Often times we go through life only seeing what we want to see, creating so many gaps [ these gaps are in our memories our brains] not noticing what may be very important to know. [Explain how this affects what you think you know.]
The post is supposed demonstrate your understanding of the course material, too. Need to incorporate the knowledge inventory, so it is clear what your specific knowledge on the theme is and what type of knowledge you possess most. See the grade and other comments in the rubric on BB. Looking forward to reading more.