TOK – grand paradigms

1 In your view, how might the video to any of the ‘Grand Paradigms’ that we looked at today?

The clip relates to the paradigm of how we are insignificant in the grand scheme of things and how though we may think we are something special it turns out that we are a mere component of a massive picture rather than the centerpiece. This paradigm is an example of artificial satellites too as they provide a visual representation of perspective which is challenging to comprehend without. Humans often have this modern paradigm that everything revolves around them and is for them when in reality we are so much less than what we think of ourselves as a human race. This is also based on the classical paradigm encompassing hierarchy in which we portray ourselves to be at the top and everything else is below us which are the roots for the origination of privilege prevalent in many societies even in the modern day. In the clip, Buzz comes to this realization that he isn’t a real space ranger after all and when it hits him he suddenly feels insignificant and replaceable. Despite this prior to this realization, he thought a lot more of himself before he realized he was just a toy and not everything he thought he was. This consequently impacted his perception of potential and his resulting competency and abilities.

2 Later in the movie, Buzz gets over the dismay that we see in this clip.  (Don’t worry if you have not seen the movie).  Why do you think this might be?

It may be because he comes to terms with this realization and decides to be optimistic about it due to the fact that he can’t change it he decides to make the best of the situation. He tries to fly “to infinity and beyond” with a renewed sense of hope despite the fact that he ultimately ends up falling and crashing regardless. He feels like he might as well try knowing that he isn’t as important as he initially thought he was and that no one was watching him his expectations of himself were lower so he took a leap of faith even though he understood that he wasn’t the real space ranger he thought he was and just a toy. We could observe through his facial expressions the way he felt hurt in a way and let down due to the fact that all his hopes and expectations of himself were proven wrong and his perception of his self worth and value subsequently changed corresponding to that.

3 What’s your reaction to these paradigms?  How do they appeal to you /repel you?

I personally feel the paradigm of perceiving myself as insignificant quite often due to the fact that the not only the world but the universe too is so large and expansive and that nothing we ever do really matters in the grand scheme of things as it won’t be remembered and life eventually ends and at some point, the human race will die out too. I feel like often the paradigm of being insignificant in the vastness of the universe can be overwhelming, however, regardless of this, it plays on my mind frequently. In retrospect, I know the reasons behind why I do things but its all so short therm because when you put your life into perspective its such a small blip in time and space and really has no weightage or importance on anything. This paradigm can be viewed in 2 very contrasting ways. The first one is positively in the sense that you don’t be too hard on yourself because nothing you do is the end of the world and is that extreme in the grand scheme of things which leads to a feeling of liberation. However, the other way to perceive the same paradigm is to feel worthless and insignificant and unmotivated to do anything due to the fac that nothing matters.

The Handmaids tale

What if the religious right went beyond the elections and stages a revolution, establishing an American government that replaced the constitution with the bible?

 

If this were to happen which is highly improbable but still a possibility, this would potentially cause chaos and violent acts. This is due to the fact that the ideology of the bible will be translated into legislation that the public would be forced to abide by and follow. This would cause protests as people don’t want to change their ways and want equality. Women would be treated in an unequal unjust manner which would cause people in many more progressive areas to perhaps flee to other places in which their rights and opportunities remain intact and are not dictated by the bible. Women may create an uprising as the law being dictated by the bible will allow women to be oppressed by mean and create a misogynistic society with strict gender roles where women have to abide by the male authority of the household and the rules emplaced by them.

An aspect of our familiar world

When the sun is directly above and there is minimal cloud cover and low wind speed people often congregate in a social group or family unit or sometimes alone step into a large body of runny liquid in plastic multicoloured and patterned covers and conduct a ritualistic dance in a sequence multiple times in order to transport to a different location. The runny liquid ripples with the energy and used to transport people. People produce bubbles through their through holes in their faces by adding air to the liquid. Performing this dance involves flailing arms and legs consecutively and bouncing their head in and out of the body of water on alternating beats. There are multiple routines that people use to transport at different velocities through the runny liquid. After transporting through the liquid people are usually more tired because they have a higher density than the runny liquid and have to keep rising to the top in order to have more energy to transport and do the dance faster. People also to levitate on the surface of the runny liquid horizontally and squint at the sky.

Elusive and fugitive

  1. Explain what you think is the most important point from the ‘Elusive and Fugitive’ section.

I think that the most important point from The Elusive and fugitive section was when they talked about the way in which making a certain group believe they are superior consequently impacts the way in which other groups perceive themselves and are made to feel by society. This indoctrinated behaviour and attitude towards others with a different skin tone is harmful to society and results in those groups feeling unconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated. By nature white privilege is described to be less of a favoured state but rather a process that gives one group dominance over all other groups leaving the other groups feeling inferior and oppressed. This discrimination is often overlooked by those with white privilege as they are taught to look past it as it says in the text there is a “pressure to avoid it”, it referring to the topic of white privilege the fact that something predetermined gives them more rights, more say, better treatment. Because if they delve too deep into this they would realise how illogical it is in nature so they choose to look at it from a surface level perspective and perceive it as normal and their right. This is due to the fact that in facing reality they would have to accept that it is not a free country. People often give the excuse of meritocracy as a means to justify this reality however this shows that it is a myth as one’s life is not what one makes it. Regardless of what someone without white privilege does for themselves to better their stature, it will never be equal to being white. White privilege is an unsaid norm and consists of inherent advantages characterised predominantly of inequality and injustice. The text mentions how people with white privilege are granted many opportunities in life through no virtues of their own which emphasises the idea of white privilege being the propelling factor for this overt injustice and differentiated treatment of other races. The way in which this has been normalised over many generations has made it more challenging to change and has also impacted the extent and the scale as to which people even view this as a problem anymore. It talks about assumptions and paradigms being passed on to them as white people. Preconceived notions that play a role in determining their attitude and subsequent treatment towards others. They mentions how there is a fine line in the taxonomy of privilege. Privilege is like a hierarchy and is not absolute, there are different degrees of privilege and it is subjective. Whilst it would be ideal to have the entire population have some sort of privilege other varieties of privilege would be destructive and create and ignorant society. There is a fine balance, however, the idea of one specific group of people having all the privilege due to a factor they cannot change and others cannot adapt to is what causes this inequality. It is through upbringing that they are taught to internalise and portray these attitudes towards themselves and treat others in an inferior manner as they are taught to place themselves on top. The idea that those with white privilege look at other cultures and races with fear and neglect and openly disparage and criticise those who are of different races freely shows the way in which those with white privilege view everyone who is not like them, as if they are not equal and entitled to the same rights due to their skin color and social paradigms associated with race and skin pigmentation.

Paradigms of the steamboat pilot

Paradigms are personal schemas based upon experiences that an individual goes through or external outputs they are exposed to that shape the way in which they perceive and interpret observations and situations in different circumstances in the outside world.

The case study of the paradigms of the steamboat pilot shows how 2 friends on the steamboat looking out, they receive the same external inputs however the way in which they interpret them differs greatly. One of them notices the sunset and admires the view while the other who is an expert at reading the water perceives everything that his senses detect as warning signs rather than admiring the beauty. This shows how personal schema can impact the way in which 2 people perceive the exact same situation and how experiences, expertise, and knowledge can influence the way in which you see a particular circumstance. Based upon the grounds of scheme different people can interpret the situation in a positive light while someone else with all the same inputs, their brain can process it as something negative. The steamboat pilot has a mental construction of what these observations that he is making and their larger broader scale impacts. He can see into the future and what’s beyond the immediate observation of a single living tree branch and the possible implications this will have. In contrast, his friend just takes the observations at face value and does delve deeper into its possible meaning. The way in which people perceive the same things are predominantly based upon their personal schemas and are therefore subjective and not definitive. There is no absolute truth as everyone’s brains interpret it differently and hence there is a wide range of truths on different extremes and there is no one “real” truth that humans can see. Our perception of an experience is a perspective of the truth but not certain. Even evidence which in this case study are the observations is not necessarily quantitative it is empirical and qualitative and therefore triggers different reactions and consequent interpretations. The pilot has the prior knowledge about warning signs hen piloting a steamboat and this predisposed knowledge that he has access to is a factor that makes his perspective on these observations differ from his friend’s.

RLE for Reasoning and Perception WOK’s

Another example where reasoning and sense perception are present is within the MüllerLyer illusion. Its a perception test in which the subject perceives the 2 parallel lines to be of varying lengths, however, the lines are in fact the same length. One of the lines is terminated with a pointing inwards heads and the other is terminated with pointing outwards heads. In this case, it is something called cue distinctiveness that contributes to the illusion. We tend to gauge size using some sort of comparative contrast, in this example, we gauge the length of the lines in relation to its surroundings. This is illusion makes the perceived line length appear decreased by arrowheads and increased by arrow tails. There are some theories that explain this such as misapplied size constancy scaling. In this illusion, both visual and haptic illusory are used. illusory effects transfer cross-modally from vision to haptics only in the presence of spatial coincidence, this is a multi-sensory process. This apparent occurrence of an illusion is often the result of the implication of sensory stimulation or conflicting sensory information. This illusion falls under the way of knowing called sense-perception which utilizes using your senses to perceive. It is through making connections that are not there or misapplied connection that creates this illusion. This is a very popular illusion as it fools most people. Through the body’s external stimulus our senses can pick up information, the manner in which the brain analyzes this input is called perception. Hence, if the brain analyzes information in an incorrect way this could result in an inaccurate interpretation. Human sense perception is accurate but like many things has its limitations. 

TOK reflection

I feel like personally, knowledge does come with responsibility as the more knowledge you gain the more you are consequently held accountable for your actions. With more knowledge, we are empowered and able to make more ethical and moral decisions if we choose too. With more knowledge we have the power of choice, we can make informed decisions and choose to either do the right thing or the wrong thing. Because you are in a position of greater power with the more knowledge you have it also means that there are higher expectations from you. Knowing is to acquire knowledge from experience (personal knowledge) or passed down knowledge (shared knowledge) either way knowing is to have support towards something that is otherwise just a belief. Something that is corroborated by many people and therefore proven or backed up by empirical evidence or facts-based information collated through experiments or observation and data collection. Knowledge is known to be the accumulation of facts and information whilst wisdom and someone who is wise is consists of experience and the ability to assimilate and synthesize information in order to give advice, make decisions, take action.

Banning religious items

What are the implications of banning religious items of clothing or jewelry?

– Do you think banning religious symbols have any value or is this just removing basic rights/freedoms?

 

Personally I feel like banning religious symbols does a lot more harm than good and doesn’t really benefit anyone at all. All that banning religious symbols does is violating people’s rights to wear what they like. If what other people are wearing doesn’t impact you in any way there should be no reason to comment on it much less ban it. People should have the freedom to wear religious symbols and clothing if it enables them to feel liberated and express either their values or religion. Attire in itself is a form of expression and therefore people should not be stifled they should be allowed to express themselves through what they choose to wear. The choice should always be there which is why a ban doesn’t make sense and if unfair. What other people wear is none of your business and isn’t harming you in any way. However, I recognize that some reasons people want to ban these religious symbols are because they associate people who wear them as people with radical beliefs or extremists. This association leads people to have preconceived notions towards this group of people with no actual grounds and consequently put these people at a disadvantage whether it is a job interview or just the way they are treated in general in their daily lives. Another reason many people want to ban religious symbols is due to the fact that they view it male domination and female oppression, however, what many don’t realize is that many people choose to wear religious symbols out of their own choice and are not coerced or forced by external inputs.