Uncategorized

A follow up from one of the many interesting discussions coming out of the TOK Religious Knowledge Day. I briefly started to debate with Mr. Suarez the concept of ‘matter‘, energy and energy.

I take a strictly materialist point of view. That is to say, for me, matter is primary. This is a rejection of the idea that spirit or consciousness could precede matter. From the Big Bang to the history of our own lives, matter is the starting point of analysis. Atoms come together, cells grow and these processes lead to life.  Life itself is able to express conscious thoughts but this is because of the evolutionary development of life from very rudimentary single cells organism to the complex and abstract thinking that this debate represents. Mankind is nature made conscious. This is a bold claim. But, I believe, no other living organism, or matter itself, has consciousness of the same quality as man’s consciousness. Mankind is aware of its history and with that awareness it can rise to challenge of shaping it’s own future.

If like me, you believe that ‘matter is primary’, then this perspective should also pervade your methodology. When I look at Historical events, from the Rwanda Genocide to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, I begin my investigation by looking at the material conditions that led to changes in the way that the consciousness of a population changed. I believe that the expression of hatred that was so damaging to each of these societies was driven by material conditions. In Rwanda a key factor was the falling crop yields. In Northern Ireland the poor state of the area’s housing and the high levels unemployment were the flash point of the conflict. It is surely difficult to believe that doctrinal difference in faith between Catholic and Protestant was the real cause of the conflict. Conscious and spirit were the product of material conditions and not the other way round.

Mr Suarez correctly pointed out that there is a real challenge being a materialist. I still have to explain what matter is. I have to reject, without sufficient evidence, that the Universe is ‘knowing‘ in some way.

So, if time allows, I would like to invite Mr Suarez to begin a well mannered debate on this topic of a Universe without any meaning spirit outside what mankind gives it. Over to you Mr Suarez.

 Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744).  An Essay on Criticism, (1709)

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.

In art the search for a content which is collectively understandable is false; the content will always be individual. ” – Piet Mondrian

“To approach the spiritual in art one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual.,”

Piet Mondrian gravitated towards abstraction believing that painting could simultaneously embody nature and spirituality. As a result he began to pare down his paintings, reducing panoramas to broad sweeps of sky, water and land and minimising detail. As he noted: “The emotion of beauty is always obscured by the appearance of the object.” He also started to keep direct sunlight out of the landscapes, preferring the charged atmospherics of twilight, when the temporal and the spiritual start to blend.

When Mondrian encountered cubism he finally saw the way to break with representation altogether. Unlike Braque and Picasso, however, he was interested not in showing the third dimension but in using “lines and colour combinations on a flat surface, in order to express general beauty with the utmost awareness”. 

World War I ended over the weekend (4th Oct 2010). Germany made its final reparations-related payment for the Great War on Oct. 3, nearly 92 years after the country’s defeat by the Allies. That’s not to say that Germany has been paying its dues consistently over the decades; the country defaulted on its loans many times and the current payouts have only been happening since the 1990s. What took Germany so long to pay for the war? Didn’t World War I end long ago? Does this mean we’re all survivors of the Great War?

Not quite. Germany’s last $94 million payment issued on Sunday isn’t a direct reparations settlement but rather the final sum owed on bonds that were issued between 1924 and 1930 and sold to foreign (mostly American) investors but then never paid. The story of German reparations involves several payment plans, years of inflation, broken promises, canceled debts and a man named Adolf Hitler who flat out refused to give anyone anything.

From: Time Magazine

Today in class, you mentioned two schools of thoughts (cognitive and behaviourist psychology) in psychology which I found particularly interesting. As I am applying for psychology in universities, I am trying to expand my knowledge and interest in psychology. Could you recommend me some resources (books, publications, videos) you find interesting in psychology?

Psychology could not participate in the cognitive revolution until it had freed itself from behaviorism, thus restoring cognition to scientific respectability.

A big thanks to Mr. Alchin for his very compelling lecture on the 25th and an additional thank you to Grade 12s for being a very receptive and attentive audience.

A few follow up points from the questions students asked …..

1. Mathematics and perception. What role does individual perception play in Mathematics as an area of knowledge? Well, Descartes (the father of modern philosophy) “The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.” As a result Descartes wanted to build a system of knowledge based upon reasoning that was not dependent on the senses. Descartes was inspired by the work of the Greek Mathematician Euclid, this followed a method where first principles were established and then built upon (foundationalism).
2. Perception and Religious Knowledge Systems. The issue of apparitions of Holy figures is a difficult one to discuss. Many studies (here’s one) have used  social contexts, such as famine, to explain how the Mary Mother of Jesus may appear to very real to individuals or small groups. The suggestion is that individual perception is changed by stress or social influence. This is a plausible argument but is too often very easily dismissive of what is a very real and personally moving experience.
3. Perception and Indigenous Knowledge Systems. The West is an increasingly sterile world. In the U.S. the consumer unwittingly eats chickens that have been washed in chlorine removing any sense of previous life. This dulling of our perception of the natural world is in response to our pollution of it. We take antihistamine to deal with pollen, (hay fever is more prevalent in the cities) we spray febreze in our homes to induce the smell of alpine meadows. Compare the sensory life of the West with this short passage describing the indigenous experience.
   “Each part of the environment has its own unique ancestral patterns that can be sensed in the speed of the currents, the smell of the ocean, the sounds of water movements, and the visible residue of water-marks left on the rocks.” From Cultural Survival
4. Language and sense perceptionThe inextricable link between sense perception and language may be worth exploring from the point of view of ‘how can we know’ when we cannot trust our senses. Our senses are individual therefore the world is a subjective sensory experience. Language: The Cultural Tool is a book by Daniel Everett. The book tells the story of the native speakers of Pirahã, in the Amazon lowland jungle, who have no words for left or right, they use the same term for blue and green, and their definitions of red, black and white turn out to be similes, rather than dedicated words. If you want to see a similar version of this phenomenon watch experiments (9) carried out in Africa with the Himba tribe.
5. Schizophrenia and hallucinations; Tactile hallucinations are sensations of being touched. Sometimes these will occur when there is nobody else around but sometimes they occur when the person is in a crowded place such as a bar or tube train. Often they will have a sexual dimension and the person will feel that they are being touched in intimate places of their body which can lead to conflict with the people around them.Olfactory hallucinations are hallucinations of smell and taste and are less common in schizophrenia. The person may smell burning or sulphurous smells or smell gas and feel compelled to report it to the gas company. This can happen frequently several times a day. One young man used to smell cannabis being smoked in public places and would call the police to report it.¹ These kinds of hallucinations may also involve a heightened awareness of their own or other people’s body odour.Hallucinations of taste are also very troublesome. This often involves the person perceiving a metallic taste in their drinks or food. If the person is also suffering with paranoid delusions they can then combine both of these ideas and conclude that they are being poisoned by the person preparing their food. This may result in the patient refusing all food and becoming seriously emaciated.¹⁶It should be noted that schizophrenia is not the only condition that causes hallucinations. Recovering alcoholics often experience visual hallucinations and extreme tiredness will very often cause auditory ones. Certain street drugs will also cause hallucinations and there are many organic conditions that can affect brain function and cause hallucinations

Welcome to your brand new blog at United World College of South East Asia Portfolios Sites.

To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.