There's an interesting introduction to The Story of Philosophy called On the Uses of Philosophy. It offers a nice definition of philosophy which, when you flip it around, offers a nice definition of truth (in this instance, lower case t, but I think it has the same sense as what we meant with a capital T).
"[I]t [philosophy] is the front trench in the siege of truth. Science is the captured territory,and behind it are those secure regions in which knowledge and art build our imperfect and marvelous world."
So, truth turns out to be just what we're looking for. The goal of all of our endeavors of wonder, with the philosophical foremost, is to conquer truth and put it into human grasp. That still leaves truth as a pretty abstract concept, but puts a few reigns on it.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Incarnate Truth
WARNING! This post contains hot-button material related to faith. Respond however you like. Just be sure to respect the thoughts of others. In other words, respond as you do in class.
Our textbook, Man is the Measure by Reuben Abel, referred to the famous question of the 1st century Roman provincial governor Pontius Pilate to Jesus, "What is truth?" in the Gospel of John, 18:38 As we have discussed this question, many have assumed truth to be an abstract concept. Some have argued for a connection between truth and facts or between truth and observable reality.
What if truth itself is observable reality? No discussion of truth would be complete without referencing the equally famous statement of Jesus himself in the Gospel of John, 14:6. "I am the way and the truth and the life...."
Even if this statement is taken as metaphor, what does it mean for truth to have a name and a face? What does it mean for truth to be identified with the thirty year old, 1st century Jewish male known as Jesus?
(John 14:6)
Our textbook, Man is the Measure by Reuben Abel, referred to the famous question of the 1st century Roman provincial governor Pontius Pilate to Jesus, "What is truth?" in the Gospel of John, 18:38 As we have discussed this question, many have assumed truth to be an abstract concept. Some have argued for a connection between truth and facts or between truth and observable reality.
What if truth itself is observable reality? No discussion of truth would be complete without referencing the equally famous statement of Jesus himself in the Gospel of John, 14:6. "I am the way and the truth and the life...."
Even if this statement is taken as metaphor, what does it mean for truth to have a name and a face? What does it mean for truth to be identified with the thirty year old, 1st century Jewish male known as Jesus?
(John 14:6)
Veritas
As we talked yesterday, the form of the Latin word for truth, veritas, places it in a lexical category of other abstract nouns. What does this suggest about the Roman view of truth?
What light can be shed on the nature of truth by examining the the word for "truth" in other languages?
What light can be shed on the nature of truth by examining the the word for "truth" in other languages?
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Age and Greatness
To open discussion for the senior year of TOK, let's continue a conversation started toward the end of class today about a prominent and current issue. It has been alleged that some members of the Chinese women's gymnastic team do not meet the minimum age requirement of 16. How can age be determined? Is it a matter of what is printed on someone's passport? Should the Olympic committee have access to birth records to verify age?
We discussed briefly the possibilities of medical testing. One person in class mentioned the study of teeth used in crime scene investigations. Yet another person said that his mother, a doctor, has observed that the physiology of athletes is considerably changed by their training. Is medical analysis even feasible in this situation? Is there a kind of medical testing of athletes that would reveal accurate biological age?
Still yet another person mentioned the differing physiologies of people from different ethnic backgrounds. Are there ethnic specific benchmarks for determining age? Is there a universal test that would apply to all human beings for determining age?
Although it may seem obvious to some, why does this issue matter at all? In what way does it matter if members of any Olympic team are dishonest about any piece of personal information? Why does the world at large, comprised of people from vastly different backgrounds, seem to be united in the idea that age falsification in the Olympics is wrong?
Finally, is Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian of all time? In the 4x100 relay that brought Phelps his second gold medal of this Olympics, Jason Lezak beat Alain Bernard of France in the final leg, yet Bernard beat Lezak in a later race. How does one determine greatness of athletic accomplishment? Is it sheer number of medals? In that case, the United States has fielded the greatest athletes, for we are ahead in the medals race as of this posting. Yet China, in second place, has more gold medals.
Let's hear what you have to say!
We discussed briefly the possibilities of medical testing. One person in class mentioned the study of teeth used in crime scene investigations. Yet another person said that his mother, a doctor, has observed that the physiology of athletes is considerably changed by their training. Is medical analysis even feasible in this situation? Is there a kind of medical testing of athletes that would reveal accurate biological age?
Still yet another person mentioned the differing physiologies of people from different ethnic backgrounds. Are there ethnic specific benchmarks for determining age? Is there a universal test that would apply to all human beings for determining age?
Although it may seem obvious to some, why does this issue matter at all? In what way does it matter if members of any Olympic team are dishonest about any piece of personal information? Why does the world at large, comprised of people from vastly different backgrounds, seem to be united in the idea that age falsification in the Olympics is wrong?
Finally, is Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian of all time? In the 4x100 relay that brought Phelps his second gold medal of this Olympics, Jason Lezak beat Alain Bernard of France in the final leg, yet Bernard beat Lezak in a later race. How does one determine greatness of athletic accomplishment? Is it sheer number of medals? In that case, the United States has fielded the greatest athletes, for we are ahead in the medals race as of this posting. Yet China, in second place, has more gold medals.
Let's hear what you have to say!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
A thought
I want to post on the blog my thoughts for the TOK presentation today on cultural bias, i dont mean to bash any of it because it was very entertaining however i was thinking about it a few hours later and this is what i came up with
The presentation showed that each cultural group will show somewhat of a bias towards a particular way of knowing, area of knowledge etc.....however the blatant stereotypes that supposedly represented each contestants culture i thought were borderline racist...and not very good at showing a "cultural bias" For example, Sarah and Keanes characters were both black, yet sarahs character was OF COURSE pregnant, had a gold mouthpiece and did not speak with correct grammar, and keanes character only liked basketball and didnt care much for anything else, namely school. I wasnt sure if they accurately portrayed what black culture not only represents, but what their bias' would be, since they portrayed stereotypes we see at NC everyday. I believe that if you were to present a project on cultural bias it would be incredibly difficult because of that little thing called personal perspective. I believe that cultural bias occurs when people move beyond their own cultural group into another with a certain idea or knowledge that does not necessarily match up with the conventions of that cultural group. However, isnt my idea, your idea, and the group who presented today ideas on what cultural bias is...susceptible to cultural bias, in fact, any "universal" idea of what cultural bias is, is suspectible to cultural bias... i think that the group today could not move beyond their OWN cultural bias and establish what the cultural bias would be for another cultural group and thats why blatant stereotypes were shown
Hopefully someone can enlighten me or give their own opinion, although that probably wont happen because no one reads the previous post they just post their own thought like im doing now, so Mr. Perkins since your the only one who WILL read this, thank you very much, and again to everyone i dont mean to target this presentation, this was just something i thought about afterwards....
The presentation showed that each cultural group will show somewhat of a bias towards a particular way of knowing, area of knowledge etc.....however the blatant stereotypes that supposedly represented each contestants culture i thought were borderline racist...and not very good at showing a "cultural bias" For example, Sarah and Keanes characters were both black, yet sarahs character was OF COURSE pregnant, had a gold mouthpiece and did not speak with correct grammar, and keanes character only liked basketball and didnt care much for anything else, namely school. I wasnt sure if they accurately portrayed what black culture not only represents, but what their bias' would be, since they portrayed stereotypes we see at NC everyday. I believe that if you were to present a project on cultural bias it would be incredibly difficult because of that little thing called personal perspective. I believe that cultural bias occurs when people move beyond their own cultural group into another with a certain idea or knowledge that does not necessarily match up with the conventions of that cultural group. However, isnt my idea, your idea, and the group who presented today ideas on what cultural bias is...susceptible to cultural bias, in fact, any "universal" idea of what cultural bias is, is suspectible to cultural bias... i think that the group today could not move beyond their OWN cultural bias and establish what the cultural bias would be for another cultural group and thats why blatant stereotypes were shown
Hopefully someone can enlighten me or give their own opinion, although that probably wont happen because no one reads the previous post they just post their own thought like im doing now, so Mr. Perkins since your the only one who WILL read this, thank you very much, and again to everyone i dont mean to target this presentation, this was just something i thought about afterwards....
Monday, May 5, 2008
Fair Sharing
We all grew up with at least a little sense that 'sharing is caring.' We were scolded when we didn't share crayons during pre-K and learned (hopefully early on) that to be selfish is to be left a very lonely, dissatisfied individual. While I agree that the sharing lesson is valuable for any young child to learn, I have to ask: where is the border between caring sharing and utter invasion of personal property? This is a border that I believe some people in our modern society may have wandered over. Yes, there are numerous paths that I could take in order to discuss this, but for the purpose of not writing a 2 page blog post I will focus on the issue of health care. This is an issue that is being fully attacked by current presidential candidates. The general consensus is that health care has, for many Americans, become too expensive to handle comfortably. The debate, however, is how to solve these "high costs." I admit that I haven't exactly been following Clinton's policy on health care, but I am very familiar with Obama's (seeing as you can't listen to the radio anymore without hearing one of his campaign promises). He promises a seemingly incredible health care plan: one that costs only $2,500 for the average family. This may seem unbelievably cheap, but we have to remember one thing: this is NOT the full cost of this health care plan. Everyone will be expected to pay taxes to benefit the "common good" regardless of whether or not they actually want the federal health care plan. We are, essentially, all sharing to an extreme that will leave us all with one flat, inflexible mold that we must fit. This, I believe, is where another playground moral comes in: fairness. In a competition, is the victor expected to share his trophy with the losers? Naturally not. He (or she) has worked hard and has reaped the benefits of that hard work. He put in effort, time, and pain to reach the level that he is at. His reward is his and his alone. The majority of athletes will agree with this school of thought. Why, then, do some Americans regard money so loosely? Shouldn't a hardworking, successful individual be allowed to be successful? Should he have to pass out his "trophy" to those who were not able to make as much money as he was? Is fairness allowing everyone to get his or her own morsel or is it allowing anyone who can to be successful in his own right? This is a decision that you have to make on your own...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
