And Now For Something Completely Different...

Those of you who are into film have probably seen or know about the Bravo TV show Inside the Actors Studio. Whatever your personal opinions about the show or its host, I particularly like the questionnaire at the end. It never ceases to amaze me how people answer the questions. Please answer all the questions and give brief (or longer) justifications for your answers.

1. What is your favorite word?
2. What is your least favorite word?
3. What turns you on (creatively, spiritually, or emotionally)?
4. What turns you off?
5. What is your favorite curse word (no need to censor here)?
6. What sound or noise do you love?
7. What sound or noise do you hate?
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? (Obviously you probably are not in a profession, so what do you want to do?)
9. What profession would you not like to do?
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

All Things TED Quarter 4

Post your responses to the 8 TED talks that you watch in this section for 4th Quarter.  Your responses should be about a paragraph.  These responses should be anything that you think is important, cool, uncool, interesting, uninteresting about the video you watched.

Arts and Values

Please respond to at least three of the following prompts:

1. How are value judgments in the arts justified? How is 'good art' or 'bad art' recognized or decided on?

2. What are the justifications and implications of claiming that there are absolute standards for good art, or that the only standard for good art is individual taste?

3. Does the artist carry any moral or ethical responsibility? Is it possible for an artwork to be immoral? Should art be judged on its ability to shock?

4. What is the role of education in creating art, and in appreciating it? Is an art form legitimate if it can be enjoyed only by those trained in its appreciation through having had relevant education or through having become familiar with it in their own cultural context? Is a critical assessment of an art form legitimate if it is made by someone with no relevant education or cultural familiarity?

5. What relationships exist between the arts, on the on hand, and power over the public mind, on the other? Should art be politically subversive? Conversely, should it serve the interests of the community or the state? Why would governments, corporations, advertisers, and ideologically based groups of many kinds concern themselves with visual artists, musicians, and writers?

History Questions

Please respond to at least 2 of the following questions.

1. Can one talk meaningfully of a historical fact? How can we speak with certainty about anything in the past?

2. In what ways has technology affected the study of history? How have the methods of gaining evidence and the means of communicating historical interpretation, for example, been affected by technological development? Can we now observe the past more directly?

3. What is the role of the historian? Does the historian record history, or create it? Can the historian be free of bias in the selection and interpretation of material? Could it be reasonably argued that the personal understandings of historians, despite their possible bias, is necessary or even desirable in the interpretation and recording of history? Is the power of persuasion a characteristic of a good historian?

4. To what extent is the very nature of this Area of Knowledge affected by being about the past? In what ways do other Areas of Knowledge also concern themselves with the past? Is all knowledge, in a sense, historical knowledge?

Alternative History

Choose an event in History and write what would have happened if something different had happened to change the outcome of the event. Once an event or person has been written about in this blog, you must choose a different event (basically, I do not want 50 or 60 people writing about what would have happened if Hitler had been hit by a bus. I want to read many different alternative histories). Please consider more than just several ramifications of the alternative history that you choose to write about.

Human Sciences

Please respond to two or more of the following questions.

1. The following anonymous statement is oft quoted, "Under the most rigourously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, humidity, and other variables, the organism will do exactly as it pleases." How does this quote affect, inform, or question your views on Human behaviour and the how it is studied? With this quote in mind, can human behaviour be studied using the Scientific Method?

2. How might the language used in polls, questionnaires and other information-gathering devices of this sort influence the conclusions reached? If there is an influence, does it, or a similar one, occur in natural science research? Does the extent of the influence relate to the degree of certainty attributed to the natural sciences and the human sciences respectively, or to the social status or value associated with each.

3. What are the implications of Mario Puzo's claim that "If our brains were simple, we would be too simple to understand them."?

4. Is it reasonable to attempt to explain human behaviour independently of what people claim are their intentions? Why, or why not? Explain.

Human Sciences vs. Natural Sciences

Simply respond to the following statement and state your reasons for why you know or believe that you are right.

Nature vs. Nurture

All Things TED Quarter 3

Post your responses to the 8 TED talks that you watch in this section for 2nd Quarter.  Your responses should be about a paragraph.  These responses should be anything that you think is important, cool, uncool, interesting, uninteresting about the video you watched.

More on the Natural Sciences

Please respond to both of the following questions/statements:

1. Is scientific knowledge valued for its own sake or more for the technology that it makes possible? Is there any science that can be pursued without the use of technology?

2. Should scientists be held morally responsible for the applications of their discoveries? To what extent would it be true to say that technological advances drive changes in values and morality? Is there any area of scientific knowledge that is morally unacceptable?

Natural Sciences

Please respond to two of the following questions.

1. What is the role of creativity in the sciences? To what extent is the creation of a hypothesis or a research method comparable to the creation of a work of art?

2. What knowledge, if any, will always remain beyond the capabilities of science to investigate or verify? If there is, or can be, such knowledge, why will it always elude effective scientific treatment?

3. What are the similarities and differences in methods in the natural sciences and the human sciences? To what extent do their fields of study overlap? To what extent would it be true to say that the human sciences appear less 'scientific' because their subject matter is more complex?

Math

Please respond to at least two of the following prompts:

1. What does calling mathematics a 'language' mean? Does mathematics function in the same way as our daily written and spoken language?

2. Why is it that some claim that mathematics is no more than a 'logical game', such as chess, for example, devoid of particular meaning? If this were the case, how do we account for the fact that it seems to apply so well to the world around us?

3. What is the foundation on which mathematical knowledge rests? Is it discovered or invented? What is meant by this distinction? Can it be applied usefully to other areas?

4. Mathematics has been described as a form of knowledge which requires internal validity or coherence. Does this make it self-correcting? What would this mean?

All Things TED Quarter 2

Post your responses to the 8 TED talks that you watch in this section for 2nd Quarter.  Your responses should be about a paragraph.  These responses should be anything that you think is important, cool, uncool, interesting, uninteresting about the video you watched.

Reason

Please respond to at least one of the following questions.

1. Does knowledge always require some kind of rational basis?

2. If knowledge claims cannot be rationally defended, or can be shown to be irrational, should they be renounced?

3. What may be meant by Nietzsche's comment that 'Rational thought is interpretation according to a scheme which we cannot escape'?

4. Does the nature of reason vary across cultures? If so, explain how and why.

Emotion

Please respond to at least two of the following questions.

1. Can feelings have a rational basis? Would it be better or worse if emotions could be justified? Are emotions and feelings essential? Is 'emotional intelligence' an oxymoron?

2. Is there any kind of knowledge which can be obtained solely through emotion? Is the answer to the question dependent on factors such as gender, age, culture, and/or socioeconomic group?

3. Is it possible to experience an emotion, a feeling, an attitude or sensibility that cannot be expressed in language? Can an emotion, such as love or grief, have its origins in, or be shaped by, language?

4.  To what degree is emotion biological or “hard-wired”, and hence universal to all human beings?  To what extent is it shaped by culture and hence displayed differently in different societies.

Use of Language

And now for something completely different.

Your task this week is to use the English language gracefully, in a stylistically brilliant manner that will convince your reader that your position on BOTH of the topics below is correct and the right Knowledge Claim to make and believe in.

Topic 1: Which is better: Pie or Cake?
Topic 2: Which is better: Ninja or Pirate? (Either would wipe the floor with Chuck Norris, so leave him out of it! If you understood that, you know I am speaking to you!)

VT's TED Talks

I am currently reading TED Talks:  The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson, and it has gotten me to thinking that I have, over the last several years not been living up to my own assignments and have not been watching enough of these TED talks that I so fervently want you to view, digest, enjoy, and learn from.  I have decided that one of my goals this year will be to watch a TED talk per school day and then post about them here.  I do have some catching up to do, and that won't happen right away, but I hope to have at least 180 done by the end of the school year.  My intention is to watch them after right after school (at least on Wednesdays and Fridays) around 3:10-3:30.  You are more than welcome to come join me and we can watch them together if you would like and scheduling permits.  Those talks that we watch together are always available for you to respond to in/on (?) the appropriate post each quarter.  

First Semester Prescribed Titles

Please pick two of the 6 titles that you think are interesting and that you might consider writing as your first semester paper.  Respond to the Prescribed Title by writing how and what you might write as a paper, what struck you as interesting about the title, and any traps in the title that you might see.  This is a way for you to start thinking about the Prescribed Titles as well as for others to see different ways of looking at the Prescribed Titles that they might not have thought of on their own.

1.     “The acquisition of knowledge is more a matter of recognition than of judgment.” Evaluate this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

2.     Is the availability of more data always helpful in the production of knowledge? Explore this question with reference to two areas of knowledge.

3.     “Conflicting knowledge claims always involve a difference in perspective.” Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge.

4.     “Error is as valuable as accuracy in the production of knowledge.” To what extent is this the case in two areas of knowledge?

5.     “Metaphor makes no contribution to knowledge but is essential for understanding.” Evaluate this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.

6.   “Ways of knowing operate differently in personal and shared knowledge.” Assess this claim.

All Things TED Quarter 1

Post your responses to the 8 TED talks that you watch in this section for 1st Quarter.  Your responses should be about a paragraph.  These responses should be anything that you think is important, cool, uncool, interesting, uninteresting about the video you watched.