I’ve picked a few things to post here and several more to mention in class under the headings of things added and things to question. I tried to pick moments in Naess that speak most readily to the themes we’ve already discussed in class.

He asserts, for instance, “reality is all possibilities,” (Naess 17). Later on the same page, he suggests: “seek truth but do not claim it,” (17). Both of these aphorisms make interesting points around the topic of truth, reality, and who owns either of these intangibles.

Biology in Society Senior Seminar

Bryn Mawr College, Fall 2010

Session 5A
 

Where to obtain medical information: A Doctor, or the Internet?

 I found the essay, The World of Concrete Contents to be an interesting illustration of the idea that reality is relative. One good example of the relativity of human senses is that of the two people exposed to different external temperatures putting their hands into water that is the same temperature and not being able to tell if the water is “warm” or “cold.” Protagoras’s describes this phenomenon well; “the senses undergo transformation and alteration in accordance with one’s age and with other conditions of the body.” This ties into the idea that there is not absolute truth, and that everyone experiences his or her own reality because everyone’s body and mind is different.

Brain, Education, and Inquiry

Bryn Mawr College, Fall 2010

Session 5

Class is itself an experiment in a particular form of education: co-constructive inquiry

Learning by interacting, sharing observations and understandings to create, individually and collectively, new understandings and new questions that motivate new observations

Speaking of love, I am in love with the sections Solnit has written to talk about place and our emotional attachments to it. Ever since Tuesday's class I've been mapping and re-mapping in my mind. That exercise really made me consider the places and spaces in my life--the proximity of some, and also how far I feel from discovering/drawing/knowing the terrain of the places I have not yet been. I feel the way we did when our class started blogging last semester-- like I've just uncovered a way to better process and understand my self, and now I need to do it over and over again.