Culture shaping our perception

            Culture can shape our view of the world. It sounds way to obvious to even be an argument. Many studies have shown that people from different cultures see and perceive things differently and that is probably due to how their culture shaped the way they view the world. While I agree with this idea, I think people often overlook how culture can be different for each individual and therefore affected by it differently. From these previous studies, people have over-generalized the findings to large sum of population under such broadly labeled culture and based on my personal experience, I would like to argue how we should not just label people into culture in terms we often do.

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Written text has been conveyed through many different means over the course of civilization, no matter the era or region.  Stone tablets such as the Rosetta stone or on a stele, a tall column-like object, in the case of Hammurabi’s Code.  Due to their weight and bulk, however, stone was replaced with paper scrolls.  Books in Western Civilization were invention of the medieval period, out of necessity for Roman Catholic Christian scripture (Truitt). Prior to the widespread practice of Christianity, scrolls served the same function, allowing readers to start at the beginning, save their place mid-text, and read through to the end. For instance, in Judaism, practitioners read the religious text from beginning to end, and when they finished, they would start again. However, in Christianity, the services place the liturgy thematically rather than spatially, and it required a new method of storing that information so that priests could read scripture out of order. This new method, as previously stated, was the book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

Biophilia, by E.O.

Vadilson Pina

May 5, 2010

The Neuroscience of Consciousness: From Cells to Self

            Consciousness was a much debated topic even within our group. At first David and I had to discuss whether we would be talking about consciousness as in self-awareness or consciousness as in being awake and alert. We decided that the consciousness that relates directly to being awake and alert seemed to be more geared towards this class and it was really what we wanted to speak upon the entire time. Once making this decision the article about how elephants are now found to be self-aware, though interesting, was no longer needed.

      What sets off a new social trend in the adolescent population? What makes one television show more popular than another? What causes crime rates to drop so rapidly? How does any new social epidemic spread throughout the country? In The Tipping Point, these questions are explored, discovering plausible answers that are often counterintuitive. Through a plethora of different examples, Malcolm Gladwell describes the three crucial aspects of a social epidemic: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. (1) These rules help us view social epidemics with structure, and help explain the reasons why some ideas ‘tip’ over others.

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            People strive for many things, whether it is finding a great job or creating a good family. At the center of things, however, the greatest life goal becomes one thing: happiness. The one thing that people want more than anything else in this world, the thing that they strive for, is happiness. But why is happiness so elusive? How is it that people are able to feel happiness? What makes people happy? How people find happiness, or a lack of it, and why are the questions that I will examine and attempt to answer in this essay.

 Eric Kandel: In Search of Memory

Throughout In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind, Eric Kandel describes his approach to understanding how memories are stored. While at first glance, the book might seem like a boring biography of an experiment; in the first chapters, Kandel’s captivating writing constantly keeps you wondering about the next chapter.