Saturday, September 29, 2018
The 5 Senses: Muted
As we see in Plato’s allegory of the Cave, we as humans perceive reality with our 5 senses. This statement can be analyzed in many different ways, and can lead to many different trains of thought. One distinct one that always comes to mind when I think of the 5 senses is what it would be like to not have all 5. Take blindness for example. MAKEUP ARTIST Mollye Burke was diagnosed blind when she was 12 years old, being “legally blind” her whole life. Qualities of being “legally blind” are things like tunnel vision and no perception of depth or detail. She explains vividly that she could never see things, well, vividly. She is currently a YouTuber and MAKEUP ARTIST (yes you heard/read me) in her late twenties. Mollye explains in many of her videos what it’s like to be blind, and offers many insights about the senses and the world around us that sighted people, or “sighties” as she calls us, fail to realize in everyday life. Things like the idea of color, or distance in vision, or simple things like having to SEE to EAT. Watching her life story as she’s unfolds it for her viewers is inspiring, entertaining (like she’s got a sense of humor), intellectual, and really just gets you thinking about the world around you and how you perceive it. I HIGHLY recommend watching a couple of her videos to really get your mind thinking about how different each and every person perceived the world around them. https://www.youtube.com/user/MollyBurkeOfficial (She has a whole playlist about her sight.)
Plato's Allegory of the Cave and "The Pedestrian"
Plato's Allegory of the Cave is an interesting metaphor. The allegory starts with prisoners being held captive and chained up in a cave. A fire is placed behind them so that it may give off shadows to anything that pass by. Everytime something passes by the fire, including people holding figurines and other objects, the prisoners recognize these objects but only through the shadows casted by the fire. One prisoner is freed from his confinements and discovers of the outside world where the sun is the true source of light and also that shadows are but mere reflections of objects. While reading this allegory, I was reminded of a short story that Mr. Shipman had us read in Sophmore year named "The Pedestrian"
"The Pedresian" is a short story by Ray Bradbury and it describes a world in the year of 2053 where books no longer exist and the only thing that most people do all day is watch TV. There is only one person who isn't susceptible to this TV obsession and regularly goes out on evening strolls unlike the rest of the world. This character, named Leonard Mead, encounters a robotic police car that tries to arrest him (Yes, you read that right, a police car tried to arrest him because police no longer existed) and the car is confused when Mead tells it that he is a writer (because again, books didn't exist anymore so writers were obsolete). Afterwards, he is arrested and brought to a psychiatric center in the police car.
I think that these stories are similar in the since that they try to isolate someone for having a higher knowledge that those around him. In the prisoners' case, he has to leave the cave to gain knowledge about the outside world where it is much lighter. He then tries to convince the other prisoners that there world is an illusion but they all think he is just crazy. Mead has a similar situation because everybody in his world just stays in their homes all day and watch TV. The world for the citziens in the short story IS the TV despite the fact that the picture on the screen of the television isn't tangible. So, both the citizens of Mead's world and the prisoners live in a reality that they can't even be physically a part of. Also, in the short story, every home is described to be dark but with a faint light (presumably coming from the TV). This is very similar to the prisoners of the caves because they too reside in a dark place with a faint light, which is the fire. Mead's house is also described to be a very bright house with all of the lights on at the end of the story. You can compare this to how the enlightened prisoner, after he leaves the cave, is more connected to the outside world when he sees the light of the sun. So, in both stories, light is a representation of a higher knowledge. Yet, for having that higher knowledge, both characters are thought be crazy. After having found about the outside world, the prisoner tries to convince the others of the new world but they reject him and call him crazy and, for Mead, the police car thinks he is crazy because he is just taking a stroll outside and also because Mead claims that he is a writer, an occupation that isn't necessary in his world anymore.
"The Pedresian" is a short story by Ray Bradbury and it describes a world in the year of 2053 where books no longer exist and the only thing that most people do all day is watch TV. There is only one person who isn't susceptible to this TV obsession and regularly goes out on evening strolls unlike the rest of the world. This character, named Leonard Mead, encounters a robotic police car that tries to arrest him (Yes, you read that right, a police car tried to arrest him because police no longer existed) and the car is confused when Mead tells it that he is a writer (because again, books didn't exist anymore so writers were obsolete). Afterwards, he is arrested and brought to a psychiatric center in the police car.
I think that these stories are similar in the since that they try to isolate someone for having a higher knowledge that those around him. In the prisoners' case, he has to leave the cave to gain knowledge about the outside world where it is much lighter. He then tries to convince the other prisoners that there world is an illusion but they all think he is just crazy. Mead has a similar situation because everybody in his world just stays in their homes all day and watch TV. The world for the citziens in the short story IS the TV despite the fact that the picture on the screen of the television isn't tangible. So, both the citizens of Mead's world and the prisoners live in a reality that they can't even be physically a part of. Also, in the short story, every home is described to be dark but with a faint light (presumably coming from the TV). This is very similar to the prisoners of the caves because they too reside in a dark place with a faint light, which is the fire. Mead's house is also described to be a very bright house with all of the lights on at the end of the story. You can compare this to how the enlightened prisoner, after he leaves the cave, is more connected to the outside world when he sees the light of the sun. So, in both stories, light is a representation of a higher knowledge. Yet, for having that higher knowledge, both characters are thought be crazy. After having found about the outside world, the prisoner tries to convince the others of the new world but they reject him and call him crazy and, for Mead, the police car thinks he is crazy because he is just taking a stroll outside and also because Mead claims that he is a writer, an occupation that isn't necessary in his world anymore.
Plato's Paradox
In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato both address and skirts around the issue that we don't know what we don't know, and in doing so creates a maybe unintended paradox. He describes a scenario where there are prisoners, that represent humanity, who are trapped and limited to a reality of shadows. It is impossible for them to know anything else because they are limited by the experiences of their five senses, and the only way out is to use their intelligence to process the world around us, and to eventually see the useable. Plato then goes on to describe how there are only a few who can access the world of perfect forms on there own, the philosophers, and that it is their duty to inform the general populous. But, the issue of we don't know what we don't know still remains. What if there is more than what Plato claims are "perfect forms", if there is some higher plain of existence that is simply out of our reach. Because we are human, humanity is limited; there might be things that can't be reached by our five senses or our intellect. There is just no way of knowing. This is where Plato's allegory becomes a paradox. He claims there is a way to reach the unknown, but there is truly no way to know what we don't know. As a result, Plato, nor any of us, can never really know if we could ever achieve perfect knowledge, or if we are still only just touching the surface of what is "real".
¿matrix?
Plato's allegory of the cave questions the entire reality we have grown to know. Plato challenges what is real and claims that the universe we can create through our five senses is artificial. In the allegory, it is the shadows that the cave dwellers consider reality, it is all they know and it is the source of their entire wealth of knowledge.
It makes one wonder whether Plato had any truth to his allegory. Is anything we perceive reality. We would like to think that it is and that of course what we sense is actual. But isn't that exactly what the cave dwellers though. They were under impression that of course, their knowledge was all there is.
I think a more interesting question and one more disturbing to think about is whether or not any of the knowledge that we hold so dearly and any of the knowledge that we have yet to discover is tainted, not because it is wrong but because it is fake. What if the knowledge we carry is simply properties of a world that is just a representation of something more real?
Boo, scary I know.
It makes one wonder whether Plato had any truth to his allegory. Is anything we perceive reality. We would like to think that it is and that of course what we sense is actual. But isn't that exactly what the cave dwellers though. They were under impression that of course, their knowledge was all there is.
I think a more interesting question and one more disturbing to think about is whether or not any of the knowledge that we hold so dearly and any of the knowledge that we have yet to discover is tainted, not because it is wrong but because it is fake. What if the knowledge we carry is simply properties of a world that is just a representation of something more real?
Boo, scary I know.
¿compact?
So far on the blog, the class has only discussed what we are reading. This blog post will be about what we are writing: college essays.
We work our whole high school careers and even more so to accomplish only a few things. These accomplishments include: learning how to learn, creating social skills, and preparing for college. That's four years of education centered around two or three things.
The college admissions game is one that must be played for a long time. With very precise calculations that must be made years in advance. One must plan ahead to give themselves the best chance possible. Students spend hours upon hours slaving over coursework and devoting themselves to their passions. That's a lot of time, with a lot of personalities and stories that come from it.
College admission, however, expects a condensing of the past four years, they expect a condensing of yourself. A condensing of who you are, what you like, what motivates you, why you believe what you believe. Students are tasked with an enormous obstacle and provided only 650 words. So far I have already written 187 words.
Essays are only "one piece of the puzzle" as colleges like to say, but one must be compelling none the less. Those without an essay that sums up who they are as a person will be at a great disadvantage.
We work our whole high school careers and even more so to accomplish only a few things. These accomplishments include: learning how to learn, creating social skills, and preparing for college. That's four years of education centered around two or three things.
The college admissions game is one that must be played for a long time. With very precise calculations that must be made years in advance. One must plan ahead to give themselves the best chance possible. Students spend hours upon hours slaving over coursework and devoting themselves to their passions. That's a lot of time, with a lot of personalities and stories that come from it.
College admission, however, expects a condensing of the past four years, they expect a condensing of yourself. A condensing of who you are, what you like, what motivates you, why you believe what you believe. Students are tasked with an enormous obstacle and provided only 650 words. So far I have already written 187 words.
Essays are only "one piece of the puzzle" as colleges like to say, but one must be compelling none the less. Those without an essay that sums up who they are as a person will be at a great disadvantage.
The challenge comes in using every word precisely. I think this is a worthwhile challenge as it weeds out those who not only can't articulate themselves properly, but those of whom are not motivated enough to take the time to do so.
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Raphael and Ancient Greece
As we jump into our unit on Ancient Greece, I thought it would be cool to share one of my favorite works of art, Raphael's The School of Athens. Raphael was a highly-renowned Italian Renaissance artist known for his frescoes (a type of mural) that decorated the Palace of the Vatican.
The School of Athens depicts a gathering of many of Ancient Greece's famous philosophers and writers, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Although the fresco is chronologically incorrect (not all of these famous figures lived at the same time), it highlights the school of classical philosophy that began with the Ancient Greeks.
The two central figures of the painting are Plato (the man with the white beard dressed in red) and his student Aristotle (next to Plato to the right). Plato is looking up, symbolizing his search for higher ethical meaning and his philosophical nature--which is not surprising considering he wrote The Allegory of the Cave. Aristotle is looking down, revealing his focus on more earthly, concrete ideas.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raphael-Italian-painter-and-architect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Rooms#The_School_of_Athens
The School of Athens depicts a gathering of many of Ancient Greece's famous philosophers and writers, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Although the fresco is chronologically incorrect (not all of these famous figures lived at the same time), it highlights the school of classical philosophy that began with the Ancient Greeks.
The two central figures of the painting are Plato (the man with the white beard dressed in red) and his student Aristotle (next to Plato to the right). Plato is looking up, symbolizing his search for higher ethical meaning and his philosophical nature--which is not surprising considering he wrote The Allegory of the Cave. Aristotle is looking down, revealing his focus on more earthly, concrete ideas.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raphael-Italian-painter-and-architect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Rooms#The_School_of_Athens
Plato and Marquez: Social Views
Plato's cave allegory and ideas about spreading knowledge reminded me of Marquez's social values and warnings about communicating history. Plato thinks that those who gain high knowledge should share their ideas with the other people who they might view as unenlightened or "common". This reminded me of Marquez's ideas of equality and distribution that he displayed in his portrayal of Macondo; no one was a higher social status or at an advantage. Plato said that a highly aware or educated person should go back among the farmers and other workers to teach them, not stand above them. Plato believes these people should take the lead and fill political positions; Marquez does think there should be leadership, just as Ursula and her husband take charge at different points, but that all the citizens should have a hand in making decisions, and no one should be a tyrant. I think both support the idea of spreading equal knowledge and avoiding rifts that divide the community.
Plato talked about different kinds of communication, some in which those in the dark would agree their reality consists only of shadows, and other interactions where a knowledgeable person would be isolated and questioned by those who don't know what they know. Marquez emphasizes the communication, remembrance, and passing down of history in order to avoid these situations; he doesn't want anyone in the dark, so to say, about their history, and he also doesn't want the situation to develop in which the majority would become unaware and lose a piece of their identity.
Plato talked about different kinds of communication, some in which those in the dark would agree their reality consists only of shadows, and other interactions where a knowledgeable person would be isolated and questioned by those who don't know what they know. Marquez emphasizes the communication, remembrance, and passing down of history in order to avoid these situations; he doesn't want anyone in the dark, so to say, about their history, and he also doesn't want the situation to develop in which the majority would become unaware and lose a piece of their identity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
