The first week of the course has now passed, and we have been working with the texts by Plato and Kant, discussing mainly philosophical topics such as "What is knowledge?". I have never really worked with anything philosophical like this before, I believe, which makes this whole concept new to me. As I have no previous experience, it felt a bit weird to work with the given material. The texts themselves were rather hard to read and understand fully, and it took quite a lot of time just to try and read them. Then, thinking about and working with the material was okay I guess, however I prefer more "concrete" texts which I am used to reading when it comes to academic readings.
Nonetheless, I made it past week one and I have thought about things that I have never thought about before - very interesting. I am not sure that I could say that I have learned all that much, but I sure have been thinking in new ways during the week, for the blog post and the seminar. There were some parts of the week's material that spoke to me, and went along with my previous thoughts about the world and I guess perception. The fact that we all see different things while looking at the same object is something I have always thought is very interesting. We all have different backgrounds, come from different places in the world. Keeping that in mind while discussing different topics is something that I believe is very important to be able to understand the other parties.
During the seminar, we were divided into smaller groups to discuss the week's theme. We got the opportunity to go sit outside in the sun in "Borggården" which was a good place to discuss these philosophical questions. We talked quite a lot about hearing and seeing "through" your ears and eyes, not with them. I think the main topic we went on about the longest was about how our brains store impressions and things that we see, hear, smell et cetera. On that topic, I explained my reasoning about the loud noise that I wrote about in the blog post before the theme, how a person most likely would assume that a loud and heavy noise would come from something big like a truck, and not something the size of a small rock - even though the person had not seen the source of the noise. We talked about how these things work and how our minds work to try and "fill in the gaps" if we cannot see the whole picture at the moment.
Hi,
SvaraRaderathanks for the application-oriented examples that you used to illustrate the concepts of knowledge and perception: those with the married/unmarried Bachelors and loud sounds helped me to re-think the way Plato's and Kant's theoretical ideas could be explained by the situations of modern age. That's a pity I hadn't found them earlier, they would be extremely helpful when I just started reading the texts.
I agree with Slava! I liked how you managed to put the concepts into relatable contexts.
SvaraRaderaRegarding the discussion in this posts, you mention that you have thought about new things in ways that you haven't been familiar with before, it would've been interesting if you would've mentioned whether you think you might find it useful in other, upcoming assignments, analyses and courses (and if yes, how).
I like your reflection. Even though you think you haven't learned all that much during this first week I think the fact that you have been thinking in new ways is of great value. As mentioned in many of the reflections, we are not used to read these kinds of philosophical texts but I think it has opened up our eyes to the topic as well as allowing us to think in new ways which is qutie challenging, but also fun and important. It sound like your group had some interesting discussions during the seminar!
SvaraRaderaI was reading all of your blog-posts and it's really fascinating how you manage to explain difficult things in such an easy way. Similarly like you I found it interesting to think about the things so familiar to us (like knowledge) yet so deep and complex. Seems very intriguing what you have discussed in your small group, I agree that our minds "assume" a lot about the surrounding world. This idea also contributes to what I have discussed with my group about each person's individual world view. Thanks for a great reading!
SvaraRaderaI found the way you reflect on the first theme very interesting. I share the same view on the fact that we all have different backgrounds and that we should keep this in mind while discussing certain topics as we all have different opinions.
SvaraRaderaIt seems that even tough you say that the field is pretty new to you, you have been able to apply the given theory into practice during the discussions. Your example on linking hard noise to big objects is a good way to explain the theory in a way that is better to understand and it helps to start a discussion as others can recognize themselves in this.
I think you did a good job on explaining how you had not much knowledge on this subject and how this has changed by giving examples to show that you have a better understanding now.
Hej, very nice reflection. I read your first article and you mention your example as well in this post. I had never heard of that example that a big noise we immediatly think about a big thing doing this noise. That got me thinking about the immediate thinking reaction we, human, can have and that we tend to consider way too much. When things happens we do react according to what we suppose it to be and not to what it really is.
SvaraRaderaThis is a fascinating subject that relates more about how the brain works though. But that can be applied as well, if I understand correctly what you meant in the "knowledge field" a priori !
Good reflections !