Post theme 1.
The first week of the course, reading the works by Kant and Plato was an intriguing new area for me. As a student with no prior experience of philosophical questions, reading the texts were quite difficult. In both the texts, I had to read through many of the passages several times to grasp the concept which was being discussed, and even by doing so – I am not entirely sure I grasp it completely. What I have learnt is an eye-opening aspect of how the world can be perceived, and an increased understanding that the world is perceived differently depending on your experience. Every object around me is perceived uniquely by me, and uniquely by anyone else observing it. This knowledge can be used to gain a further understanding of the problems that arise when people have differing opinions about a situation – because it’s our experience which lead us to believe that we are correct in a matter, and to objectively find the truth might be next to impossible.
Another reflection that was brought to me this week was that of metaphysical questions that cannot be empirically answered. As an engineer student, this is something that is hard to tackle – since I am a problem solver by nature who (has) strongly believes(/believed) that there is a correct answer to every question. But for metaphysical questions, I must understand that there isn’t, and the only way to answer them might be to not let my mind be conformed by these questions.
An interesting discussion during the seminar was that of how objects are never objectively portrayed. Objectively, a table is just an object which exists in time and space and is perceived by us humans. It is our sense perception which is then interpreted by our soul to how we choose to perceive it. The table it might be perceived as beautiful, practical or other concepts, but it is our minds which attribute this to the table, not our sense perception and not the object itself.
During the seminar, my group had a long discussion of how we believe that every impression (sound, smell, vision, sense etc) that we encounter is then interpreted by our brains (our souls?) and attributed meaning. That our brains might just be huge databases which map impressions to meaning. We might hear a specific noise, which we have heard previously – so our brains map that specific noise to a person, an object or something else. We might see a lamp – and our brains map that lamp to memories, colors or experiences. This might just be the engineers in us trying to find an answer to philosophical questions, but it was an extremely interesting discussion.
Another question which my group raised during the seminar was that of education. How educating ourselves enlightens us in a sense and “colors” the world differently. By reading books, watching documentations or educating ourselves in other fashion – we give ourselves the knowledge of changing the way we view the world. Educate yourself about art, and you will no longer perceive Van Gogh paintings or the Mona Lisa the same was as you would have before (you have in a sense colored your soul with this knowledge). The same goes for anything – educate yourself regarding something trivial such as physical bridges, and you will most likely gain an increased understanding and view of every single bridge that you drive over or walk over for the rest of your life. You experience, your knowledge alters the way you perceive otherwise trivial things.
I thought the question of education was especially interesting, and very true! What you know (or have previous experiences of) affects how you look at things. If I take courses about gender at university, I will look at society in a more gender analytical way, if I study film I will look at movies differently, maybe analyze camera angles, manuscripts, and lightning differently than before I gained more information about such things.
SvaraRaderaI thought the author wrote both text in an understandable way, and used good examples to emphasize his point. He wrote "two people hearing the same song will hear entirely different things" about how we perceive things based on previous experiences in his first post, which connects to what he wrote in his second post about education.
You raise some very interesting points, however I partially disagree with you on the possibility to answer metaphysical question empirically. I think it kind of depends on your definition of metaphysical question, as well as how strict you would go about the empirical method.
SvaraRaderaIf, for instance, you see the question "how was the universe created" as metaphysical, there is for example the theory of the big bang which might, given time, be proven or disproven and thus answering the question. That being said it needs some prior non-empiricist idea before you can investigate it.
If however this would not define this as a metaphysical question and you would for example ask "what is our purpose here?" then you would be quite right.
I agree with you, the text was quite difficult. At first I think it was hard to know if I understood Kant correct or not, but I think it helped with all the discussions at the seminar. I think your group had some genuinely interesting discussions, e.g. “if you educate your self in art you will no longer perceive Van Gogh paintings of the Mona Lisa the same was as you would have before”. It would be interesting to link this statement with Benjamin’s theory how people perceive the world and his discussion about the term aura.
SvaraRaderaI also find the discussion about the brown table interesting. To think about object in time and space in the way Kant puts it, was new for me. If you don’t have facility of knowledge you can’t know that the table is brown. Space, time and the 12 categories don’t belong to the world itself, but without this form (according to Kant), we would not have any knowledge about the world.
I think it was easy to read your blog, it was well structured and you made some good reflections.
Hello!
SvaraRaderaI think your interpretations of the two texts are really good and that you seem to have understood them well eventhough you say you had a hard time reading them.
I think it's great that you on the first question go against what Kant says about knowing things a priori and that you have your own opinion as well as valid arguments of why you see it the way you do. I'm not sure I agree with you on that matter, though. I think we do have some knowledge coded in our brains when we are born.
On the other question you have great examples which shows that you understand what you are writing about, and I agree with pretty much every word that you wrote on that one.
I think your reflection of the theme is great and I like the fact that you write about what we discussed on the seminar and how you've been enlightened since before the theme. However, it would have been nice to read more about whether your take on the specific question has changed from before the lecture and seminare and in what way.
Thank you for a very interesting post! I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into the mind of an engineer.
SvaraRaderaI liked the way you concluded that there are no correct answers to metaphyscial questions. Yet, while you said that metaphysical questions cannot be empirically answered, I found it interesting to read about how you still search for systematic explanations like the maps in our brains.
When you wrote about knowledge of art, I reflected on whether we can really educate us about abstract things. There are no correct answers, so what is it that we could really learn? I agree with you that education has fundamental influence over us and our perceptions, and I simply wish to discuss whether education could be ascribed the same legitimizing/explaining function in fields like art.
Hej, I loved reading your post ! Very interesting thoughts about the experience part of knowledge through multiple exemple.
SvaraRaderaThis is not something we do think of everyday, but your example with the painting made me think. When you go out from your "comfort zone", from what you know and used to know and start a new thing, here the painting, you have an open mind about everything. You don't know anything so you keep it open to knowledge in this field. Few years later, you have the basics, the experience and you even learn to people but your mind stopped being open to every information that you can get. So there is a process in those that let your brains (soul?) attract knowledge.
Therefore, coming back to your engineer point of view, I think you just have to be open minded about what we learn here and in the long term, once you have assimilated what you need to know, go back to your way of thinking that there is an answer for everything BUT you will have that learning phase (the phase where you have been open to new information) that will help you see things on a different scale. If there is no answer, we just did not find it yet :) !
I enjoyed reading your post as each of the concepts it affects are in-depth analysed and supported by examples.
SvaraRaderaWhen you say "metaphysical questions that cannot be empirically answered”, however, the first thing that popped up to my mind is our own behaviour and can't we consider it as an empirical result to some of the questions that metaphysics examines?
The behaviour is usually based on the different morals people have and obtain depending on time, place, culture, education etc.
Lets say that you have been raised to believe that violence is not a way to educate your child and instead you need to use a democratic approach and patience. On the other hand, however, there are countries where in both the home and the school environments people educate children using different strict methods that from your perspective can be easily considered violent. With this example I just wanted to raise the question - what is good and what is bad? From your perspective your behaviour is the right one. It is more democratic but how can you prove that to someone who has already established view on the world and the way education works.
I feel that it is all mixed together. We react to something based on our interpretation of the world. We already have a a vision on what is good and what is bad from our own perspective, but what actually can prove that this is correct and why we still rely on metaphysics to observe those questions?
It was interesting to hear about your group discussion on education. It made me wonder how much of our perception is based on our personal individual experience and how much is taught to us. Those who have similar cultures and educational backgrounds, obviously must have similar ways of viewing the world. It makes me curious to how much perception differs between people and how much influence personal experience actually has over what is taught to us. I also enjoyed hearing about your engineering perspective. It’s an example of a way in which education has altered your own perception.
SvaraRaderaIt was interesting to hear about your group discussion on education. It made me wonder how much of our perception is based on our personal individual experience and how much is taught to us. Those who have similar cultures and educational backgrounds, obviously must have similar ways of viewing the world. It makes me curious to how much perception differs between people and how much influence personal experience actually has over what is taught to us. I also enjoyed hearing about your engineering perspective. It’s an example of a way in which education has altered your own perception.
SvaraRaderaBefore the lecture I was actually thinking about all engineering students who has to read those text and understand knowledge from the whole different side as they are used to. When it comes to science and universal truths it is not so complicate to understand knowledge as it does not require any explanation as it has evidence. However, opposite is with a science like philosophy, which is not generally recognized as correct/true statements. Moreover, I think the discussion about education is indeed engaging. I completely agree that "educating ourselves enlightens us in a sense and “colors” the world differently". I think education is the key why all humanity have reach this far. I don't know for sure, but I have a sense that more we learn and more we educate ourselves, the purer form of the world we can perceive. Thanks for a great post!
SvaraRadera