The Big History Project
Scale of the Universe
How does the variation of perspective scales effect our own ideas and ethics?
Has your conception of how interrelated things are changed over the course of this class?
What are we possibly missing by not considering the way things connect?
This is extremely compelling.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to consider both the benefits and challenges of the way things are connected. In order to progress, being connected to others and our environment is crucial. We must have strong relationships and bonds if we are to convey ideas and advancements accurately. However, as the Ted Talk mentioned, the more connected and complex we become, the more fragile everything becomes and something as small as a miscommunication could be the catalyst for disaster!
ReplyDeleteAs I'm sure is true for many of us, my understanding of the interconnected nature of the universe, our world and our thoughts has drastically increased in TOK. Failing to recognize the how interrelated everything is is a failure to understand the events that occur around us.
ReplyDeleteThough each individual has a different scope of understanding about the world--a different perspective that influences how we react to these events, our reactions give way to other events, interconnected events. Although it is impossible to anticipate how our interactions will carry and in turn influence other events, the "Theory of Everything" and other such theories explore the possibility of every part of our universe being connected on some level.
I think we have seen in TOK that this is also true for our thoughts, although you can argue over the individuality and uniqueness of your personal perceptions, on some level our thoughts are predictable and similar. This is not necessarily negative, as it forms similar morals and ethics within humanity.
Overall I think that this course has formed an interesting and new understanding of the concept of inter-relatedness, testing our ability to step outside of our own perspective and see the world from a view, as an observer.
How does the variation of perspective scales effect our own ideas and ethics?
ReplyDeleteThe variation of perspective scales and ethics puts known objects "in a new light" for new ways of thinking. Each person has individual concepts of the relative size of objects, including an egocentric view of the massive size of one person. This information is humbling and eye-opening, changing pre-existing notions of how things are interrelated.
Has your conception of how interrelated things are changed over the course of this class?
I'm able to more clearly see just how expansive the universe is, and how small and increasingly more connected our globe is. We do, however, need to overcome issues on our planet and combine minds and resources if we ever hope to efficiently explore beyond our own planet and galaxy.
What are we possibly missing by not considering the way things connect?
We could be missing large clues detailing processes and resources necessary in order to efficiently explore, travel, and improve our societies, world, and universe.
Perspective scale is a very influential thing in all of our lives. It regulates how one feels about the problems and events one encounters in his/her life. For instance, if someone fails a math test, at the time that might feel like a pretty big deal. But if you compare failing a math test to contracting the black plague, suddenly it doesn't seem so bad. Likewise, if you compare a the earth, or somebody on the earth to the entire universe, the earth and everything on it is such an insignificantly small fraction of the universe that it hardly matters if one is looking at it from the perspective of someone who could see the entire universe.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is very interesting to compare our time on earth to the time without the large scale domination of humanity. I think that as humans, we have a tendency to think only about the world in terms of what we have accomplished on it and what there is for us to use but there is so much more to the history of the earth that we cannot entirely confirm. When there is history written about time before humans, I think that we should be more skeptical, because it was written all by people who were not there and although there is countless evidence to support these ideas, there is not a sure fire way to confirm exactly what has happened on this earth and I think that by writing about the earth before our time, we give ourselves too much credit to knowing all and I think that that influences a lot about how things are in our culture and society today.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note that probably follows the question a bit better, I think that our ideas are so interconnected, way more so than we currently think, because there is so much more out there that we do not know that explains everything about our planet and everything that there is to know about anything, a concept that is hard to fathom at times. Based on what we know, there is always this paradigm that seems to be that any knowledge that we have acquired has been shared or considered by someone else in the world. Not only does it connect ideas together based on thought patterns, it connects us to our human community as, at some deep level, we are all related, despite how distantly that may be.
One of the most interesting things about this presentation particularly for me, at least, was the notion of discussing things in terms of relative scale. I think that too often we think that earth is the center of the universe (which, technically it is, but then again, every point everywhere is center of the universe). Perhaps to humble ourselves, if nothing else, we ought to change our scope to see just how the earth is in comparison to everything else. When we do this, we realize that we are just a tiny pinpoint in an infinite void. That's not going to solve world hunger or nuclear fusion, but it does put literally everything we've ever encountered on earth into perspective. And it brings with it the question, do we on earth truly matter? The universe would hardly be altered if our planet were to disappear.
ReplyDeleteStudying history on this vast of a scale has the ability to make human problems, even the entire race, look small, insignificant, almost arbitrary. When one considers the vastness of space, particularly the potential of infinite space, it does seem to undermine the weightiness of one F on a math test, or even of a couple hundred human lives lost; so infinitesimal on the scale of all that is and could be. Particularly considering the possibility of other life sustaining planets is eye opening. Consider all the politics, wars and clashing ideologies, and great works of art that may exist millions of miles away. Consider that we, as mere humans, may not even be able to fathom the structure of some other theoretical societies because they have the potential to be so different or so technologically advanced. This elicits one fairly unsettling question, is there any real value of human life on the relative scale of the universe?
ReplyDeleteI don't know why that says unknown but the comment today at 10:57 was me, Emma Harrison
ReplyDeletePerspective seems to be the main point of describing ones significance, and I think it's important to focus on the various scales to get a better understanding of what has more importance when compared to something else. Their are many comparisons that could be made, however no matter what you compare, something will always have more value or importance. By comparing $1 million to a quarter, the $1 million would have more importance. However, if you compare a quarter to a penny, the quarter is more valuable. In order to put "worth" into perspective, you must analyze the various scales, because no matter what, something will always out-do something else.
ReplyDeleteTaking an idea or concept and running it through a different scale of perspective can make something either significant or insignificant, which is so interesting to think about in terms of what actually is significant. To think that something very important to me could be of no importance to another person or society as a whole is a bit unsettling. It brings up questions about the significance of humanity and especially you as one being. Perspective is very interesting and can definitely provide some insight into problems facing us, but there can also be downsides to always thinking in terms of a larger/smaller scales. If you are constantly thinking in a different perspective than your own you might start to disvalue your own perspective, consequently leading you to feel insignificant as a human being. It is hard to determine which perspective is the best to think or examine something from; I think analyzing multiple scales can provide helpful insight.
ReplyDeleteThe very long range perspective presented by David Christian jolts us out of our day-to-day very short term view of the world. With a short term perspective one can easily fall into the idea that only what we witness and want in our own little worlds has importance. The long term impact of a degraded environment lacks urgency whereas the short term impact on our daily lives dominates our concerns: the matter of rising prices resulting from the efforts to reduce pollution, the hassle of rules and regulations that inhibit our “freedom”. But when one steps back to take the long view, our brief moment on this earth becomes no longer so all-important. We might consider the effects of our profligate habits on future generations.
ReplyDeleteThe world is a big place and to have only one perspective on what is out there is an unrealistic way to live. If you have a short-term perspective on what is in the world you will fail, you will live life believing that the only thing important it what you experience and witness. In reality there is so much more to think about. The rise of population and amount of resources we have or the fact that prices are going up to try to save our environment. When someone who isn't selfishly focusing on the people, the you and the now, they look bigger. You see that yes the world is there but really it is just a speck. A speck that shows us that we really aren't as important as we have come to believe.
ReplyDeleteHowever much we allow ourselves to change our perspective on anything, will change our ethics and ideas. If you allow the variation to become greater and really different from your personal perspective, many new ideas and ways to think about the world will be presented. This can be a good thing, and something we should all try to do more often so that we can experience the world and what it offers us in a different light.
ReplyDeleteYes, my conception has changed dramatically from where it first started at the beginning of last year. There are so many new things that have been introduced during this course that I had no idea of and I had never put the ideas together before, but now learning how so many things can be related and effect one another I have gained a lot of knowledge on many different subjects. During this Big History presentation it has been really interesting to see how everything builds off from something else, and if one certain element of the big equation didn't happen, exactly when it happened and where it happened, humans wouldn't be on earth and none of what we experience in everyday life would exist.
We are missing a lot of basic knowledge by not considering how things connect. Almost everything if not everything, is in someway connected on our earth and in our universe. Chain reactions have happened in our history and if we aren't aware of them, then how can we know anything about how everything came to be?
It's easy to become so bogged down in the minutia of our day to day lives that we forget the true nature and scope of the universe of which we are a part. Although to a certain extent, the true "big picture" is not only exhausting for our infinitesimally small minds to comprehend, but also somewhat irrelevant to the particulars of our daily lives, attempting to consider such concepts has its benefits. I believe that to understand the nature of the universe is to understand the nature of one's own un-importance, which is an endlessly beneficial piece of knowledge to posses. The more often a person is forced to come to terms with the true scope of their own irrelevance, the greater will be their capacity to be humble, and the more open they'll be to new ideas and concepts that may come into conflict with their own. This, I think, is the ultimate benefit of this class. As opposed to an academic, information based course, TOK is designed to cause this level of contemplation within students, and thus to force them to understand their own (extremely small) place in the world, and to be more open to new concepts. Although going into the course, most students are at least to some degree aware of the concepts that will be presented and discussed, the mere frequent exposure to these concepts is enough to alter the perspectives and worldviews of said students. At least this has been the case with me.
ReplyDeleteWhile on the grand scale of things we are very small, I feel that it is necessary not to view ourselves as insignificant. After all, it comes down to a matter of perspective. In the terms of a planetary life cycle, we are no more than a fraction of a fraction of our world, living for a fraction of a fraction of all of time. However, if one dwells on such facts they will find little motivation to do anything. At the same time, it gives us a sort of courage. After all, one is more likely to take risks if they believe the consequences to be ultimately small. I'm unsure whether or not my perspective of this has changed over the course of this class, but I assume so. Once one takes on a new belief they often find it difficult to imagine not believing such. Ultimately, I don't know whether or not my view has changed, and it frankly doesn't matter. What matters is what one believes in a moment, as that is all that is measurable. To speak to the third question, it is sad to see professions become so narrow. Although this promotes excellence in one subject, it also makes the view of the larger picture far more difficult. For example, if one wants to make a car, but only has expertise in welding, they will only learn that they once again did their part, and that others did theirs as well. If one becomes specialized in building the car, with the aerodynamics, design, mechanics, engineering, welding, and purpose all in mind, they can fully grasp the concept on their own. This is the only true way to understand something, however, due to the limitations of humanity this is often impossible. Whether such limitations are intrinsically good or bad is uncertain, but if one thing is for certain it is that there are both positives and negatives to such limitations.
ReplyDeleteI know we kind of talked about this, and continue to do so in class, but we can talk about how every generation thinks that they have the worst problems. I mean this is an example of thinking oneself too large, and that truly, you, as one human being, can affect everything. That this is the climax of difficulty in the entire universe, that every obstacle is the largest faced to date. But on the other hand, if one is constantly considering the size of the universe in general, and how even in the scope of human history one is almost completely insignificant, it begs the question, is it even worth it? If every colossal challenge I face means nothing, what is the point of overcoming it, aside from for myself, who is insignificant even in design. I think it's important to find the happy medium of these thoughts, and remain humble, but confident. But these perspectives of ourselves are reflected out in the world and how we seeing things, and I think seeing how we fit into things is really important. How the universe fits together, is important. I've had my mind blown in this class so many times its hard to remember all the reasons. But my general worldly understanding has expanded just as much, and being able to see how things connect has not only helped me in other subjects, but helped me as a human being.
ReplyDeleteI believe that most of our ingenuity comes from seeing where information connects. It can also help form new ways of learning. If we fail to realize how things connect we could be missing extremely important pieces of information. For example if you don’t put together how Mexico wanted back the territory’s back it lost in the Mexican American war the Zimmerman note seems random.
ReplyDeleteWe, as people, believe that everything we do is significant, or has purpose to the greater scheme of things. But if we look just a little out of our regular atmosphere of thought, we see that there is so much going on, and so much that happens without us, and doesn't relate to us in the slightest.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of how things are interrelated has absolutely increased throughout this course. My grasp of the concept was really sparked through Mr. Christopher's lectures about Big History. The fact that we could all contain atoms from the very creation of the Earth is mind boggling. We are all interrelated through how we communicate, and interact, and share the same planet, but we could also all be connected through what makes us up. I think a really interesting point about interrelatedness as well as perspective is one from an astronaut. I read an article by an astronaut who had had the privilege of gazing upon Earth from space. He said that seeing Earth from this view gave him a unique vantage point. One where he realized that we are all traveling together on the planet and that if we all looked at the world from that perspective we would see that nothing is impossible. I agree. I believe that it is possible to have peace in the world, to end wars, violence, and terrorism if we all understood that we are all one population on this Earth, working together to let it thrive.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of the interrelations of the universe has expanded but ultimately left me with unanswerable questions. I have learned more about purpose as a concept, but it seems to be almost like a paradox now, because our purpose only extends to our microscopic lives on an insignificant planet. That being said I think that people use the notion of purpose in order to distract themselves from the vast area of unknown. We don't entirely understand how and why things are interconnected, but we can understand how our choices and lives will affect the next generation after us. It depends on how big each person's perspective scale is though; our ideas and ethics are founded on perspective, and the scale can determine what we view as purpose, or what we view as futile. Thinking this way brings up multiple controversial topics, including disputing the idea of being 'unique'.
ReplyDeleteThe history of the world and the size of the universe are two topics that are difficult for me to wrap my head around. Just thinking about the size of the universe is hard to fathom. It is crazy to me that relative to the entire universe, humans are extremely insignificant. This is contrary to the belief of some humans who believe they are the most important things ever created. This is also relevant in the history of the world, where humans are only a part of a tiny fraction of the world's history.
ReplyDeleteRelative size is a fascinating concept to explore and think about. Especially interesting for me is the idea of multiple universes. This idea opens the door to a multitude of exciting and new concepts which I have never really considered before partaking in this class. Also, interesting is the minsucle size of things such as atoms and molecules. It is very difficult to wrap my head around the limited areas of size we interact with on a day to day basis.
ReplyDeleteLooking at a thing from one perspective to another can change it in almost infinite ways, so it seems right to state that perspective scale can definitely change the way we think about ideas and ethics. This can however be used for good or bad. For example you could look at taking a human life as relatively insignificant, and you would be right if you were looking from the perspective of the entire universe and all of time, but from our own human perspective taking another human life is highly significant and can have great impact on many people. From this example I think it is important to take away that while yes, scale is something can change perspective, there is a time and a place for looking at things from different viewpoints, and it is important to consider them all, not just one perspective, wether big or small. So while people say look at this from a bigger perspective, it would be more beneficial to advise looking at it from ALL perspectives. Although here you run into the problem of this being impossible.
ReplyDeleteInterconnectedness of our existence:
ReplyDeleteThe idea and widely accepted truth (I guess) that we can trace anything and everything that has ever happened or will happen through the painstaking process of explaining the reactions and electrical links between atoms, quarks etc. is both reassuring and damning. For one, it eliminates the fear of chance and uncertainty. On the other hand, I'd like to think that I have free will, if one thing will inevitably cause the next (for example, molecule x always activates enzyme z, which in turn synthesizes molecule y) then in theory, everything is predetermined. I'm sure that there is a counter to this, but whatever. In adhering to this theory, is it worth worrying about what will happen some child or animal on he other side of the world because my action spurs some reaction that ends up affecting/harming said individual? No! There's nothing to be done to prevent it.
Empathy is different than worrying, and I believe it is on a different "scale" of perspective as everyone is talking about in the comments above.
Wait, but then, how can we change the way we react to a certain situation, as in changing our opinion about an event halfway across the world (shrugging it off versus reacting with interest) if everything is "predetermined"?
Do we actually have the option of free will? Or....
Does it come down to the way the information is portrayed? Who we hear it from? Our feelings to the group affected? Background information? Censorship?
Now I've worked myself into a corner. Thoughts?
I think the variation of perspective scales can often affect our ideas and ethics, but not necessarily that this is a good thing. For, if an idea applies differently on different scales, does that not then make the idea inconsistent? Instead, the variation of perspective could be used as a tool to judge the consistency of an idea; perhaps not the the extent of Kant's universal ethics, but in a similar vein, and also taking ideas that apply on a large scale and applying them on a small scale.
ReplyDeleteAnd also, Miranda, the act of decision-making is not contradictory to determinism nor does it "work you into a corner" since while there are multiple decisions to be made, physical processes will guide you to one or the other
I think the variation of perspective scales can often affect our ideas and ethics, but not necessarily that this is a good thing. For, if an idea applies differently on different scales, does that not then make the idea inconsistent? Instead, the variation of perspective could be used as a tool to judge the consistency of an idea; perhaps not the the extent of Kant's universal ethics, but in a similar vein, and also taking ideas that apply on a large scale and applying them on a small scale.
ReplyDeleteAnd also, Miranda, the act of decision-making is not contradictory to determinism nor does it "work you into a corner" since while there are multiple decisions to be made, physical processes will guide you to one or the other
Ideas and morals are wholly dependent on perspective. Inventions and ideas build off of previous ones. Without the wheel, we would have never had the cart. In the same sense, without computers no one could have invented the Internet as we know it. In similar fashion, our morals promulgate from a general sense of what is acceptable. People with antisocial personality disorder witness excess violence in an impressionable period in their lives. Thus, when their morals develop they do not exclude things like murder, rape, arson and torture as immoral.
ReplyDeleteMy conception of how things in the universe are interrelated has developed mostly in one sense throughout this class. Though I had a good sense of the connectedness inherent in life, I never really understood the aspect of subjectivity. Because no thing in this world is an absolute, to be certain of any one thing is inherently a fallacy. I never related this to general human knowledge before this class.
When we as humans don't consider how things in the world connect, we miss out on any vital piece of information. If one doesn't consider various events as relating, no pattern recognition in the human brain can take place, and no knowledge is gained.
By not exploring the way that things are connected, the most important perspectives of knowledge may be hidden. One can skim and get the general idea of a crime scene (so they think) until they actually investigate the connecting details of the actions that can completely change what was previously thought. We may think that we have all of the connecting details discovered in the world but I believe there are so many more that we are entirely blind to because of previously established principals and laws.
ReplyDeleteI believe that to a certain extent, there cannot be true knowledge without detail. Without details we are unable to find the full, and coherent truth of a matter. If all that humanity has are chunks of information but cannot put that information together with details to form a thought, knowledge cannot exist.
Throughout this class and the exploration of AOKs and WOKs, my perception has greatly been widened. I have begun to see how many of the ways and areas of knowledge can be overlapped or help compliment one another. I no longer think that math and indigenous knowledge systems cannot be related. Discovering the nature of interconnected details of each area allows me to draw strong conclusions and I have a further well-rounded perspective on how the world functions through networks.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, one item to mention is that perspective is relative. It oscillates and variates depending on the specifics of the situation, even to a constant observer or subject. One person may have a certain perspective one day, and a wholly different perspective the next. This ties in even further with the subjectivity of all knowledge I discussed earlier. Perhaps it is that all knowledge is subjective, and ironically "un-knowable" because of the veritable spectrum of perspectives that any one, two or more persons may have. Even if two people agree on some broad concept, each usually disagrees vehemently with certain implications and definitions of that concept.
ReplyDeleteAs an addition to my previous comment, I would like to touch on the concept of inter-relatedness. This is a very interesting area for discussion. We have scientific proof that everything in our planet, perhaps even everything in the universe is fundamentally inter-related: borne of the same initial materials. And yet, as human beings, it is within our fundamental nature to define and categorize. As children we are taught to distinguish between things and ideas by referring to them by distinct names, and thinking of them as being separate from one another. As we mature, we begin to make connections between all of these "disparate" things. Eventually, most people's perceptions of the concept of contentedness evolves to lay somewhere on the spectrum between the principle of stark definition that is accepted by young children, and the idea of a continuous state of inter-relatedness which defines all matter, and from which no singular thing may be categorized as inherently "separate" (a concept nearly impossible for the human mind to grasp). In failing to recognize the inter-related nature of the world we live in, we are failing to comprehend the reality of this world.
ReplyDeleteJonathan-
ReplyDeleteI find it fascinating the way he presents the timeline of our universe how that time when compared to ours make us look so insignificant. Also the Goldilocks condition is a very interesting how there needs to be the right amount of energy, diverse chemical elements, liquids to have life. Everything has to have the right amount of everything in order for our earth to come into being.
How does the variation of perspective scales effect our own ideas and ethics?
ReplyDeleteThe variation of perspective scales effects our own ideas and ethics because of the simple fact that we are only one person. I am me, and you are you, and everybody is just one singular person. Because of this, we build our ideas and ethics based on our own experiences. We base it on what we learn, read, do, and experience. However, it is certainly possible for a person to step outside of their own perspective and "step in another's shoes" which will only bring about enlightenment, maturity, and connection with the world. If we look at life in general from a grander perspective, instead of our perspective as a singular human, we see how unimportant we really are, but at the same time how important the connection between everything is. so, while one small thing may not be important in the grand scope of things, it's connection with the rest of the world is very important. How it affects the things around it is important.
Has your conception of how interrelated things are changed over the course of this class?
Yes, my perception has changed. I used to believe that someone could be a separate entity from the world and exist purely alone, without effect on the rest of the world, now I believe from the moment any person, animal, tree, insect, anything really, is created, it affects something, which in turn affect something else. Everything is constantly affecting everything else, which in my eyes is part of the beauty of the world. While everything has it's own singular existence, everything also is affecting everything else, changing another's singular existence.
What are we possibly missing by not considering the way things connect?
We are missing that we are not nearly as important as we think, and yet, because everything is connected, we may be far more important than we could ever know. It's a unique perspective to have.
In addition, because most people's perspective is so miniscule and confined to themselves, they have different goals for themselves in life than if they always thought on a grander scale with a larger perspective. For example, most people's goal in life is to be happy, which is a perfectly fine goal to have. But if they changed their perspective to be on the scope of the world, their goal in life might be to bring equality throughout every nation so that human suffering can end and people will work together to stop problems. Their goal might be to end hunger, chaos, war. Because of this change in goal, their whole life changes, and the lives of others that they affect changes as well, although in less significant ways. Therefore, a change in perspective can mean a change in a person's life, so perspective could have even more of an importance than I previously thought.
ReplyDeleteI think that as humans we miss a lot of things. Because of our ability to think at such a high level I believe we are very prone to narrow-mindedness. As Americans our values dictate that the majority of us place economic success and leisure above all other things. This, I believe, is leading us down a very destructive path. The video mentions this near the end when it talks about carbon emissions and nuclear weapons. I believe the reason we currently do next to nothing to combat these problems is that we value our money more and do not want to take on the challenge that fixing these problems will create. While difficult and expensive to find, there are solutions to both these problems, and if we do not find these solutions we will not meet the "Goldilocks" conditions for our next thresh hold.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that bothers me about this video is it's explanation of the second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics states that when energy is transferred some of that energy is wasted in the form of heat. While the conclusion he has drawn from the law is valid, I believe that there are valid ways to circumvent this "complexity to mush" system that he presents, al least temporarily. Chiefly I think of the sun. While all energy sources on Earth can be exhausted by humans, the sun will spew out energy until it's last atoms are fused, which will take much longer than burning up all of the fossil fuels, splitting all of the radioactive elements and any other way we currently provide energy.
ReplyDeleteI find it extremely intriguing that this exact paradigm was recently on the SAT examination that I underwent. There was an entire entry devoted to the concept addressed within the first moments of this Ted Talk on Big History: within the "unscrambling" of the egg. This SAT passage discussed the fact that we, as a human race (even those among us most advanced in areas of physics and those among us who most understand space, time and how the two are related) do not fundamentally understand the workings of time. We only see events as if they have a singular arrow, as if all things happen only in one way and only in one direction. Yet, there is no found theorem which supports this ideology. Thus, we see only the scrambling of the egg and never the unscrambling of the egg. In other words, we, as human beings cannot conceptualize time as seen from future to past, only from past to future. And why is this? There is no found physical anomaly which explains this, rather it is quite the opposite. In theory, time is flexible and does not move unilaterally, but we observe it as such. It is scientifically feasible that we would be able to see the sequencing of events from not only past to future but also from future to past. Yet, we cannot. This is fascinating to me and perhaps was unfortunately distracting to me on the SAT examination as I began pondering this rather than effectively filling in bubbles, but nevertheless I would love to be able to better comprehend the perplexing issue.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the question: "What are we possibly missing by not considering the way things connect?" I believe the answer to be: everything. We are possibly missing everything. The ways in which things are connected is perhaps the most important reason for their existence. The concept of individualism is an optimistic one in my mind. Nothing (or at least very little) exists singularly, nothing in this world is not somehow fundamentally connected with another something. If we've overly discussed any one concept it is that everything is based in some form or another upon perspective. No perspective is in existence that has not been influenced by another something, by another perspective. At least not to my knowledge (I may of course be wrong.) Nothing exists without having been influenced by another thing in existence. This is becoming convoluted. But essentially, at it's very core if we, as human beings wish to attain a full understanding of any one concept we first must understand the concepts that have influenced the original concept. This is a seemingly endless task, but such is the pursuit of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI feel that connecting different areas and concepts of knowledge is the most essential part of learning and knowledge in general. If we are unable to make connections that are interrelated between separate areas of knowledge, then there is no way to draw upon knowledge from those distinct areas. IN our society’s history, there has never been a discovery that doesn’t have some application within another area of knowledge, proving the importance of these connections and how our society would grind to a halt without the essential links between all areas of knowledge. Another reason for the necessity of these connections is that with application, ideas must be conveyed to various people within different areas. That concept will never be implemented if the information is not received in some applicable way by those individuals. Without these concepts a wall will be created between the two areas attempting to mix, isolating those areas and individuals and leaving only the thoughts about those particular areas to be developed and shared within the area.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the question about perspective, every person grows up with their specific perspective; their lens that affects the way they view the world. This lens limits and focuses our views towards a subject or idea. Everyone has their own, unique perspective, and in some ways those differences in perspectives limit the way those people connect with each other. We then automatically judge said person based on their preconceived perspective, limiting our connections with other people, and hence limit opportunities to broaden and add to our perspective. Another important point relevant to perspective is reference points. By looking at different intensities/levels of perspectives and ideas, it puts our perspective in a new light, be it comparing it to something radically bigger or smaller, or some idea that challenges the existing perspective.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the variations of perspective scales influence our ideas and ethics in the way that it is in many cases broadening the scope of our knowledge and understanding. On one side of the scale it brings in the opinion of others or their view point that you may not have considered before thus opening the scope of one’s understanding of how the idea at hand is viewed in the community. On the other hand, another factor of the scale of perspective is that, not everyone knows everything. I believe it was Bill Nye who said “Everyone you will ever meet known something you don’t know”. When you meet someone you are not only gaining their opinion on certain matters but you’re also gaining the information of the person on this matter, helping you develop your understanding and opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think that we miss a lot when we don’t take the time to consider all of the plausible connections betwixt things. By only taking things by surface value I think that we are limiting our ability to understand this issues at hand and their ability to be applied. Take for example TOK, TOK is supposed to be interwoven into all of the IB class to create connections, by not doing this we aren’t really getting the full grasp of the class. It is pertinent to consider all connections because if not than we have the mass potential to miss major developments in all fields. If everyone took information at face value and never looked into how it could be used or applied in different ways we wouldn’t have close to the technological or societal developments, we have to day.
ReplyDeleteThis class has absolutely changed the way I view things as far as the integration of knowledge. There is rarely one kind of knowledge that makes up the entirety of something. Knowledge that stands alone is essentially worthless as far as I can tell. Math without application is arbitrary. As is science, or geography. There needs to be an array of knowing in order to really understand anything, to put the knowledge to use. There must be context. Zambia is at a certain place on the globe, yes, but that doesn't tell us anything about Zambia. You need to know culture, history, biology, and pleanty of other areas of knowledge to truly justify knowing.
ReplyDeleteAs far as missing things by not seeing how things connect, I believe that there are a lot of connections that we, as humans, have missed, and have lost out on answers to very big questions because of it. There will never be a society that successfully integrates every part of life into every other part of life, but if there were, I imagine it'd be an incredibly high functioning society in which everything ran smoothly as everything was dependent on everything else. It would be a balance of knowledge. Right now we live in a society that has a lot of integrated aspect, but some aren't as connected as others, and I think that's where a lot of our problems come from. (i.e. industry and environment)
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