Pontes Lecture Notes

The bottom line: Language is an oral thing.
Human's only had writing for 10,000 years
Writing and Reading are extensions of language, and therefore secondary to oral language
Writing is an extension of memory.
Illiterate people have an advantage to memory

Act of Communication
speaker - intention- message - receiver

Almost always there are gestures to reinforce what people say

pragmatics - meaning involved beyond the meaning

semantics - meaning of the specific words

grammar is the way of describing the functions of words to one another but it doesn't necessarily convey their meaning

~50-60% of the speech act is non-verbal

cultural gesture:
the "A-OK" hand gesture is not the same in S. America.

Arab proverb "if you can not smell a man's breathe, you can not trust him."

Word choice and intonation are different for men and women

Women can switch between hemispheres of the brain more than men.

people becomes victims of their tools

Diving Bell & The Butterfly #5

a.) Bauby's situation is worse than Jean-Paul K. situation because Bauby is forced to live and deal with the soul crushing guilt of having a friend of his captured by Hezbollah, and the constant wonder that if he had not given up his seat, would anything have gone differently?

b.) Bauby got to know the people that take care of him and he half way becomes friends with them, and gives them nicknames, like "David Bowie". He begins to understand how people from the outside might not understand how he feels and perceives things.

c.) Bauby admires Oliver for his story-telling skills and ability to be lost in the story in which he weaves and his ability to capture those who listen to him in the story. Now that he is paralyzed, Bauby can not tell stories anymore and this part of him is lost forever.

d.) People often wait for the crescendo because people have a way of being self-delusional in terms of when their lives will get better and worse. People think the good times will last forever and the bad times drag on to infinity. People are rarely realistic when it comes to their lives. This chapter is placed at the end of the book because it is leading up to what Bauby and the reader know is coming. Bauby's death.

e.)Bauby is savoring the last week of summer because it is the last week of vacation and after that it will be fall and everyone will be busy working. It will be his first fall at Berck, and he begins to see that he is beginning to make his way out and he knows, deep down inside, that he doesn't have an incredibly long time to live. He knows he's mortal.

Diving Bell & The Butterfly #4

a.) People need to categorize things because the brain takes in so much information that without organization, no thought process would be able to take place. The brain needs to put things it categories to be able to recall information fast enough to make it useable by the organism. 

b.) I can honestly say that I do not hoard anything, or if I do, it is so ingrained into my mind that I would not even consider it hoarding, but more a necessity of life.

c.) People give others they don't know nicknames. Bauby was making a reference to the fact that he knew Fangio's habits and a bit about him, but he doesn't actually know Fangio as a person.

d.) Regrets are important is early life because they serve as deterrents to what is most likely bad behavior (e.g. the burn on ones hand after touching a store) That burn will serve as a reminder not to touch the stove.

e.) Bauby's hearing is altered by his condition which causes certain sounds to be amplified. If he concentrates and pays attention he is able to hear the flapping of butterfly wings.

f.) Bauby hates Sunday because everyone leaves on Sunday and most of his care attendants are not working and there is no one there to change the TV for him.

Diving Bell & The Butterfly #3

a.) To an extent, human beings define themselves based on their interactions with those around them. When Bauby is rendered paralyzed, anyway to define himself has been removed. He has, in essence, lost who he was, and anyway to become someone else.

b.) The photo is ironic because it says " Berck-sur-Mer" in reference to a family vacation Bauby had taken as a child, and Berck is where the facility he is now is located.

c.) Seeing as Bauby has gone though severe cerebral trauma, his dreams can be expected to be nothing but a random firing of neurons. It does show that his condition is slightly improving because he is able to remember the faces of his friends, even when he is unconscious.

d.) Bauby's butterfly is unable to leave the room in My Lucky Day because of the beeping of the feeding machine. He is constantly being drawn back to his present condition.

e.) Looking back on it, I never appreciated my grandfather when he was around. Now that he had a double stroke, he is merely a shadow of his former self. His speech is slurred at best and most likely will one day forget who I am. I wish I could go back in time and spend more time with him and learn as much as I could from him. But, I suppose it is human nature to not appreciate things when they happen seeing as memory and feelings are relative.

Diving Bell & The Butterfly #2

a.) Bauby's desire to surround himself with the type of clothing he was accustomed to in his former life, reflects his notion  that he knows he will not vastly improve his condition, so if he is going to be in a completely incapacitated state, why not reflect his former life?

b.) Considering that the book was written in french, one must assume that there must have been slight errors in translation that may not be coherent with the idea Bauby may have intended. The mood of the book would not change regardless of the language, as long as it was the same language that Bauby spoke.

c.) Bauby find his condition "funny" only in a nervous sense, because he finally realizes the full scope of his condition.

d.) If I was presented with the opportunity to spend an afternoon anywhere, I would most likely choose to remain in my room. Granted it might not be the most exciting of choices, but I have very important things in there. Most cherished of all is my bed. This only being because I rather enjoy sleep, even though I rarely get any because of my insomnia. Because of it, I cherish the sleep I do get and this has made my bed very important to me.

e.) People rarely attempt to make connections to others that are different because people fear that which they don't understand, and it is understandably difficult to understand those who are different.

f.) Should the ability of eating be removed, I would whole-heartedly miss koldunai. Koldunai are small wheat based ravioli filled with pork. They are of a Lithuanian origin. They are most commonly served with bacon and sour cream. While they look not even remotely appetizing at all, they are the most delicious thing I've ever had the pleasure of eating. An accurate description of it would require words which I am sure have not been created yet.

Diving Bell & The Butterfly #1

a.) 'Locked-in' syndrome is the condition when the body is completely paralyzed, but the mind is unhindered. Most patients suffering from 'locked-in' syndrome retain a small amount of movement in either the eye, finger, or other small extremity. It is considered a prison because the patient has no way to communicate with anyone around him. The butterfly in "The Diving Bell & The Butterfly" is Bauby's imagination. Bauby can do more or less anything he wants in his imagination unhindered by his present condition.

b.)Bauby wakes up from a week long coma, only to realize that he is now incapable of any form of communication. He is unable to move anything but his eye, and Bauby comes to the slow realization that he will never do anything he one enjoyed again.

c.)Bauby's progress should be measured just as any patients progress would be. Though physical and speech therapy, Bauby may regain simple functions, such as the ability to swallow and having his feeding tube removed. Bauby is able to escape the depression that his condition induces by dreaming and more or less living in his imagination.

Blink #2

1.) Three Fatal Mistakes.

People make assumptions about other people within seconds of meeting them.

"When someone says "I love you" you look into their eyes to judge their sincerity"

2.) The Theory Of Mind Reading

Tomkins believed that the face shows the inner emotions of a person. Tomkins was able to predict a persons actions and guess emotions based on the face.

"There are three hundred combinations of two muscles."

3.) The Naked Face

The face is the window into what the subconscious is thinking.

"The information on our face is not just a signal of what is going on in our mind. It is what is going on in our mind."

4.) A Man, A Woman, A Lightswitch

Autism is basically the inability to gather emotions from someone's face.

"When someone is autistic, he or she is "mind blind""

5.) Arguing With A Dog

In extreme stress, temporary autism can occur causing extreme focus but eventually leading to serious problems(e.g. shooting at a person and seeing them as only a target.)

"At 175 bpm, the forebrain begins to shut down"

6.) Running Out of White Space

The more white space there is, the more time someone has to react. When pressed for time,temporary autism can occur.

"Under time pressure, they began to behave just as people do when they are highly aroused. They stopped relying on the actual evidence of their sense and fell back on a rigid and unyielding system, a stereotype."

7.) Something In My Mind...

The more an action is repeated, the less and less stressful it becomes.

"That kind of training, conducted over and over again, in combination with real world experience, fundamentally changes the way a police officer reacts to a violent encounter."

8.) Tragedy on Wheeler Avenue

Regardless of the training, temporary autism and thin splicing can have terrible consequences.

"Carroll sits down on the steps next to Diallo's bullet-ridden body and starts to cry."

Biology of Perception

The lecture from Dr. Gilligan was incredibly informative. The most interesting this was the inclusion of the absolute threshold. The values were so much smaller than I would have guessed.

The information covered was very helpful in understanding how we physically perceive something, but the average person doesn't need to know very much of this. Anyone going into the field of science though, but to the average person, none of this is very useful.

The test was interesting. The only question I got wrong was the circle spinning around the cross. I was focusing on the cross, not the circle. Over-all the presentation was very helpful to the understanding of perception and I wish I had it last year. Outside of ToK though, I can't see much of the information being useful.

Blink #1

1.) Harding rose within the Republican party and eventually became president not by being qualified or a good candidate, but by being good looking and confident.

2.) People were in error in electing Harding because he was not the best candidate for the job he was elected based on looks and not on anything that was necessary to be a president.

3.) The IAT has the purpose of testing whether or not someone has an affinity to one race over another. It does this by using a series of pictures and the subject has to associate the pictures to words.

4.) The computer has the advantage of forcing a lightning fast reaction and also being able to calculate the reaction time of the person taking the test.

5.) Gladwell was mortified that his results indicated that he had a preference toward European Americans over African Americans. This came as a shock seeing as Gladwell was half black himself.

6.) No matter how many times the test was repeated, the answer always pointed toward a slight preference toward European Americans.

7.) Our subconscious may form underlining opinions about our environment, but it is only the background and we have a level of thought and opinion above it that is capable of overcoming the subconscious.

8.) Gladwell says that there is very little outward manifestation to ones preference. Unless that person is Trent Lott. When in a position of power these slight preferences can become an issue.

9.) When a person (not including models) is hired for a position based on looks and not experience or skills then the entire project suffers and if someone can be hired based on looks, what's the point of earning skills anyway.

10.) Golomb's ability to thin slice people and adapt his sale strategy to what he believes is best suited allows him to sell more than his competitors because he constantly changes.

11.) The results of the Ayres study show that slight preferences toward one race over the other are observable and can manifest themselves but are for the most part benign.

12.) Scores on the IAT test can be changed by reviewing positive material about the otherwise non-preferred group. (e.g. to raise a score for African Americans one would read about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., etc.) Test scores are proven to rise slightly when the method is applied.

How Do We Know What We Know?

We know what we know through many different forms of knowledge. There is being familiar with something or knowing something (as in a fact). There's Knowledge by Introspection which is knowing something by knowing your own emotions. Knowledge by Practice is knowing something because of the repetition of doing a task. (e.g. knowing how to ride a bike). Knowledge of Acquaintance is knowing something by being so familiar by a person and their mannerisms. We use all these types of knowledges to for a net of ideas, or a paradigm. This paradigm is how we see the world around us, and this has drastic consequences (e.g. racism; sexism; etc.). Knowledge by Authority is particularly dangerous when it is mishandled, especially since people have a tendency to believe anything someone says based on the ranking that they hold. Instead of reviewing the information ourselves, we assume that based on the title a person holds (e.g. Dr. etc.) that the person has done that already and found the information to be valid. The reputation is held to be more valid that the information itself and this is extremely dangerous and tends to be easy to manipulate for outside purposes.

Platonic Notes

Relativism- there is no such thing as a universal truth, instead truth is relative

Ways of Knowing-
Knowledge by description (platonic knowledge; propositional knowledge; knowing that)- can be communicated and had to be described and be understood by any reasonable person.

Requirements of Knowledge
Justification- empiricism (induction)
- authority
-Rationalism (deduction)
- memory
Truth- must be public, independent, eternal
Belief- necessary but not sufficient

Kennen to have knowledge that (zinuoti)
Wissen - to have knowledge of (pazysti)

Who knows more about childbirth?

An OBGYN or a woman with 5 kids?

The OBGYN knows more of "knowing that"
The doctor is familiar with the medical practices and innermost workings of childbirth

The woman knows more about "knowing how"
The woman knows how to give birth in terms of how to push the baby out and is familiar with the pain involved in the birth process.


Knowing how can be broken down into knowing that, but knowing that, can not be built up to knowing how.

I can know how to ride a bike because I know that I should pedal now.
I can know a math equation, but I can't know how to do math, just from reading it.

Who Are We?/ First Class Analysis

I am of the opinion, and strongly so, that we are the things which we can not change about ourselves. I can change my name, so that can't possibly define me as a human being. I can change my parents ( e.g. adoption) therefore that also can't define me. I can change friends/ peers very easily, therefore they are also useless in defining who I am. I can not change the country where I was born, and it is common from an individual to be raised in the country in which they were born (although possible for a movement to happen). The location, and more importantly, the general accepted paradigm of the area can be very useful in determining a person's identity. (e.g. I have a immense sense of Lithuanian nationalistic pride, resulting from my immersion in the culture) I can not change my genetics. To an extent I am nothing but a series of chemical reactions occurring in my brain. (e.g. Should my family have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism or another disease, this may effect myself or the view I hold of myself). 

A counter argument exists to this, however. The Theseus Paradox tells the story of Theseus's ship. It was pondered that how many things on a ship can you replace until it is no longer the same ship? The same principle was applied to George Washington's ax. If the ax had its head replaced twice, and the handle replaced three times, is it still the same ax? How many things can I change about myself before I am no longer the same person? Can it be as drastic as changing my name and moving across the world, or can it be as simple as getting my hair cut?

Fries and the Trouble With Them

This information is very surprising as to the actual science that is involved in the fast food cooking industry. I think that consumers are unaware of the choices and changes the industry is making to accommodate a general sense of the desire to make healthier choices by the public. The public seems to have a half hearted view on the desire for healthier alternatives. They want healthier alternatives, yet do nothing to demand them. It's more of a "It would be nice if the ingredients weren't killing me, but it's alright if they are." It is completely up to the individual to be responsible as to what they eat. There are always alternatives to the terrible food that corporations provide. Granted the options may involve more hassle and may be more expensive, but in the long run, it will keep you alive longer. The knowledge wasn't exactly kept from anyone seeing as anyone could go and look for the information if they put a bit of time into it. My responsibility as a knower is to now do something about this and stop putting these chemicals and corn products into me and to opt for a healthier, less processed life.

McDonald's Ingredients Analysis

Southern Style Crispy Breakfast Chicken Breast: 

Chicken breast filets, water, sugar, salt, modified tapioca starch, spice, yeast extract, sodium phosphates, carrageenan, maltodextrin, natural (plant source) and 

artificial flavors, gum arabic, sunflower lecithin.  Battered and breaded with: wheat flour, water, sugar, salt, food starch-modified, yellow corn flour, leavening (baking 

soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), wheat gluten, spice, gum arabic, natural flavors (plant source), extractives 

of paprika. 

Prepared in vegetable oil ((may contain one of the following: Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve 

freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent). 

French Fries: 

Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*), citric acid (preservative), dextrose, sodium acid 

pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt.  Prepared in vegetable oil ((may contain one of the following: Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with 

TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent).

Yellow = Corn/ Corn derivative 

Red = Unknown/ Chemical

Blue = Non Corn Product

As far as I can tell, the only thing that counts as a processed food that does not contain corn is the salt packets that McDonalds hands out. Even the packets of ketchup contain corn.

CORN!

Did any information in the book come as a surprise to you? If so, why do you think that specific piece of knowledge was kept from you? Does the producer of this knowledge have any responsibility? What is your responsibility as a knower?

The explanation for the layout and design of a supermarket was particularly interesting. Supermarkets put vegetables and fruits in the very front of the stores, where people enter
to give the impression of being directly connected to nature, and the further you go into the store, the more artificial the store becomes. This is most likely a way to generate sales of some sort and fact that someone must have psychologically studied this, is astounding to me.

The analysis of why the human taste buds work the way they do was interesting as well. Mainly, how most people shy away from bitter things because some poisons found in nature are bitter. We, as a species, have a sense of disgust to keep us from eating rotten meat, which could infect us. Taste buds have evolved this way as a way of protecting us from infection and injury.

I sincerely doubt this information was kept from me, I feel that it was my own lack of prior interest in the incredibly remote topic of corn. 

I am confused however, where the problem of responsibility lies, seeing as there are no direct consequences of this knowledge. 

Am I My Parents?

How would Gladwell respond to the identity question from August 27th? How would Levitt and Dubner respond?

Gladwell would argue that while we spend most of our lives with our parents and they help us for an image of the world in which we live, most of our judgmental skills come from our peers. More competition is placed on someone when competing with peers than the rules our parents set out for us. We identify with our peers and learn from them. Siblings are a different story however, as shown in the experiment conducted by a Swedish team of scientists which found that if, for instance the youngest of three siblings is rather timid and submissive at home around older siblings, this child is perfectly capable of acting dominant around his peers.
Levitt and Dubner would argue that it is not the parents nor the peers with which one associates that shapes the person, but the environment that one grows up in. Cited in a U.S Department of Education study, it's quoted as saying,
"A child with at least 50 kids' books in his home, for instance, scores roughly 5 percentile points higher than a child with no books, and a child with 100 books scores another 5 percentile points higher than a child with 50 books."
Parents do matter according to Levitt and Dubner, it's just that the actual methods used by the parents do not matter.