Way of Knowing Essay Example for Free

Way of Knowing Essay Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) once said that The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing, meaning that emotion is irrational and unreasonable. Emotional expression provides powerful communication between people, especially in the early childhood stage of our lives, before language even develops. A baby’s glowing smile invites love and care in its surrounding; the pounding cry of an infant can send one running instantly to attend to its needs. After this, voice, posture and facial expressions and gestures occur, developing our ability to control our emotions, which does not always happen. Emotion affects our thought-process, and in the heat of the moment, emotion often makes us do and/or say things that we don’t necessarily mean, and makes us more vulnerable to temptations, without thinking of the outcome/consequence. They can cloud our judgment, leading to irrational external behavior, however, emotion is not all bad, and is what drives us to do so many things, like making scientific discoveries, perseverance to lose weight, no matter how tired you feel. Emotions consist of passions, moods, perceptions and senses which create internal feelings that are sometimes expressed externally. Reason is part of formal logic, and pure reason is unbiased, taking all variables into account. Emotion and the resulting behavior of emotion vary in intensity, and is one of the ways of knowing. To a great extent, emotions can affect other ways of knowing, especially reason. The James-Lange theory states that emotion is purely physical in nature, meaning if you get rid of the external/physical outcomes, the emotion ceases to exist, but in fact, emotion has both a physical and mental dimension. If emotions were purely physical, then when a person smiles, they automatically feel happy or joyful, but people sometimes hide their emotions, that is, not necessarily show it externally, for all one knows, that person smiling could be filled with sadness inside. For example, British comedian/actor Peter Sellers was said to be â€Å"the greatest comic genius this country has produced since Charles Chaplin. By Filmmakers the Boulting brothers, and Turner Classic Movies called Sellers â€Å"One of the most accomplished comic actors of the late 20th century.†, so this surely would mean that he must have been a real great guy to hang around if he made so many people laugh, but internally, that is, off camera, Peter was a very troubled man. He often behaved erratically and compulsively, and had a huge problem with drugs and women, but that wasn’t seen on screen. Sellers would smile, be funny in his movies, but that didn’t automatically make him happy when he would smile or laugh, inside he was severely depressed, and though many would say he accomplished many things, he felt like he had no identity, therefore emotion is not just a physical, but largely a mental state as well. Reason is unbiased, rational thinking, were all the variables are taken into consideration before stating a claim or making a decision, and our emotion often interferes with our rational thinking. Formal logic is described as â€Å"reasoning from known premises or premises’ presumed to be true to a certain conclusion.†, either deductive or inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is where reasoning moves from a general claim to a particular claim, for example, all teachers are human, Mrs. Smith is a teacher, therefore Mrs. Smith is human. Inductive reasoning is the opposite, it moves from a particular claim to a generalized one, for example, I’ve met two racist Japanese, therefore I assume all Japanese are racist.† Emotion can cloud our reasoning process in the sense that our opinions on a certain situation are or become biased. For example, Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus is known as the â€Å"Father of Taxonomy† in classification of different organisms, and one study he did was on how to divide Homo sapiens, us. Native Americans were classified as copper colored, happy, yet angered easily and stubborn. Asians were classified as an unhealthy yellow color, greedy, easily distracted, and Africans as black, crafty and negligent, just some of the characteristics he used to classify these different â€Å"groups†. However, Europeans were classified as white, gentle, innovative beings, which is odd because Carl came from Sweden in Northern Europe, coincidence? Not likely, it’s obvious Carl was biased when classifying the different â€Å"racial groups†, as with Africans, Asians and Native Americans, all the traits listed were negative, while those placed upon Europeans were not only positive, but slightly filled with praise as well. It’s clear that Carl’s perception, part of emotion, favored where he fit in, thus clouding his judgment and giving a very biased classification result. Sometimes our beliefs and emotions affect each other in such a way that reasoning tak es over from emotion. A change in our belief can correspond to a change in emotion, where reasoning can take over again, for example, if you see a mysterious shadow in your room, you feel immediate fear, but when you turn on the light and realize it was your fan blowing your curtains around, that feeling of fear leaves you’re your belief has changed, and logic has taken over your though process. However, our beliefs can be so intense that they may enhance our emotions as well, even if we know that there is nothing to feel so intense about, our reaction can still be irrational, for example, I have a fear of spiders, and if a see one, I feel immediate discomfort and fear. I was watching a horror film with giant black widow spiders, and though I knew It was just a movie, I put my feet up on the couch and watched the room for any spiders, because even though I knew no giant spider would come and take me away, the intensity of my fear clouded that reasoning, and consumed all my rationality. Although emo tion can consume our reasoning, it can also drive it to success. Emotion is linked to intuition, where sometimes we just have a gut feeling that we are on the verge of something great. Intuition combined with social emotions such as ambition and gratitude, can actually help us succeed. In the fields like biology, physics, math, and logic, uneducated intuition is dangerous and will often lead us towards the wrong direction, so to be educated is very important. Being taught how to reason things out instead of just making random guesses, or claims that one can’t back-up because the argument isn’t valid, this is where reasoning comes in, and is how we make scientific, mathematical, and many different conclusions. Still, so many scientific and mathematical breakthroughs would never have occurred without passion. To have the ambition to do something comes from passion and without it, reasoning alone would deny us of so much knowledge that we have acquired. For example, Nobel-prize winner Sir Peter Medawar was a Brazilian/British biologist, who discovered in 1951, that skin graft rejection was the result of an acquired immune tolerance, this was fundamental in order to practice tissue and organ transplants. Peter estimated that about â€Å"four-fifths of his time was wasted, adding glumly that ‘nearly all scientific research leads nowhere’†. But with Peter, it did, it may have taken him a long time, but if he didn’t have passion and ambition to find out why skin grafts were being rejected, much of today’s modern skin grafting would arguably be less effective. Some think emotion clouds our judgment, some think it helps drive us to what is great or perhaps right, but instead of thinking of them playing against each other, why not see how they work together? Emotional outbursts are common and part of human nature, and whether we label them or not, we sometimes have internal feelings that we may over express, and in some cases, under express externally, like for example, someone gave you strawberry cheesecake instead of blueberry, and all of a sudden you shout at the waiter and call him an idiot for getting the order wrong, losing your self-control. Aristotle said, â€Å"Anyone can be angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way – that is not easy.† This sounds reasonable, as emotion is part of being human, and funny enough, deductive reasoning to this claim does not sound rationale, for example, Ella is my friend, I am angry at my friend, therefore I am angry with Ella, which could be true, you may be angry with a friend, but is that friend Ella? Are you angry with her for the right reasons? Was you reaction appropriate? Deductive reasoning helps us make decisions and come to conclusions, but without emotions, what is driving us to do so? Emotion can affect reason in both good and bad ways, enhancing and undermining it, but without emotion, although it does make us become biased and irrational sometimes, we would not have passion to do anything, or ambition to spend as long as it takes to achieve what you have been working for. Emotion can be hard to control for some, and slightly easier for others, and maybe life would be easier if we had an off switch for emotion, but it would be boring. Emotion will always be there, it’s part of our lives, and what makes life exciting and worthwhile, and working with reason, humanity has accomplished so much. Although it can block reasoning, emotion can also enhance it, and as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel once said, â€Å"Nothing great is accomplished in the world without passion.† Bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Medawar#Early_research http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/linnaeus.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellers http://www.markedbyteachers.com â€Å"Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma† by Richard van de Lagemaat Oxford Biology Course Companion by Andrew Allot and David Mindorff Essay Word Count (Excluding title, name and bibliography): 1,586 By Nasim Tekie

The Colors of Life :: Example Personal Narratives

The Colors of Life I was sixteen when I found out. The year was 1968. My father and I were in the kitchen, he, in his usual talk-spot by the pantry door, my sixteen year-old self in a chair by the window. The two of us were reminiscing about the time I was a little girl, learning to write the letters of the alphabet. We remembered that, under his guidance, I'd learned to write all of the letters very quickly except for the letter 'R'. "Until one day," I said to my father, "I realized that to make an 'R' all I had to do was first write a 'P' and then draw a line down from its loop. And I was so surprised that I could turn a yellow letter into an orange letter just by adding a line." "Yellow letter? Orange Letter?" my father said. "What do you mean?" "Well, you know," I said. "'P' is a yellow letter, but 'R' is an orange letter. You know - the colors of the letters." "The colors of the letters?" my father said. It had never come up in any conversation before. I had never thought to mention it to anyone. For as long as I could remember, each letter of the alphabet had a different color. Each word had a different color too (generally, the same color as the first letter) and so did each number. The colors of letters, words and numbers were as intrinsic a part of them as their shapes, and like the shapes, the colors never changed. They appeared automatically whenever I saw or thought about letters or words, and I couldn't alter them. I had taken it for granted that the whole world shared these perceptions with me, so my father's perplexed reaction was totally unexpected. From my point of view, I felt as if I'd made a statement as ordinary as "apples are red" and "leaves are green" and had elicited a thoroughly bewildered response. I didn't know then that seeing such things as yellow P's and orange R's, or green B's, purple 5's, brown Mondays and turquoise Thursdays was unique to the one in two thousand persons like myself who were hosts to a quirky neurological phenomenon called synesthesia. Later in my life, I would read about neuroscientists at NIH and Yale University working to understand the phenomenon.

Reponses to Attachment. Two different positions Essay

My chosen topic involves the use of food stamps for fast food which raises the main question, should you be able to go for food stamps for fast food. Food stamps simply refers to an assistance food program by the federal government in the United States to offer food to the low income earners and those who do not have any income whereby they are issued with coupons or paper and currently cards are used. The food stamps are issued for free by the government to allow poor people and low income earners to access food regardless of the nutritional value from any outlets such as supermarkets which accepts the cards or the stamps. The government issues the food stamps free of charge to all people and families who are in need. I came across this topic on food stamps on the internet, when I was conducting a research on the use of adverts on fast foods by various companies. Being an individual who values charity and helping others and considering my interest in fast food business, it got me wondering what would happen if food stamps could be allowed for fast foods. This generated my interest in this topic and how it will affect fast food business. I hope to gain more understanding on the impacts of the food stamps on fast food business and to ascertain whether it could be allowed for fast food. Provide a brief summary of the topic. Explain the current issues surrounding the topic and share at least two different positions on the topic             The main aim of the government in providing food stamps to families and people who are poor, elderly and even disabled and those who are homeless was to enable them to have something to eat. However, there are certain issue which surrounds the issue of food stamps whereby it is thought to be a contributing factor towards some disorders such as obesity. According to Aldhous (2013), the food stamps could be the option which can be applied in the fight against obesity epidemic which has become rampant in the United States. The author of the article says that obesity can be controlled through the food stamps which could be issued for the purchase of nutritious foods. The author observes that restriction on the choice of foods people could access through the food stamps will be of great help ion handling the obesity situation in the US (Aldhous, 2013). This indicates the author’s support for the food stamps program which could generate health improvement among t he beneficiaries of the food stamps. It is the suggestion of the author that the use of food stamps could be the way towards a healthier nation in the coming future (Aldhous, 2013). However, in another article by Whitmore (2013) the restrictions which are to placed on the use of food stamps with regard to sugary foods may not work. The author of the article observes that putting ban or restrictions on the use of food stamps in the purchase of sugary foods may have negative impacts which will even result in the ineffectiveness of the food stamps (Whitmore, 2013). Whitmore explains that the bans or restrictions on the use food stamps will result in extra expenses for the government in terms of administration costs (Whitmore, 2013). Furthermore, the author observes that placing restrictions on the use of food stamps on sugary foods would cause stigma on the people who are supposed to benefit from the program. What specific issue will you write about within the larger topic, and what unique angle will you provide?             The specific issue that I will write about is the impacts of food stamps on fast food business and health of consumers. This is based on the observation that fast food businesses have become quite popular and therefore, it would be wonderful to know how the food stamps can impact on the business as well as health matters. Define your audience. Who are they, and what are their needs, motivations, and influences? In what ways will you need to structure your writing to appeal to them?             It is important to know the kind of audience who will make use of the information provided here. In this case, the targeted audience will include fast food business investors and also the customers who have been issued with the food stamps. The investor have the need to know how the business will be affected if the food stamps are allowed for fast foods. The motivation for this audience is the positive benefits they will receive in terms of revenue and the customer base. Furthermore, the investors are influenced by the consumer behaviour that is displayed when purchasing products. To appeal to the audience which is comprised of investors may be a challenge but in this case, this work will be structured in form of an argumentative essay. This will is due to the reason that it will easier to weigh and outline all the available options with supporting evidence which can influence the decisions of the investors. The structure of an argumentative essay will create a chance for the investors to associate more with the writing depending on which side of the argument they feel outweighs the other. References Aldhous, P. (2013). Food stamps could help US trim obesity epidemic. New Scientist, 219(2928), 10.Whitmore, D. (2013). Proposals to ban purchase of sugary drink with food stamps won’t work. Inside Tucson Business, 22(43), 22. Source document

The Incredible And Sad Tale Of Innocent Erendira And Her...

Erendira was bathing her grandmother when the wind of her misfortune began to blow. The enormous mansion of moon like concrete lost in the solitude of the desert trembled down to its foundations with the first attack. But Erendira and her grandmother were used to the risks of the wild nature there, and in the bathroom decorated with a series of peacocks and childish mosaics of Roman baths they scarcely paid any attention to the wind. The grandmother, naked and huge in the marble tub, looked like a handsome white whale. The granddaughter had just turned fourteen and was languid, soft-boned, and too meek for her age. With a parsimony that had something like sacred rigor about it, she was bathing her grandmother with water in which purifying†¦show more content†¦Around eleven o clock, when she was changing the water in the ostrich s bowl and watering the desert weeds around the twin graves of the Amadises, she had to fight off the anger of the wind, which had become unbearable, but she didn t have the slightest feeling that it was the wind of her misfortune. At twelve o clock she was wiping the last champagne glasses when she caught the smell of broth and had to perform the miracle of running to the kitchen without leaving a disaster of Venetian glass in her wake. She just managed to take the pot off the stove as it was beginning to boil over. Then she put on a stew she had already prepared and took advantage of a chance to sit down and rest on a stool in the kitchen. She closed her eyes, opened them again with an unfatigued expression, and began pouring the soup into the tureen. She was working as she slept. The grandmother had sat down alone at the head of a banquet table with silver candlesticks set for twelve people. She shook her little bell and Erendira arrived almost immediately with the steaming tureen. As Erendira was serving the soup, her grandmother noticed the somnambulist look and passed her hand in front of her eyes as if wiping an invisible pane of glass. The girl