This speech gives an accurate account of what one should take from a Liberal Arts Education. To examine with an open mind those topics that give us grief. To do away with arrogance, ignorance, et cetera, to better understand the world around us. Two people are asked a question; you will receive two answers... who's to say who's right or wrong?... seek your own answers
Also, learn to choose what you think about; it's easy to get lost in the confusion otherwise.
I completely agree with him that we have a default setting. That default setting can be changed but it will take a lot of work. a liberal arts degree helps with it because they teach us how to think.
This speech reminds me a lot about Kant’s reasoning and beliefs. Especially about his concepts that include how humans have the capacity to sense and understand, we sense a situation and develop a concept. Also Kant’s point about moral obligation and our ability to act against our own desires can be applied. The default settings that Wallace talked about can be viewed as our animalistic nature that every human possesses and is challenged to overcome. We as people have the ability to recognize that the other around us have lives of their own, even if we are limited to our own perspective we can know that other perspectives exist. Wallace spoke of this as a way of thinking that his liberal arts college instilled in him. However, it is not as if his education gave him this ability it only gave a chance to practice it and know how and when to use it. For every person has this ability, we only vary in the degrees that we chose to use it. Overall his message was insightful and I thought it gave an atypical perspective on the mundane task that people encounter day in and day out.
I agree with his statement of "learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think, it means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to, and to choose how you construct meaning from experience because if you cannot exercise this kind of thought in adult life, you will be totally hosed." it draws back to an idea, that I've been thinking on that was inspired by a monologue in Michael Crichton's Jurassic park, delivered by a one Ian Malcolm, he stresses the idea that people who attain some set of skill, from knowledge, without practice or any sort of training, will always find someone else's work and try to continue it, regardless of whether they stopped it for a good reason or not, a scientist or someone of free thought, will always choose what is best for them, regardless of the supposed consequences, because they never learned the basic lessons of such a skill which involved thinking before doing, or at least knowing in what situation not to use such a skill. they didn't earn the knowledge for themselves, and are wielding like a kid who found his dad's gun. which is what I feel he is describing here, with the idea that people should think, before they before they put any actual thought into something, about whether or not you should do something. in another note, I like how he brought up the idea that everything in reality should be thought of, as possible circumstances, for every person's actions. that in paying attention to these things, in believing that buy allowing these things to happen, by knowing of other options, we are able to avoid our default setting or nature. We are allowed to find out what has meaning and what doesn't, we are allowed to become better people, all by thinking about things in a different way.
The part that stood out to me about his speech was the reasoning behind the Liberal Arts. I didn't really put much thought into how important it is to obtain a better understanding of the world around us. While a strong foundation of science and math are fundamentally important, an education of the arts and social sciences can be just as useful. Its critical that we mold ourselves with as many different classes as possible.
I would agree that his reasoning behind what liberal arts is stood out. I think we do have this default setting he speaks about whether we want to admit it or not. We have to choose to follow this setting and see everything from our own view or breaking away from it. Breaking away from it will take some work since it is so programmed in us from day one. Liberal arts should teach us not just to think but to be able to choose what we think and how we think. It is important to have knowledge just as it is important to have textbook knowledge of things like science. Our freedom is only achievable by using our mind and overcoming this default setting that controls what we do and has us set up for a daily routine like he talks about.
The world that we experience is going to be different for everyone depending on how you view things, but the most important thing is that you think. You think about that work of art not just because it is beautiful, but because it has some type of meaning behind the pretty picture. You think about that essay you just wrote about Buddhism not because it was an assignment, but because it is truly going to educate you and get you further in life. The little things are just as important as the big things and some people just haven't realized it yet. Petina is right. We can't just think; we must choose what we are thinking and how we are going to think about it.
This speech gives an accurate account of what one should take from a Liberal Arts Education. To examine with an open mind those topics that give us grief. To do away with arrogance, ignorance, et cetera, to better understand the world around us.
ReplyDeleteTwo people are asked a question; you will receive two answers... who's to say who's right or wrong?... seek your own answers
Also, learn to choose what you think about; it's easy to get lost in the confusion otherwise.
I completely agree with him that we have a default setting. That default setting can be changed but it will take a lot of work. a liberal arts degree helps with it because they teach us how to think.
ReplyDeleteThis speech reminds me a lot about Kant’s reasoning and beliefs. Especially about his concepts that include how humans have the capacity to sense and understand, we sense a situation and develop a concept. Also Kant’s point about moral obligation and our ability to act against our own desires can be applied. The default settings that Wallace talked about can be viewed as our animalistic nature that every human possesses and is challenged to overcome. We as people have the ability to recognize that the other around us have lives of their own, even if we are limited to our own perspective we can know that other perspectives exist. Wallace spoke of this as a way of thinking that his liberal arts college instilled in him. However, it is not as if his education gave him this ability it only gave a chance to practice it and know how and when to use it. For every person has this ability, we only vary in the degrees that we chose to use it. Overall his message was insightful and I thought it gave an atypical perspective on the mundane task that people encounter day in and day out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with his statement of "learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think, it means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to, and to choose how you construct meaning from experience because if you cannot exercise this kind of thought in adult life, you will be totally hosed."
ReplyDeleteit draws back to an idea, that I've been thinking on that was inspired by a monologue in Michael Crichton's Jurassic park, delivered by a one Ian Malcolm, he stresses the idea that people who attain some set of skill, from knowledge, without practice or any sort of training, will always find someone else's work and try to continue it, regardless of whether they stopped it for a good reason or not, a scientist or someone of free thought, will always choose what is best for them, regardless of the supposed consequences, because they never learned the basic lessons of such a skill which involved thinking before doing, or at least knowing in what situation not to use such a skill. they didn't earn the knowledge for themselves, and are wielding like a kid who found his dad's gun.
which is what I feel he is describing here, with the idea that people should think, before they before they put any actual thought into something, about whether or not you should do something.
in another note, I like how he brought up the idea that everything in reality should be thought of, as possible circumstances, for every person's actions. that in paying attention to these things, in believing that buy allowing these things to happen, by knowing of other options, we are able to avoid our default setting or nature. We are allowed to find out what has meaning and what doesn't, we are allowed to become better people, all by thinking about things in a different way.
The part that stood out to me about his speech was the reasoning behind the Liberal Arts. I didn't really put much thought into how important it is to obtain a better understanding of the world around us. While a strong foundation of science and math are fundamentally important, an education of the arts and social sciences can be just as useful. Its critical that we mold ourselves with as many different classes as possible.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that his reasoning behind what liberal arts is stood out. I think we do have this default setting he speaks about whether we want to admit it or not. We have to choose to follow this setting and see everything from our own view or breaking away from it. Breaking away from it will take some work since it is so programmed in us from day one. Liberal arts should teach us not just to think but to be able to choose what we think and how we think. It is important to have knowledge just as it is important to have textbook knowledge of things like science. Our freedom is only achievable by using our mind and overcoming this default setting that controls what we do and has us set up for a daily routine like he talks about.
DeleteThe world that we experience is going to be different for everyone depending on how you view things, but the most important thing is that you think. You think about that work of art not just because it is beautiful, but because it has some type of meaning behind the pretty picture. You think about that essay you just wrote about Buddhism not because it was an assignment, but because it is truly going to educate you and get you further in life. The little things are just as important as the big things and some people just haven't realized it yet. Petina is right. We can't just think; we must choose what we are thinking and how we are going to think about it.
ReplyDelete