BBC Senses Challenge

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19TNSSPehhP72vsZIx-Ykq87IHNuND1Kd8JbuVoNS6QI/edit?hl=en_US

Man Is the Measure - Sense Perception

7. What does Abel mean when he says to "perceive is to solve a problem?"

When Abel says that to "perceive is to solve a problem," he means that our eyes and brains coordinate how objects look at different distances, from different directions, and under different light, and show us an object to which we attribute to a constant size, shape, and color. Gestalt psychologists stress how we tend to perceive well-defined patterns and wholes which are not really there, by integrating heterogeneous cues and filling in contours. One example is that my brain automatically told me to write 'friend' rather than 'fiend' when asked to copy down exactly what the test said on one of the sense perception test questions. My brain auto-corrected the spelling. Additionally, while in Italy this summer with my family and my cousins, we were walking along the  beach, and a young girl yelled "Ciao" (Italian for hello). As I knew that "Ciao" meant hello in Italian, my brain automatically told me to yell "Hi" back at the girl because that is what I perceived. I did yell back "Hi," but my entire family told me afterwards that the girl had indeed greeted me in Italian.

8. What is the role of social conditioning in determining how things "naturally look?" 

The term "realism" in art is used to describe the conventions familiar to us as Americans, but "flat" Japanese paintings and the Bayeux tapestries are both equally realistic because they describe the conventions that are similar to the Japanese and the French respectively. Each culture takes for granted its own "distortions" and "abstractions." Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon shows the nose and profile and the eye in front view; twentieth-century Europeans found this a revolutionary distortion, but ancient Egyptians considered this to be the "natural" way of painting. 

9. What is the significance of the Durer rhinoceros story? How was the influence of convention demonstrated when some tribes were given a photograph? 

The story of Durer's rhinoceros story is significant because it illustrates the overwhelming weight of tradition in determining representation, even when an actual model is before the artist's eyes. When James Bruce who was familiar with Durer's woodcut of a rhinoceros traveled to Africa, he drew a picture of a wild rhinoceros, and it was strongly influenced by Bruce's ideas of what a rhinoceros should look like based off of Durer's woodcut. No zoologist can identify what Bruce actually saw because Durer's woodcut had such a tremendous effect on the artist. 

The influence of convention was demonstrated when some tribes were given a photograph. An ethnographer gave a native a photograph which was clearly a house, a person, a familiar landscape in his own culture. However, the natives were not able to identify the picture. Instead, natives had the picture held at all possible angles and even inspected its blank back. 

11. What does Abel mean when he writes believing is seeing? How might this point be seen in the study of the natural and the social sciences?

Abel mentions that the belief on perception is so striking that one might say that believing is seeing. There is abundant experimental evidence that what people report about their own afterimage depends on what they are told to expect. Experiments have also shown that the unconscious bias of researchers in the social sciences affects their findings. 

At first astronomer James Challis set out reluctantly to verify that there existed a planet unbeknowst to them. He tried to prove this theory because he could see the planet (now known as Neptune). The witches of Salem and Loudun believed that they had seen, heard, and touched the devil, and some even gave details of sexual intercourse. These hallucinations caused them to believe that they were truly in contact with the devil. Additionally, hundreds of citizens today swear that they have seen flying saucers. As they believe that aliens exist, they also believe that they have seen aliens' flying saucers. 

Truth & Deception

Describe a specific example from any area of knowledge (AOK) where you feel that deception may be necessary to knowing. The example may or may not relate to your direct personal experience but make your views as a knower clear; it may be the case that person(s) involved in the example you relate have a different perspective on truth and deception than you do.

I believe that deception may be necessary to knowing while learning about ethics, one of the six areas of knowledge. Last year, I had an experience with someone who claimed to be a friend. A series of deceptions by this individual led to my discovery that she was not indeed a true friend.

While we were friends, we talked and texted often. We also socialized outside of school. My empirical understanding of the truth was that she was a good friend. She began to tell me that I was annoying and that I talked about myself too much. She told me that other people also found me annoying. She eventually told me to never talk to her again through texts and phone calls. However, on several occasions, she would call me and ask for one of my other friend's numbers.

In hindsight, I believe that she lied primarily for self-serving reasons. These reasons were probably for personal advantage. She wanted to make herself to appear "more desirable than [she] really believed [herself] to be..." to her peers. My perception now is that she wanted to gain attention and believed that drama would give her the attention that she craved. A study by DePaulo and her colleagues describes that serious lies are often told to cover personal facts. DePaulo also found that many of these lies were distressing for the liars to tell and saddening, infuriating, and humiliating for the targets to discover.

In a short time, my trust was eroded, and the relationship was destroyed. Deception was necessary to learn of her true character. It also was necessary for me to develop greater knowledge of what a true friend will do. It gave understanding that the people I surround myself with should hold themselves to the same ethical standards. I understand that she may have a different persepective on truth and deception than I. The deception was important because it made me understand that if this one person's serious lies could hurt me so much, I could also hurt others if I told them lies of this same nature.

Man Is the Measure #8

8. What are Abel's nine good reasons or evidence which serve as the basis of knowledge?

• Sense Perception (Ex. I know that my eyes are blue-green-gray because I can look in the mirror and see that they are this color.) 
• Logic (Ex. I know that raising any number to the power of -1 will be 0 because I can prove this fact.) 
• Intuition (Ex. I know that I should not cheat on an exam because my intuition tells me so.) 
• Self-awareness (Ex. I know that I am tired because I just heard myself yawn.) 
• Memory (Ex. I know that I went up to Cambridge on Saturday for a journalism conference at Harvard because I remember it.) 
• Authority (Ex. I know that tanning beds can cause skin cancer because the studies conducted by experts say so.) 
• Consensus gentium (criteria of truth) (Ex. I know that it is unlucky for a groom to see his bride before their wedding because people say so.) 
• Revelation (Ex: Noah from the Bible knew that there would be a great flood because God told him there would be.) 
• Faith (Ex. Practicing Christians & Catholics believe that they will go to heaven if they act as they are instructed to by God because they have faith.) 

Hidden Assumptions

1. How did you react to your results? Were you surprised? Angry or hurt? Pleased? Discuss what you felt and why you think you felt what you did.

I was a little surprised that this survey told me that I am slightly racist, but I was more surprised that I tested for only slight automatic association of males with math & science and females with liberal arts. I was not angry or hurt by the results in any way. I was slightly surprised that the survey told me I was part of the 18 % of people who were only slightly racist, but I do not see myself as racist as all. I would be more prone to complaining about the policies of President Obama rather than the fact that we have an African-American president or about Deval Patrick's actions rather than the fact that the state of Massachusetts being headed by an African - American. I was surprised that the survey told me I only slightly automatically associated males with math & science because I am aware that studies have been done which prove that females are more associated with the liberal arts. My English teacher had previously told us that in all HL English classes, there are 45 girls and 15 boys. This supports the stereotype of grouping females and liberal arts together.

2. Do you believe that your test results say something about you that you should play attention to? Why or why not? I do not believe that my test results say something about me to which I devote specific attention. In this activity, we had to use both our left and right hands. I'm assuming that I did better with the associations on the right because I am so right-dominated. I am right-handed. My right eye has always had perfect vision, but I have amblyopia in my left eye. I use my right hand to eat, to turn the pages of a book, and to perform a variety of other trivial tasks. As I know I am naturally right-dominated, I believe that this may have affected my results.

3. Do you think that these tests are valid? When you first saw your results, did you question or accept the tests' validity? I do not believe that these tests are valid. As discussed in the previous question, this test relies heavily on how well I can type with my left hand and how well I can type with my right hand. Knowing that I am right-dominated in a variety of aspects, I knew that the results couldn't be valid. When I first saw my results, I was intrigued by the survey's answer, but I did not believe it.

4. Give examples of the cultural messages that many support attitudes linking a dominant group in your nation or culture with "good" or "superior" attributes and a subordinate group with "bad" or "inferior" ones.

• Straight ("good") vs. Gay ("bad") 
• Americans ("good") vs. Immigrants ("bad") 
• Americans ("good") vs. ALL Muslims ("bad") 
• Americans ("good") vs. Native Americans ("bad") 
• Right-handed ("superior") vs. Left-handed ("bad")
• Thin ("good") vs. Fat ("bad") 
• Young ("good") vs. Old ("bad")

Why TOK?

Sometimes we just accept the facts we are given and do not ask the question "Why?" TOK forces us to look into the areas of knowledge.* We must not be confined in believing that what we say and believe is always correct. We must also look at what others say and then ask "Why do they believe this?" while I believe that.

What Every Baby Knows

1. The inferential learning mechanism theory states that children are born with intuitive theories of the world, analogous to scientific theories, which change in ways that are similar to scientific theory change. From the very beginning of their lives, babies are able to revise, change, and rework their initial ideas about life. As they grow, they continually collect data and "overthrow" their previously-held theories.

2. Several changes occur over the first three years of a baby's life. A newborn child can map what it sees in another human's face onto its own face, even though he is far to young to recognize himself in the mirror. Babies at birth also can distinguish human faces and voices from other sights and sounds. He even learns to recognize familiar faces, voices, and smells. One-year-olds have a radically new understanding of people. They start understanding that other people's actions, emotions, and perceptions can be directed at a separate external world. They will look where other people point and know how they should feel about something by seeing how other people feel. Many three-year-olds have good memories but do not understand their own minds or the minds of those around them.

3. The statement "Babies are like little scientists continually overthrowing theories that no longer fit the evidence" assumes that all babies are learning at a rapid pace. While most babies do in fact continually discard theories, autistic children do not develop this way. Autistic children have trouble imitating facial expressions and do not point or follow people pointing in the same way as fully-functioning children. The statement also implies that only babies continually "overthrow theories that no longer fit the evidence" although we continue to change our beliefs into adulthood.

What Is TOK Anyway?

TOK is the process of digging deeper into the world. It is not accepting the facts we are told but rather figuring out why we believe these things. In TOK, we explore what is typically unexplored.

Who Am I?

I believe that language and human sciences best describe me. Communication, which overlaps between the categories, is a part of my everyday life. I enjoy writing, one form of communication, and use this skill whether writing a homework assignment or writing a story to be printed in the school paper. I also have the gift of gab, and communicating verbally is another way to share ideas. Each of us knows what we know because others express certain ideas to us.