Yertheman’s Weblog

A phantom limb is a reality in an amputees mind.  Evaluate a different situation where a reality only exists in a persons mind.  Have you ever experienced a reality that only existed in your mind?

A different situation where a reality only exists in a persons mind would be when they are unconscious and have a dream. Yes, I have experienced a reality that only existed in my mind whenever I sleep. The dreams that I have seem very real to me, although I can tell that it is a dream; sometimes I think I’m awake and outside of the dream but that is a dream within a dream. Eventually you figure out which is reality(real life) and which is the alternate reality made in your head  based on how much memory you have of the things that you saw occur, but sometimes you can’t tell the difference, and that is when it feels real. In the dreams sometimes the images are clear and sometimes they are blurry but the feelings, emotions, and things that i sense feel very real to me. I can taste how good a weirdly shaped cake is that was baked in the snow, or smell how bad that bright green odor is from that nasty looking egg on the white plate next to the cat in the hat. I can actually feel the people in my dreams grab my wrist and drag me away or be afraid and anxious that I will get arrested for stealing my own socks from the deformed animal gurad-police that was patrolling the lazered bank pedestal. All things I encounter in my dreams feel as real as day, the fear, curiosity, confusion, and everything in between. The only catch from believing that the howling werewolves are chasing me forever or that a lovely day at the fair will last forever is that I can tell when it is a dream and that either dissappoints me or alleviates me to the point of wary anticipation.

If something lies outside our realm of perception, then how can we know it?

Thousands of Jewish people were killed by the Nazis during World War II. This is known as the Holocaust.

This knowledge does lie out of my realm or grasp in a way. The Holocaust was known to Americans since the second world war and has been known to us since then. There is evidence that many jews were set free out from the concentration camps they were imprisoned in all over Europe which was under the authority of Adolf Hitler. There is also written testament of the Holocaust, i.e. Anne Frank and the diaries of 5 victims of the Holocaust, We Are Witnesses. There are also the people that survived the Holocaust long enough to be set free by the end of World War II and lived to tell their story and the stories of the other victims; Elie Weisel. I know that the Holocaust existed because of the historical factors that were recorded and the people the lived to tell their stories over the news and the discovery channel which i trust to be very reliable. We know those things out of our perception because we choose to believe other’s perceptions.

Why does nearly all propaganda take the form of art?

All propaganda take the form of art because is everywhere and catches attention. It is in visual art because our eyes are one of the senses that we use the most and by putting propaganda in the form of visual art, the advertisers are capturing the eye and the attention that they need. Music is another form of art that is used in propaganda. Hearing is the other sense that we use the most and the advertisers know enough to use that kind of art to support their purposes and objectives. Propaganda is used in the form of art because art appeals to all of the senses we use to perceive our surroundings and will catch our attention.

Identify a knowledge issue associated with North Korea? Justify it as a TOK knowledge issue.

Knowledge Issue: Are the elite North Korean children brought up to praise Kim Jung Il and hate North Americans?

This is a TOK knowledge issue because in the movie that we watched, the film section at the school was only about the story of Kim becoming a comrade and the teacher was praising him mad and making the children repeat after her of the goodness of heart that Kim has. Then, the other part of the movie was of the work place where the company was low on supplies and they literally blamed the Americans for their shortage. Also, in the beginning of the movie where the mother was walking the child to school, they sang a song about making the Americans go on their knees and pleading for mercy. This shows that they consider us as inferior to them and blaming us for their shortcomings, and along with that praising Kim Jung Il of his successful comradeship. This was what was portrayed all the time throughout the first movie we saw in class of North Korea and due to the limited knowledge of that movie, i have to surmise that the North Koreans were only allowed limited knowledge and resources of their country and the countries that they know of. They are trained to like and look up to Kim and to hate Americans. They are trained to be what they are portrayed like in the movie and that is due to the type of government that Kim Jung Il is in control of. This is the side of North Korea we see and the conclusion we can make based on the material we are given in the movie.

Can ethical questions be quantified?  Describe an example or counterexample.

I don’t think that ethical questions can be quantified because there might be certain limitations to one’s ethics, but there are limitless events and scenarios that one has to apply those ethics to. We can classify which areas of ethics that the scenarios fall under but there are numerous considerations that need to be applied along with the ethics themselves. For example, we have a girl that has been out late past curfew. We can’t just say that ethics demands us to ground her for a week for coming home late. This problem can be categorized under breaking the curfew, but we have to consider why she was late. She had to do a group project with her lab partner and she told you about it, but it lastest longer than expected because of a few minor setbacks and the lab partners parent helped give her a ride home. We consider that we knew what she was doing, that she was chaperoned and in a safe environment, and that she actually finished the project despite the extra time that was needed to finish. We have to use reason to judge if her hardwork really deserves a grounding or does she get a pass because she was not doing anything inappropriate. The girl could have been grounded due to the ethical standards of the parents, but they are just standards and rules that can bend to accomodate unexpected events such as mistakes and mistaken information.

Describe a personal story of when you have used reason without using language.

It is hard to think of a time when i used reason without using language because language is used in everything, even to prove and reason. The only time would be when i am making a decision for myself and only need to think about it without talking, writing, or action. Once my brother rode his bike to my cousins’ house and i thought about following. He had a red speed bike and i had a pink trycycle. He was going down and big street and had to go near the highway, which, i was taught, dangerous. So, i decided not to go because his bike would be traveling more than ten times faster then my trycycle and i only followed him to the end of the block, then returned home. My little brother on the other hand didn’t even think about this and wanted to go with my brother, so he chased him all the way to the highway and disappeared for 2 hours. Later a cop brought my little brother home and pulled his trycycle out of the trunk. We were all silent reasoning that we might be in trouble and get arrested (though all the children there at the time were 10 and under) because a policeman has POWER; but nothing happened, he let my little brother off with a warning to not go near the highway again and to stay close to home. That could have been me too, but i used reason to stay behind and not get picked up by a cop.

Option 2: Describe an example of when fear affected your sensory perception.  Describe how it was affected.

One time I was out for the whole day and came home past my curfew and I had so much fun that i did not realize that my dad would be angry at me for not telling him where i was and not coming home before dark until my sister reminded me of it. I thought i was gonna be in big doodoo and she suggested that i hide under the bed. Fear of the Wrath of Dad took hold of me and i quickly slid under the bed without thinking. I hid under there for what felt like eternity.  All i could feel was my shallow breathing, afraid somebody could hear me and tell, the perspiration coming out of my forehead and palms and the dank smell of the air and dust under the bed. After a while, my sister came and told asked me if i wanted to get out from under there. I wasn’t relieved for a moment, but it was torturing me when dad will come down the hallway and yell and rant in my ear. I just wanted to get it over and done with, so i got out and went about the house like nothing happened. I was shifty that night and the next day afraid he might still take the chance to yell at me. I was nervous and anxious and the only thing i could think about was my pending doom. The day after next i relaxed a little bit hoping that he didn’t find out and never will, but i still was on the balls of my feet ready to jump. I wasn’t aware or didn’t remember what i did in those days, i only remembered wandering around the house looking behind my back and feeling the chills crawl down my back. Later that day, my sister came and told me that she told dad about it when i came home late a day ago. I was confused. if she told dad a day ago, why didn’t he mention anything to me or at the least yelled at me about coming home late, i was only 9. I never found out why dad didn’t mention it to me and sometimes when i think about that i still am a little bit scared that he will march to me any second and rant.

Are we being taught “fake” stuff in history?  Explain.

Since history is what is left of records of what happened in the past, they can’t necessarrily be “fake”. After watching the “landing on the moon” movie about it being faked, i guess our resources of knowledge can be manipulated or twisted to support something the resource providers want us to know and believe ourselves. I guess we don’t know if we are being taught “fake” stuff, but i think we do at least get taught some of the real stuff that actually happened, maybe not all of it, but enough specifically chosen information to let us know as much as they want us to know to assess in the ways they want us to assess about those events. We are only given information about what they want us to know. I wouldn’t say that we are being taught “fake” stuff but that we are only allowed a limited amount of knowledge that may be made up so we can show them how we think because that is what our teachers want from us.

Describe an example of where you would use the scientific method without using math.

An example of where you would use the scientific method without using math would be if you’re not quantifying an amount of something, but finding out a better process for efficiency, not accuracy or precision. A good one wold be to use the scientific to guess and check different processes to find a method that works better that the others and the preexisting ones. You wouldn’t have to use numbers but decide yes or no.