Newspaper Articles

16 September 2010

Would you eat this just because someone told you that it would make you healthier?

Today we read some newspaper articles that seemed absurd, such as the amazing talking cat that could speak 68 words. We discussed about the justifications and validity of each articles.

We regarded most of the articles as false because of the lack of validity of the sources. However, I think that even if we do not consider the justifications give, we already think that the articles are not true because they are just too impossible to believe.

In my opinion, some of the readers choose to believe the content of these articles because believing makes them happier. For example, the first article that we read was about drinking shark liver oil could make us healthier. Some people would believe that article because they needed something that could make themselves healthier. As a result, they would buy the shark liver oil.

This is related to pragmatic truth, which is something that people would believe in order to make themselves happier. In this case, the read, absolute truth does not matter anymore. As long as they are happy, why not believe it? That makes life simpler, doesn't it?

Source of image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chipcotton/4776240145/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Knowledge Issues

14 September 2010

Today we discussed about knowledge claim in class. A knowledge claim, we discussed, is something that we believed is true. And of course, there are the regular knowledge issues, such as - where did the sources come from, are the sources reliable, how can we justify it, does it correspond with the reality, etc.

Sometimes, when I think about the knowledge issues that we discussed in class, we don't really think about the knowledge issues consciously. For example, when we are reading a statement, we don't go step by step thinking about the knowledge issues, whether we should believe the statement. In my opinion, people usually don't think about knowledge issues on a regular basis. If we suspect every statement that we read or hear, our lives will be a little miserable and tiring. I think that if a person who often suspects whether things are true is a rather negative person. Of course, I am not saying that we shouldn't think about knowledge issues at all.

I wonder, what are the benefits of considering the knowledge issues? Is it necessary to know the absolute truths behind the things that we believe? Will that make us happier? 

Inception

21 August 2010

As many of the fellow students in class said that Inception is a good TOK related movie, and since I was planning to watch the movie with Jenny, I decided to invite the whole TOK class and Ms Jackson to watch Inception together.

About ten people went to Lotte Mart - Jenny, Amy, Phil, Sonya, Joseph, Howard, Fatiah, Uyen, Renevee, Ms Jackson, and I. My mum came along too but she sat by herself in the cinemas.

To be honest, the movie was a little confusing, and luckily Jenny was beside me to explain to me what was going on. Like everyone else who had watched the movie said, this movie was about a dream within a dream within a dream.

Cobb, the main character, accepted a job from Saito, which was to plant an idea into Saito's rival company's future CEO's mind. Cobb accepted the job because the pay was high enough to let him go home to his children. In order to plant the idea, Cobb gathered a group of people which were Arthur, Ariadne, Eames, and Yusuf.

I like how the characters used a normal concept to make the subjects of their dreams to wake up - the kick. I hate the feeling of the kick. It makes me feel as if I am falling from a high place, which is scary, and suddenly I would wake up feeling shocked.

Although it is creepy to think that everything that is happening right now might all just be a dream, I don't think it really matters because

If you haven't watched the movie, watch the trailer:



Source of Image: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3426651392/tt1375666