2011 - 2012 Reflections 3

October 6, 2011
Today we talked about the accuracy of social science experiments. Generally, if people know that they are in an experiment, they would act differently than they normally would because they know that they are being watched. This reminds me of the surveys done in school. When the students know that the surveys will record their name, they are either hesitant to answer the survey or they lie in the survey. Humans...we always want to look good.

October 10, 2011
The discussion about the connection between history and memory was interesting. I think sometimes memory can be very manipulating because we might imagine something or dream of something and mistaken it as history. By saying this, I also mean that a memory doesn't necessarily have to be true, because as long as it happens in our mind, it becomes a memory. Sometimes dreams are so true that I'm not even sure if they are dreams or if they really happened in my life.

October 12, 2011
Historiography is written based on primary sources. Are primary sources reliable? Not really. Documents, diaries, and photos involve humans, thus they include opinions, bias, emotions, and possibly manipulation. Unfortunately, we still have to write historiography based on primary sources, because if not, we will not have any knowledge about history.

October 14, 2011
"You should have done this...you should have done that..." This is hindsight bias. We blame people for their actions for causing a negative consequence. However, it is easy for us to do so because we already know the outcome. Learning all these concepts in TOK sometimes make me wonder if I have been living my life in the right way. If I didn't know about all these biases and fallacies, would I notice them and see how unreasonable sometimes people and I could be?

October 25, 2011
Nature versus nurture - is an artist made or born? It seems to me that it is unfair to say that one can only be consider a true artist if he or she has talent. Einstein once said, "Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work." If an artist is consider as an artist by talent, then the number of artists would be comparably lower. Hence, do we consider the creations of those who are not artists as artwork?

October 27, 2011
 Economics, one of the areas of knowledge, uses a lot of graphs to show trends and prove claims. However, the problems with graphs is that they can be manipulated in so many different ways that they can present something different that the original data is supposed to reflect. We should apply this knowledge to our real life that we must be skeptical and aware when looking at graphs. We definitely do not want to let our knowledge to be manipulated by graphs that are meant to be misleading. Oh, how useful ToK is...

October 31, 2011
Mr. Nomer showed us a very interesting presentation about signs and symbols and the concept of beauty. In certain cultures, being tan is considered as being beautiful while ugly in other cultures. Our concept of beauty is shaped by our culture, background, and living environment. This reminds me of the video that was showed in class last school year, when a blind person was first able to see after his operation. For a person who has never seen before, what is beauty?

November 2, 2011
I agree with Mai Vi that art has to have a response from a viewer. If a piece of art evokes a person's emotions, then it is a piece of good art. However, if an artist creates a piece of art that only the artist can understand and connect to - including the fact that the artist has high technical skills - then is the piece of art still good? Is there a universal agreement on what is a piece of good art? What is the purpose of judging whether a piece of art is good or bad?

November 7, 2011
I do not believe that 2012 is the end of the world! <-- Controlled by fear and rejection. What is the purpose of working so hard if the world is going to end soon? If I truly believe that the world was going to end soon, I would not go to school, go back to Malaysia, and then travel around the world with my family. As a result, I would be very disappointed on the first day of 2013 because the world didn't end.

November 9, 2011
I presented my TOK presentation today with Phil and Marie. Our real life situation was about a gay man who couldn't donate blood to his dying mother because of the high possibility that he has HIV. I remember while researching for the presentation, I became very angry because all the claims that were against gay men donating blood were just absurd. We live in the 21st century! We have technology to test blood!

November 11, 2011
Tadhg's presentation was very interesting - he talked about nature versus nurture. According to his presentation, our personality are based on genes, regardless of the environment that we grow up in. I started to question myself - I know that I changed a lot after coming to Vietnam. So is my old self part of my genes or my current self part of my genes or are is my personality as a whole part of my genes? If our personality is truly based on genes, then why are we, humans, easily influenced by other people?

November 15, 2011
Does Math exist in nature even before human existence or is Math invented by humans? In my opinion, math exists in nature. This can be seen through the creation of beehives, of DNA, and the shapes of snowflakes. The representation of mathematics - such as numbers, symbols, and equations - are then invented by humans to use math to understand the world.

November 22, 2011
We unpacked the prescribed TOK essay titles today. I thought there was going to be an essay in which I could write about language, there was one - "The vocabulary we have does more than communicate our knowledge; it shapes what we know." Evaluate this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge. Why is it AoKs instead of WoKs...

November 24, 2011
The three essay titles that are my top choices are (1) The title mentioned in the last reflection (2) Knowledge is generated through the interaction of critical and creative thinking. Evaluate this statement in two areas of knowledge. (3) As an IB student, how was your learning of literature and science contributed to your understanding of individuals and societies. I am overwhelmed. I am not really sure what to do at the moment because it just seems so difficult to pull what I've learnt over the one and a half years together to write an essay.

November 28, 2011
The TED talk by the mathemagician Arthur Benjamin was short but fruitful. I think what he talked about was very meaningful. We should change the math that we learn in high school. I know as a fact that many students who are not interested in Math complain about learning Math because it just seems so useless to learn about calculus when we are not even going to use it after we graduate from high school. If we change the education system, it might even be more beneficial to the society.

November 30, 2011
We learnt about different concepts of ethics in class today. Whenever there is a topic that is related to religion, I am always a little bewildered. Today, the topic that was related to religion was the divine command theory. It states that an action is moral or immoral because God either allows or prohibits us from doing it. Because I don't have a religion, I am very skeptical of that statement, especially when I see news of people doing terrible deeds that are ordered by God.

December 2, 2011
Today we learnt more about concepts of ethics. To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm enjoying myself while learning about ethics. Whenever a question is asked, it is common for me to be taken aback and not know how to answer the question because I've either never thought about the question or I really don't know if there is an answer to it. I also realized as I grow up, there are more and more situations in which I don't know the answer to. I'm not very sure if I like the trend..

Source of Image: http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/379072/379072,1282381798,1/stock-photo-new-york-at-night-with-reflection-in-water-with-blue-hue-59448442.jpg

Life

IB Class: English

How should we live our life? Should we always be happy or should we experience both sadness and pleasure in life?

Obviously, in reality, we can't just experience happiness. We suffer, cry, and be angry. As if experiencing negative emotions in our life isn't enough, in English class, we almost always learn about tragedies. We read poems by Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, read 1984, read Of Mice and Men, study Hamlet, and study Antigone. All of these are tragedies. If it is human instinct to be happy, why do we learn about people's sufferings? Some of us even suffer alongside with the fictional characters. 

A cliched idiom in Mandarin states that "we have to lose then only we learn how to value". Unfortunately, many of us do not know how fortunate we are, until we lose what we used to have. When we lose, we suffer. When we regain what we used to have, even if it is the same amount, we experience more happiness, because we now know how valuable it is. This shows that after experiencing sadness, pleasures in life become more pleasurable. If we have only experienced happiness, happiness would not be something valuable, and we might even take happiness for granted.

Yes, the poems of Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson are tragic. Because of them, I learnt that I am a fortunate person because I am not so depressed that I have to write poems to release my emotions. I lead a happy life.

Source of Image: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4644826329_b1c38dc28e.jpg

Plagiarism

Out of Class

A few weeks ago, I read an article about rising numbers of Chinese applicants to American universities. While reading the article, I found something shocking - many Chinese applicants hire agents to help them write their application essays. Because they are not proficient in English, they recite what they want to say and the agents will write their essays for them. According to a research conducted by Zinch China, "90% recommendation letter are fake, 70% of the essays are not written by the applicant, and 50% of high school transcripts are falsified". What's worse is that the act of cheating does not stop at the application process. After these students are admitted to universities in the United States, they plagiarize in class, in assignments, in essays, and they do not think that they are doing anything wrong.

Why don't they feel guilty? In the Chinese culture, the most important thing when submitting an assignment is to get the answer right. Originality? It doesn't matter. I also read in another article (this was a few weeks ago so I lost track of the link) that they think taking information directly from a book is not shameful. In fact, (in a joking way) the author of the book should be proud because the information in his or her book is good enough to be "borrowed". In the American culture, a student can be expelled for plagiarism.

A part of me understand the Chinese students. When I was in Malaysia, no one taught me about plagiarism. Maybe no one thought it was necessary to teach it because we never wrote research essays, and the situation could be similar in China. Hence, when they go to the States, they were just doing something that they didn't know was against the rules. In addition, most Chinese students were doing the same thing, so why shouldn't they? This is the idea of relativism, where one action is unacceptable in one culture while acceptable in another.

However, now the Chinese students are studying in America, so should they go against the norm of their home country and adapt America's rule? Who decides whether the Chinese students should let go of the norm of their home country? According to consequentialism, if the Chinese students can produce a good essay by plagiarizing, as long as their essays receive a good grade, aren't their actions justified?

I personally detest what they are doing. Cheating is wrong. Plagiarizing is wrong. Sadly enough, it seems to be a trend in China. How can admission officers identify whether submitted application documents are forged or real? Most importantly, how can the Chinese learn that it is ethically wrong to hire an agent to help write their application essays?

For more information, please read:
Plagiarism in Academia: China and the US http://gnovisjournal.org/2011/11/18/plagiarism-in-academia-china-and-the-u-s/
Busted: The top 5 ways that Chinese students cheat on their undergraduate applications to American schools http://www.washcouncil.org/documents/pdf/WIEC2011_Fraud-in-China.pdf
The China Conundrum http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/the-china-conundrum.html?_r=1

Source of Image: http://www.pyrczak.com/antiplagiarism/images/Roomie.gif

What is Good Art, Music and Literature?

Out of Class

Let's talk about what is considered as good art, music, and literature (inspiration from Mai Vi's blog post). A lot of people believe that technique is an important aspect of measuring what is considered as being good. However, I believe that the standard of good fine arts is relative. It all depends on whether we can connect with the creation itself, no matter if our understanding conforms with the creator's intention or it is solely based on our personal experience.

For instance, I love Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. The book speaks to my inner self because it shows my struggle for my identity and it helps me to figure out who I am as a person. In that book, Amy Tan occasionally uses Chinese words and idioms. Although she does explain the terms contextually, a person who has no knowledge about Mandarin would have difficulty understanding the true meaning. In addition, he or she would not have been so touched by the book as I was. To me, the book is good literature because I am able to connect and relate to the characters and stories written. To a normal American student, the book could merely be a book, and no more.

If the purpose of art, music, and literature is to evoke emotions, then different people would have different opinions of what is good art, music, and literature because some people can connect to certain fine arts and other people can relate others. If there is always an audience for a piece of creation, then that creation, with no doubt, is good.

Source of Image: http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs43/f/2009/061/c/0/Face_Paint_by_Music_Books_Art.jpg

Acts and Omission

In Class

I have an example of acts and omission that I was too afraid to share in class for two reasons - I am ashamed for not doing anything (omission) and a few people in class would know what/who I am talking about.

I know a person, M, who seems to not have any friends. M does not have a friend who M can walk to class with, talk to, or eat together during lunch time. If I was in M's situation, I would feel lonely, because I belong to nowhere. I believe that many people know about M, but I feel guilty about M having no friends and I feel that it could possibly my fault that M is lonely. Why? Because I do not do anything even if I know about M's situation, I do not do anything even if I can sense that M wants to be my friend. I just didn't do anything.

If there was a way for me to defend myself, I would use ethical egoism - to do what is in my self-interest. (Sigh, sigh, sigh...I sound so mean) M wants to be my friend, but I don't want to be M's friend, so even though I most probably am hurting M's feelings, I take no care towards M's friendly gestures and actions. Honestly, if I feel guilty, and if I feel embarrassed enough to not show this story in class (emotion as a Way of Knowing), my actions are probably unethical. How can I just act as if everything is alright when I know that a person is lonely and needs friendship? How can I carry on with my life happily when I know that someone I know is sad? My moral teachings tell me, in a rational and reasonable way, that I should help M. On the other hand, my heart or my emotions tell me that I do not want to be involved in M's life.

I hope that you won't think too badly of me after reading this blog post.

Source of Image: http://capping.slis.ualberta.ca/cap08/MelindaSpears/train%20tracks.jpg

Ends and Means

In Class

Ends and Means: Consequentialism versus Deontology. The question here is: Do we use the end results to determine whether our actions are ethically correct or do we just consider the morality of our actions?

Here are a few examples that I have been thinking of. For instance, Z in my previous blog post. From the ends' perspective, China wouldn't be what it is today, hence no matter what Z did in the past, Z's actions are morally justified because Z was just doing what was best for China. From the means' perspective, if we just consider some of Z's terrible deeds, then Z is ethically wrong.

Another example would be rude truths and white lies. From the ends' perspective, we should not tell rude truths but white lies, so that we would not hurt the person who we are talking to. On the other hand, we should not tell white lies but rude truths, because morally, we should never lie even though we might hurt the feelings of other people.

From these two examples, it seems as if there are only two extreme options in ethics - absolutism. I personally dislike this, especially in collectivism which states that we should all agree on one thing to have a common truth. I believe in relativism, because no matter what side we take, whether it is the ends or the means, we will always be doing something that can be both ethically justified and morally wrong. Hence, let's just do what is correct in our society, because there is no way that the whole world can agree on one thing.

Source of Image: http://blogs.ksbe.edu/anchung/files/2008/03/09142007.jpg

Bias in History

In Class

There is no doubt that bias exists in history. The three most common types of bias in history are topic choice bias, confirmation bias and national bias.

I've personally experienced bias in history. When I was in Malaysia, I studied at a Chinese independent high school. Naturally, the history textbooks that we used were imported from China. They were written by Chinese historians from China. At that time, I was taught that an important Chinese leader, let's just call the person Z, was a very respectful and great leader. If it wasn't for Z, China wouldn't be what it is today. China probably wouldn't be the world's second largest economy. That was what I learned and what I thought was the truth. Or was it?

Studying history in Saigon South International School made me learn that sometimes what I was taught may not necessarily be the truth. Or at least, it is the truth in one culture but not in another. I was shown documentaries about Z, and the documentaries were said to show historical events that the majority Chinese do not even know of. The Z that I saw in those documentaries was still great and mighty, but I also saw Z did dreadful things that one could never imagine. Why is there such a discrepancy by just studying one historical figure in two distinct cultures? The answer is: national bias. It is natural for the Chinese government to want their citizens to only know that Z was a great leader, and nothing else. However, is that argument justified? Wouldn't the Chinese population, like me in the past, only learn about partial truth? Do they not have the right to know everything about Z, if Z was truly such a great leader?

Source of Image: http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/bve/lowres/bven737l.jpg

2011 - 2012 Terminology 3

1 Verstehen Position
The meaning (what we are trying to figure out) of an observable action depends on context. The context is different for different times/people/location/etc, hence it is often difficult to generalize because the observers cannot observe the person's motive, purpose, and intention.

2 Historiography
The study and recording of past events. It is an academic inquiry carried out by historians. Historiography is different from history because it includes opinions and perspectives, which is also an analysis of historical evidence.

4 Hindsight
The perspective of the past event and its effects in later events. Hindsight bias: It is easy to say that someone should have done something differently to avoid the terrible outcome because we already know the consequence.

5 Bias in History
(a) Topic Choice Bias: Topic choice of the historian is based on current focus of the time
(b) Confirmation Bias: Ignoring counter evidence in favor of what supports our perspective
(c) National Bias: It is difficult to be objective in certain matters such as national pride

6 Great Person Theory of History
The course of history is determined mainly by great individuals. If the person doesn't exist, the course of history would be different. Examples of the Great People: Mao Tse Dong, Hitler, Shi Huang Di, and Stalin.

7 Theory of Empathy in History
We should try to understand the causes and motivations of a historical figure's actions as they would have understood them.

8 Economic Determinism
A person's action is determined by his or economic status. The course of history is mainly determined by economic and technological factors.

9 The Categorical Imperative
We must act based on morals, regardless of the consequence. The opposing idea is hypothetical imperative, which states the certain conditions only apply to certain people.

10 Relativism
There are no absolute or universal truths. All moral assessments should be made relative to the group's social norms.

11 Collectivism
A general feeling towards a certain idea. With collectivism, it is possible to come to a conclusion with one solution, with the majority's agreement on something to have a common truth.

12 The Divine Command Theory
An act is moral or immoral solely because God commands us to do it or either prohibits us from doing it. This theory is refuted by the Euthyphro Dilemma as it questions, "Are morally good acts willed by God because they are morally good, or are they morally good because they are willed by God?"

13 Consequentialism
An action is ethically or morally right if only its consequences are good. An action can only be determined as good or bad after the outcome is known.

14 Deontology
Regardless of consequence, our actions determine our morality.

15 Utilitarianism
We do whatever we do to maximize our happiness. The greatest happiness principle promotes human pleasure.

16 The Golden Rule
We treat others as how we want other people to treat us.

17 Acts and Omission
We are presented with a dilemma with solutions in which we can act (to do something) or omit (not do anything but allow something to happen), which leads to negative consequences.

2011 - 2012 Reflections 2

September 12, 2011
Today we read an article and talked about what what science education should really teach. The article stated that students should learn to detect bad science instead of learn about factual science. I, however, disagree with the article because after we know what bad science is, it doesn't necessarily mean that we know what good science. As a result, we still don't know what is good science.

September 14, 2011
Today we talked about whether scientists should be responsible of the inventions. I personally don't think that scientists should be responsible for their work unless their intention in the first place was meant to be bad. However, that poses another issue because how can we ever know the scientists' intention?

September 20, 2011
Today we did a social science claims activity in which we had to evaluate the two statements with their certainty, validity, and the difference of social science law to physical science law. As a result, I came to the conclusion that social science laws aren't universal and changes according to the situation and individuals. This shows that social science laws are limited compared to physical science laws. Hence, I think that when we learn about a social science law, we have to be aware of its validity because the laws may not necessarily apply to us.

September 22, 2011
Today in class we were divided into four groups to form four surveys of two topics with either positive or negative responses. We then had to send our surveys to other groups. By doing this activity, I realized that language can be very manipulative in order to steer people's responses towards one direction rather than the other. I think learning ToK is useful because we learn about how we should always be aware of the validity of the knowledge and information that are presented to us.

September 28, 2011
Today we watched two ToK sample presentations in class. I think the sample presentations made me a little scared whether my group is doing the right thing. We have our topic and knowledge issue, but I'm not very sure whether we are evaluating our main knowledge issue in the right way (or deeply enough). More work has to be done!

September 30, 2011
Today we went to Mr. Isley class because he was going to talk to us about psychology as an Area of Knowledge. He introduced the three parts of personality - id, ego, super-ego. I think it's a little bit daunting about how there are actually three parts of our personality instead of one. I wonder...if there's only one part of personality in our mind, then maybe we are easier to understand. But if just either one of our parts exists, that would be very scary, especially if only our id is the only of our personality.

October 4, 2011
We continued psychology with Mr. Isley and he told about the ink block test. The ink block test is used by psychologists to help them diagnose their patients' sicknesses. However, when the test is tested by the scientific method, the test is actually said to be not very valid and not very reliable. This emphasizes that social science is very subjective and that it could be dangerous if patients are diagnosed wrongly.

Source of image: http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/data/media/22/mt-rainier-sunset-reflections_8723.jpg

What is Death?

IB Class: English

As an introduction to Philip Larkin's poem Aubade, Ms. MacArthur gave us all a slip of paper to write down what we we think will happen to us when we die. I wrote something like this: "When we die, those who are satisfied with their life will be reborn to a new life. Those who are unsatisfied with their life can choose to remain in the world as spirits." This is what I think could happen, but I have absolutely no confidence or proof that this is true.

Then, Ms. MacArthur collected our responses and gave us other people's response to reply with. The one that I received stated something along the lines like: "When I die, nothing is left. I will fertilize the earth and people will slowly forget me." Because there isn't any proof  of heaven/hell/spirit/reincarnation, I felt as if what the person said was most probably going to be true. Yet, I still want to believe that reincarnation exists. In Buddhism, reincarnation is actually a form of suffering, because we have to go through the pains of birth, growing old, sickness, and death. I, however, do not think that living as a human being is suffering, because why would I want to be dead when I could live to experience the pleasures of life?

In the end, no matter what we believe in, we will not know what will truly happen to us after we die and when we die, we cannot return to tell the living about how death is. How do people predict how death is? What do they base their beliefs on? How reliable and valid their beliefs and their evidence? Can we ever know about something that cannot be proven? Even with our four ways of knowing and different areas of knowledge, death remains as an enigma to us.

What is the Definition of Music?

IB Class: Music

When I searched "define: music" on Google, the following are some of the definitions given:

1 The art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

2 A sound perceived as pleasingly harmonious.

When I was in Grade 10, my music teacher defined as music as "the organization of sound and silence". I think these three definitions would raise questions among certain musicians, hence, is there a universal definition of music of which agreed upon by the majority of musicians?

The first definition describes music as an art or science. For many years, music has been categorized as performing arts. Why, then, is it a science? Is it because musicians use a way that is similar to the scientific method to produce music? For example, a musician has in his mind about what he wants his music to express [purpose/aim]. He predicts that the best style to write his music in is a ballad [hypothesis]. He starts to write his music [experimentation]. He finishes writing his music [results]. His music is published and the public likes his music [conclusion that conforms with hypothesis]. Does this process show that music is science then? Does anything that follows a process similar to the scientific method will be considered as a science? Because something is considered as a scientific claim if it can be falsified, then can music, in any possible, be falsified?

The second definition states that music is "pleasingly harmonious". Question: Are all music pleasing to the ear? As a music student, I can definitely say no. Hence, I believe that I can say that this definition of music is inaccurate. The teacher's definition classifies silence as music. Is silence music? Is that why we have rests (pauses) in music? John Cage strongly believes that silence contributes a huge part in music. In fact, in 1952, he composed a piece of music called 4'33'', which consists of three movements of silence (although actually John Cage wanted to show in that piece that music is the sounds created by the audience during his 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence). Till this day, the piece of music remains controversial.

As a result, who defines music? Whose definition of music is correct? How do we know what is music? All in all, whose definition of anything is correct and how do we know what we know is what we think we know?

Source of image: http://yogainmyschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Music.jpg

Wisdom of Life?

Out of Class

"一个人要获得实在的幸福，就必须既不太聪明，也不太傻。人们把这种介于聪明和傻之间的状态叫做生活的智慧。"

"If a person wants to gain real happiness, s/he should neither be too smart, nor to foolish. People call the state between intelligence and foolishness as the wisdom of life."

I agree with the quotation above about how to live life. I think when we know too much about the world, that's when we start to lose the world's beauty and see its ugliness. A possible analogy to this situation could be this: A child used to believe in Santa Claus. When the child grows up, s/he will learn that Santa Claus doesn't exist. 

In relationships with people, I think it's best to be both smart and foolish. We should be smart to know what's going on, but foolish to ignore the things that could hurt us. Maybe this is when I'm starting to block some of my perception and reason (WoKs), so that I do not see the certain imperfectness in relationships. Hence, when I know only partial truth, the partial truth becomes my personal truth and pragmatic truth. The partial truth that I know if sufficient to keep me happy and to prevent me from sadness. 

Some may disagree with me that being foolish and ignorant is the wrong way of living life. Some might think that purposefully being ignorant is just a way of escaping from the truth. Well, who decides what's the best and right way of living life? How is the absolute truth better than pragmatic truth or vice versa? Why can't we live in a way that conforms with ethical egoism? How and who decides that living with ethical egoism is right or wrong?

I accept the fact that sometimes being foolish promotes my happiness in the long run. If I become too smart in relationships, I will lose some people that I never want to lose.

Source of image: http://www.turnbacktogod.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/life-on-paper.jpg

Follow Your Heart and Intuition

Out of Class

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."

Above is what I quoted from Steve Jobs' speech at Stanford University's graduation in 2005. As a senior in high school, when it is the time to apply to colleges, I feel the stress of the conflict of my intuition and others' opinions.

When I use my emotion (WoK), I feel that I want to to major in event management in university. I feel that I will only go to a school that offers that as a major. I feel that a school's name isn't as important as long as they have good internship and a good program. That isn't necessarily what others think. Others say that I should apply to schools with big names. Others say that I should major in business management in case I don't like event management in the future. Others say...

When I listen other people's opinions and try to make a judgment out of it, I use reason (WoK). These people who talk to me are more experienced in life than me, so there must be a certain level of truth in their words, right? They just want the best for me, hence I should follow their advice. This is when my emotion tries to overthrow my reason. Why do I feel miserable if I try to follow their advice? How do I decide which school is the best for me? Is just looking at a school's website sufficient? How much on the school's website can I trust? How much can I trust the school's representative (those who came to SSIS)? How do I know if I should follow my intuition or other people's advice?

I like Steve Jobs' quotation because that's exactly what I want to do. By connecting this to my previous blog entry, my super-ego is fighting against my id. I'm not very sure about what I should do at the moment. I need guidance. Hopefully soon enough I'll make a decision, a decision that conforms with my heart and intuition.

Source of image: http://www.apple.com/

The Id, Ego, and Super-ego

In Class

Mr. Isley talked to our class about psychology when Ms. Jackson was in Borneo for a WWW trip (lucky!). He introduced one of Sigmund Freud's theory - the Three Parts of Personality. The three parts of personality are our id, ego, and super-ego. Our id is our natural pleasure zone, essentially where our deepest desires lie. Our ego is what we show to the public, or what others see of us. Our ego consists of our rational thinking and logical mind. Last but not least, or super-ego is the part of us which holds our morality and rules.

As illustrated in the figure above, our three parts of personality is like an iceberg. The whole of our id is hidden underwater, half of our ego is seen, while only partial of our super-ego is above sea level. I then asked Mr. Isley, if our id is in the unconscious part of our mind, how much do we know about our id? I think I was asked who knows me the most, I would say myself. However, if most of our id is hidden, how much do we actually know about ourselves? In the public, we act with rational thought and in a way that society expects us to act. If our id is what we truly want, then does what we show in the public consider as fake?

In the four Ways of Knowing, emotion and reason are the ones that come from ourselves. If our super-ego exists, then our reason is not what we truly think, but rather how we are taught and expected to think. Does that then mean that emotion is the only way we can find out how we feel about things and matters? How does one then define how they feel through emotions? How are emotions determined? Does an accelerating heartbeat rate mean nervousness or something else? How can one decide? I guess the ultimate question is - how much do we know about ourselves?

Source of image: http://digitalciv.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/iceberg.jpg

Questionnaire - Negative Responses Regarding New Advisory System

In Class

Currently studying Social Sciences as an Area of Knowledge in class, our class was divided into four groups of which we were assigned one topic and one type of response that we were supposed to acquire. My group had to conduct a survey regarding the new advisory system and we had to come up with questions that would receive negative responses. The following are the five questions and their results:

1 Do you think class meetings/advisories are necessary? 3 Yes and 7 No
2 Does it bother you that class meetings/advisories are taking away your lunch time? 7 Yes 3 No
3 Do you think having class officers is useful? 7 Yes 3 No
4 Do you really listen to your advisory teachers during advisory? 4 Yes 6 No
5 Would you agree that last year's break time was longer and more useful? 3 Yes 7 No
6 Would you like to extend your current break time? 9 Yes 1 No

We acquired the results that we wanted in questions 1, 2, 4, and 6. Question 2 is like an illusion because other than Monday, our lunches are actually 55 minutes long - almost 1 hour! Our subjects felt as if their lunches were cut short because of class meetings or advisories, but last year we had tutorial/advisory everyday in the morning so in reality our lunches are much longer this year. Although we received satisfactory results in question 4, we also recognized that our subjects have the incentive to lie because they want to look good to the people who are reading their answers. This is called as the observer's effect. As a result, our results might not have been very accurate.

On the other hand, we didn't achieve the results that we wanted in questions 3 and 5. We later realized that some of our subjects had the obligation to choose "yes" in question 3 because they themselves are either part of student council or a class officer. Hence, of course they chose "yes" instead of "no". For question 5, it was our poor wording that made our results steered in the wrong direction.

Overall, I personally think that my group's survey was fairer than other groups' surveys because we didn't limit our options to only either positive or negative responses. Our subjects had full liberty to choose what they really wanted to answer, unless they had other reasons to lie on the survey. As a result, I learnt that surveys can be misleading due to the use of language. Hence, when reading results of surveys or statistics, we should always be aware that what we see may not always be the truth.

2011 - 2012 Terminology 2

1 Creationism versus Evolution
Creationists base their views on religious beliefs while those who believe in evolution base their beliefs on scientific evidence. Karl Popper thinks that evolution is science because theory comes first instead of observation.

2 Thomas Kuhn
The philosopher of science who introduced the term "paradigm shift" in science.

3 Reductionist Thinking
A form of explanation of science based on the idea that a complex system can be reduced to its simpler parts. This is a common way to try to explain things.

4 Coherence Theory
Something that is true when it fits with other theories. Scientific theory is true when it describes reality accurately.

5 Law of Large Numbers
If we get enough people, even though individuals are unpredictable, we can make accurate short term trends because the number of exceptions can be cancelled.

6 Three Parts of Personality
The three parts of personality are our id, superego, and ego. The id is our natural pleasure zone, the superego is our conscience in which we act to conform with society's rules, while the ego is what we show to other people.

7 The Rorschach Test
A ink block test conducted by psychologists to help diagnose their patients' sickness. This test is said to be not very reliable and valid after the scientific method is used to test it.

8 The Milgram Experiment
An experiment conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram to find out whether people will obey to authority figures to do actions that go against their conscience. The results show that people follow orders even though it conflicted with their moral beliefs.

9 The Stanford Prison Experiment
An experiment conducted by Professor Philip Zimbardo in August 1971 in order to find out whether good people will turn bad when put into an evil situation. The experiment was originally planned to take place for two weeks, but was stopped after 6 days because of ethical issues.

10 Observer Effect
People answer or act different than they naturally would because a person is watching or will read their answers. Social scientists want to minimize this effect in experiments.

11 Holism
The whole of a system is not equal to the sum of its parts.

12 Reductionism
We can understand and explain something by looking at its component parts (opposite of holism).

2011 - 2012 Reflections 1

August 10, 2011

Today we started on the first Area of Knowledge - natural science. We mostly talked about the benefits and weaknesses of science. It strikes me that there are so many weaknesses with science, especially its reliability. How much can I trust things that are supposed to be facts?

August 12, 2011

Today we continued to talk about natural science and began talking about social science. I realized that humans are very complex, mainly because of ability to think. We have hidden emotions, thoughts, and intentions. Sometimes I don't even know what I'm thinking is truly what I think. Isn't that scary?

August 16, 2011

Today we continued to talk about social science and started on history. In ToK, we almost always discuss about reliability, and most of the things in the world, even certain facts, are not absolutely reliable because information can be deceiving and manipulated. What is true, then? What is the point in believing when we know what we believe is not true?

August 18, 2011

We started to talk about art. I rarely think of art as a type of knowledge. I see art as a form of expression (does this sentence contradict my previous sentence?). My art is playing on the piano and singing. Can my art be knowledge when I'm just playing or singing without involving any emotions?

August 22, 2011

We talked about math in class today. In my opinion, math doesn't seem like an independent area of knowledge because math is used to support other disciplines. For example, math is used in natural science and social science, but 2+2=4 doesnt' really tell us anything. 

August 24, 2011

Ethics could possibly be the most controversial Areas of Knowledge (did I use the term controversial correctly?). Ethics isn't as universal as other Areas of Knowledge and two people could disagree on one thing because they each have a different set of principles of what's right or wrong. Sometimes I think it's amazing that people can live peacefully with each other when there is so much diversity.

August 26, 2011

I think I live by ethical egoism and I'm wondering if that's ethically right or wrong. I think it's right because that's how I mostly live (sometimes I still do sacrifice my personal interests  or maximize the overall benefits but depending on the situation). Does ethical egoism mean selfishness?

August 30, 2011

Today we mostly talked about ToK presentations. The only thing that stroke me is how general and broad knowledge issues should be and they are surprisingly difficult to think of!

September 1, 2011

We continued talking about ToK presentations. Nothing really stroke me but I'm a little worried because I'm not sure if I'll do well in my presentation.

September 6, 2011

Pseudoscience! Pseudoscience actually plays an important role in my life, because to a certain extent, I believe in things that are considered as pseudoscience. After today, my beliefs are still the same, no matter what we talked about in class today.

September 8, 2011

The article regarding the Korean scientist was interesting, especially when we have a high population of Korean students in class. I think what Phil said is plausible, who knows what happens behind the scenes. Is reputation or moral duty more important? The first answer that usually comes to our mind is moral duty, but do we always do what we should do when we are thrown into a dilemma? 

Source of Image: http://alxa.ru/file/wallpaper/night_reflection.jpg

Surveys

Out of Class

One of my CAS projects is the recycle project. This year, my aim is to improve the recycling system in the high school because I know that there are flaws in it. In order to do this, I decided to conduct a survey that will be answered by high school students and the high school faculty. 


Although a survey may be the fastest way to find out people's opinions, there are some problems with surveys. For example, people might lie, answer wrongly without knowing, misunderstand the questions, or the answers on the survey are limited and do not apply and represent what people think. In addition, some people may not even bother to answer the survey, which could possibly affect the accuracy of the results.


I know that I have to be very careful in producing my survey so that the questions are not ambiguous and that there are enough options so that the people have freedom to answer that they really think. Unfortunately, I know that my data will still not be absolutely accurate. 


This relates to some knowledge issues: How do we know the answers are true when people could possibly make mistakes or have other intentions? (I'm trying to apply this to the real world) How do we know whether people truly understand what they are asked? How much can we trust data? 

Source of image: http://www.emmagem.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/survey.jpg

Theory of Motivation

In Class

Ethics, is a system of principles for what's right and wrong. In ethics, there are four theories of motivation - ethical egoism, altruism, utilitarianism, and moral duty. 


Definitions:
(a) Ethical Egoism
We should behave in a way that promotes our personal happiness in the long run.
(b) Altruism
We should sacrifice our personal interests for those of others.
(c) Utilitarianism
We should maximize the overall benefit for everyone involved.
(d) Moral Duty
We do something because we know we should do it.


I think it's difficult to decide on our motivations to do things, because [KI] how do we know what's right or wrong? Can we act on purely one type of motivation? Does acting on one type of motivation determines whether we are right or wrong? How can we decide what we should or shouldn't do? Who is to say about what's right or wrong?


I personally don't believe in constant pure altruism, and I don't think it's the right way to live. Yes, there are moments when we should sacrifice our personal interests for those of others, like giving help or volunteering for charity purposes. However, what is the point of living if you always live for other people? If so, your life doesn't belong to you. I think of utilitarianism similarly. We cannot always maximize the overall benefit for everyone involved because there will be times when we want benefits ourselves more than others. I'm not saying that we should be selfish, but I believe that we live for ourselves and help others when we are willing and able to. 


I think that ethics is a difficult discipline to discuss because everyone, due to culture, background, and living environment, has a different set of principles of what's right or wrong. For me, I decide on whether what I'm doing is right or wrong by guilt. If I feel guilty or afraid, then I need to stop myself from doing what I'm doing. 

Source of image: http://andyjenness.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/ethics.jpg

Pseudoscience

In Class

Currently we're learning about one of the six Areas of Knowledge - natural science. We compared natural science with pseudoscience. The definition of pseudoscience is this: A practice that is claimed to be scientific, or is made to appear to be scientific, but does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology.


The following are the topics that we listed as pseudoscience in class:
1 Astrology
2 Divination
3 Witchcraft
4 Feng Shui
5 Traditional Chinese Medicine
6 Crystology


Two of the topics above are related to my culture - Feng Shui and traditional Chinese medicine. I wasn't surprised to see Feng Shui in the list, because I don't really believe in it myself. Traditional Chinese Medicine, however, I find it a little disturbing and shocking to see it in the list.


I guess my feelings are due to the fact that I do seek for medical help from the traditional Chinese way. If traditional Chinese medicine is truly pseudoscience, then my beliefs would be false for the past 18 years. To acknowledge that is very, very disturbing. 


To be honest, other than witchcraft, my life has been more or less influenced by the topics mentioned above. To a certain extent, I believe in astrology and has even asked my friends' advice about it. My mum goes to a fortune teller at least once a year to find out what we need to be caution of every year. I have a few things that are said to improve my life quality by Feng Shui. I have a crystal in my apartment, also supposed to improve my life quality.


What can I say? Maybe Chinese are superstitious or we just hold many pragmatic truths to make us feel safe. By holding our beliefs in pseudoscience, we feel safe because we made some effort to make our life better.


Knowledge issues: Is it wrong to believe in pragmatic truths? How do we know that pseudoscience isn't true because no one has yet been able to prove them to be true? 


Source of image: http://www.phy.syr.edu/courses/modules/PSEUDO/wiz2.gif

2011 - 2012 Terminology 1

1 Discipline
An established branch of knowledge with its own subject area and way of approaching it.


2 Natural Science
The study of science that relates to the physical world, such as biology, chemistry, physics, and environmental science.


3 Scientific Method
A system of experimentation to test scientific theories: Aim - Observation - Hypothesis - Experiment - Data Analysis - Conclusion


4 Scientific Law
A scientific theory that has been tested many times and is generally accepted as true.


5 Paradigm
A accepted set of natural laws that forms our world view about science.


6 Social Science
The study of human life and activities, such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, and linguistics.


7 Positive Statements
Statements if facts/how things are.


8 Normative Statements
Statements of how things should be (values and opinions).


9 Determinism versus Free Will 
Determinism is the concept in which all events are inevitable and decided by causes external to the will. Free will is the power of making free choices unconstrained by external agencies. 

10 Nature versus Nurture 
Nature is features that are born or embedded into ourselves while nurture is features that are taught to us.


11 History
The study of past events.


12 Art
The expression of human creativity and imagination, such as music, theater, visual art, architecture, fashion, and dance.


13 Mathematics
The abstract science of number, quantity, and space, and their relationship with each other.


14 Ethics
A system of principles for what's right and wrong.


15 Theory of Motivation
How do people get motivation about what's best for themselves?
(a) Ethical Egoism
We should behave in a way that promotes our personal happiness in the long run.
(b) Altruism
We should sacrifice our personal interests for those of others.
(c) Utilitarianism
We should maximize the overall benefit for everyone involved.
(d) Moral Duty
We do something because we know we should do it.


16 Pseudoscience 
A practice that is claimed to be scientific, or is made to appear to be scientific, but does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology.


17 Robert Merton's Norms
The contribution to scientific work should:
(a) Communalism
Become part of public knowledge by full disclosure
(b) Universalism
Be judged independently of personal traits of the contributor
(c) Disinterestedness
Be made neutrally, impersonally, and without regard for personal gain
(d) Originality
Offer something new to the existing body of knowledge
(e) Skepticism
Be subjected to systematic doubt by the scientific community


Works Consulted
1 Google Dictionary 
2 Notes in Class

Fortune Telling

In Class

"You have a strong need for other people to like you and for them to admire you. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. You have a great deal of unused energy, which you have not turned to you advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitation. You pride yourself on being an independent thinker and do not accept other opinions without satisfactory proof. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic."

This was what Ms. Jackson chose specifically for me, or so I thought :) Ms. Jackson gave the whole class the same "prediction" that was said to describe each of us. It was funny to see when some of us were very shocked when Ms. Jackson revealed that actually everyone received the same "fortune". Some of them said, "But it sounds exactly like me!" Hahaha~

The trick to writing this kind of prediction is the ambiguity in the language. Among the things mentioned, such as extrovert/introvert, passive/active, change/tradition, etc. most of us are rarely absolute on each of the aspects. Usually we are sometimes A and sometimes B. Hence, that is how the general description is written.

I think it's ironic how language can be both vague and specific. Language is used to communicate, but because of ambiguity or vagueness, the intended message may not be fully conveyed. On the other hand, when one is trying to conceal a piece of information, one can be as vague as possible and avoid the specific details. Hence, the knowledge issue is that is language really the best way communicate when it can be both vague and specific? How can one decide the best way of communication? How can one know that he or she is using the best way possible to communicate?

Half the World's Languages Under Threat

In Class

One of our ToK reading assignments was an article titled "Half of the world's languages under threat". As the title implies, the article is about languages that are disappearing, especially those that are spoken by the minorities.

One person mentioned in class that she thinks that it's okay for those languages to disappear because they have lost their function. If less people spoke that language, less people will be able to understand that language and it will gradually be useless to speak that language. I strongly disagree with that person. I think language is not just a mean of communication, it also represents the identity of the speakers and their identity.

For example, many Chinese dialects such as Hokkien and Teochew are less spoken in the younger generation because, one, they can only be taught orally; two, the younger generation learn and speak Mandarin in school; and three, one can only improve one's proficiency in dialects through daily speaking. It is a shame, or maybe even shocking, that one should accept wholeheartedly the disappearance of one's language. It would be as if saying that I'm a Hokkien descendant but I know nothing about my dialect because I choose to neglect it and let it disappear.

Knowledge issues that can be discussed are: should a language be preserved if less than 1% of the world's population speaks it? What are the reasons for a language to be preserved?

Things You Never Knew 你不知道的事

In Class



Here is an official English translation of the lyrics of the song (given by the official Youtube accounto of the singer). The brackets is my interpretation of the translations

蝴蝶眨几次眼睛 再学会飞行

How many times does a butterfly learn to blink, before it learnt to fly?

夜空洒满了星星 但即刻会落地

The sky is sprinkled over with countless stars, but how many will remain?

(In the Mandarin lyrics, the character "countless" isn't written, but the meaning is implied in the context. In addition, the second part of the lyrics mean "but will fall to the ground immediately". However, that is not what the translation states.)

我飞行 但你坠落之际

Even as I fly, you fall

(If I were to be more specific, I would say "the moment you fall".)

很靠近 还听见呼吸

So close that I can hear you breathe

对不起 我却没捉紧你

So sorry I didn't keep hold of you

(I think the translation's phrasing is a little awkward. I would translate this phrase as "I'm so sorry for not keeping hold of you".)

你不知道我为什么离开你

You don't know why I had to leave you

(The term "had to" does not exist in the Mandarin lyrics. Another problem is that because there is no tenses in Mandarin, this phrase can also be translated as "You don't know why I have to leave you" or "You don't know why I left you". The knowledge issue is how do we know which is the most accurate translate? Who decides which one is the correct one? The lyricist? What if the lyricist does not speak English?)

我坚持不能说放任你哭泣

How could I ignore your every cry 

(The more literal translation of the lyrics is "I insist that I cannot let you to cry" but the official translation is very different from mine.)

你的泪滴像倾盆大雨碎落满地

All the while the downpour of your tears shattering the ground

(Does "shattering the ground" make sense? To me, the lyrics meant "Your tears are like the heavy rain pouring to the ground".)

在心里清晰

So clearly pierced my heart

(Again, if I were to make the translations flow better, I would say "So clearly that the sound pierced my heart".)

你不知道我为什么狠下心

You don't know why I had to keep away

(There is no exact translation for the last three characters of the phrase. The closest translation that I can get to is "cruel" but according to the context, the speaker is being cruel because he needs to but actually he doesn't want to.)

盘旋在你看不见那高空里

Circling in the sky above, just out of sight

多的是 你不知道的事

So many are the things you never knew


The two main problems of translations that are most encountered here are the context and untranslatable words. Because these are lyrics, some of the phrases are metaphorical so unless the lyricist explains to me what he or she is writing about, as a Mandarin native speaker, I can only guess the meaning. This adds on to the inaccuracy of the translation. The knowledge issue here is that how do we know what we think is correct and so how do we know our translations are correct? It seems like languages may break the barriers of communication, but there is also a danger of misunderstanding and confusion. Hence, can language be considered as a safe way of communication?