We will meet in room MB-11 at 1:00 p.m.
This is week 8 of the semester. I should have received your weekly e-mail update for week 7 by today.
Note: This Saturday is the last day to drop a class without an evaluative grade. This is the time to consider whether you are seriously behind in any of your classes, including this one. After March 14, you will have to receive an evaluative grade in any class in which you are still registered; you will no longer be able to withdraw.
Bring with you to class today:
1. Two copies of a reflection paper on Mc Henry: Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2.
McHenry describes several disastrous cases of poor thinking. What went wrong? Were these people just "stupid"? Or did they use flawed thinking strategies? Discuss at least two of the examples and try to identify the mistakes in thinking that led to the unfortunate results. Be as specific as you can. See if you can think of how these errors could have been avoided.
Many of us use the terms "know," "believe," "think," and "feel" interchangeably, or almost so.
Sometimes we make distinctions, but often it is hard to tell exactly what they
mean. McHenry reflects on what we can or should "really mean" by these terms, and what their significance is. One point that comes out is that the strength of our conviction doesn't really assure the truth of our beliefs. Several of you gave examples of mistakes you had made by overestimating your knowledge, or underestimating it. Even if I know for sure that Elvis was born in Memphis, he wasn't. A wise person is probably one who has more confidence in some beliefs than others, who can adjust the strength of beliefs in light of changing evidence.
Feel free to comment on any of the ideas in chapter 2, but at least comment on this: Unless you are a very unusual person, you have had an experience like discovering the mistake about Elvis's birthplace; you have discovered that you were wrong about something. Does that discovery undermine your confidence in your beliefs in general, in your ability to know?
Why or why not? (It will be clear, I hope, that the "why or why not?" is the most important part of this question. Give it some real thought.)
2. The McHenry book.
Complete the following reading by Wednesday:
Mc Henry: Chapters 3 and 4.
Complete the following writing by Wednesday:
Two copies of a reflection paper on Mc Henry: Chapters 3 and 4.
You may comment on or raise issues about any of the ideas that interest you in these chapters. But also consider the following issues:
In chapter 3, McHenry urges us to recognize that the information that we receive through the senses is not the same thing as knowledge. Knowledge requires a foundation, a system of organizing information that gives it pattern and meaning. In chapter 4, he calls such a system an "ideology"--and says that most of us hold both the "big-I" and "little-i" sort. Beginning with Descartes' attempt to lay a clear logical foundation for our knowledge of the world, McHenry traces many of the difficulties that keep us from developing such a foundation. Making the information of the senses into knowledge requires a framework of interpretation, but the framework we seem to develop on our own doesn't work for all kinds of information (for example, the behavior of electrons).
From the perspective of the end of chapter 4, think back on William James's observation that "Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case." Is that true? In what sense is it true" And in what sense is it not true? In your reflection paper, explain to what extent you think our knowledge is a product of our own experience and learning and to what extent it is a product of the ideologies (either big-I or little-i) that we accept from others. The answer may not be the same for all of us. What factors would make it different?
Reminder. You should have completed the following reading by today:
Mc Henry: Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2.
You should have completed the following writing by today:
A reflection paper on Mc Henry: Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2.
| On-line Discovering
Ideas Table of Contents On-line Syllabus |
On-Campus
Discovering Ideas Table of Contents |
Discovering Ideas
Palomar College
jtagg@palomar.edu
This page was last edited:
01/27/09