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ty frederickson

Just thinking - 44 views

started by ty frederickson on 24 Oct 12
  • ty frederickson
    #1 ty frederickson on 24 Oct 12
     
    Hey ToK4, remember that conversation we had today regarding "what other choice do we have?" ToK2, this is coming your way after Eid. Well, I guess I am compelled to ask this question: why are we so quick to accept an idea simply because we see "no other choice?" I mean seriously, you only thought about that whole discussion for 10 seconds (maybe less) before you arrived at the "well, there are no other choices" conclusion. Are we so limited in our perspective that we cannot think of another option than the one we are currently accepting? Any takers?
  • Ash Maher
    #2 Ash Maher on 24 Oct 12
     
    I think many made this quick conclusion, including myself, because it is easier to not think of the alternative. For if we considered the alternative we might find that this could corrupt all that we subscribe to. Hence why we accept the "choices" we have or lack of choices. In other words what we do not know does not hurt us. So in saying "there are no other choices" is simply another way of accepting life. In a sense "I'd like to retain what I believe in" is what it becomes. The reality we live in has become our mental "bunker/cave" and so because of that we accept it because that is all we know or want to know. Anything outside our mental bunker/cave can potentially destroy our belief and is therefore unsafe for us. The point is that if you take the alternative you have the chance of losing all sense of safety and everything that you once considered real. They become subjective to being worthless because we have been deceived or on the flip side. It could be positive and the outcome a revelation. However maybe that is because it is subjective to the individual i.e. the prisoner released see's the light while Neo now free must comprehend all of his actual reality. That is another story however the truth is that when poised with such a question and its concept. It makes many find it easier to choose the safest choice. Accepting we are limited because the reality we inhabit states so.
    In my opinion we are in actuality not limited to what we can choose. However how we wish to accept life becomes the limiting factor. We either accept or search, the easy way out or the hard way out. The outcome could be either positive or negative and this is what we fear. We jump to the safest option so we are not harmed hence why we concluded, "there are no other choices".
  • Yukiko Saito
    #4 Yukiko Saito on 03 Nov 12
     
    I didn't really say this in class but I think that we have so much choices to choose from but we just think that we only have a limited amount of them. For example, this may sound off- topic but almost everyday I walk up to my closet and say "I don't have anything to wear" when clearly you can see me standing in front of like the whole store of clothes. It's like I'm blind. I"m seeing all those clothes and yet I say "I don't have anything to wear". This is what I think is an simple example of how we ignore the choices and not see all the possible choices right in front of us.
    The reason why we say "there's no other choice" is because I think we're scared of choosing things that are outside the box (which aren't completely outside the box or original because this choice may be or is influenced by something or someone) and maybe being unsuccessful or not like you've imagined. Most people want to succeed in life and the choice that's given or the "right" way is so obviously go to school, get good grade, go to good university, get a good job, earn money, family, retirement and death. The earlier generations made these decisions for us and they somewhat made clear of what to do and what not to. We can't make up a total original choice for ourselves because they are someway or another affected by or influenced by others. Like you said in class about everything in the world is a copy, I think this would connect to this. There is no originality, everything is a copy of something. But then I think, "If everything is a copy, then there must be something to copy it from. So where is that or what is that?"
  • ty frederickson
    #6 ty frederickson on 05 Nov 12
     
    Hi Yukiko, you raise several really interesting and reflective points regarding this discussion. I suppose many of us--I know I can--relate to the idea in which we state "I have no choice" while simultaneously confronting a wide array of choice. Ah, the irony. Your final question about the source of originality may allude to Plato's Realm of the Forms. The other class hasn't addressed this yet, but remember how Plato claims that the realm (wherever that is) is the "location" of all original design, including "justice," "beauty," and so on? Those Forms have always existed, and they are eternal and changeless. According to Plato, there is no way to create an original idea, because that idea simply pre-exists human thought. All we do is imitate the idea. This actually has connections to Hareth's questions in the other class regarding the point of originality. Maybe he will jump onto this thread too!
  • Himesh Settinayake
    #8 Himesh Settinayake on 05 Nov 12
     
    Perhaps these states of minds are simply just based on what our parents have continually pushed us to do. For some of us, our parents are constantly telling us to get good grades and whatnot so success can be easily achieved. We subscribe to these thoughts as our parents become our biggest role models in our lives. Our parents constantly remind us of how hard they tried to reach where they are; they even seem happy in their current places and positions. Occasionally, seeing their happiness makes us quite literally want to be like them, to try as hard as they did, to succeed to get into a place like theirs. In regards to "happiness is acceptance", I believe that that kind of happiness is simply fake. We have the potential to become truly successful in life and if we somehow fail to become "truly successful", that is our fault and we would have to live with the guilt and acceptance of our failure. We all have dreams. Although quite cynical, I believe that "happiness is acceptance" can never be, and true happiness can only be achieved once our true goals and dreams have been achieved.
  • Yukiko Saito
    #10 Yukiko Saito on 06 Nov 12
     
    Wow, we can never be original...that is pretty disappointing. So that means that we cannot go the other direction or see things that other people cannot see. This is exactly like the Plato's Allegory of the cave. We are forced to see what everyone sees and we all see the same.

    "Happiness is acceptance". I agree with Ash that it depends on the situation and context. Adding on, maybe it also depends on the personality of the person. If you are a positive/ optimistic person you have a the ability or the strength to turn the negatives to positives. For example, getting a 5 or a 6 on a test. You can improve and you know you can do better but..hey I passed. (Maybe this example was too simple). On the other hand, if you are a negative/ pessimistic person you have negatives thoughts, may turn positives to negatives and turn negatives to even more negatives. Using the same example, getting a 5 or a 6 on a test. You can improve and have perfect scores for that class. But wait nobody's perfect which means I can't be perfect. So what's the point working so hard on improving....
    When I first saw the quote I instantly thought of the personalities since there are times where acceptance did not bring me happiness or happiness wasn't the cause of acceptance.
  • Hareth Al-Maskari
    #11 Hareth Al-Maskari on 05 Dec 12
     
    Beautifully put Ash, happiness really is in acceptance. Back to Dzaf's point, I think we can think in different ways, but are at risk at getting lost in the ideas we try to create. Madness, psychosis, perspective- all words for the same thing, thinking outside the box. I think the big thing keeping us in the box is not that the people will exile us, but that we go too far on our stream of thought from the river of society, and end up not being able to find a path back to their way of thinking.

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