New link added:
https://datajournalism.com/read/handbook/verification-3
The “Verification Handbook for Disinformation and Media Manipulation” is intended for journalists working in the era of social media disinformation but offers another take on the essential TOK question, “How do we know?”
“Elsewhere, the mosaics take the form of constellations — a reminder that the empire and its economy once dominated everywhere you could see the stars at night.”
They were right to compare economics like stars because we can see it everywhere. The economics of all countries are particularly interested in because it can evaluate how much money you hold is worth if you travel through another country. For example, 1USD = 23,000VND. It is an estimate and comparison of the economic development of each country. In addition, when it comes to economics, we always think of something very formal.
“Economics often appears to be an exercise in number-crunching, but it
actually resembles storytelling more than mathematics.”
It’s correct. Economics are calculated from mathematical numbers and used in a very logical way. But it’s not just numbers, economics is all about people’s living conditions, their relationships, big and small in the society.
I think that one should not be overemphasized because one can do something. Not to say that we should not applaud them for what they can do for the economy. What I’m talking about is honoring more standards and focus on the younger generations; The younger generation may be the next ones to be able to do more feats or “beat your high scores”. Do not put one person too high because there will be another higher than them and it will continue. I find that these readings are quite good because they contain a lot of important events that have happened and make some hidden comments in the reading. It can be seen that when we only do something small in daily life, it will also make something extremely useful for society. Just like an individual can revive a large economy and only need a little motivation in life.
Emotions are expressed through thoughts (in each person) and actions (expressed). People have a lot of different emotions and 6 primary emotions are happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. These 6 emotions are usually expressed outward but sometimes they may not be expressed. There are many theories that explain what emotions mean but put them all in the main sense that emotions can affect the actions and thoughts of every person. Sadness often leads to depression and this can be manifested in a dramatic way, such as falling face down. And these emotions can be considered as a knowledge and be divided into 3 parts: Perception, Reason, Language. Two of these three parts (Perception and Reason) are often hidden inside each person’s thoughts and Language is an outward representation. Language will help identify other people’s emotions in sound. If the voice becomes lower and lower, the person is probably sad. On the contrary, if the voice is softer then the person is probably happy.
“Since emotions are an integral part of our mental lives, they are likely to influence the way we see and think about the world.”
People often ask that listening to the heart or reason. It is often said that emotions will make people blind and reason will make people cool. Therefore, to be able to decide the most accurate way, first to balance both and this is not easy. People are often easily influenced by everything around them. So, for people to learn to balance needs a lot of time for them to go through and learn it.
“Our emotions can not only distort our beliefs, but also lead us to make poor decisions. Some emotions are urgent and short sighted and they can easily blind us to the longer-term consequences of our actions.
With intuition problem. Each person has their own intuition and this greatly affects the decisions and thoughts of each person. If your mind helps you make more informed decisions and your heart gives you insight, intuition is at the core of both. But intuition is not always true because you cannot rely on any argument. But intuition can also rely on some knowledge already available to be able to make decisions.
There are universal moral values. These values are expressed by the agreement of the majority of people living and working there. They live together, build an empire and create laws that everyone agrees and obeys. Therefore, if you violate the regulations, it will be considered as wrong and will be punished according to the level of wrong. Correctness or wrongness are given by each person’s own ideas (so mistakes can occur) but rules are set out to indicate wrong and right. In addition, people are easily affected if the people around them agree on one thing, and they will also choose to follow the majority. “Fact” is not really a word applied to morality because morality cannot be seen or heard but “fact” does. “Fact” is a word to indicate a fact or information that is completely accurate and almost unchangeable but morality can be changed.
In fact, ethics cannot be determined by math or science. But math and science can judge and explain a certain part of morality. Murder is right or wrong, it is only in one’s own opinion. The killer might have given the killer a right and he should have done it, but those around him looked at it as wrong. Therefore, to be able to distinguish right from wrong is in each person’s own opinion. As mentioned before, rules are made up of many different ideas but are formed from the majority. Rules are created to prevent people from doing things that others consider wrong. Most of all, the laws were created to protect each individual there. So, if one is killed, it is affecting an individual and it also means breaking the law leading others to think that killing is wrong.
Jeff Bridges in “The Big Lebowski” (1998):
After reading all the key terms in ethics, the one I relate to the most is consequentialism. I like it because it talks about how one’s decision changes based on the situation. What I mean by this is for example, if I see someone almost getting run over by a car, and I jump in to save them, but break one of their ribs in the process, it is for the best as I was able to save a life. Because a life was saved, my actions which bring harm, are acceptable. In this case, I would have made my decision based on what the outcome would be. My actions would be judged by the outcome.
Interesting article at arstechnica.com has relevance to TOK:
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/12/why-do-we-cling-to-beliefs-when-theyre-threatened-by-facts/
This blog post about wine-tasting is filled with ‘earthy’ language (in other words, obscenity and profanity) but it does suggest some interesting TOK questions.
http://io9.com/wine-tasting-is-bullshit-heres-why-496098276
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/apr/04/nightmare-west-memphis-three/?pagination=false
From the New York Review of Books, a real-life situation filled with TOK issues and juicy quotations.
This piece from Daily Writing Tips makes clear the hazards of repeating ‘what everybody knows’.
Perhaps it will be useful for me to summarize the main points I argued in today’s class.