When I think of quality, I think of how well something is done. How much time is put into something whether it tastes good or not. Taste is more or less like an opinion. Saying a song is bad is just like saying something tastes bad, it is what you think but there will always be another person who thinks differently.
To reflect on this argument, we will be taking a good at “Quality Vs Taste: The Icecream Story”. A good example to show that taste is just an opinion is when someone is talking about how bad the ice cream is for your body (which connects to the quality of the ice cream) and then they say “I know” he said. “It’s crap, and it’s really bad for me, but I love it anyways”. Just like most unhealthy foods, the quality of it is terrible obviously because it’s just chemicals and food dye but I see people eating foods like that more often than not.
It is like a home cooked meal. In my opinion, when you know where your food comes from, whether you grow it from your garden or you bought it at your local store, it just feels good to eat a nice home cooked meal when you know what you’re putting into your body. It is usually much more work to prepare food for yourself all the time but in the end you are being more healthy and probably saving money than if you were to go out and eat everyday. If you are smart, quality wins over taste.
Category Archives: Knowledge
Verification Handbook for Disinformation and Media Manipulation
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?”
Anh Tai Trang – History
History is like a book about things that happened in the past. It explains why, the course, the end or the continuation to the present time. In addition, some historians add some information to make the timeline more reasonable.
“History is written by the victors.”
-Winston Churchill-
The above statement can clearly show that the story taking place in history will have some details that will always be a mystery. The numbers we see when reading or viewing some historical documents are due to what is left over from history. For example, we know how many bombs there are in the war and the number of deaths. But, there will always be a missing number of people and sometimes people will find a few unworkable bombs and the number will increase when we find a new bomb stuck that somewhere deeply in the ground.
It is often said that we study history (war) so that we do not repeat these things in the future. But, it is not 100% sure because if we look back to the years from 100 to about 1000 we can see the wars getting more and more advanced. Let’s say we use swords and from there to guns and bombs. So far, I think the war will still take place because otherwise, why would developed countries like Russia or the United States study nuclear and “advanced weapons”?
Assumptions, data, and calculations
The Human Sciences gather information through various means, but almost all of them involve three factors: assumptions, data, and calculations.
Errors can occur in any of these.
- Assumptions can be wrong.
- Data can be wrong, or incomplete. It can also include too many variables, making it very difficult to reach any firm conclusions.
- Calculations can be incorrect. Simple arithmetical errors are rare in the computer age, but the choice of a particular formula (another kind of assumption) may lead to misleading results.
At one extreme, people may simply accept reports about social science research without questioning them.
At another extreme, people who become aware of the possible problems with social science research may decide not to believe any of it.
The wise middle position is to view the results of social science research critically and skeptically, but not to reject social science altogether.
The same wise middle position applies to all the other AOKs as well.
Mercator’s model of the world, and what we can learn from it
This BBC program—”Gerard Mercator: The man who revolutionised mapmaking“—is highly relevant to an issue that arises in many of the “Human Sciences”: the use of models to depict reality. Mercator’s map is a wonderful tool for navigators traveling by ship, because the parallel lines of latitude allow for accurate calculations of the best way to sail from Point A to Point B.
However, as an image of the world it is highly distorted, and illustrates the prejudices of Europeans. Europe appears to be much larger than it actually is, and is placed right in the centre of the map. Africa appears much smaller than it actually is. China is way off toward the edge. Greenland appears enormous. And so on.
These distortions would not be important if there had been other maps, equally popular and widely used, that put Africa or China or South America, say, at the centre, instead of Europe. But in fact Mercator’s image still dominates the view of the world in the West and because of this dominance, it has become, in effect, a tool of European colonialism.
In this sense, the story of Mercator’s map illustrates how important models can be in determining our view of reality, and perhaps distorting our view of reality. Conclusion? Regard all models critically! Analyze their assumptions, their omissions, the point of view they promote, etc.
In economics, for example, “gross national product” (GNP) is widely used as a measure of the economy. But what is included, and what is excluded, in the GNP? Why? Such questions can lead to a much deeper understanding than we can have if we simply accept the models presented to us.
For a more detailed discussion of Mercator’s map, try this blog post, “Your World Map is Hiding Something,” on the excellent Metrocosm web site created by Max Galka, who teaches “data wrangling and data visualization” at the University of Pennsylvania.
Emotion – Anh Tai Trang
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.
Are there universal moral values? – Anh Tai Trang
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.
That’s just your opinion, man
Jeff Bridges in “The Big Lebowski” (1998):
Paul Graham, “How You Know”
A brief but useful essay by Paul Graham, “How You Know”, is worth reading and thinking about.