Weeks 18-19 Review and Assignments

If you were in class on 6/3/13, you should have received a tentative final grade check.  Many of you noted discrepancies due to the precarious nature of Dropbox as we build a paperless classroom, as well as a backlog of late assignments.  These issues are being addressed, and your grade will accurately reflect your performance in the class by 6/7/13.

PLEASE make sure that you submit any missing assignments via email this week (even if you have already submitted via Dropbox)  The immediacy of the student contact will allow me to fast track your assignments in the grade book as opposed to locating them in previous weeks folders.

This week we looked at our final topic: The Arts as Knowing.  Due to the scope of the Arts, our initial discussion focused exclusively on the visual fine arts, such as painting and photography.

Our three main ideas include:

1. Art is a way in which humans seek knowledge from the senses; ultimately becoming indistinguishable from one’s own mental reality.

2. Art is a scientific process and a crafted technology; one that often results in academies, schools of thought/criticism, and cycles of Avant Garde.

3. Art often communicates historical, ethical, iconographic, religious, and thematic representations of “the human condition”, often summarized in the question “what is beautiful?”

We completed the following activities in order to reinforce the main ideas of the unit:

1. We contemplated the problem of knowledge: To what extent do humans participate in Art as both an introspective, as well as communicative, process?

2. We looked at several simple shape illusion as a crossover to the Human Sciences (Gestalt Theory), as well as our ability to be "tricked" by our senses as a way to make meaningful/pragmatic patterns for high functionality.

3.  We watched Derron Brown's experiment in "Change Blindness" and discussed how our level of observation is different in the mundane tasks of everyday life and the "sacred" nature of Art.


4. We entered Plato's "Cave" with a drawing activity under our desks.  We then attempted to learn from one another what was important from the drawings, noting challenges in interpreting other people's symbolic awareness.

5. We looked at two paintings (one by Bosch, the other by Hitler) to determine if artistic style and subject matter can illuminate hidden psychological meaning and/or ethical character traits.





6. We observed controversial images and their ability to shape our understanding and emotions of the world.  We argued whether an image (such as the "Picture of the Year" recipient from the recent Palestinian bombings) can convey an authentic, historical, and emotional meaning despite heavy editing.


We also discussed the summer assignment.  Please read over the information carefully and email me with any questions.

Assignments are in the Dropbox folder.

Weeks 15-17 Review and Assignments

With finals fast approaching, I have fallen behind on the review assignment blogs the last two weeks. I apologize.

 For Unit 12 (weeks 16 and 17), we had three basic ideas we were discussing and learning:

 1.The “Human Sciences” is a framework of knowing, categorizing, and analyzing human behavior towards prediction and possible prevention/correction 

2. The “Human Sciences” is a collection of loosely related branches of evolving thought throughout history. Today, the paradigms correspond to Behaviorialism vs. Gestalt, Naturalism vs Interpretivism. And Qualitative vs. quantative research. 

3. The “Human Sciences” have several AoK crossovers, including ethics, nature vs. nurture, and the ongoing pursuit of “truth” and/or “fact”. 

We completed the following 7 activities (2 weeks) to reinforce these ideas:

1. We considered the difference between motives in "a man drinks a glass of wine" and "a deer drinks from a river". We noted the possible similarities and the massive differences associated with both actions. WE concluded that, whatever else being equal, when studying humans we both understand (being a part of the species), and recognize, a vast behavioral complexity due to the advanced cognitive functioning of the human brain (as well as any metaphysical, environmental factors involved). We extract, analyze, symbolize, and deconstruct events in a way that is lacking in other species.

 2. We watched a clip from "Deal or No Deal", in which the participate "reasoned" towards a massive reward loss.
 We identified the various players in the "society" of the stage (the contestant, his wife, his mother, his friends, the audience, the host, the "banker", and even the beautiful women holding the briefcases). We discussed the seemingly infinite nuance involved in the process, leading ultimately to the irrational risk-taking. A problem of knowledge emerges: To what extent does external factors contribute to our behaviors, especially with regards to the positive and negative consequences of high-stakes risk taking behavior?

 3. We read descriptions of human rituals/events in which "human science" language was conspicuously absent. We noted why the language of the Human Sciences is important in our ability to fully understand the meaning behind human behavior (as opposed to the mere reliance on Natural Science terminology).

 4. We watched a clip from "Silence of the Lambs" and discussed the body language, tonality, theatrical crossover (since the actors are creating fictional characters), and the interplay of "good" and "bad" Human Science application.




 5. We experimented with the "McGurk Effect" to introduce the tension between causation and correlation in research.

 6. We briefly discussed controversial topics such as suicide, LRA and child army, as an introduction to quantative and qualitive research.



 7. Lastly, we discussed the paradigms of the naturalist and interpretivist positions, focusing on the effects of the environment on behavior (Pavlov, Milgrim, etc.) Leading to the problem of knowledge question: Is all our behaviors dictated by society, our genes, or by metaphysical substances such as free will?

 Assignments are in the Drop box folder (due by 6/6/13)