Deduction vs Induction

Between deduction and induction, I trust more deduction because in inductive reasoning, errors of thinking can occur.  In induction, we take generalization and gather information based on them.The information we get from inductive reasoning makes us gain new knowledge.   On the other hand,  deductive reasoning is more useful to have accurate data. Deductive reasoning is taking the information we already know that creates conclusion that you did not realize before.

Journal Reflective Writing - 5. Sense Perception and 6. Memory as a Way of Knowing

It is pretty interesting to realize that we use our memory, our perception and our senses to recreate appearance and shapes. "Through our memories, we carry with us the knowledge we are gaining" (97), which means that it is the main source of our knowledge. Our memory is not 100% reliable when we think about it because it cannot recreate what we see precisely and accurately. It makes me wonder if we should or should not trust our memory. It is quite fascinating to realize that our memory does not work like a video camera like I thought it did. Therefore, our perception plays an important role into what we see but can also be deceiving. What we perceive is not always reliable and can misled our memory. Our sense perception also make a huge difference in what we see and believe."Sense perception moreover, provokes many of our most intriguing questions of what we know and how we know it" (80). Our senses basically are used to explain what we know. Humans uses their five senses to create a larger area of knowledge. In the pictures of the horses, sight was used. We cannot have a precise idea of the world without at least one of those senses. Of course nowadays, a lot of people that are missing one of those use different technics to still be able to live and understand life as it is. 

The two questions I have from the reading are: 

To what extend does inductive reasoning provide explanations of generality? 

To what extend can our interpretations of the way we perceive the world can lead to causal inferences?

KQ: To what extent do our senses give us knowledge of the world as it really is?

Our five senses; Sight, Hearing, Taste, Touch and Smell are what forms a memory. They are essential to our everyday life. They create a better understanding of the world. We learn more through our senses by listening to new music that have mark the history for example or even by looking in a museum  we learn more about our life and our place on Earth. Also, most people believe what they see. They need proves and only trust themselves. On page 80, it is telling us that our senses are the basis of our life style and that they provoke many questions of what we know and how we know it. 
Personally, my senses are guiding me, giving me more knowledge everyday. What I see in some places is exceptionally devastating for me. But, as sad has it can be, it teaches me lessons and other visions of the world. I get more open-minded! Everything that I know is based on my senses. 

 How do we know through memory?


Today, I have a psychology test and I am studying the subject since monday. My earliest memory is my vocabulary words. 

Our memory is selective. We remember what we think is important. I am aware about the moments of my life that I don't remember about. For example, what I did in my math class when I was in middle school is completely out of my mind right now. Or even something that my teachers tell me about a lesson and sometimes it happen that I listen but I don't register the information because I don't pay enough attention to what he or she is saying. 

I keep a lot of photographs, written messages, and personal objects from the past. I keep them into a box that contains all of my memories. My birthday cards from when I was a kid, photographies of my friends and my family, CDs of a ballet show I did when I was 10. All sort of things that would make me remember my past. I do not preserve bad memories because I don't thing they are worth remembering. I love to go back and see how I use to be, what I did, what people wrote me. I even have a letter that my dad wrote for my 10th anniversary about how he think I will be when I am 16 years old. He certainly did not plan for me to be in Africa. Those are just important souvenir that I want to hold on to. It is important because usually when I look into that box, all sort of emotion comes to me by looking at those memories that are special and significative to me. I do not think that my interpretations of the present and your choices for the future is influenced by my past memories. I rather think that my decisions are influenced my what I live now. I learn everyday and have a new interpretation of thing because I acquire more and more knowledge. My past memories were in Canada and I have changed a lot since I'm in Dakar so directly, we can see that nothing corresponding to my past memories influenced who I am and who I want to be. I surly have knowledge from my past but I did not learn as much as now. I was in my own world in my little city. I was not as open to new perspectives then in Dakar. I think I became a better person by living this experience. New memories were created and influenced my decisions in life. I don't think and see thing the same way as I use to. 

Memory and trauma: child soldiers

The definition of a child soldier is any child, boy or girl, under 18 who is part of a any armed forces.  It is a cheap and expandable weapon. Humans use children because they are easy to catch and to manipulate. 

It is a concert to force child to participate in wars because they are too young and innocent. All kids aged less then 18 should not be in that kind of environment. It is totally unethical and against human's rights. 

More than 300 000 children are presently involved in conflicts worldwide. International conventions are agreements used with treaty between countries stating children's right. There is a lot of conventions working to accomplish this goal such as Amnesty International, Unicef, the UN, ICRC and many others.

KQ: To what extend are child soldiers used in a war context?

Is it wrong for children to be recruited into armed conflict? If so, why?

- Yes it is extremely wrong for a child to be recruited because a child does not have the same ability to defend himself in any comparison to an adult. They are easily manipulated which makes them even more vulnerable. They are lead to a life where deaths and violence is everywhere. It is against child rights!

Who and what determines what 'childhood' is and when it ends? 

- Childhood is the part of a child's life where everything should be about imagination and happiness. Each society determines how a child is supposed to live and what he is supposed to do. In the world, they is probably different view about that subject. Young children do not have the same maturity then an 18 years old adult. The government determine the legal age to become an adult but in my opinion, once the maturity is acquire, you are no longer in your childhood.

To what extend could history be called 'the collective memory of the past'?

- Because our history is based on assumption. Whether they are real or not, nobody knows. Historian constructed history based on what the previous historian remembered and wrote down for the future generations. History cannot be precise and neither can a memory. 

Discussion Activity- Shared Remembrance

In my society in Canada, there is a monument that was created to remember the National War of 1914-1918.

Link to the image: http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/gatordawg/gatordawg1003/gatordawg100300015/6661041-the-canadian-national-war-memorial-statue-at-the-tomb-of-the-unknown-soldier-in-ottawa-ontario-canad.jpg

On the monument, we can see soldiers on horses at the bottom of it and on top angels encouraging them. The date of the begging and the end of the war is also written on the side of the monument. It is symbolizing the sacrifice made by every Canadian who has died for their country. The monuments represent sad memories because it bring back the fact that so many people died during this war. 

Ceremonies of remembrance preserve the shared knowledge of the society because everyone has their own way to remember something. We all have different views of our memories. We either remember person or an event differently. 

Collective memory is a kind of memory that is shared within a group of people. It is a souvenir that everyone remember the same way. For example, someone could remember the hair color of the departed person and everyone will remember the same color as well.

Our remembrances of the past is only relevant to our understanding of the past because our brain is visualizing what we perceived from it. 

Commemoration are made to remember someone or something that marked the past. It is made so we don't forget those people or event that have marked history. Commemorations helps the population remember not to do the same mistakes.

Our knowledge of history is important for decision-making of the present because we learn from what already happened so human don't do it again. 

Overview Subjectivity and objectivity

Language: Objectivity

Sense Perception: Subjectivity

Emotions: Subjectivity

Reason: Subjectivity

Imagination: Subjectivity

Intuition: Subjectivity

Faith: Objectivity

Memory: Subjectivity

In overall, I think that we use a lot subjectivity in our everyday life. We use our 8 ways of knowing on a daily basis. Consciously or unconsciously, they are always there. Our ways of knowing can be influenced my the society too. 

Math: Objectivity

Arts: Subjectivity

Ethics: Objectivity

History: Objectivity

Natural Sciences: Subjectivity

Human Sciences: Objectivity

Religious Knowledge: Subjectivity

Indigenous Knowledge: Subjectivity

Subjectivity interacts in everything that can be perceived in our own way through our ways of knowing. To what extend can our subjectivity affect our way of thinking and viewing the world?

Objectivity interacts with everything that has a precise and definite answer. 2+2 equal 4, and can only equal 4. 

To what extend does subjectivity is based on objectivity?

The spectrum does become more complex. 

Sense Perception and Me

Today, the most interesting piece of knowledge I learned was from the Ted talks by Robert Legato. It was really interesting to learn how professionals can replicate what the viewer remember from a certain event. How what we see and react to is a complete falsehood. Movie directors  use different technics that we would never think of to film it. Our perception of movies and the way they are been created is something completely different then what we see. 

Perception Test

Perception tests: 

On Test my Brain site, I did the Famous Faces test. The site showed me famous faces with hair removed and I had to identify them. I scored 6 out of 9.12 which is below average. I agree with my result but the fact that the celebrities showed were only American people influenced my results since I am from an other country and I don't know all the famous stars in America. I feel that in the Understanding Results part, they did not tell me the reasons of my score. The fact that I know some celebrities is from movies, media and magazines. 

On the Lab in the Wild site, I did the Test your social intelligence test. In this test, they are trying to see if the ability to recognize emotions of others vary across cultures. They showed me 37 pictures showing just the eyes part of people's faces. Then, I had to guess what emotion these eyes were showing. They gave me four words that defined an emotion and I had to choose the one that corresponded to the emotion in the eyes. Since I am not a native English speaker, it was hard for me to understand every words there was so my results could have been influenced by that. My result was 24 out of 36. The average result for adult population is 26 out of 36. I disagree with my result because they did not give me a language choice for this test which could have be better for me. In overall, I think that since I did not understand every words, I had a pretty good score. My perception of emotion helped me a lot to recognize the good emotions through eyes.