I am an subjectivist, and do have morals, but by looking at this episode, it made me question what Justice really is. Is justice there to please what the population? even if the act of murder it self is a horrific act, but if the population agrees to this decision, would this make him innocent?. I think that this presentation was a mind blower. It made me question what JUSTICE, which sounds very powerful and logical, still has a lot of flaws.

I am an Subjectivist and I personally thought that in terms of stirring the train, I would decide not to turn the wheel, also interms of pushing the fat man off the bridge, I would say no as well. This is probably to do with the action of physically killing that men with your own hands. If I were to be pushing the fat man off the bridge, that is very intentional and it is murder. But if you are in the train, and has no control over stopping the train, I would say that I will have an excuse to ‘kill’ 5 people. This goes with the cannibalism as well. I think that the idea of killing someone to survive is not a great idea since killing/murder is morally wrong. But as an alternative, if I were the sailors there, I would have waited for another few days and once I know that he has actually died, I would eat the sailor. by ding this, I think we can avoid us from being a ‘murderer’ so I think this solution is ‘Moral friendly’.

One of the activities that had a strong impression I had was the putting issues in orders from ethically correct to ethically incorrect. My group consisted of two girls and one boy (Xi, Narusa and My self) and different values compared to the other groups. For example, our group (at least I thought) that a parent lying about santa was at around mid of the spectrum. This was relatively different because the rest of the group considered that the santa issue was not a big problem at all. I thought this was not a very nice one compared to others since I simply felt bad for the kids that will embarrass them self in school (from personal experience). This activity took a long time to finish, and I think it was actually worth it to think and consider other peoples thinking. (Since Ethics for every individual differs for each knowers)

From this class, I felt that the definition of ethics differs for each knowers. I think that all ways of knowing has some ethics into it, but I think that Ethics is more inter related to ways of knowing such as the social sciences. Where as ethics might not influence as much for mathematics. Since I am an athlete, I felt that doping, and cheating during sports is ethically and morally severely WRONG. But this thought differed from Narusa’s point of view since she thought that other dealings such as money issues were far more severe.

As you can see from this, I felt that the definition Ethics simply differs from each knowers!

The photo attached, is the drawing our group (Kana, Lucian, Michi, Nobu) has made during this activity. We thought that ToK Diagram was really steady and less open-ended, thus we came up with a diagram such that we actually fill in the diagram it self. We thought that this is valid because through the course of ToK, you are supposed to expand, and fill in your own understanding, therefore we thought that this system is valid.

the ways of knowing and areas of knowing around the picture, is supposed tobe symbolizing planets that are supposed to be orbiting around the people. We thought that the idea of orbiting around was a great metaphor, since students are supposed to be processing new phenomenon through all the caps that you learn from ToK (Emotion, Ethics, Mathematics etc).

The original diagram of this is like having a ven diagram. We thought that the thoughts (the bubble coming out of the student) is supposed to be some parts should be connected, but some parts should be unique. In this case, the subset of the ven diagram, is the bridge. We made it such that the student is supposed to fill in the ven diagram with the knowledge you have, thus everyone’s ToK diagram is going to be unique and different from each other. (Also suggests thee point that you as a knower, is really unique!)

We made the diagram in a really unique and in a fun way, because we felt that the original ToK diagram, is in black and white, thus it looks really bad! Therefore we thought that having pictures and colorful diagrams will make it less intimidating.

If I were to do this essay again, considering mind maps and brainstorm may be useful since my ideas may ave been every were. In general, I believe I did a poor job on my essay, thus I am motivated for my next tok essay since i need to do a good job on my next one for next year. I will try my best next time!

things to focus:

STRUCTURE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

COMMUNICATION

BRAINSTORM

the quality, production, expression, or realm, according toaesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or ofmore than ordinary significance.

From this, you can say that it is art as long as someone thinks it is art. Through this definition and some class discussions with my friend, I came out with my personal definition of art:

It cannot be art if it does not have any message that the artist is trying to convey.

So I think that anything can be art, or has a potential in being art, but it cannot be art unless if it does not have any message to convey and this is my definition and the understanding of art through my personal reasoning.

At the beginning of the class, I used to be very bias against Art, but as I heard the presentation, I think my point of view have changed. Although I still think that Picaso and other serializm arts are nonsense, I still do like some arts (not necessarily painting).

When you hear the term Logic, the first thing that comes up to my mind is ‘common sense’. I did not know that logic needed two combined propositions. I used to think logic is what you KNOW from the beggining but i guess that its is deeper than it seems to be. During the course of reason, i started to think that logical assumptions and laws that have been came up with newton and the other scientists is based on assumptions. It is scary how what i know, in terms of since first of all seems very logical but it is actually based on assumptions. Although scientists says that they make ‘logical assumptions’ it is still scary. Therefore i once again started to think that what we know is not necessarily always true.

I think that I was able to learn some linguistic trics to avoid needing to justify each premise in an argument. I think that this can possibly help me attack and defend arguments if i were to have a debate or a argument with someone!

I have never really thought that the things i knew were a ‘rational thought’ so it was quuite interesting how what we know actually has a lot of component to know. I think that it is great how we get to know what and how we know. I never knew that rational consists of propositions with claims, testable ideas and statements that make sense. I did not know that it was rateher interesting to find out what they actually are. It was difficult to understand at first but as we had discussions,it made it a little bit more clearer.

In conclusion, i think that the assumptions and logic was the part that hit me the most during the classes.

1) an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow,fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished fromcognitive and volitional states of consciousness.

2) any of the feelings of joy, sorrow, fear, hate, love, etc.

3)any strong agitation of the feelings actuated by experiencinglove, hate, fear, etc., and usually accompanied by certainphysiological changes, as increased heartbeat or respiration,and often overt manifestation, as crying or shaking

Source:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/emotion(15 Jan 2011)

From this, I believe that emotion is a thought or feelings that flows through your mind, which could possibly alter your decisions, or way of knowing. I know that emotion is one way of knowing, but i think that emotions is one of the things that affect your decision makings. For example, even if I know, that it is the jungle law that small, weaker animals gets eaten by a predator. But if in a documentary, if a cute baby seal gets eaten by a polar bear, although it is just like that, some part of me would tell me that it is very cruel since my ‘emotion’ would effect my decision.

I believe, that emotion as a way of knowing tends to be little bit trickier than the other ways of knowing since it can be subconscious. Since even if the fact has clear evidence, emotion can effect the criminal sentence in a court. Emotion is probably one of the mental part of way of thinking which does not necessarily go through thinking. for example,emotions can be effected by  ’cute’, ‘small’, ‘ugly’, etc. So the physical looks of a person or a thing can effect the whole ‘image’ of the situation.

I think that Emotion is also one way of knowing since it is definitely one of the criteria that will effect the way we analyze things. This is because emotion helps us create an image in our brain. If you see a passage or a poem and if it has a negative connotation, your emotion will create a negative image in your brain. Therefore, emotion is one of the things that could manipulate each individual’s way of thinking.  A good Public Speaker tends to hit the audience’s emotion to get their designation. So even the jury’s would be widely effeted by emotions.

Other than that, i think that emotion also effects each individual’s morals. Morals tends to be created within the person according to the emotion that they experience. for example, when you were young, your parents will teach you not to cheat. This is because even if you get a good grade by cheating, you will not feel very happy emotionally. From this, you can say that emotion can also effect your morals.

In conclusion, I believe that emotion is one of the way of knowing since what you know is processed within your brain and since emotion effects that processing part, i believe that that is the reason why emotion is one of the way of knowing.

We think that our slides were filled with visuals, minimal text and appropriate information. Although our presentation was good, it was a little bit over time so time management would be one of the things that we all have to work on. When we were discussing what we were going to put on our slide, we were able to , as a team, discuss Both English and Japanese as a language in both boys and girl’s point of view.

During our planning, since our topic was very big (language), we had some struggle in what we had to put in. in the beginning, we  tended to add too much information in one aspect so it tended to be dispersed unevenly but when we met up with out team during lunch time and online, we were able to make slides that were concise, and appropriate. It was very easy for us to organize aspects since language was the topic that we JUST did, and we were all fluent in both english and japanese.

If we were to do this presentation again, I would like to do a similar topic individually and consider time management even more.

The other phrase that was brought up was ‘Animals can only produce fixed numbers of signals, but do not have the ability to generate new ones’,'Animal communications are instinctive. There is no evidence animals think before they communicate’ and ‘Animals can’t express concepts and ideas, only needs and emotions’. Out of these statements, i believe that the last two statements are believable but i do not agree to the first one. This is because the second statement is actually saying that animals cannot create new signals. But i dont believe so since although they may not be able to create new ones quickly, the signal that they already have must have been created by their ancestors long long time ago, therefore it should not be impossible for them to generate new signals. But I must agree that they do not have a lot of variation in terms of vocabulary.  Since a lot of the actions they do can be expressed by few signals. For example, happy, danger, yes and no.

Some people may say that when you order dogs to sit, they listen so that is an evidence of them generating new signals. But i personally do not believe that this is true. I think that dogs actually obeys to ‘sit’ since they know from previous experience that they get a treat, or a pat if they listen to ‘sit’ and dogs do remember that. They think that they will get something good if they move in a certain way, when the owner says a specific keyword. So there fore, just because the dog listened to ‘sit’, I do not think that this does not necessarily prove that the dogs generated new ideas or signal.

From this, We can not prove that the dogs can think. But since we cannot prove that they are NOT thinking, we can not be sure that the dogs can not generate new ideas.

I am currently 16. I know this because it says on my birth certificate, and I grew up being told like that. I think that your personal age does affect the way of thinking since in an extreme example, if you are 7, it might be difficult to understand the concept of death. Where as if you are 16, it would be more likely for that person to understand or accept death. In addition, it tends to be easier to control kids rather than adults since they are ‘in experienced’.  I think that this way of thinking is kind of to do with your experience.

2. What is your mother tongue? What other languages do you speak? How might your particular languages affect your knowledge?

My mother tongue would be Japanese. Other than that, I could only speak English. So I am a bi-lingual. I think that your particular language can affect the way you think to an extent. This is because each language have different vocabularies. For example, there are words such as ‘臨機応変’ in Japanese, but if you were to explain this in English, it would be like go with the flow. As you can see, there is no phrase that is EXACTLY THE SAME in any language. So, if your mother tongue is Japanese, I think that your attitude and the way of thinking would differ than a English person.

3. What sex are you? Does your gender role affect how you see the world and what expectations you have about your knowledge and education?

I am a male. I personally believe that girls can be far neater than boys in terms of the quality of work, and the completion of homework. But on the other hand, I think that boys and girls have different values. For example, I think that girls tend to be more emotional than boys. So in my impression, it seems as tough girls tends to take a long time deciding on one thing. Where as a lot of boys tend to just go with the flow. So, since I grew up in an international environment where both girls and boys both got education, I do not have specific expectations for both genders.

4. Are you urban or rural? How might you living in a city or living in the countryside affect how you have learned and what you know?

I think that I am urban. This is because I have only lived in the city for my whole life. I think that living in an urban are would provide you with more sophisticated education since cities tends to have better facilities. Further more, I think that the case studies you learn tend to be based in the city (if you live in the city). Also, if you live in the city, I think that you grow up in a packed space so I think you tend to be more ‘narrow minded’. So I think that their knowledge tends to be bias. If you live in a rural area, I think that you will grow up in a place where there are more space so I think that people could grow up in a relaxed manner.

5. What is your spiritual worldview? How do you think that your following a particular religion, or not doing so, affects your knowledge?

I am an atheist so I do not believe in any religion in particular. But since I grew up in a Japanese family, I guess I am kind of towards Shinto. Since I do believe in the existence of Hotoke. From as far as I know, Religion has been the tool to control and collect money from people. I think that religion is basically a way to manipulate people’s mind to gather money. From this, since I am not an atheist, it seems rather ironic to give or ‘donate’ a lot of money to the church, shirring etc. If you are a Christian, you would believe that everything has been made by god so I think that your perspective would definitely differ from an atheist.

6. What other aspects of your background belong here? The questions so far have just been guides, opening thoughts to which you can really add.

I think that the culture or the place where you grew up would definitely effect the way of your thinking and your understandings. This is because for example, if you grow up in India as a local citizen, you would not be really against suttee or other religious events. Where as if a British person sees this act, they would probably think that this is inhumane. So Just like religion, I think that the conditions that you grew in would change your morals and your perspectives.