Written on December 20th, 2009 by Oliver Kim
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In this post I’d like to present a list of questions linking History with the different Ways of Knowing for classroom discussion.
Linking the different Areas of Knowledge (AOK) with different Ways of Knowing (WOK) can be quite challenging at times. I now attempted to link History with Language, Logics, Emotion and Sense Perception.
History and Language:
- Does the way (the language) that certain historical events are presented in history books influence the way that the reader understands these events?
- What role does loaded language play when talking about historical events?
- What role do connotation and denotation play when talking about historical events?
- How can language introduce bias into historical accounts?
- How does language help or hinder the interpretation of historical facts?
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Written on September 8th, 2009 by Oliver Kim
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A paradox is a self-contradictory or self-referential statement. In this episode we’re going to have a look at several examples.
If I say: “I always lie” – am I then lying, or not? If the sentence “I always lie” is true, then it should not be true, because I always lie. If the sentence is not true, this would translate into “I never lie”, But in this case I lied to you, and we again have a contradiction. This is an example of a paradox. A paradox is a statement which contradicts itself. In this episode I’d like to show you a few other examples of paradoxes. Just for the fun of it.
Once there was a crocodile, which stole a child. The mother talked to the crocodile and the crocodile said that it will return the child to the mother if she answers to a question correctly. If the answer is wrong, then the crocodile would eat the child. The mother agreed. The crocodile now asked the question: “What am I going to do next?”. What should the mother answer? If she says: “You are not going to eat my child.”, then the crocodile would respond: “Wrong answer, I would have eaten the child, and now I’m really going to eat it because your answer was wrong”. What’s going to happen if the mother answered: “You are going to eat my child.”. The question is now: Should the crocodile now eat the child or not? If the answer is correct, then the crocodile promised to return the child. But this would make the answer wrong again. If the crocodile really intended to eat the child, he has to return it, but at the same time can’t do that because then the answer would be wrong again. Continue reading »
Written on August 7th, 2009 by Oliver Kim
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Enlightenment is the courage to use your own brain. Sapre Aude! Dare to Know!
Enlightenment is the courage to use your own brain. It is the courage to think on your own.
- What do you do if you want to make your lifestyle healthier? You talk to a doctor. He or she will advise you on what food to eat.
- You have a financial issue? You talk to the bank. They will advise you how to invest your money.
- Or maybe you have an emotional problem? Go to a psychologist! He/she will fix it.
- You have problems making a moral or ethical decision? You talk to a religious authority or a philosopher.
- You have problems settling a disagreement with somebody? What do you do? You talk to a lawyer, of course.
- You don’t know what to study at university? You ask your parents or your friends. They know it better.
- You don’t know the answer to question on an exam? You have look at what the person sitting next to you is writing.
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