Parsonstok's Blog

Religion and such…

parsonsart — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:57:39 +0000

Okay…here’s the last TOK blog for the year, but don’t forget to occasionally check back from time to time for announcements and such. Which brings me to the questions for discussion this week: religion and such. I’ll be very interested to hear different points of view on either of these, but it’s only required that you pick one:

-To what extent do you think your religious beliefs have been affected by the society you grew up in?

-If a religious person’s beliefs are the result of indoctrination, could the the same be said about an atheist’s belief.

Not the most engaging questions, I’ll agree.

Please do not forget that there is not class this Monday night, 5/16 but we will have class on 5/23 which will be our last class. I’m woefully behind in just about everything right now due to IB exams, including grading, though I hope to correct that this weekend. Sorry for being so behind. If you have make up work that needs to be done (which includes many of you), but I just haven’t got it ready for you, be patient and keep bugging me.

I hope you’ve had a good weekend (since most of you will read this Sunday evening)

No blog

parsonsart — Sun, 08 May 2011 18:56:13 +0000

IB exams devoured me last week. The result is, no TOK blog this week. See you Monday.

Will you go to the prom with me? Check the box “yes” or “no”

parsonsart — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:28:39 +0000

Now that prom season is over, it got me thinking about rites of passage. What the heck are these things about? The nail appointments, hair, dresses, flowers, transportation (limo vs. own vehicle), dinner beforehand, etc. Does it somehow help us traverse these stages in our lives and find our place in the world or are rites of passage just social conventions that we feel we must force ourselves to go through, even if they seem incredibly antiquated and or awkward? So let me throw out a few that take place in high school and maybe early college…

Prom
Quinceañera
Belle Ball
Pledging a Sorority or Fraternity

That’ s all I can think of off the top of my head. Why do these exist? How legitimate are they? What is your personal experience or reflection of these? Try to tie in some of the Ways of Knowing (emotion, reason, sense perception and language) into your analysis.

Have a great week!

Oh, and by the way, we will begin the Arts as an Area of Knowledge next week and our very own IB Visual Arts teacher, Ms. Ramirez will guest in our class next Monday to get it kicked off. Please don’t be late.

Art vs. Science Smackdown!

parsonsart — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:41:47 +0000

So this might be a better entry after we discuss art and science, but I feel we all have enough of a grasp of the subjects to post something moderately intelligent. One of my more favorite passages from the short story we read Monday night is as follows:

“They (the Martians) quit trying too hard to destroy everything, to humble everything. They blended religion and art and science because, at base, science is no more than an investigation of a miracle we can never explain, and art is an interpretation of that miracle. They never let science crush the aesthetic and the beautiful. It’s all simply a matter of degree. An Earth Man thinks: ‘In that picture, color does not exist, really. A scientist can prove that color is only the way the cells are placed in a certain material to reflect light. Therefore, color is not really an actual part of things I happen to see.’ A Martian, far cleverer, would say: ‘This is a fine picture. It came from the hand and the mind of a man inspired. Its idea and its color are from life. This thing is good.”

This bring sup many questions. Pick one and answer.

Has our modern society grown so accustomed and rely so much on science that we have taken the wonder out of things and we don’t even realize it?

Has science crushed the aesthetic and the beautiful?

Can religion, art, and science be a benefit to each other rather than being at odds with each other?

Is “science no more than an investigation of a miracle we can never explain, and art is an interpretation of that miracle?”

Have a great three day weekend.

Asimov would be proud

parsonsart — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:14:22 +0000

In our recent discussion involving ethics, we’ve focused on being able to justify what you believe in. Here’s a final challenge. Imagine you and a group of people end up on a very fertile but uninhabited planet. Upon establishing your new society you must decide upon a 5 point declaration of rights which your society will hold above all others. What will your 5 rights be bases on your ethics? You must justify your points.

No blog

parsonsart — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:00:54 +0000

This is becoming a bad habit. No blog this week. See you all in class Monday.

Politics and Ethics

parsonsart — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:02:40 +0000

First an important announcement…TOK next week (4/4) will only be from 5:30-6:30. The TEF Academic Recognition Celebration is taking place and someone has been gracious enough to choose me as their teacher they wish to honor. I am sorry for the short notice, but I only received notification Wednesday.

One of the areas people most commonly find to criticize ethics is politics. Especially in the United States it seems the lines between politics and ethics are very blurred, that they are one in the same. So here’s a few questions.

Should politicians strive to be ethical or should we expect them to play the political game?
Can politics exist independent of ethics?
How important are values (“principals” or “ideals”) in politics?
Are politics primarily concerned with what is or what ought to be?
Is it better for a society if politicians are skilled in the workings of power, or if they have strong principals that govern their actions?

No need to answer them all, they interrelated. Just comment on what the questions bring to mind.

Moral Relativism

parsonsart — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:43:14 +0000

This will be a short post, but one that I think will spur a bit of discussion. As we ended class, we were talking about the concept of moral relativism, particularly in the case of other cultures. So here is the question(s)…does moral relativism imply tolerance? If we accept moral relativism, does that imply a “live and let live” thinking? What are some arguments for or against and the consequences of both?
Have a good week.

No blog this week. Have a happy spring break.

parsonsart — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:46:54 +0000

Personal legend…fear

parsonsart — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:24:24 +0000

“Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus (here you must refer back to last weeks post), we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn’t work out, because we cannot fallback on the old excuse: “Oh, well, I didn’t really want it anyway.” We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and know that the universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.”

Don’t we like the safe bet? How many times have we, when faced with a big decision, weighed the possible pros and cons and either thrown in the towel or forged ahead based on what conclusions we come to? Many times we take a risk because, after we reason pros and cons, if it doesn’t work out we haven’t lost that much (I would dare say if there is not much to lose, then it’s not much of a risk to begin with). Or other times we don’t take the risk because there is much to lose.

Cohelo points out that sometimes it is not only the goal but the journey to that goal which teaches us much. This notion is obviously reflected in numerous literary, musical, and dramatic productions. When we take a mighty leap of faith to confront our dreams, it is almost inevitable we will run into obstacles along the way. When do we let fear determine our path? Or perhaps a more intriguing question, Are defeats necessary?