I have contributed to the class in several
different ways. At the seminar I was sharing and taking part in the discussions.
I tried to ask key questions that lead to revealing discussions in our seminar group;
Kant believes that human beings are free,
what is his argument for his claim? And so on. I tried to not be afraid to
fail, everyone can get information and things wrong, and it is ok! Learning
from my mistake can actually help me to gain knowledge, and help me to remember
it correct to next time. I paid attention at the lecture and to the person
speaking in order to acquire more knowledge about philosophical thoughts. I also
tried to have an open mind, that everyone has a viewpoint.
I expanded my knowledge both from discussing
with my classmates and the lecture itself. For instance, I understood the two
stages of knowledge better; the first stage of
knowledge is the organization of senses by applying to them the forms of
perception, space and time. The second stage of knowledge is the organization
of perceptions by applying to them the forms of conception, categories of
thought. I also received a deeper understanding of the quote “Perception without conception is blind,
conception without perceptions is empty”. Perception and conception always
work together, it’s a necessary correlation between abstract thought (thinking) and concrete reality (sensor
input), neither can stand alone. After reading Kant and Plato, and all
the discussions, it went so far that I started to think about Kant’s questions
even outside school. Is it even possible to know what's really real?
I have developed my knowledge through reading
the text several times, some sentence (especially in preface to the second
edition) I read over and over again, and then again, in order to actually
understand. But the text is quite difficult. I don’t think it is possible to
skim through Kant’s text, details of argument matters, because Kant very often
appeals to them. I also have to accept that I would not understand everything.
To help myself understand Kant better I started out with reading an
introduction guide before approaching the text, I think it’s important to
understand the period of time when the work was created. I also believe it’s important
to read critically, question everything you read, and believe nothing till is
clearly proven.
After reading the text, I organized and
structured my thoughts and new knowledge. I also considered knowledge I already
have and how I could use it in order to understand Plato and Kant better. For instance
in my previous theory and method class I read the book; Chalmers, what is this thing called science? I used the knowledge that
I got from Chalmers, and applied into this course. I used KTH library and the school
search engine to search for information and new sources. I compared Plato’s and
Kant’s text, with other books, I used books as; The
Midwife of Platonism Text and Subtext in Plato's Theaetetus, What
does it all mean? A very short introduction to Philosophy etc.
Writing the blog post was like explaining it
for myself, it helped me to understand the text better.
Reference list Theme 1, blog post 1&2:
Ambjörnsson, Ronny (1997). Männsikors undran. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur.
Bergström, Lars (1992). Värdeteori .Stockholm: Thales.
Nagel, Thomas (1987). What does it all mean? A very short introduction to Philosophy. New
York: Oxford University press.
To me it's clear that the author has been very ambitious throughout the theme and gained a lot of new knowledge. I like how the person emphasizes what she/he had learned more about, and how he/she had worked with the text during these weeks. "Writing the blog post was like explaining it for myself" is very true! I felt the same way and agree it made it easier to understand the text, as well as reading the other text and reading how they had understood it. I would like to know some more about what was discussed in the seminar, what was the conclusions (if there were any)?
SvaraRaderaI really like your way of thinking, to question things and not to be afraid of making a “mistake” or saying the “wrong” thing. The things we discussed in this theme are very abstract and I am not even sure there is a “wrong” thing to say. I think the best way to gain insights in this area is to question things and tackle the ideas and theories from different perspectives. I found it impressive that you deepened your knowledge by using several other books. I also think that writing the blog post was a tool for understanding the texts better since it “forced” you to put it down in words instead of having it circling in your head.
SvaraRaderaI like how you in your post talks about your previous knowledge and that you have a very forgiving and open approach towards learning something new. If you’re afraid of failing, that could hinder you in acquiring knowledge in an area that is new to many of us. You have been very ambitious using a lot of additional literature. It would have been interesting if you had gone more into depth in describing if these different text books helped you grasping the concepts in a more comprehensive way or if they just added an extra complex element to the learning process. I also found the quote about perception and conception working together to form a whole to be very useful when understanding the relationship between the concepts.
SvaraRadera