Author: ssrabi20 (Page 2 of 2)

Darwin’s Influence

November 27, 2017 / / 0 Comments

In this week’s past lecture with Janet Browne we spoke about Charles Darwin’s biography and the origins of his studies.

Charles Darwin came from a well-educate and affluent family in England. His advanced studies drove his curiosity regarding human kind and their origins. Browne focuses not only on Darwin’s findings but also his person life which lead him to delve deeper into our evolution.

During our lecture with Professor Browne she asked each of us individually if we have learned about Darwin in biology classes during high school. The entirety of our class responded that they had even if their studies had been brief. However, Browne question caused me to think about the scope in which we learn about Darwin opposed to the scope that her biography took. Browne goes as far back into Darwin’s life as one could. She wrote about his siblings, parents, and education at the basic level. Browne then goes on to elaborate on Darwin’s college education. Browne gives the reader a deeper understanding to the way in which Darwin’s mind worked. She explained how his research can be seen as taking both Edinburgh University and Christ College approach and how the philosophies of the two schools shaped Darwin’s intellectual approach. Browne then goes on to talk about Darwin’s voyages and later findings.

However, what I realized from Browne’s initially question regarding our previous knowledge of Darwin made me realize I had known little of Darwin’s personal life prior to reading Browne’s book. The greater background knowledge of Darwin helped to explain how his mind approached the issue of our origins and what was driving his passions.

At the end of the lecture Browne asked us to leave with one final thought. My final thought regarded the unique timing of Darwin and his findings. Browne stated that while some people were and still are opposed to the idea of evolution, Darwin was not shunned for his findings. In other historical accounts people like Gallileo, for example, was put under house arrests for proposing ideas as to how the earth rotated and existed in relation to the sun. While now we know that Gallileo’s findings were in fact correct, during the time period he lived people refused to believe him. Browne’s writings made me realized the importance of time. Had Darwin lived just fifty years early he would not have been the one to come up with the idea of evolution. Theres a chance that it could have taken hundreds of years for the ideal of evolution to arise. This idea can be applied to any history, philosopher, mathematician, or scientists. However, it highlights the important of the society in which one is living in . The society in which Darwin was a part of was receptive to his findings. In addition it made me think of how while society is constantly changing, there has not been a massive shift in our societal beliefs for years. The last major societal shift was that from having slaves to being a slave-free society. While Darwin looked at the evolution of many kind and species, I think it is important to understand the history of Darwin as a person and the society he was living in when he proposed his ideas.

Unnatural Instincts

October 22, 2017 / / 0 Comments

When walking through the museum, something students rarely find the time to do in the busy schedule, it became clear how much amazing art is at our disposal. When walking through the collection of works both focused on origins and otherwise, I was particularly drawn to the work by Santiago Montoya, the Wall of Lamentation XIII. Montoya’s work depicted rolls of money from all over the world. These money rolls were arranged in no particular order at first glance. When looking closer one could argue that there was in fact an order. However, I do not think that the arrangement of the money has a particular meaning aside from its ascetics.

Looking at this work, I began to think about how money related to the topic of origins. When I think of money  I think of spending, shopping, and mainly survival. In the world we live in today so much of what we do revolves around money. How much you have, how you make it, and what you are going to do with the money you have. I then thought about what the world was like before actual money. What did people trade and was society as strongly dictated by something like a piece of paper? Before the currency we think of today people traded objects, livestock, and other common goods. Its hard to imagine a world where rocks were once considered an acceptable form of payment. Then again we as a species have made the choice to change the way in which we trade. While some might view the world we live in as unnatural, we are truly acting on our natural instincts. This is where origins ties in. The origins of our modern day world stems from very natural instincts which we act on daily. If anything it is just our need for survival. Montoya aims to highlight that while currencies vary from country to country. their main purpose stays the same. While many view economy as a diving factor among a society, it is actually a common thread among differing people. Money and the desire to have more of it is something that everyone can relate to.

When thinking about money and the role it plays in our society I began to think about different cultures and how money influences them. While everyone strives to have money in their life, I began to think about how money often pulls a community apart. Those with more money become focused on the luxuries of life rather than on the necessities. While those with limited funds appreciate the things they have more. Some cultures, which may have originated from similar beginnings, have now diverged due to the role of money.

Its hard to imagine how a world where farmers would trade livestock for currency has evolved into the advanced commercialized society we live in today. The seemingly unnatural world we live in however, plays off very natural instincts that is deeply rooted within humans. The natural instincts which have driven humans to build the society we currently live in are the originating force behind commerce and the need for power.

Looking beyond our sense

October 8, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Professor Aaron Hanlon opened his lecture with discussing the layout of Colby College. He touched on the fact that our school is broken up into categories. Each building has its own concentration and rarely does it stray from its specified area. Now being in my sophomore year, as friends have declared their major, I am finding this to be a very true statement. Last year, as a freshman, my friends and I would be walking all over campus for our classes, we were not confided to a single building. One day would start in Lovejoy and end in Arey while another day would start in Diamond and end in Miller. However now, as my friends have decided what interests they have chosen to pursue, they are confined to a single building for the majority of the day. My classmates who are majoring in economics will rarely cross paths with those are history majors or Spanish majors due to the layout of the school. It is for this reason that is it very easy to become isolated from those not in your daily path, in turn closing you off from those in your periphery.

 

This idea that Colby is very compartmentalized made me think of a statement Professor Aaron Hanlon said in regards to Francis Bacon. Hanlon stated that Bacon was the “Father of Empiricism,” a theory that all experiences is sense derives. While empiricism can be taken in a metaphorical sense, I think there is a metaphorical way in which empiricism can be viewed and applied to every day life, especially the life we live at Colby. While the literal sense of empiricism relies on the 5 major humans sense: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and sent, there is another interpretation. I think the idea of “senses” can be applied to once awareness at a place such as Colby. In our day-to-day life it is very easy to get wrapped up in our own tasks and activities and become unaware of those around us. Between classes, practices, office hours, clubs, and on campus jobs, Colby doesn’t give students the chance to slow down and realize everything that is happening around us. Therefore, we do not get to take full advantage of our senses; instead we only use the senses we feel we need to get by.

 

In addition we now are living in a world where people rarely rely on their natural instincts. Instead our society lets technology and social media dictate our actions. One of the best examples of this can be at a museum. Often times when one goes to a museum they are not looking directly at the art. Often times there is either a phone or a camera separating the viewer from the art. While a picture allows for one to view the art at a later time, it takes away from one of the main sense of sight. While museums are a prime example of a time in which our senses become compromised, there are many other examples. Such as live versus recorded music. Before “Itunes,” “Spotify,” “YouTube,” and other platforms music was a live experience. While it is easier to have instant access to songs, it takes away from the experience of hearing a performer live. However in today’s society, only listing to live music is an unrealistic idea.

While the idea of senses is often thoughts of as the major five human senses, there are different interpretations. Hanlon made it clear how we can take our sense for granted in our day to day life.

The Scientific Method

October 3, 2017 / / 0 Comments

After our lecture with  Bercovici I began to think about who decides what is a fact versus what is a theory. While years of study and education gives an individual a better ability to speak on a subject with authority, there is no one true test in what differentiates a theory from fact.

At a young age society is taught about science and the scientific method, an attempt to test your hypothesis. The scientific method itself contains six main steps. The first step of the scientific method is to propose or as a question. Simply it requires someone to be curious about a concept which they do not understand. The second step is to conduct background research in attempt to make sense of something. In other words, trying to make order out of something which an individual may view as chaotic. Thirdly it to hypothesis. This idea of an hypothesis is the early grounds of a theory. It asks that one predicts what they believe might be the outcome of the experiment in which they will perform. The next step of the scientific method is record data regarding your hypothesis and then to later analyze the data. While this is something can be done in many cases, there are certain aspects in which it cannot be applied to. For example, when looking at the very very first moments of life, we have not been able to collect data from the very first moments and therefore we cannot analyze them. As a result there is still a lot for us as a society to learn about our own universe. The final step of the method is to draw a conclusion based on your findings. It is the belief that such a conclusion will help you to either support and reject your hypothesis. However, this is an impossible task because hypothesizes are constantly changing. Which leads me to my next point.

In a world where technology is constantly changing as well as beliefs it is hard to say for certain what the concrete facts of life are. For example when looking back in history we as a society one believed that the earth was the center of our universe. Obviously we no longer believe that because our culture and lifestyle no longer revolves around the bible and we as a people are no longer unitedly practice the teachings of the Pope and The Vatican. Galileo, for example, was put under house arrest and forced to recant his findings because they conflicted with the teachings of the Pope. It was not until after Galileo’s death that society began to accept his findings as the truth. When looking at this scenario it causes a sense of uncertainty. If one moment Galileo was wrong but the next moment he was right, how can we ever know for sure what to believe? The answer is that there will never be one hard truth. We as a people have evolved from a very simple lifestyle and we will continue to evolve. We will come to a point in which we are more sure in our findings both scientifically and culturally, however, there will always remain an underlying sense of uncertainty in life’s largest questions.

Expansive Space

September 24, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Whenever the idea of space is mentioned I immediately think of the fact that space is a never ending unquantifiable distance. In todays day and age, in a society where people attempt to make sense of everything, space is the one thing we can never truly understand. It presents a challenge to people everywhere. While we have read about countless discoveries and advancements in technology, we will never truly be able to understand our origins which is why the Big Bang Theory is just that, a theory.

In Rhee’s writing, Cosmic Dawn, he mentions the Hopi people. In the reading he talks about their beliefs as to how the world originated. The Hopi tribe believed that people were created in a deep cave far below the surface of the earth and entered the world through a hole called “The Sipapu.” This origin story shows how people, from early on in our existence felt the need to understand our origins, to make sense of the unknown. However as time has progressed, our knowledge and beliefs of our origins have been shifted. Such explanations of our origin and the study of space itself is an attempt to make a never ending concept seem less daunting.

However, while the idea of space is a great source of chaos in our world, there have been people who have tried to bring order to it. In Professor Kocevski’s lecture, he mentions countless mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers who have tried to make sense of our beginnings. Some of the greatest discoveries having been made by Einstein, Hubble, Brahe, Copernicus, and Kepler, none of whom have been able to make sense of what occurred before “The Inflation Era,” which was a rapid expansion of our universe in the very first moments after The Big Bang Theory. “The Inflation Era” has posed a conflict for many scientists over the years. It has continued to be a source of chaos seeing as we do not truly know what happened in that time. In Kocevski’s lecture he mentions how “disorder increases overtime.” While this might sound counterintuitive it explains the process that scientists and philosophers face when looking at something like the Big Bang. Before the Big Bang we had order followed by the event of the bang bringing along chaos, once we reached a level of stability we regained order. However as time goes on our society has begun to exhausted the resources of the land we are going towards a phase of chaos. Our society has reached a level of order to the point where people forget that chaos often disrupts such order which is never a guarantee.

When thinking about the fragility of our current universe it makes me think how our universe was created on a complete whim. The collisions of atoms was a completely random occurrence which has lead to the creation of such a complex and advanced life formation. However the question of how the particles and atoms needed to create life were present poses a complex question. While we will probably never know the answer, we as a society will continue to attempt to make order out of such a chaotic idea.

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