RLS 3 (Jan. 23)

[ST. JOHN]

This week's posters: Lauren, Maverick, Elizabeth S., Destiny, Ben, Jessica, Shamba, Ali

Post a real-life situation that somehow addresses the prescribed title you have chosen.  In a few sentences, explain how it relates to your PT.  *You do not have to post a RLS that you will actually use in your essay.*

Everyone else, choose one of the RLSs from the people above and describe how it relates to your own PT.

Posters, reply directly to this message.  All others, reply directly to the individual whose RLS you are addressing.

Original posts due by midnight Saturday.  All replies due by midnight Wednesday.

[MaverickBeaudreau5]

Recently, there have been a lot of debates over gun control and whether or not people should be able to have a firearm in their possession. The people arguing for gun control think that there will be a safer environment and there will be fewer public shootings if no one owns a firearm. Those who oppose gun control think that the people are the main problem rather than the guns, and it's everyone's right to own a firearm to protect themselves as well as their family (2nd Amendment). 

This relates to my prescribed title, "The knower's perspective is essential in the pursuit of knowledge" (#3), in that people who are either for or are against gun control have reasons for what they believe, and each side firmly believes that their perspective is better than the other.

[Elizabeth Sit 5]

After the ISIS attacks on Paris, hactivist group, Anonymous, released a video statement declaring war on ISIL(aka ISIS). Allegedly, hactivist group, Anonymous, sent France and the United States the locations of several ISIS bases. France took the information and proceeded to bomb several bases. The United States did not take any military action. 

This is related to the prescribed title: "Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished." Consider this claim with respect to two areas of knowledge. France and the US were given the same knowledge. France's application of the knowledge increased the value by taking a course of action. The United States' lack of response and lack of application vastly diminished the value of said knowledge.

[LaurenWheeler5]

Last Thursday, a serial killer who was on death row died in the hospital. Thirteen years earlier, he had been convicted of brutally murdering several women. The perpetrator, Derrick Todd Lee, had been known to use his charismatic personality to his advantage, luring in his victims. 

This RLS links to the third prompt, " 'The knower's perspective is essential in the pursuit of knowledge.' To what extent do you agree?" It was an emotional time the families of the people who died because they feel as though their loved ones' pains have been avenged in a sort of poetic justice. The police chief who worked relentlessly on the case feels that Lee "deserved to die", along with the judge who had sentenced him to death. However, for the people who have not been directly involved in or affected by the case, desensitization may cause them to have an altered outlook. Due to regularly hearing about deaths and shootings in the news, it is just another felon's folly to them. The RLS also expresses how emotions influence our knowledge.

[DestinyOkpomo8]

After it became fact that Pluto was no longer the ninth planet, talk about it diminished. Prior thoughts of planetary actions were dismissed. This addresses PT #4 “Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished.” Consider the claim with respect to two areas of knowledge. Because the previous knowledge of Pluto as the ninth planet does not apply anymore, it has lost some of its value. Natural Science is a good area of knowing for this prescribed title because information is always becoming outdated and losing its application to the world as well as its value.

[CamilaVizcarraGuevara8]

This RLS relates to my Prescribed Title: "The knower's perspecive is essential in the pursuit of knowledge." There is not a single tragedy that has happened to every single person in this world. Some family members have lost their loved one because the culprit might have taken their loved one's firearm, which may lead for family members to want firearms to be prohibited. Conversely, some family members may have lost a loved one due to the fact that they did not have a firearm, leading them to want citizens to have firearms to protect themselves. There will never be an agreement towards the "right" type of gun control due to the different emotional situations thousands of people have underwent. 

[JeetenMistry8]

This also relates to PT 3, "The knower's perspective is essential to the pursuit of knowledge." The perspective of Anonymous concerning ISIS/ISIL led them to discover the location of ISIS bases. The French government felt it was necessary to confirm this knowledge, which they did by bombing the suspected locations of these bases. However, the US government felt it was unnecessary, but this is because their perspective was altered because of the French bombings.

[SrinidhiDupaguntla8]

I believe that this RLS relates to my prescribed title, "Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished", because nowadays people are free to express their opinion on any topic without knowing any actual information. In this instance, there is a chance that those who want gun control do not know the feeling of security it brings to the owner. Thus, I believe that without any actual implementation of gun control laws, the topic of gun control will just remain as a controversial issue and not be taken as seriously as it needs to be taken.

[LindseyStanley8]

This RLS can be related to my PT: " 'Knowledge within a discipline develops according to the principles of natural selection.'  How useful is this metaphor?' "  Scientists knowledge of the solar system expanded with the discovery of the planet Eris which was larger than Pluto.  Therefore, according to the concept 'survival of the fittest,' Pluto was not as 'fit' as Eris.  In other words, Pluto did not fit into the new developments being made in astronomical knowledge which caused it to be discounted as a part of the solar system.

[PaulaTorres-Wilcken8]

This RLE relates to my PT (“In gaining knowledge, each area of knowledge uses a network of ways of knowing.” Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of Knowledge.) because of its area of knowledge. This debate over gun control would fall under an ethical decision, whose "answer" is based on whichever perspective a person embodies. Because of how many different perspectives are available, there is no universal solution that will appease all. The perspectives themselves are based on personal experiences such as memory or intuition, which are inherently biased. If the way of knowing is biased, then the knowledge that is integrated from that WoK is biased and has a higher likeliness of being flawed, meaning that it is more subjective. 

[TulsiPatel5]

This also relates to my prescribed title,  "The knower's perspective is essential in the pursuit of knowledge" because each country had different perspectives on what to do regarding what to do with the ISIS basis. France decided to bomb it and The United States took no action.

[ChristineJones8]

This relate to my PT, how do the concepts that we use help  us construct knowledge. The knowledge of whether or not Pluto is considered a planet id based off of the changing definition(concept) of what a planet is. I.E our knowledge about Pluto's status is reliant on which definition of a planet is currently being used for consideration.

[RebeccaFarley8]

This related to prescribed title #3 "'The knower's perspective is essential in the pursuit of knowledge.' To what extent do you agree" because the people of France take a different perspective than the people of the U.S. do. France was the country that ISIL last attacked and have a perspective that may contain a seek for revenge while the U.S. was not involved in the attacks. The two differing perspectives caused the two countries to choose different actions. So the knowledge that they obtained from the attacks are different because France has an inside view of the attacks while the U.S. saw it from the outside. Their knowledge of the attacks caused the French to bomb the bases while the U.S. instead took no action.

[SymonneMartin8]

This real life situation can also be related to the prescribed title ¨Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished¨. While both sides have information for and against them, they are often unwilling to accept the information against them or for the opposition because they believe that what their opposers believe is not or should not be applicable in the real world. They devalue the information which leads to debates but few changes.

[MarthinePaul5]

My PT 1: “In gaining knowledge, each area of knowledge uses a network of ways of knowing.” relates to this because of its area of knowledge which is ethics. This whole debate on guns is whether it is right or wrong but who is in charge of what is considered right or wrong? Personal beliefs and views fluctuate so there is not one resolution that would please everyone. People are usually going to express their views on this debate based on personal or impersonal experiences which may come with a lot of bias. Biased knowledge usually does not guarantee certainty and may have many flaws. This area of knowing in this situation uses sense perception, intuition and emotion as ways of knowing to further whether allowing guns is ethical or not. 

[DionneWareham5]

This RLS relates to PT #3(“The knower’s perspective is essential in the pursuit of knowledge.” To what extent do you agree?) because of The diferring ways France and the United States after receiving the coordinates of ISIS location. Due to France's recent bombings, they reacted more violently by bombing the given locations. The US did not bomb the locations, because maybe they knew France would because of the recent destruction in Paris

[AbbyLhoste5]

My prescribed title is #6. It pertains to the idea that there is a tradeoff between accuracy and simplicity in knowledge. I think that this particular RLS relates to my prescribed title because when looking at a complicated matter like gun control, it is essential to view all the angles. Therefore, when the opinions on gun control are simplified to say "people are the problem" or "guns are the problem", the accuracy of the knowledge is lost. This specifically ties into Ethics and the difficulty in creating laws because of the prevalent trade off between simplicity and accuracy. 

[BenProtzman8]

Knowledge is made up of many different perspectives. In this example many people have different opinions on gun control. Both arguments can be seen as knowledge to person making the argument. It is this belief in their argument and views which makes the people arguing want to seek more evidence and knowledge to back up their claims. To support one's own perspective, he or she will actively seek more knowledge to support their claim. Without these differing perspectives the people on both sides of the gun control debate would not seek more knowledge to argue the other against the other side. 

[JaymieBromfield5]

This RLE related to my prescribed title, "Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished." The two perspectives of the gun-control debate--those for the freedom of themselves versus those for the safety of all citizens--stemmed from the philosophical debate of individualism versus utilitarianism. The two different outlooks chose what informations to apply to their way of life and deem valuable and accurate. They refute the viewpoint that differs from their own, and deem it dispensable. This diminishes the value of either the doctrine of Utilitarianism or Individualism, depending.  

[LeahHardigree5]

I think this can relate to PT #6 (tradeoff between simplicity and accuracy) because many Americans look at the big, simplistic picture that illustrates their "right to bear arms" and use that as their sole basis for owning firearms. However there are deeper issues that lie within the right to own firearms. For example, nearly anyone could go out and buy an automatic rifle. It is possible that he/she could use it in an irresponsible manner and endanger the lives of the citizens.

[BradleyHutchinson5]

This RLS can be related to the Prescribed Title, “Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished.” Consider the claim with respect to two areas of knowledge." If people do not understand the whole context of this case and don't apply ethics or the killer's past history in murder, then the value of knowing he was given the death penalty allows people to be desensitized in conjunction with the media's actions. When people or those whose family was involved understand what Lee's motives were and various aspects of his crime, it allows people to understand one another greater by apply their empathy to that of others in condolences, therefore increasing the value of this knowledge.

[SavonteMcCuller8]

This RLS is connected to PT#4: "Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished." The information is inherently important because knowledge about the location of the ISIS bases provided the United States and France with the ability to take military action if they wished.However, ISIS is a terrorist organization that has murdered many innocent civilians, consequentially undermining the preciousness of human life and causing grief to many families. By taking military action to try to weaken ISIS, France increased the value of the information about the bases. Many people would agree with this because most people are not advocates of an organization that steals the lives of their loved ones or use other ruthless methods to convey messages, and these people want the organization to collapse.

[MarnageeScott8]

This can also be related to prescribed title number 1. For scientists to come to the conclusion that Pluto was actually not a planet, they needed to use multiple ways of knowing together. When they used sense perception alone, they noticed that Pluto had similar characteristics of our other planets and was also orbiting the sun. But when reason was used along with sense perception, the scientist were able to discover new knowledge, that Pluto was actually just an icy rock dwarf-planate.

[CarolLin8]

This can relate to prescribed title #1. A network of knowledge is required for the scientists to reach a conclusion.

[JovanyDorsainvil8]

This RLS relates to my prescribed title, also #4. This RLS illustrates one major issue in developing knowledge: which is whether or not it is actually perceived as knowledge. To the United States government, a hacktivist group like Anonymous wouldn't be a credible source of knowledge to perform military action. They avoided them. A reason why some knowledge fails to be applied in the world is because it fails to be recognized as knowledge. The PT could almost be reversed to say that "Invaluable and untrustable knowledge cannot have any application in the world," which would illustrate another side of the argument that must be taken in account as to undercovering exactly what the value of knowledge is.

[CarlosBeasley5]

This relates to PT 4, because the knowledge shared by Anonymous was mostly relevant to France who took action and applied the knowledge. As for the US this knowledge was not very relevant and therefore the US did not take action because it did not pertain to them. Thus the value of knowledge was greater for France,who took action, than it was for the US, who did not take action.

[SalmaHuque5]

This is related to the prescribed title: "Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished." the serial killer was on death row for several years but no action was taken against his crimes. The application in this case is his execution- they had the knowledge that he committed the crimes and prosecuted him, but they left him on death row for 13 years without giving him his rightful punishment. In this case the knowledge of his crimes was not applied to him because he remained alive for thirteen years. Therefore, the outcome is equal to as if he had not been sentenced to execution. Thus the value of the knowledge that he was guilty was diminished because it resulted in no application.

[CarsonWiles8]

The RLS can connect to PT number one. One of the area of knowing used could be natural sciences and the network used could be sense perception and reason.