Great Works I: Remixing Memory

Socrates half right; Internet atrophy, by Paola Morán

February 4th, 2015 Written by | 1 Comment

After reading these three articles I have another perspective of more effective ways of learning. I studied Philosophy couple years ago and I was concerned that Socrates’ method for learn more was based in oral conversations and not in writing. Socrates has an interesting point of view were the only way that we are able to learn is through talking and conversation, that was the way that he use to teach to his students. In a sense I think that it is a good point of view because you will pay more attention to the people when they talk since is the only resource of knowledge, also you will hang around wise and people with the same interests as you for obtain more information of what you will like to know. It also true that the human being has limits and ¨you are limited to what you can hold in your mind¨(1) and as I said I think it is a good idea to get knowledge from the oral conversations but it is not the better one. Sometimes we need to retain some information or others we will like to leave alive some of our memories by writing them because by talking everything could change.  I think it’s a good way of ¨reminiscence¨ (2). Plato, Socrates’ student is writing the dialogues that Socrates was having. For me is not contradicted, as I think he could thought that the wise Socrates had to be remembered by everyone and known in the future therefore he had to write down their wisest and complex ideas about the knowledge.

Nowadays this writing has become excessive and not even in a proper grammatically way. The new technologies as Internet has become as in machines were we find the information rapidly that in old ages ¨but it comes at a price; we lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the we or in print¨(3) We are so use to read over the paragraphs, to get hundreds of sources on Internet to find what we are looking for, that we became lazy  and once we have to read more than one paragraphs to get the content we need we get tired and change the page. That’s so true and I TOTALLY AGREE, with the LAZINESS that the INTERNET had created. I love it, but it had create a great problem among the people, specially has the teenagers. Personally I lost the ability, if I had it before, of reading long texts or of searching through a long prose without changing of article or website as soon as I don’t see what I need right away. This great article open my mind, and if you don’t exercise your brain reading it will not come naturally to us because it is not a characteristic that we need to live that is why we do not born with that ability and we have to work on it.

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Writing, Memory, Stupidity

January 30th, 2015 Written by | Comments Off on Writing, Memory, Stupidity

First, be sure to leave a short hello comment on the Welcome post!

For your first blog assignment, due Tuesday, you’ll need to start by carefully reading the three short texts I handed out at the end of class on Thursday: the excerpt from Plato’s Phaedrus and the two essays by tech writer Nicholas Carr (links below if you’d like to check out the other articles he links to).

The Oral World and the Written Word

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

In a short post of no more than 500 words, explain your take on the three texts. What do you make of Socrates’ argument in Phaedrus? How do you understand the contradiction inherent in the fact that Plato is himself a writer, *writing* about the idea that writing is bad? Do you think Carr’s argument about the internet is solid? Why or why not? Your post should reference at least one particular moment (a passage or a sentence) in each of the three texts; be sure to use quotation marks if you’re quoting directly and to cite page numbers so that others can find what you’re talking about. Your post shouldn’t just offer a summary or paraphrase of the texts but should instead start to respond by pointing out a moment or moments of inconsistency or confusion, making a case *against* a position offered by one or more of the texts, or extending a position offered by one or more of the texts. Feel free here to reference your own experience!

This should be a new post of your own (not a comment on this post); you can start a new post by going to the “+New” button at the top of this screen. Before you “Publish” your post, be sure to proofread it carefully and please tag your post (in the window to the right)—you can use existing tags or create new ones of your own. If you’re still learning how to use the blog platform, check out the “Help!” button at the top of the screen. A rubric for how blog posts are evaluated can be found on the syllabus and under the “assignments” tab.

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