Picasso Art

I always found Picasso an interesting artist to study and read about. I conducted a research project on Picasso at my previous and original secondary institution in grade 9.I thought he was a bit odd and troubled, but I of all people have no right to even think that. I like Picasso's works and I know that this painting is Guernica. I know what the painting is about but putting aside my shared and personal knowledge of what the painting means, I will look at it as if seeing it for the first time in my life. I associate black and white with death and destruction (to an extent) and that is the main base of this painting. Picasso has made the faces and body parts distorted, painful and crowded- conveying feelings of hopelessness and the man to the far right is on his knees and the composition makes me think of beginning for mercy or praying for some tribulation to be over soon. Picasso uses deformed and mythical looking beasts of burden, to convey the horrors that are going on in the painting. He makes every living creature look terrorized in the painting. I find Guernica captivating and it presents quite a strong historical message as well.

Mapping Emotions On The Body: Love Makes Us Warm All Over

Today I read the article Mapping Emotions On The Body: Love Makes Us Warm All Over. I found it moderately interesting to read. My favourite part of this article is the beginning, how it starts. "Close your eyes and imagine the last time you fell in love. Maybe you were walking next to your sweetheart in a park or staring into each other's eyes over a latte.Where did you feel the love? Perhaps you got butterflies in your stomach or your heart raced with excitement." The last time I felt like that I felt the butterflies, racing heartbeat, everything became alive, like the love map and similar to the happiness map. Everything felt warm, almost dizzying. This is a good example as Emotion As A Way of Knowing. My physical and emotional being tells me I love this individual.This person is my dear friend as well and they're one of the few who can make my day so that's probably why. I may be one of the few who can strongly feel  other emotions (?) in my arms. I feel fear, surprise and anxiety along with the expected anger map in my arms as well as other parts. In my mind these feelings are somewhat similar and connected, and I use my arms when expressing any form of discomfort or displeasure, I cannot control it. Emotions and feelings are a complex set of mechanisms-which I do not like to get into.  Most times I wish I could always feel neutral. That's the most stable "emotion" that one can feel while thinking clearly.
 

This video and the mapping exercise carried out in class has really surprised me, it has made me realize that a lot of the things I had been taught over the years, was not accurate and we students have been greatly mislead. I always thought that the maps I have used in Geography were very accurate, and I had been doing map work accurately and precisely. But now these activities have enlightened me that a lot of these maps are heavily biased based on preference, imperialism, etcetera. Normally humans accept what we are taught and told, without questioning whether or not it is false, true, real or an illusion. We see or believe what we want to see, and believe whether or not it may be so. Ms. C.J. Craig in the video asks where she is after she has been enlightened, and now I also ask, where am I?

I am commenting on the article 'On Reality and Sugar Cubes':

"It’s nothing like what we think it is."

Humans perceive what they want to know or see and not what something actually is. We have a tendency to accept what is told to us and regurgitate this "factual" information to others in our circles. Most times we do not question whether or not what we are told is factual, and how do we really know what is factual? This article states that nothing is as it really seems, it's all an 'illusion', smoke and mirrors. I enjoyed reading this article, but in some instances I was left puzzled, especially when the article stated that there are million billons of nothingness in an atom. I learned that everything is made up of matter and the article states every human being on earth and more can fit inside an ice cube without any complications when all the 'nothing' is extracted from us. This goes to show that nothing is as it really seems and that we humans in most cases do not know what we think we know.

Emotion as a Way of Knowing

What are Emotions? I found that defining the term emotion wasn't that easy. According to the Oxford Dictionary, an Emotion is a strong feeling deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others. On Thursday (yesterday) in The Theory of Knowledge's Class we held constructive discussions in our groups and class on 'Emotion as a Way of Knowing'. I disagree to a certain extent with this definition. Emotions are not necessarily "strong" feelings. I can have opinion about something without having strong emotions.We all discussed whether emotion and logic were separate entities or combined forces. We need our emotions to survive (such as keep safe) and respond to the actions and other living organisms.  I personally believe that emotion and logic/reason work together; they are combined forces. We need to use some of our emotions to reason. Do I prefer one over the other? I honestly do not know.We also watched a clip from the 2006 FIFA World Cup final match France against Italy when Zinedine Zidane head-butted  Marco Materazzi of Italy. I remember that day clearly when I watched 2006's World Cup. We debated whether or not Zinedine was being ruled by emotions or logic, and or both and if we were in his position would we have done so. As a footballer/contact sports player, I, of course would have head-butted  Materazzi if he provoked, tripped or swiped me. I am not sure who started it, but if Zidane did I would have fought him. That is a signal that you want to fight me and an insult. There is no other option but to fight. I know that we Footballers and other contact sportspersons can get very emotional during a game and logic normally goes out the door. In Zidane's case I think he was being emotional and his reasoning became limited, it was his last World Cup match so I guess he thought, why not?
Several problems can arise when we use Emotion as a Way of Knowing. When emotions get too high they can overrule logical thought or reasoning causing us humans to act or respond irrationally to the events or others around us. This can have grave consequences in our relationships. It can be very biased or possibly wrong when we try to use emotion as a way of knowing because it is really an assumption, not proven, not a fact. Such as when we judge someone based on first impressions. Sometimes we do not really know someone, even when we think we might know every fiber of their being and we definitely don't know someone unless we make the effort to get to know them.

Information Links of Philosophers

• Galileo Galilei <3

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/224058/Galileo
http://www.netplaces.com/philosophy/the-renaissance-period-leaving-scholasticism-behind/galileo-galilei.htm

• Bertrand Russell

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/

• Confucius <3

 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/confucius/
http://www.iep.utm.edu/confuciu/

• Plato

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/464109/Plato

• Socrates

 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/551948/Socrates
http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/socr.htm

• Aristotle <3

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/
 http://www.iep.utm.edu/aristotl/

• Avicenna

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/45755/Avicenna

• John Locke

http://www.iep.utm.edu/locke/

Banksy the Great

Banksy is a pseudonymous graffiti artist, painter, political activist and film director based in the United Kingdom. His artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.

I did a little research on Banksy and viewed some of his pieces. I rather like his dark humour, satirical works of art and epigrams. This is one of his quotes that stood out to me:


"We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves."

— Banksy, Wall and Piece

 

I love this quote by Banksy for I do not support the ideologies of Capitalism (most of them) and it is quite humorous.

 

 Banksy once characterized graffiti as a type of underclass "revenge" or guerilla warfare that allows an individual to snatch away power, territory and glory from a bigger and better equipped enemy. His work has displayed a desire to mock centralised power, hoping that his work will show the public that although power does exist and works against you, that power is not terribly efficient and it can and should be deceived.

 

Banksy's works have dealt with an array of political and social themes, including anti-War, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, anti-authoritarianism, anarchism, nihilism, and existentialism.

Although I like some of his ideas, I disagree with his views on anti-authoritarianism and anarchism.