Sunday 1 November 2015

Do Arts & Sciences seek the truth?

Sciences is an area of knowledge that deals specifically with the facts, figures and evidence behind any sort of reasoning. This could be through different forms of experimentation, hypothesizing theories and evaluating speculation. Often times, scientists and phycological people use science as a basis for identifying what may be considered the truth through little cognitive biased and more through the idea of inductive reasoning where science is used to 'seek the truth' a general understanding to a specific reasoning. While many might follow the basis of science for reasoning and truth, others use art as a form of finding the justified belief behind anything.

The arts are a mode of expression that would cease to captivate the audience through the depiction the artist seems to create around them. On one hand, science is a foundation for inductive reasoning and specific analysis, on the other hand, art is used as a foundation for deductive reasoning where it is all about perception and skepticism. Art can be classified into literature, paintings, music, drama, dance etc. For example, in the painting of 'Piss Christ', It depicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of the artist's urine, the idea of such a copntreversial painting has raised several questions about what it truly means. While some might say it is a sin to draw something like this and it is a an insult to both Jesus and Christianity, others might argue that the painting was a symbol of love and affection that the artist felt towards his religion and ethnicity. I agree that art is made from one's intention. It is a message that the artist intends to send out his/her truth. However, some argue that 'everyone has a different truth'. As Ms Jones said during her lecture, 'Is the knowledge of arts in the intention of the artist? Or the way that the audience perceives the art form? 

Personally, I believe that arts & sciences are two different ways of knowing the truth. They can be interlinked however, I believe that unless and until we come to a consensus of how knowledge comes from about arts OR sciences, there will always be a constant debate as to what art OR sciences really comprises of.

Sunday 27 September 2015

Scientific Method: Useful or not?

Investigation Question: The natural sciences gain knowledge in specific ways. Using the vocabulary we used in class (listed below), and from your card game experience, talk about how your team worked to understand what cards I was looking for. How might the scientific method have helped your team? How could you have improved your performance?

Hypothesis, observation, experiment, evidence, proof, theory, falsify, proof, predict, test, induction.

The minute we got the cards, our team was quite confused as to how to proceed in order to find the sequence Ms Jones had in mind. After a lot of speculation, our team figured out that the best way to proceed was to predict a hypothesis that would help us formulate our experiments. Furthermore, we realized that there was a scientific theory behind every pattern which could be figured out through the various types of experimentation we could conduct. While experimenting, we observed Ms Jones choosing methods in order to predict our hypothesis, which helped us in revealing our predicted hypothesized theory of the sequence every round. Once using the dictated cards as evidence, we wrote down all the possible sequences that could take place while carefully examining the cards that were rejected. Moreover, the cards that were rejected were also piled upon another side of the table so we did not have to worry about it a lot. The use of proof and evidence from the other groups was an added benefit to our prediction as well. While our prediction failed multiple times in one such round, we portrayed the qualities of a risk-taker to further experiment and disregard the falsified predictions of other teams. Subsequently, through the various mechanisms of Scientific method such as hypothesis, prediction, proof, tests, observations and experimentation. Additionally, as the rounds became harder, we had to start thinking from different perspectives because now the relationship was not between the cards, but was between my fellow peers, this allowed us to use observation of the clothing and the different stereotypes to further exemplify our prediction. In conclusion, the idea of scientific methods is very prevalent in predicting a sequence not just in a card game, but also in the real world.