Investigation- Knowledge In Symbols

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/19/192.html

1. The cultural origin of calcinated gold is not listed in the description. 

2. The knowledge portrayed by this symbol is that it stands for calcinated gold.

3. The symbol is not vague, and it is not very mysterious. It pretty much means what it says. However, it could relate to the emotion of greed, for someone would desire gold if they wished to make a lot of money off of selling it. 

4. The problems of knowledge are that the description of the object is very short, and the origin of its naming is not listed. If there was more description to this symbol, and if it contained a greater origin, then we would know a lot more about it. 

5. Here are some other images related to my own:

          

 http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/19/191.html

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/19/194.html

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/19/193.html


http://www.thefreedictionary.com/emotive

WOK language - global views

1. I agree with the nature of the quote. When a human learns other languages, they learn more about the roots of their own language, particularly if they study an older language. For example, I take Latin. When I learned the definition of the Latin word "dico" (to say) I realized that several English words are derived from dico, such as "dictate" or "diction." Foreign languages also increase humanity's knowledge of how to communicate with one another. When I traveled to Costa Rica, if I was able to speak Spanish, I would have been able to communicate with the people much more easily, and we could have had many great conversations. Nevertheless, that did not happen, for I only know how to speak English. I will never know what would have happened in those conversations, and I will not know anything about this hypothetical person. The nature of this quote rings true for me.   

2.  Alex and Ray seem to crave a desire to gain pure knowledge. They feel that each language has its own specific identity and culture. Alex and Ray feel that if they learn to speak these languages, they will be more worldly people and they will know the personality's of the society who inhabits each language. They are also glad that they can use this knowledge of many languages to communicate with these people and build relationships with them. My friend Andrew is similar to these individuals because he hopes to become fluent in Spanish before he graduates high school so that he can communicate with Spanish speaking people.

3. I would say that I am more of a visual learner when it comes to languages. When I learned French during middle school, I always did better when I read the words and memorized them in my head. I learned best this way, and because I memorized the words visually, the reading part of the French tests were usually easy for me. However, once our class got to the listening part of the test, the French became harder to understand. The people on the tapes had all sorts of different accents, and as a result, I couldn't pair up the words I heard on the tape to the ones I had memorized on the paper. Taking this evidence into consideration, I think the best way for me to learn a language would be to memorize the words on paper and work out their pronunciation on my own. 

4. "One good thing about a uniformed language would be that everyone would be able to understand one another, and communication would be so much easier. However, I do not think a society's native language should be abandoned in the process." 

Illogical Thinking

1. I. Healthy skepticism is reserving judgement on a situation until sufficient evidence is able to present the right conclusion. Unhealthy skepticism is when a person believes that no truth exists in a certain situation.

II. Evasive agnosticism is when a person uses the phrase "I don't know" as an excuse towards a certain subject. Unlike healthy agnosticism, where the knower cannot find an answer after long hours of research on a topic, evasive agnosticism is when the knower doesn't bother to do any work, and uses ignorance as an excuse for not knowing about the topic. 

III. Narrow mindedness is when a person does not explore an issue because it does not meet his biases on what are important issues to explore.

2. Skepticism was a problem in reasoning during the era of WWI. Back in the early 1900's all of the European nations were developing an arms race. As each new weapon became invented, the countries announced that they were only using these weapons for defensive purposes. Unhealthy skepticism became involved, as the nations decided that each country was creating these weapons in order to gain the power to invade the other. Due to the fact that they did not believe one another, the European nations grew paranoid and they attacked each other in fear. If they hadn't been so skeptical of each another, these countries might have addressed the problems of the arms race in a reasonable manner. 

Logical Falacies - utility and cautions

1. The "Straw Man" fallacy occurs when a person's position is ignored and distorted by another person.

Luke: I think that we should get out some more
Jack: What are you talking about?
Luke: We spend too much time cooped up in this house.
Jack: Why bother? All you ever do is stay inside and play video games.

2. The "Appeal To Spite" fallacy occurs when spite is the driving force in an arguement against a certain claim.

Jason: I think that the Ra'zac are my favorite characters in the novel, Eragon.
Henry: What? Don't you remember that the Ra'zac killed Brom?
Jason: Oh man, I forgot about that. I hate the Ra'zac!

3. The link below leads to a video that involves the Ad Hominem. In this video Barack Obama is in an interview with a newsman, and the newsman presents a claim from Sarah Palin. She complained about the fact that Obama's nuclear defense policy was bound to hurt America in the long run. Obama uses the logical fallacy of Ad Hominem, for instead of addressing Palin's claim, he attacks her knowledge of the situation by saying that she is not an "expert in nuclear issues."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebT1Oo6yDMI