There were a few quotes from the book that really struck my interest:
1) Language is what seprates man from beast.
2) What distinguished us from other animals is our ability to reason analytically.
Two contrasting points were made in the first chapter, while the second point is the only one that is supposed to hold any validity I think that were are all connected in some way or another. I think that certain animals can reason their way out of a problem, while their brains may not be as complex as ours I still feel that we came from the same place and adapted to the same conditions that brought us to this current day.
Despite the many cultural differences throughout the world we can all come to the same conclusion and reason ourselves to a logical answer. "There has never been an instance in which the majority in two cultures ascribes a different emotion to the same expression." This quote describes the research in the Facial Action Coding System. This is a remarkable study because it only draws humans closer together in understanding that while we are all very unique we are still connected and similar in other aspects and should take care of each other.
At least that's what I got out of the first chapter.
In our society of dominant L-Directed Thinking. The first chapter of A Whole New Mind really sparked my curiosity about how Pink belives that R-Directed Thinking is begining to take over. I agree with his statement that it has always been valued but never really considered as the primary means of reason. I grew up in a very L-Directed Thinking house and ended up being very interested in things primarily associated with R-Directed Thinking like music and videography. I found that growing up in this environment that my L-Directed thinking developed even though I dont consider it my strong point. After reading the chapter I really started to try and figure out a way to use both halves of my brain together...(Left side reading text Right side understanding context. Left side is sequencial Right side is continuous, etc). I dont think I am yet but I am conciously making an effort now.
I see how easy it is to categorize things into one side and the other (in fact usually when I make generalizations I do just that). I really like the quote that Pink used from Mcanus "However tempting it is to talk of right and left hemispheres in isolation, they are actually two half-brains, designed to work together as a smooth, single, integrated in one whole entire complete brain."
So thats the thought process that I went through after reading the first chapter of Whole New Mind.
In response to Ashton, I agree to an extent about how animals and humans both reason, but i feel like you cannot put, say a squirrel on the same level as a human. We have definetly adopted together in this world, but definitely not to the same conditions. When is the last time you, as a human had to fight to get your own food? (not to say that people don't, but for us attending ithaca college). Sure, we can both reason, but the things and events that we reason about are totally different. When is the last time you say a rabbit do taxes?
Also, i felt that the facial action coding system was interesting as well. Perhaps body language is the universal language (besides music, of course). I think its interesting that i could go to another country, not knowing anything about their language and still understand them and they understand me by our facial expressions.
I found the first chapter to A Whole New Mind to be quite interesting and intriguing. First off,I agree with Ashton that the quote "Language is what separates man from beast," really caught my interest. The author talks about how it used to be perceived that the left side of the brain is what makes us human, because humans have the ability to speak language. I would be interested to see how an animals brain would function when animals are communicating with one another. I believe that language and communication are directly related, and that if animals can communicate I believe in some form they have language. As we learned in our silent class, you do not need words to communicate. Another part that I found interesting was when Pink talked about Betty Edwards and her theory on art and the brain. I have never been artistically gifted but when Edwards says that "Drawing is not really very difficult, seeing is the problem" that makes a lot of sense to me. I believe that when some people look at a piece of art they see something different then everyone else.
5 comments:
There were a few quotes from the book that really struck my interest:
1) Language is what seprates man from beast.
2) What distinguished us from other animals is our ability to reason analytically.
Two contrasting points were made in the first chapter, while the second point is the only one that is supposed to hold any validity I think that were are all connected in some way or another. I think that certain animals can reason their way out of a problem, while their brains may not be as complex as ours I still feel that we came from the same place and adapted to the same conditions that brought us to this current day.
Despite the many cultural differences throughout the world we can all come to the same conclusion and reason ourselves to a logical answer. "There has never been an instance in which the majority in two cultures ascribes a different emotion to the same expression." This quote describes the research in the Facial Action Coding System. This is a remarkable study because it only draws humans closer together in understanding that while we are all very unique we are still connected and similar in other aspects and should take care of each other.
At least that's what I got out of the first chapter.
In our society of dominant L-Directed Thinking. The first chapter of A Whole New Mind really sparked my curiosity about how Pink belives that R-Directed Thinking is begining to take over. I agree with his statement that it has always been valued but never really considered as the primary means of reason. I grew up in a very L-Directed Thinking house and ended up being very interested in things primarily associated with R-Directed Thinking like music and videography. I found that growing up in this environment that my L-Directed thinking developed even though I dont consider it my strong point. After reading the chapter I really started to try and figure out a way to use both halves of my brain together...(Left side reading text Right side understanding context. Left side is sequencial Right side is continuous, etc). I dont think I am yet but I am conciously making an effort now.
I see how easy it is to categorize things into one side and the other (in fact usually when I make generalizations I do just that). I really like the quote that Pink used from Mcanus "However tempting it is to talk of right and left hemispheres in isolation, they are actually two half-brains, designed to work together as a smooth, single, integrated in one whole entire complete brain."
So thats the thought process that I went through after reading the first chapter of Whole New Mind.
In response to Ashton, I agree to an extent about how animals and humans both reason, but i feel like you cannot put, say a squirrel on the same level as a human. We have definetly adopted together in this world, but definitely not to the same conditions. When is the last time you, as a human had to fight to get your own food? (not to say that people don't, but for us attending ithaca college). Sure, we can both reason, but the things and events that we reason about are totally different. When is the last time you say a rabbit do taxes?
Also, i felt that the facial action coding system was interesting as well. Perhaps body language is the universal language (besides music, of course). I think its interesting that i could go to another country, not knowing anything about their language and still understand them and they understand me by our facial expressions.
I found the first chapter to A Whole New Mind to be quite interesting and intriguing. First off,I agree with Ashton that the quote "Language is what separates man from beast," really caught my interest. The author talks about how it used to be perceived that the left side of the brain is what makes us human, because humans have the ability to speak language. I would be interested to see how an animals brain would function when animals are communicating with one another. I believe that language and communication are directly related, and that if animals can communicate I believe in some form they have language. As we learned in our silent class, you do not need words to communicate.
Another part that I found interesting was when Pink talked about Betty Edwards and her theory on art and the brain. I have never been artistically gifted but when Edwards says that "Drawing is not really very difficult, seeing is the problem" that makes a lot of sense to me. I believe that when some people look at a piece of art they see something different then everyone else.
All the things that people wrote so far are insightful and meaningful and there were a few people that also wrote in the other hw blog which is fine.
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