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| I have been thinking about writing about this for a while, but since
I’m busy with GRE and my classes, I didn’t really actually write
anything about how I feel about the notion of “knowledge.”
By
definition, (in which I extracted it from dictionary.com), knowledge is
“acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or
investigation; general erudition.”
OK, so first of all,
knowledge has to be facts. So, what is fact? “A truth known by actual
experience or observation.” All right. No wonder science has been so
valuable to our society. Because it presents FACTS! Right? What a big
word.
We, as people in the society, tend to think that “big”
science is hard rock and it’s SO true that it can’t be changed.
However, little do people know how most sciences work and how some
“facts” in the past became invalid and inaccurate as time goes by.
Oh,
I don’t have time to go through all these but let’s look at how
sciences work first. A lot of people think that Newton was THE ONE
genius who CREATED the laws of motion. (Well, I’m not saying he wasn’t
a genius. He was!) Yet, it’s very important to note that way before he
published all these theories, there were other mathematicians working
on similar issues, providing a base for Newton to work further on it.
After all, science isn’t magic. It is an accumulation of works.
And
it’s important to know that science works its way through experiments.
Experiments include first of all creating of a hypothesis and
attempting to prove it through tests. And who conduct those tests? Yes.
Humans. As scientists are also humans, it is very likely that there
will be errors occurred.
One of the examples is how estrogens,
a kind of medicine women take to regulate their menstrual cycle, were
claimed by scientists to have the function of reducing risk of heart
attack few decades ago. Ten years ago, some OTHER scientists said it
was a totally wrong concept. Instead of lowering the risk, it raises
its risk. Now other scientists said it doesn’t have anything to do with
heart attack.
I wrote about this because a lot of people in
the public tend to trust science so religiously that they’ve never put
a skeptic mind on things that scientists said. And yeah, not only our
society has a hierarchy of class, gender, and who knows what, but also
a HIERARCHY OF KNOWLEDGE.
Some types of knowledge are generally
considered to be more VALUABLE than others. For example, what a
physical scientist said is more credible than what social scientist
said. Oh and hey! It’s more NEWSWORTHY to quote a medical doctor about
a certain kind of disease than to quote a sociologist about a social
problem. Because you know what? Medicine is BIG SCIENCE! It’s constant.
And it’s the TRUTH.
Our society has long been giving
less-than-needed attention to certain branches of knowledge, especially
if it is related to humanity and social science. Now, is it only
because we social scientists can’t give you guys a formula and
therefore, no one will think what we study is also science?
Come
on. Don’t be silly. We do experiments just like any other scientists
do. And if you think physical science is veracious; you gotta know
social science works just like any other sciences.
And I feel
almost morose. If our society put knowledge into a hierarchy, then
human knowledge is forever limited because then some branches of
knowledge will never be able to expand the way they should.
Period.
*Sorry
if I don’t explain myself clearly. I could have written a really long
paper just on this topic but this is really for my personal interest
ONLY, so please try to live with this. Oh and yeah, please respect
sociologists!
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Oh! Here is my self portrait I did using Photoshop. Hope people know what I try to express. 
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| Since I haven't been writing Xanga as much as I should have, I decided to write some updates here. O.K. I'm back from Macau for almost two weeks. Macau was so much fun. I spent quality time with some old friends and my family. Here are some links to some photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38533&l=ff5df&id=512180439 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36638&l=a2feb&id=512180439 I also went on a trip to Chengdu, China and Jiu zhai gou with my mom. Beautiful scenery, mountain effect, Tibet culture, spicy food, hot weather, backbreaking hikes, exotic snacks, non air-conditioned bus conclude the trip. It was totally crazy. China makes you want to return but wonder if you should do it. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43044&l=6b38b&id=512180439 OK now I'm back to the states. What's up with me? I've been lazy. Trying to finish writing my research paper on teenagers' use of MySpace (it's like Friendster and Facebook) I've collected empirical data in Macau and hey, I'm paid to do that. So now that I'm sort of a researcher. I'm hoping the research can be published or presented at some local or national conference...so we'll see. Another thing I've been trying to do is studying GRE vocabs. Man...that is crazy. I know friends who have a vast reservoir of vacabulary probably don't find it hard, but personally and shamefully, I don't! So words like "intelligentsia," "licentious," "natation," etc. etc. I have never met before in my life and now that I'm learning. Well, I'm glad I'm learning. The only thing that bothers me is that I need to get the study done asap since I'll need to take the exam latest in November. Anyway...I try not to think about all the things that I gotta do because that will cause a headache! So..let me just relax for now and write Xanga. P.S. sorry for the friends that I haven't contacted in Macau...I was only there for 3 weeks so time was tight for me. So I'll see you next time when I'm back!!! | | |
| For a long time people like to impose a dichotomous theory on sentiment and rationality. That's why they said love is blind: because if you truly love a person, you can't be rational. However, this notion just proved itself to be wrong. What about a mother buying a new jacket for her daughter out of the benefit of whom she loves? Is she blind then? Can't you love someone without using your brain? Let's say if sentiment and rationality go hand in hand. Then, loving someone is simply doing things out of the real benefit of the other person. The notion of "love is blind" is basically created by someone who confused intimacy with love and care. Viviana Zelizer, a Princeton professor of sociology, said that intimacy has no necessary connection with attention of caring. They only complement each other.
So let's say you have sex with someone, but it doesn't necessarily mean you care about him or her or vice versa. The feeling of care only complements the sex. However, I'm not too sure if sexual drive makes a person irrational, but if you believe in Freud's theory (the whole Id, ego and superego thing), then yeah, it's probably true.
So what am I really trying to say? Blah! I don't know. But I guess marriage is the stupidest combination of physical intimacy, economic arrangement and the obligation of love and care.
So if we're not celebrating the sale of sex (prostitution), why should we celebrate marriage (economic arrangement + legalized prostitution)?
OK, enough philosophy and bull shit…ha, ha. Let me get back to work on my paper.  | | |
| No Subject is the Subject Oh Lord! My professor is really pressing me to do my research! Damn! Exams are coming up! Esther, why do you feel sleepy all the time? I read a little something about marriage and love today and felt it's very interesting. The author suggested that the notion of love and marriage have nothing to do with each other; marriage is just an economic arrangement. Kisses and moonlight have been replaced by money and shopping carts under capitalism. How about that? Same things have been suggested by Marx. Dont know if I agree with all these but perhaps I'm becoming a socialist :T And Shit! They said I'm stupid that I got nothing from my ex and damn it! Am I really stupid to believe in love? Has love already become a commodity to sell intimacy? I also want to read that book called "the Art of Loving" by Fromm...geez...too many things to read too little time, and yeah, sleep less, Esther, you don't need it.  Currently reading: The Purchase of Intimacy by Viviana A. Zelizer
With all these cynicism and skepticism about love, it's time to really devote to loving myself, first. And like my intellect mom said, searching to be loved is not the solution; love is not a completion of oneself, but an option. So yeah, I'm not incomplete and can still function | | |
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