Recall that I asked all of you to do a short homework post about the "baggage" or "limited viewpoint" problem. As I said, you can simply rephrase this idea into your own words, provide a personal example, provide a historical/literary example, disagree with the idea, or whatever you want. Post these in the comment reply below.
Here is the new reading assignment.
- Norton editor's headnote from 151 to the bottom of 155 ("Expanding World," "Enlightenment Ideals," "Reason and Religion")
- The Cooke poem, "The Sot-Weed Factor" (photocopy handout)
- The Edwards biographical note (bottom 168 - top 170) and his sermon "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God" (194-205)
- The Franklin biographical note (middle 218 - top 220), the italicized parts of "The Way to Wealth" (220-226), in which Franklin collects quotations from the first 25 years of his writing career, and the following parts of his Autobiography... top of 231 - bottom of 232 ("Dear Son" to "Lord of the Manor there"), top of 237 - middle of 243 ("To return. I continu'd thus" to "I was too saucy and provoking"), bottom of 259 - bottom of 260 ("At my first Admission" to "went on now very agreeably"), top of 267 - middle of 268 ("Before I enter upon" to "and determin'd to preserve it"), top of 269 - top of 270 ("I should have mention'd" to "recommending Business to us."), and finally 283 - top of 292 (the end).
The "experts" should post answers to the following questions in the comment reply, as well as your ten new questions for me.
- 21. Compare the music/time/meter of Cooke's poem to that of Bradstreet's poems. How does the difference feel to you as you read it? Cooke has copied this style from a famous poem about the English Revolution of the 1640s, called Hudibras. Why do you think Cooke chose this "hudibrastic" style of poetry to express his thoughts about colonial Maryland. (Maryland is a small province that was made of Smith's Virginia, the non-religious southern British colony.)
- 22. Cooke's poetic speaker hates Maryland and pronounces a curse on it at the end of the poem. But it is hard to say whether Cooke himself agrees with this "metropolitan" or anti-Maryland view, or whether he takes a "colonial" or pro-Maryland view. Give evidence for both theories about Cooke, and explain which you think is better.
- 23. Write a short poem about NTHU (in English) using the "hudibrastic" meter of "Sot-Weed Factor." You may trade this question to another student if you feel you are not good at writing poetry.
- 24. Which of Edwards' images did you find the most terrifying, and why? Is there any comparison possible between this sermon and religious elements in Taiwanese Daoism, Buddhism, animism, etc?
- 25. Why would this type of sermon perhaps be unnecessary for Winthrop or Bradford? Do you feel there is any contradiction between warning people that their bad actions will be punished, but at the same time telling them that they really have no way to know for sure whether their good actions ("an opportunity to attain salvation" - 204) will result in safety (their "election" to heaven)?
- 26. Judging from his sermon, do you think Edwards is an anti-Enlightenment thinker? Or do you think his words/ideas show the influence of Enlightenment ideas like Newton's "rational physics" and Locke's "sentimental psychology"? Give evidence for both theories about Edwards, and explain which you think is better.
- 27. Do you, personally, agree more with Franklin's ideas about ethics/morals/psychology, or more with Edwards'? Explain why.
- 28. The Chinese tradition has many maxims or proverbs of a similar nature to the ones that "Poor Richard" says in "The Way to Wealth." Find a few traditional Chinese maxims that agree with Franklin's maxims, and a few that disagree.
- 29. Why is it important for Franklin to establish that he is the "youngest Son of the youngest Son for 5 Generations back" (232)? What can you learn about the changing social organization of the British-American colony when you consider Franklin's rebellion against his older brother (242-43) together with his "Club" or "Junto" (269)?
- 30. When the new United States Congress had its first meetings in the 1780s, one of the issues debated was what the seal symbol of the new nation would be. This was their choice. Franklin disagreed, saying that the bird should be a turkey rather than an eagle. Perhaps he was joking... you can never really tell with Franklin. But let us consider that he wasn't. Why does Franklin think the turkey would be a good symbol for the U.S., and how can you relate this to his ideas in "The Way to Wealth" and the Autobiography?
I agree that everyone has their own priority concerns that make our unique points of view. A good example is different opinion toward no-class days between me and my mother. As a ordinary student, I'm always happy to have a day off; however, my mother always complain when this happens. She would say things like "No makeup class? I am not pay the school to have holidays!" This story is 100% real.
ReplyDeleteRea, I think your explanation fits the model. But only partly. It is clear that neither your philosophy of education nor your mother's is 100% true. So these can be competing explanations, competing partial views, competing theories. But what if my "unique point of view" is that the sun is blue and the moon smells like flowers? This view has no validity or truth, at least not to any human being unless we are deliberately using poetic metaphors. So we must restrict our theory of "partial view" to the realm of things that humans can disagree about. It is theoretically possible that a creature with a different visual organ and olfactory organ could see a blue sun and smell a flowery moon... if we do not see "as it really is" but with a partial view. Still, there are certain cases in which our partial views align, that are not arguable, and cases in which they do not align.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason I say this is because I want to be clear... I am NOT proposing the theory that "there is a different truth for every individual" or "the truth is whatever I feel like it is," which is perhaps the radical capitalist/ consumerist view. A relativist or perspectivalist theory. I am saying that individuals, cultures, languages have partial access to truth, and that this will lead to disagreements based on their viewpoint. But I am not saying there is NO way to ever mediate these disagreements, or no truth, or that the truth is whatever any given person feels like it is. If that is your theory, OK, but I want to be clear that is not the theory I proposed.
This is Letitia Chen, my answer is to 24.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the most terrifying image Edwards describes is on page 200. “it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that god……You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it…. ” The concept of a bottomless pit is already horrible enough, not to mention that there is full of fire in it. Edward also says that we human beings are hung above the pit by a slender thread. This portrait makes me uneasy and nervous.
Taoism and Edwards use the same strategy, creating a terrible image of hell to threat people not to do something bad, if people don’t listen, then they should go to this terrible hell. Nevertheless, the definitions of ‘bad’ between them are different. Taoism concerns about honest and good behaviors, such as not telling a lie or treat parents good, help the poor…etc. People who do not follow these good models are ‘bad’. However, Edward’s concern is trying to influence people’s ideology, trying to make people believe in his claim and thought. So people who do not believe are ‘bad’
I think Taoism’s descriptions of hell are much terrible than Edward’s. There are 18 floors of hells under the ground. When bad guys die, they will be sent to hell to be punished. The punishments are bloody and cruel. There are blade mountain and hot oil pot to cut and fry their bodies. A lot of terrible devices are design to cut people in two pieces or to tear off people’s tongues or to pull out their eyes. Sometime a tiny flaw such as gossipy will lead to the punishment of tearing tongue.
For me, Taoism cares more about people’s behavior in daily life(maybe because in Taoism there are so many “god”),Edwards seems to more care about people’s loyal belief in god and in a religion sect.
18 floors? Hot oil pots? OK, I'm scared. I bet the 18 hells are laid out like the HSS building too, and I would keep getting lost in them.
ReplyDeleteDear professor Aaron
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about the layout of the HSS building, I think you'll be familiar with it soon!<(￣︶￣)>
About the limit point of view, I think of the history textbook when I was in junior high and high school.
The parts of Chinese history usually "prettified" by the textbook writer. For example, the descriptions of the "father of the country(Dr. Sun Yat-sen)" and Chiang Kai-shek are often over glorified like they are saints.
Well,It's a way to gain identification of the country, but some how I think it's a quite limit point of view to know history.
I am interested in this issue of the Chinese history textbooks, because I have mainly talked about it with older people. (Like older professors at NTHU.) They said that the textbooks tended to be more influenced by propaganda in their generation, and maybe the textbooks are more accurate in recent years. Do you think this is true?
ReplyDeleteI mean the Chinese/Taiwanese history textbooks used in Taiwan. I'm sure we can imagine that the Chinese history textbooks in PRC reflect propaganda aims.
ReplyDeleteThis is Jenny. As for the limit point of view, I think of the impressions that I would make upon people in the bookstore when I was a child. When I was walking through shelf to shelf, I would sometime secretly tag someone who took up the Defence International Magazine as a weapon geek. Also, I tagged someone who was reading The Economists or books about stock market as a tough businessman. That was just because I didn’t have much interest in weapons and economics at that time. After many years, I found the technology of the weapons’ creation and basic economic quiet interesting, yes, I still don’t want to deeply study them, but I wouldn’t tag people in my mind like that again.
ReplyDeleteI was tagged by others before in the bookstore, too. I like picture books. The story is short and simple but gives me a lot to think when I finish one, and the pictures are beautiful and as another story that echo with the written story. Yet, I’ve been laughed at by the children, and they thought that I am an odd person who snatches their books.
The selves in the bookstore for the literature are usually contained a several categories. Usually there’s English literature, American literature, Pacific literature, other parts of the worlds’ literature…,etc. That is fine. In the adolescent literature area, I could find plenty of SF or fantasy or thrill. The bookstore put these types’ books on the adolescent area, could I suspect that the bookstore also have some limit point of view on adolescents? I sometimes find bookstore or library calling the novel area as leisure area, too.
When I am typing this common, someone gives me a link to youtube.( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfyyGQxZrAY&feature=player_embedded) I think the video clip shows a stereotype on mothers who would always take her children as children, never as adult, so she have to command her children for all kinds of things and all the time. Maybe it’s just my over interpretation. Well, just a share and just for fun.
Ps. There’s at least a advantage in the maze of the HSS building. No matter it’s summer or winter, the indoor temperature of the building is always much cooler than outside, especially the HSS library.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Lucille’s view point about Taiwanese history textbook. After government allowed school teachers to choose different version of textbook which edited by various publishers, the description of history in textbooks actually became more objective. However, it’s still hard for the writers and the editors to prevent the viewpoint and background as a Taiwanese.
ReplyDeleteI think TV program plays a very important role in Taiwan’s society. Some program can broaden our knowledge, but some can easily limit our viewpoint at the same time. An interesting example about “limited point of view” is news programs of different TV station. In Taiwan, “blue” party (Kuomintang) and “green” party (Democratic Progressive Party) invest in different television station. When “blue” party makes some mistakes, the news of the TV station which relates to the opposite party would blame all faults on “blue” party. On the contrast, the TV station supported by “blue” party may provide some positive news of “blue” party as defense. Sometimes, the same event might be described by contrary tone in different news program. In addition, the faithful supporters of the two parties usually choose the TV station which reports what they’d like to hear. As a result, it’s difficult for faithful supporters to see the advantage of the other party. Take my grandmother as an example, she always watches the “green” party’s TV station and selects candidate of “green” party in every vote.
This is Esther.
ReplyDeleteRecently, I’ve read some ancient Chinese texts talking about manners in Confusions’ era. It says one day Confusions’ Lord goes to visit their neighbor country and Confusions as the companion. But since the neighbor country is stronger than Confusions’ country in terms of many aspects especially in military, the Lord of that country therefore hires some local aboriginal tribes in his country to dance on the feast setting for Confusions’ Lord. This behavior at that time is regarded as a great provocation－ you mean nothing in my eyes; you deserve only “barbarian dance” (rather than those special dances which different from country to country but normally are performed when other Lords take a visit); you cannot even do anything to me even after I’ve humiliated you in this way and in front of both my people and yours.
However, in today’s society, these aboriginal cultures are thought as the “traditional cultural heritages.” Under the atmosphere of multiple cultures, they no longer represent uncivilized, savage or even as a tool to insult others. Now they are something which can be proud of. As we can see, in many circumstances especially in diplomatic occasion, the local aboriginal cultural performances become a political propaganda, showing that “our country has a good integration.”
Comparing these two converse viewpoints, it is not hard to find out we human beings are easily to become the slave of “limited point of view.”
Regarding the question of “limited viewpoint,” I think as a colonist, they all in some degree have this so-call “limited viewpoint.” From their eyes, all they can see are the values, benefits, and a sense of superiority. They are sometimes “blind” because of their position; but often times, they choose to intentionally ignore the point of view of those being colonized so as to benefit themselves. As for “a sense of superiority,” an example from the movie Pocahontas will be the time when Smith and Pocahontas met, Smith accidentally blurt out the word “barbarian,” which shows the Europeans’ superiority and it then ended up with Pocahontas’ response of the song “Color Of The Wind”:
ReplyDeleteYou think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know ...
You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name
You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends
How high will the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind
You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind
I have a question to ask here. In last week’s class, we were discussing the “threats” of the European colonizing “the new land,” America. People’s answers to the question were either concerning the problem of danger on sea travel or the treat from other competitors. However, the direct answer that came out from me was the “education” to the Native Americans who then lives there. My point is that the European would have knew that if they want to settle down and to completely “control” the place, education, which leads to a more smooth communication, would be important. What if they fail to educate them either because of the wrong policy or the language barrier? Can this also be called a “threat” for the European?
ReplyDeleteWhen talking about the “limited point of view,” I think the “art” itself can be regarded as an example. (These examples are observed in my daily life.) Starting from music, some may think classical music (such as Beethoven or Mozart) are graceful and beautiful; while others simply feel that kind of music is dull and boring. Secondly, painting and photography can also lucidly illustrate the “limited point of view.” Take Picasso’s painting for instance, although Picasso is a well-known painter for his specialized style, there are still many people do not agree his paintings are masterpiece. The other form of art that I want to talk about is movie. How can you judge a movie as a “good movie?” Some may think “Watchmen” is a great movie while others may think Watchmen terribly boring. At this point, the “limited point of view” again proves its existence. I totally agree with the “limited point of view.”
ReplyDeleteThis is Jane Hsu. In my understanding of the "limited viewpoints," it usually happens when two (groups of) people with different background knowledge get together. One side of people may consider another side of people being very strange and confusing. It is because different groups of people don’t share the same experience and people don’t have same way to perceive ideas. We always use our fixed (established) concepts to comprehend others’ deeds, looks and words. In my own experience, “limited point of view” can be observed much easier when two cultures meet. For example, I was in Nepal this summer and we had a chance to teach the locals to eat red-bean soup as a nutritious dish. We made a lot of efforts to cook the sweet red-bean soup for them to taste it. However, they left the soup unfinished after they took the first sip. After some communication, we eventually found out that Nepali never eat beans in "sweet flavor" so they think the soup is very very strange.
ReplyDeleteI'm Peggy. This is the poem I wrote about NTHU.
ReplyDeleteFew years ago we are all like fool /
Later we leave our home and come to school/
People make us full of hope and dream/
That is why we all believe we are a good team/
But the dream is destroyed very soon away/
Now here lived a group of people who complaint all day/
The dorm in school is so broken /
The offer of water is cut very often/
And we still complaint every day/
Because we cannot help but to stay/
This is Clara. For I am a Christian and participate the fellowship, I have a lot of chance to hear other Christians’ thinking about Bible. Interestingly, each person has the different interpretations toward the same verse. Due to the increasing of my life experiences and new enlightenment, even I have various interpretations when reading a chapter in particular periods. The mortal cannot catch the whole truth God revealed to us. Different people explain Bible from their own cognition, which constructed by their culture, language, gender, custom, and so on. That’s why Christianity divided into many sects, though we all read the same scripture and worship the same God.
ReplyDeleteI also have a question about Franklin's Autobiography. Why he always capitalized some words?
This is Joy LIN. I would like to take the capitalists, or narrowed to many successful entrepreneurs, as an example of seeing with limited perspectives. They tend to consider the poor and the unemployed to be "people with no hardworking" to whom they thus shows less sympathy, despite the facts that these people are deprived of resources and opportunities to improve their living standards, and much likely to be trapped by the highly divided society in the vicious circulation of “lack of resources and opportunities→being paid little/difficult finding jobs→much more deprived.”
ReplyDeleteHi, this is Ting-Ju.
ReplyDeleteI would like to take journalism as an example of “limited point of view.” We know that journalists are supposed to be “objective” towards their reports because they are here to give people information rather than certain opinion. However, sometimes, although journalists try hard to avoid presenting their own idea in their reports, we still can get a clue to the standpoint of journalists by paying attention to their word choice, sentence structures, etc. On the other hand, when we try to understand a controversial issue by reading a certain report, the report may have unconscious but significant impact on our opinion towards the issue.
When takling about "limited point of view", I think of Linguistics, especially Semantics. For instance, how would you interprete the sentence "He saw a girl with a telescope"? Some people may interptrete it as "He used a telescope to see the girl", while the other may interprete it as "He saw a girl who had a telescope". Linguistics refers the above sentence as "structure ambiguity", well, it's true. However, this kind of ambiguity and interpretation can also be resulted from 'limited of view' of the person who wrote or interprete it.
ReplyDeleteAmbiguity or different interpretation can occur even within a short sentence, not to mention about the text of literature we read everyday. We always see things with our own point of view, although we tend to deny this fact when others point out. We are not the person who see or experience those incidents, instead, we read those people's words by 'imaging'->'interpreting' -> and somehow 'understanding'. Do we really understand the 'Puritans' and their religious? Do we really recognize the difficulties they faced when they landed on the New World? All we can do is read the text and try to depict the 'outlines' of their lives by means of using our limited of view.
It is impossible for people to think 'outside their box' since we are human. Because of the lilmited of views,we interprete a sentence with different ways, what about a paragraph, a passage, or even a literature?
Hello, Aaron. This is Qian Yu.The following paragraphs are for question 27.
ReplyDeleteActually, I agree more with Franklin's idea. In the introduction of the anthology, it mentions that Franklin believes people are naturally innocent. This idea is similar to a Chinese philosopher Meng’s. Meng believes that people are naturally good. He emphasizes on the importance of education. Meng says that why people may do something bad is that they do not have good education. Due to the naturally good mind, people can revise their mistake and keep good mind by education. I think I stand for the idea of Meng.
I also agree the idea Franklin sees education. He believes that education can set people free from the domination of church and monarchy.
I love watching Hollywood movies, but those directors must have some "baggage stereotypes" toward Eastern people. One of the best examples: Kungfu.
ReplyDeleteNo matter its Jet Li in Lethal Weapon 4 or Jackie Chan in Rush Hour, these Chinese actors are always associated with violent body contact, stunt moves, or martial art combats. But Eastern people are in fact not as violent as it seems in these movies, for instance in real life, Jet Li is a devoted enthusiast in charity and had been the philanthropic ambassador of the Red Cross Society of China since 2006. He even took participation in the recent Typhoon Morakot disaster in Taiwan.
Although the “kungfu” issue had been associated with Eastern people in these Hollywood movies for a long time, the idea toward us hasn’t seemed to improve. For my experience, when I was visiting Hungary, some Hungarian people tried to make friends with me because they thought “Wow, you’re a Chinese; could you teach us some karate or kungfu moves?” These movies are spread throughout the world, and there in Europe, I experienced the powerful influence of movie culture.
Baggage or limited viewpoint? Yes, undoubtfully.
My response question for this week's readings are as follows:
ReplyDeleteEdwards's description of God in "Sinners v. Angry God" is more of an Old Testament God who, by His emotions, asks people to choose between "love or destroy." I wonder if this horrific figure of God exists in all the sermons preached during the "Great Awakening?" Or is it just the characteristic of Edwards's extreme theology? One thing for certain, if Franklin and Edwards knew each other, they would be in involved in a series of vigorous debate over their religious beliefs.(LOL!)
Like Clara Hou, I also wonder why Franklin capitalize all the nouns and some of the adverbs in his Autobiography?
btw, I'm also a Presbyterian and attends the youth fellowship.
Following my question above, does the capitalization have anything to do with annotation 9 on p.239 where it says spelling and punctuation were not standardized?
ReplyDeleteMy comment on the “limited viewpoint” is that it is irresistible. Every person is unique in experience when adapting every concept. Further more, the method we get to understand different kind of things varies from one to another. It is surprising how different can the conversation be between a group of literature majors and a group of physic majors when we look at the moon on Chinese Moon Festival. The former group may come up with different literary works that contain the impression of “moon”, while the other group may discuss the facts of how full-moon is formed in vision. Still, people come up with different poems due to the experience one had, or describe in different method and theory toward the formation of full-moon.
ReplyDeleteThere is no absolute right or wrong when we define. The more view points we know about one thing, the more we are near to the truth of it. However, there are never enough view points to fully stand for something. Just like painting, however alike we paint an apple or even take a professional photo, the second expression would never be the apple itself.
As for a limited view point of oneself, I think it must exist otherwise we have no basis to understand nor to socialize. This “limited view” is needed but it can also be a baggage if we can only see things in one diversion. Like most boys can never understand why there is a need for girls to shop or chat the whole day choosing upon billions of merchandise or discussing nonsense. Yet, it is in these diversities of view points we perceive which create the amusing of arguments in life.
My questions on the topic of “Anglo-American Empire: Evolution” is focused on the religion part. As a person without being baptized by the religions mentioned in the text, it is very hard to understand how the diversity of a concept can create such difference. To be specific, other than government policy or written records, I would like to know how the diversity of concepts, mentioned in this era, is practiced or realized in daily life and how the change went on when the original concept is facing a reform. What are the reactions of ordinary people? How do ordinary people adapt the new concepts?
By the way, this is Zoe Tsou...ha!
ReplyDeleteThis is Joy Lin, and I am going to share some opinions on question 28.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main themes of Franklin’s essay, “The Way to Wealth,” is industriousness, to whom we can find Chinese maxims with similar teaching. For example, 「業精於勤荒於嬉」, loosely translated as “works are accomplished by industriousness but rusted by amusement” and「一年之計在於春，一生之計在於勤」as “spring serves as the most important season of a year, dilgence serves as the most important feature for life” resonate with Franklin’s emphasis on industriousness. Besides, 「一寸光陰一寸金，寸金難買寸光陰」(“time is money, but money can’t buy time”) and 「莫說年紀小，人生容易老。莫說時光早，一去沒處找」(“say not you are young or the days are early for tim does fly”) repond to the value of time and the urge to seize the day. As to frugality, we are able to find tons of relevant proverbs* in Chinese tradiction such as「细雨落成河，粒米凑成籮」(“a river comes from drizzle, a basket of rice comes from little rice.”)
There are too some Chinese sayings disagreeing Franklin’s notion. For instance, 「疑人不用，用人不疑」 controdicts the concept in “not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open.”(222) It conveys that a master or a superior should not enploy people they don’t trust, but that the master should also trust who they enployed.
*there are trully numbers of proverbs on frugality and the negation of vanity, but limited by my poor ability to translate, I can merely list some of them(the effective ones) here: 「一粥一饭，當思来之不易；半絲半縷，恆念物力惟艱」「衣食儉中求」「布衣暖，菜根香」「食不過佳，充飢則可；身不過華；遮身則可」「新三年，舊三年，缝缝補補又三年」「學問勤中得，富裕儉中來」「黄金本無種，出自勤儉家」「由儉入奢易，由奢返儉難」。
The fallowing is my opinion to question 29.
ReplyDeleteTrough mentions that he is the “youngest Son of the youngest Son for 5 generations back”, Franklin points out: although his ancestors live in Northamptonshire for a very long time, these memories are far away from him. Being the second generation of immigrants, many British-American still consider England as their mother country, but they gradually feel alien toward England.
In page 242, Franklin’s brother has been imprisoned because the political point of “one of the pieces” in their newspaper offend the Assembly. And we can also figure out that Franklin’s brother doesn’t want to put Franklin’s essay on the newspaper. It seems the government can interfere the publishing and the freedom of speech. Later, Franklin organizes the club “Junto”; members of Junto can discuss whatever they like in the club, include “Point of Morals, politic or Natural Philosophy”; and everyone fallow the rules to prevent conflict. I think this is their ideal way of running an organization that people can express their opinion freely as long as they fallow the regulation which they all agree with.
This is Sydney. As for the limited viewpoint, I'd like to take the division of human knowledge as an example. Due to the improvement of equipment, people nowadays observe and gain the knowledge of the natural world more, and thus developed various subjects, such as chemistry, biology, physics...etc. However, this classification has some problems because of the limited viewpoint. Although the subjects are classified as meticulously as possible, there is still overlap or vague parts between subjects. Therefore, this division is based some part on human’s subjective judgement. It’s like the difference between the Western medicine (or Modern Medicine) and traditional Chinese medicine. Western medicine tends to treat each organ (of body) as separate parts. If the patient has some skin problems, Western doctors just give the medicine to smear on skin. But traditional Chinese doctors would take the symptom as the problem of the whole system of human body, not just give the treatment for a specific organ. There’s no conclusion whether Western or traditional Chinese treatment is right. Similarly, there may be no way for human to achieve the right classification of knowledge, no matter how long human progress in science, since this kind of limited viewpoint is due to the limited knowledge of Nature (universe), and it is almost impossible for human to totally understand Nature.
ReplyDeleteI'm Vincent. In my point of view, the "limited viewpoint" penetrates into our thoughts, conceptions and daily lives. I provide the detective novels as example. As soon as you start reading the first page, you've already fallen into the trap and trick of the writer. You're forced to use the magnifier on some particular clues, follow the trace and path the writer provided, and most of the time make yourselves like fools halting around meditating about the villains and results which has already been decided. Giving Sherlock Holmes as example, you're compelled to follow the portrayals of the narrator, Watson, at the very beginning, limiting your viewpoints as normal human being (compared with Sherlock Holmes) and waiting the detective to give you answers.
ReplyDeleteThis is Tracy Chen, and I would like to answer the question about the limited point of view.
ReplyDeleteLast Wednesday in my another course, the instructor played a movie called The Wave (original: Die Welle), a German movie based on the book The Wave which was inspired by“The Third Wave,”an social experiment to demonstrate the appeal of fascism. In the movie, a high school teacher discussed autocracy with his class as a week project. But the students did not believe that the real autocracy would be established in modern German. As a result, the teacher started an experiment that within one week, he can make the fascism recur. At first, some students did not take it quite seriously; yet as the time passed, they had many measures to diminish class distinction and individuality like uniforms, slogans, and logo. They gradually realize that this experiment united them as one group“The Wave,”as the group was later named, and they began to exclude others who did not belong to“The Wave.”Furthermore, to promote“The Wave”to others, they began to do many things that disturb the society. I think people who cannot help but immersing in such fervor like these students may not see the consequences of their deeds when they invariably think they are the absolute justness. They can only see that the group is great because it unites them together, even some of them were not so familiar before. And the group removes the distinctions between each other by uniforms and discipline, so that every one is considered equal.
This is Teresa. When mentioning about “limited viewpoint”, I think of the Elementary Korean class I took last week. As we know, Taiwanese news often writes or gives us a kind of image that Korean likes to claim that “Confucius is Korean” or “Soybean milk is from Korean” and so on. We like to joke about such ridiculous report sometimes. In fact, we do partly believe that Korean does say so. However, our Korean teacher Mr. Han told us that Korean has never claimed “Everything is Korean.” It is interesting that we view Korean as this way.
ReplyDeleteThis is Sherry. As for the question about the limited point of view, I would like to take my opinions on “propriety” and “moral” as an example. I used to consider “behaving properly” as a part of moral behavior and as of top importance. I viewed those who fail to perform “proper behavior,” for example, those who do not obey the rules and disciplines of their society or nations – which means breaking the laws, refusing to “play the proper roles” in society (for example, being a good mother or an obedient child) or arguing with widely- accepted moral concepts, as “immoral” and are to be stayed way from. Nevertheless, after studying in Tsing Hua for three years, I started to see what I failed to see. I realized that rules, disciplines and some part of moral concepts are nothing but certain ways established and supported by power to function the society. I realized that peoples’ breaking rules and disciplines and “not playing their own role” do not necessarily stand for immorality. There might be flaws in rules, now that they are just production of human beings. Rulers of societies or those of power may set up rules and disciplines according to their interests only, and that would cause other members in society great difficulty performing their tasks (like being a “good mother” or an “obedient child” in a patriarchal society). Before entering Tsing Hua, I never thought of these when seeing people break the rules. It was because, I believe, that I was confined by my own experience and the education I received. Though I am not sure whether it serves as a sufficient example, I choose this experience as my answer to the first question of the course.
ReplyDeleteAs for the question (which means question 30) assigned for me, I, though being uncertain about my presumption, presume that the reason Franklin chooses turkey is that the meanings turkeys stand for better fit with his ideals. From "The Way to Wealth" and the Autobiography, one could see that Franklin cares much about virtue, encourages people to be industrious, stands against “expansive follies” and pride. Eagles, though looking strong and magnificent, are birds of prey. Their connections with force and power tend to be stronger and more evident than with peace or virtue. For a virtue-caring man like Franklin, an eagle may not be as satisfying a national symbol as a turkey. I learned from a book long ago that when the new immigrants in America were in want and needed help, the native tribes in America aided them foods and taught them farming skills. After the harvest, Pilgrims feasted the native people to express their appreciation, and turkeys were important dishes on the table. Due to this historical reason, turkeys sometimes stand for friendship and appreciation. Maybe Franklin chose turkeys instead of eagles simply because he favored the ideas that turkeys stand for more than the force and power that eagles represent.
A short response to Clara Hou and Ted Song's question: I know that German capitalize every noun even now. But I am not sure if there is anything related to Franklin's Autobiography.
ReplyDeleteMy question are as follows.
1.Edwards uses the word "they" to refer to sinful men in the first part of the sermon. However, he uses the word"you" to warn people who are in the states of sin in the following part (from the bottom of p.198, under the"Application".) I wonder if there is any deliberate distinction Edwards tried to make between "they" and "you". Or, he tries to use different strategies to threaten the audience by using different words referring to sinners.
2.In my opinion, i think "threating the audience" is not the "best policy" to convert people into Christianity. It's a risk strategy for it may scared people away!!!!haha We will do things morally good if we are scared of the punishment but we will not "believe" what we did is out of our own will. I wonder what is Edwards aim when delivering the sermon of an angry God. Is he trying to imply certain group of people at that time being wicked and telling people shouldn't follow those people's deeds? Is he converting the audience in to Christianity? Is he urging people to do something morally good?
Oh, this is Jane Hsu.
I have a question about John Smith's "A Description of New England" on page 54. I am wondering whom "he" is as Smith frequently refers to especially in the first two paragraghs. Besides, I find it interesting that it appears five "Or"s in a row in the second paragragh and also I'm wondering how this would effect the readers' thoughts and mood in this particular context.
ReplyDeleteThis is Ken. My question this week is that how can we associate the readings of this week to the theme of this course: Empire? The reason why I ask this question is that the texts assigned this week is mainly related to the theology thinking (Edwards’ text) and the social norms (Franklin’s text.) For me, it is difficult for me to relate the notion of empire and those two kinds of texts together. Please help me to clarify this point.
ReplyDeleteI'm Vincent, and here is my question. When I read the quotations in "The Way to Wealth", I find some ideas between the lines and want to figure out whether my thoughts correspond with the writer.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the writer emphasizes the importance of diligence in many quotations. It seems like he's encouraging the individual values. But then I read some narratives about the industry and social status like "at the workingman's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter. Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter...”. I wonder if the actual meaning the writer tries to promote is the competition and reaction against social status, in order to advocate the value of industrialization and capitalism?
Second, the writer sometimes provides religious quotation. But like "God helps them that help themselves" and "God gives all things to industry", it makes me think that the writer just uses the religious figure to promote some secular values. Does the image of God begin secularized, not only as a holy and religious symbol?
And my last question is why the writer put "Poor" in front of the names of some people whom Franklin makes the quotations from? It seems like he uses "Poor" as the title of these people.
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ReplyDeleteThis is Caleigh Chang.
ReplyDeleteThe "limited point of view" reminds me of the gesture for expressing "OK" in some cultures.
In some cultures, the gesture means "fine, everything's OK." In Southern France, the gesture means "zero." It is also said that in Eastern Asia it can be an invitation for sex. However, in Southern America, it is said that the gesture has an obscene meaning.
If we link the meanings together it could create misunderstandings or even embarrassing jokes between people from different cultures. I believe we all have our own limited points of view and it is inevitable. This is because we are from different environments and are used to a certain way of living and a certain pattern of thinking. But I don't think it is not alterable.
Some movies intentionally create a certain atmosphere to guide its audience to predict a certain ending and perceive the plot, and often surprise them at the end. I think after several times we can learn that our truth is not necessarily others'.
Thinking of "limited viewpoint," I would think about the Hollywood movies, especially those about disasters or wars. It is very obvious that the USA always be the hero to save the world, and it seems that there are no other countries on the earth, or only the USA can be the representative of the earth. It is even more interesting that since we watch a lot of such movies, we even starts to believe in some way that it is true that the USA does represent us. There are people try to imitate the culture or society mode from the USA, and tend to look at the world through "the USA's point of view." However, since we do not born into that society, we have our original "glasses" to see the world, and then we add in the "USA glasses," how we look at the world is through two or even more layer of "glasses." In this case, I am not quite sure about and also wondering, if the result is limited to a even smaller view, or if it will become immense.
ReplyDeleteThis is Peggy. Talking about limited viewpoint, I think everyone has his or her
ReplyDeletepersonal limited viewpoint. I used to read
the novel Atonement. In this novel, the author described the same event from different characters. Interestingly, each one understanded this event in various ways.
I think people's viewpoint are limited because we have our own identity. We understand one
thing with our personal identity and our
identity are all different. That is why our viewpoint are always limtied.
This is Winnie Hung. About the reading this week, I have a question about Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. In the very beginning, Edwards lists the implications of the expression “their foot shall slide in due time.” The first two points, however, are very much alike; the first point is that “they were always exposed to destruction” while the second is “they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction.” Also, little difference is made in the further explanation following these two statements, and the author even puts the same quotation in them. I’m not sure why the author writes this way, but I was confused when reading; I wonder if there’s anything particular that the author wants to express through this kind of repetition.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion to question 26 is as the following:
ReplyDeleteI am used to defining the literary terms in beginning of answering the question. According to A Glossary of Literary Terms eighth edition, The common element of “Enlightenment” was a trust in a universal and uniform human reason as adequate to solve the crucial problems and to establish the essential norms in life, together with the belief that the application of reason was rapidly dissipating the darkness of superstition, prejudice, and barbarity, was freeing humanity from its earlier reliance on mere authority and unexamined tradition, and had opened the prospect of progress toward a life in this world of universal peace and happiness(P.80).
Judging from Jonathan Edwards’s sermon I think he is not an anti-Enlightenment thinker; on the contrary, he shows the influence of Enlightenment ideas. In the page 169, it writes, “Edwards says that he read the work of the English philosopher John Locke with more pleasure than the greedy miser finds when gathering up handfuls of silver and gold, from some newly discovered treasure.” Apparently, Edward not only likes Locke’s work but also Locke confirmed Edwards’s conviction: “we must do more than comprehend religious ideas; we must be moved by them, we must know them experientially:……is like that between reading the word fire and actually being burned.” Edward brings the ideas and thoughts of Enlightenment into his sermon instead of against it.
The following is Emma's response to question #25:
ReplyDeleteEdwards’ sermon may be unacceptable for Winthrop or Bradford because he adopted a means of threatening instead of encouraging. Winthrop promoted selfless love among Christians, and Bradford praised God for His blessings upon the pilgrims, both of which have encouraged people to behave justly and to follow the great God’s steps. By contrast, Edwards constantly threatened a miserable end that the unbelieving people would meet; that is, those who did not believe in God should be punished to hell at any moment. In my opinion, such sermon can at most terrorize people not to do bad things but can hardly gain sincere believers in Christian.
As for the second part of the question, my answer is no contradiction between the two sayings. And instead, I consider such discourse really smart. If it is the unknowable will of God that decides one’s being selected or not, then people will not complain even though the good are not recompensed with good. Moreover, to prevent people from quitting good actions, horrible punishment is therefore “produced.” Since no one wants to fall down to hell, every one tries their best to behave well so as to grasp a ray of hope to get into the heaven.
This is Tady Chen. When speaking of the “limited point of view”, I think of the using of wikipedia. Since this online source is really convenient for students, some of us rely too much on this single website. Most of the terms on the website are edited from English-speaking people’s point of view, and if we check the Chinese definition of some terms, we could see that some of them are translated by the English one. However, we all know that due to different social, economical, and historical backgrounds, different countries may have different definition about the same term. On wiki, there may be only one kind of explanation for the same term in different languages. Many college students in Taiwan use wiki as their most important source to acquire knowledge, and we should be aware of this English-speaking people’s trap. ^^
ReplyDeleteHi, this is Ting-Ju again. Just found out that I didn’t post my reply to Q21.
ReplyDeleteCooke’s poem is more like telling a story of a travel or an adventure. All the sentences are obviously shorter than Bradstreet’s. Therefore, when we read this poem, we feel exciting and energetic, or have some feelings that may associate with adventure and wildness.
I don’t know much about Hudibras, only that it is a kind of satire and it has its own unique meter and form. Because the speaker in Cooke’s poem is actually criticizing colonial Maryland, I think Cooke adopts this form to make it more sarcastic.
As i read Fanklin's The Way to Wealth, I noticed that within the paragraphs, he keeps repeat "as Poor Richard says," or sometimes "says Poor Dick." The foot note points out that "Richard" is appeared in Franklin's fictitious editorship. In the end of the work, there is the subscription of "Richard Saunders." I am wondering, if he is expressing himself by the name of Richard, why he keeps quoting what Richard says. If there is any effect of expressing one's own idea as third person narrative?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the concept about “the limited point of view”, I think of three examples. Before talking about them, I would clarify the concept first. For me, “limited point of view” can be developed by individual entity. Yet, I believe what the instructor wants us to meditate upon is the “collective” limited point of view instead of individual viewpoint. Based on this assumption, I think the different cognitive “schemas” formed by different languages is a fine example. Since we’re using a “restricted code” to perceive and organize our view about the world, it may constrain our cognitive abilities. (What the linguists called “the determinism hypothesis.”) For example, in English, the system of naming number is complex, (the number 12 has no relation to the number1 and 2) while it’s simpler in Chinese and some other countries. And we can expect that this will lead to different mathematics achievements. (Indeed it does!)
ReplyDeleteAnother example I think of is the difference between male/female perspectives. Because of biological discrepancy, females can never experience the body similar to males, and vice versa. To discuss further, this sexual discrepancy even leads to uneven power distribution. In the society of male-subjectivity, women are often the oppressed group that yearns for women collective consciousness. Though there’re some claimed that women are “outsiders” and so they have clearer point of view than men, I still think that both sexes have their limitations and constraints.
Talking about the male/female difference concerning the uneven power distribution, we can further discuss that within the group of power central and the marginal group, there are also “limited point of views.” For example, the capitalists and the labors. These two groups are, mostly, from different backgrounds, and they are in different social ranks. The capitalists may be blind to labors’ needs and wants, and so does labors.
Similar example can also be applied to Taiwanese students who struggle to understand foreign literature. For us, English is a power language. We have to study it, understand it, and use it. Through acquiring the language and literature, we students become the passive subject influenced by the ideological state apparatus imported from the powerful Western world. And it’s obvious that both us and the target culture which we try to constitute into our cognition both have "limited point of view.”
This is Rea, and here is my answer to question 22:
ReplyDeleteFor the evidence backing up for Cooke’s anti-Maryland view, I think all the words said by the speaker are evidence. Such as his disdain for the food of Indians: "[Homine and Syde-pap] which scarce a hungry Dog would lap."
For the author’s pro-Maryland view, I think the evidence may lie in some other's words. The landlord said something like"I find, says he, you don't much care,/for this our Indian country fare" and "And if within this Land you stay,/You'll find it true what I do say."
I think Cooke tends to be pro-Marylnd, because the way he writes the line in a ridiculous manner; and his opinions are so naive and self-centered.
This is Crystal. Speaking of the limited point of view, it reminds me of the old days when I was in high school. As the third year students at that time, we did nothing every day but study hard for the upcoming entrance exam all the time. However, instead of striving for good grades in all the subjects, some of my classmates chose to focus on the other specialized skills such as drawing or piano playing. They were not that into studying, hoping that they could develop their special talent and interest in the future. Believing that only studying could bring you a bright and successful future, both the teachers and parents became the tough obstacles for them. Owing to the adults’ limited viewpoint, those versatile students underwent huge difficulties in order to achieve their dream. Fortunately, after I entered the college, I heard that some of them who insisted their faith to the end turned out to lead a satisfying and vigorous life. Some of them became students in the greatest art school in Taiwan and some even go abroad to fulfill their dreams in music.
ReplyDelete