Posts Tagged ‘Week 6’

  • Proposition

    Date: 2009.10.09 | Category: Glossary, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

    Glossary
    Unit: SSK12
    Week: 6
    Date: 09 October 2009

    Word: proposition n.
    Context: Proposition was used in both The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought and The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy, while defining belief.
    Definition: A proposition is “a statement or assertion”; “a statement consisting of subject and predicate [what is said about the subject] that is subject to proof or disproof” (Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2004). The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (2000) when defining types of proposition says, “propositions may be distinguished in respect (1) of their logical form, e.g. (a) singular, particular or universal, (b) affirmative or negative, (c) categorical…, hypothetical or otherwise complex, (d) existential, attributive or relational; (2) of their kind of TRUTH or VERIFICATION, as a priori or empirical….” and so on. To put that into my own words with the assistance of The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy (2009), a proposition is required in some sentences (due to the grammatical rules of language) where an abstract object is expressed and which bears “truth-values”. Philosophers introduced the word proposition for these purposes. The existence of propositions and their use is debated by some philosophers.
    Word in Use: Within the statement, “The west is losing the war on terror”, the word ‘losing’ is a proposition. The word is truth-bearing, but it can be either true or false.

    The Australian Oxford Dictionary. 2004. 2nd ed. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

    Bullock, A., and Trombley, S., eds. 2000. The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. 3rd ed. London: Harper Collins.

    Bunnin, N., and Yu, J., eds. 2009. The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy. West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.

  • Belief

    Date: 2009.10.06 | Category: Glossary, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

    Glossary
    Unit: SSK12
    Week: 1-5 (in Week 6)
    Date: 06 October 2009

    Word: belief n.
    Context: Essay preparation: “Using the concept of a ‘world view’, identify some of the beliefs and attitudes….”
    Definition: The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (2000) begins its definition of belief as the “acknowledgement that a proposition is true… in the absence of demonstrable proof as required by scientific method. Belief is often religious, as in belief in God, miracles or other supernatural phenomena”. It continues by saying that “belief can be a stage in the genesis of a particular piece of knowledge, where belief has waited for a methodology of adequate sophistication to valorize it as knowledge (i.e. many hypotheses can be classified as beliefs prior to proof)”. The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy (2009) expands on the above statement by explaining that “[m]any discussions in the theory of knowledge take belief rather than knowledge as their starting-point. It is generally thought that belief is inherently relational and thus needs an object…. The object of belief has been variously understood to be an actual or possible sensory state, a state of affairs, or a proposition”.
    Word in Use: It is the belief of the Christian that Jesus Christ is the Jewish messiah. It is the belief of the Orthodox Jew that he is not.

    Bullock, A. and S. Trombley. eds. 2000. The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. 3rd ed. London: Harper Collins.

    Bunnin, N. and J. Yu. eds. 2009. The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy. West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.

  • After India

    Date: 2009.10.06 | Category: Study Reflections, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

    Reflection
    Unit: SSK12
    Week: 6
    Date: 06 October 2009

    I’ve just got back from India. Almost always just before I leave India I feel ambivalent. I’m always keen to come home to be with friends and family, and also to get back into my normal routine (especially after a long stay), but at the same time I never want to leave India, it is like a second home for me. The time immediately after returning is often punctuated by a longing to return. It’s almost like a part of me is over there and I’m not complete unless I’m back there. These mixed feelings appear to be accentuated by my current studies. The longing is still a powerful emotion, but on this occasion it has had to be tempered by the necessity to study.

    This particular trip to India was only two weeks, when I am used to four and five week stays, but two weeks was enough to constitute a massive burden on my studies. Going to India is not a holiday for me and unfortunately there is little time for yourself. On this particular trip I was required to work 6 days per week, starting at 4 am at the office and most of the days were 14 hours long. At first I was keen to be in the books and reading the online tutorials, but very quickly the demands of work started to run me down and before long I was finding it difficult to do anything after work, let alone use my brain. What’s worse is that although I have developed a strategy for not wasting my time reading junk in the Student Café, I have now switched to writing posts in my own online tutorial which I spend a lot of energy on when that energy might be better directed at doing my Learning Skills exercises.

    Now I am back in Sydney, but I am two weeks behind, I need to finish my learning log and I haven’t even started my essay. I am very fortunate to have been given an extension by Koral. I felt quite embarrassed to ask for the extension, but I had no choice. I had good intentions for carrying on with my studies while I was away, but intentions are for nothing if you can’t follow through. Anyway, I’m here now and I have to make the most of the time I’ve been given. I have neglected the glossary section of my learning log and I’m rediscovering how time consuming it is to do these glossary entries. Also, I’ve got complete writers block when I attempt to start my essay. I know that once I start, it will come in a flood, but right now, I’ve got nothing. I found the exercise aimed at preparing for an essay very helpful, but I still feel completely unprepared. I believe essay writing was a huge weakness of mine in high school and to be truthful, I’m afraid that it is still a huge weakness.

  • Attitude

    Date: 2009.10.06 | Category: Glossary, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

    Glossary
    Unit: SSK12
    Week: 1-5 (in Week 6)
    Date: 06 October 2009

    Word: attitude n.
    Context: Essay preparation: “Using the concept of a ‘world view’, identify some of the beliefs and attitudes….”
    Definition: The Australian Oxford Dictionary (2004) puts it as “a settled opinion or way of thinking” and the “behavior reflecting this” opinion or way of thinking. The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy (2009) elaborates for us by explaining that belief is:

    A mental state of approval or disapproval, favouring or disfavouring. It is associated with emotion and feeling, but is contrasted to belief. While belief is concerned with fact and is cognitive, attitude is concerned with evaluation and emotional response. People having the same beliefs might have different attitudes, or have the same attitudes although they have different beliefs toward the same object. Hence the distinction between attitude and belief amounts to the distinction between value and fact.

    Word in Use: I have a positive attitude toward tertiary education.

    The Australian Oxford Dictionary. 2004. 2nd ed. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

    Bunnin, N. and J. Yu. eds. 2009. The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy. West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.