Blog on Perspectives

Plato's Cave allegory was a very intriguing piece. It effectively illustrates the way that experience and open-mindedness can lead to a much higher form of knowledge and understanding. The story is about three men who see the world a certain way, and have no other way of seeing it, when one of them is released into the real world and is in awe at what it is like. The man who escaped goes back to share his findings but he is looked at as the crazy one. The message the story is trying to give is the truth of how people view the world. Although we may think one thing to be true, it could possibly just because we are "chained up" so to speak, and that we cannot truly see what is really going on. However, once we do see what is true, those who held our previous beliefs will not accept that. It truly makes you wonder if you are just living in a cave, and how you would ever know that you are. Could we all just be in a cave that we've been living in our whole lives, and if so, how do we get out, and how do we know when we are out? When I lived in the USA, I didn't even know the names of most other countries, let alone where they were and what their cultures were like. I moved to Germany and everything seemed weird and different and unnatural and I regularly thought to myself "how can people live like this?" Then after moving to China that feeling got even stronger, that feeling of awe and strangeness induced by the culture of a new place. However, upon returning to the USA, everyone seemed so closed minded, not accepting, and borderline racist. It was then I realized that I had seen the truth, that the life one might know in their home country is not the "right" way of living, it is simply the way you are familiar with, the way you were brought up. After traveling and seeing different cultures and living styles, I realized everyone has a different perspective, and only by looking through each of them can you exit the cave and see that life is what you make it, and that everyone's can be vastly different.

Blog on Perspectives - Pedro Hannud

In Plato's allegory of the cave, we saw how the three men had no idea of what the shapes and shadows behind them were, they only saw distorted views of them and imagined based on their experiences what each shadow was. When one of them was unchained and brought to light and the real word, he couldn't believe what he saw and how everything looked like in real life, so he went back running to the cave to tell to his friends how everything was and how wrong they were about their previous ideas. Although he tried to come back and tell his friends of what he had seen, his friends did not understand him nor recognized him because he was only another distorted shadow shown in the wall as all the others. Plato's cave idea can be seen in many different occasions, for example when someone that lives in a small country where the people have certain beliefs and ideas about the world and and other cultures sets of to a foreign land to learn more about new cultures. This person will be exposed to new ideas and will become smarter and gain much more knowledge about how things work in other places, thus understanding other cultures and how they think. When this person goes back to the land he lived, and tells all other citizens of his small town about the ideas he has experienced and how people were he visited or lived really think, the people in his small community might think he has gone insane or has become weird. This happens because as Plato's suggests, the ways of how people live and think in the other countries are really only shadows for the citizens that have never seen and experienced them, and when one goes out and comes back to explain, they believe he is not the same, in fact, he has become one of those "shadows" as well, thus being rejected or criticized by the members of his former society. Plato's allegory shows how people that have knowledge and try to take the others out of the "cave", sometimes are seen as threats or crazy, when they only have more knowledge or a better ideas than the others around him/her. One very good example of someone reaching in the cave to take people out of it is Galileo when he said the world was round. Because his ideas were so different and seemed so "insane", he was seen as a threat by the church because he opposed their ideas instead of agreeing with them, when he only had discovered the truth and had knowledge that other people around him did not. 

Blog on Perspectives - Andrew Chiang

I found Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" a very interesting text. I had never read anything of the sort before, and, although hard to comprehend, I found it very amusing. The different ideas and images created by the text are things that normally a "normal" person would think regularly. The idea of questioning reality and what you actually know in life through the example of the prisoners was quite intriguing. It made perfect sense even though at first it was kind of weird. It made me think about what if I was in such position, and how I would react. Would I do the same thing as the prisoner? Would my fellow prisoners recognize me? I kept asking myself what if this happened, or what if that happened, would the prisoner react differently? The fact that the concept was hard to grasp made me wonder about possible alternatives of what was happening, or if really this was accurate at all. I asked myself: what if Plato was wrong? Even though it may have been just me being a bit narrow minded, like I am usually, maybe, since it is part of me to be curious as well and it is within my nature to question everything in life and take on different perspectives, it may have been a valid point to make. What if any theory of the world is not the reality, but perhaps the reality we want to see? Or perhaps the only reality we can see?
These first TOK classes have been extremely interesting, as it forces people outside of their comfort zone and adopt new perspectives. I believe these news perspectives will be very important for all the IB subjects, but most importantly, for life after the IB. The map exercise was an important example to show us what different ways of thinking there are, and how a simple idea can change the way you think about everything. I am really looking forward to expand the ways I see things, and use the knowledge I gain from TOK and apply it to the way I think in other subjects and other things in my personal life. 

Blog on Perspectives - Erik Larsen

     When we went over the concept of maps in class, and how people based maps of ones they had already seen, I suspected that it would eventually lead to poor map quality. Much like the game telephone, where a message is passed from one person to the next, in a circle. The message is really ever the same at the end. As the understanding of the land develops, though, then maps become more precise. Another idea on maps that I started thinking about was the idea that maps are unfair and bias towards more developed countries. If i were to design a map to prevent this, I would make a map that is flat and perfectly round. I scale every land mass as accurately as possible. Because of the maps round shape, it would have no defined up or down. The reading of the “Allegory of the cave” also sparked my interest. But this time, I thought of the real life aspect of this story. I realize that it is just a story and that it was meant to prove a point. The idea however, that i pulled out of the story was that you can’t know something is bad before you try it. That applies to a lot of things, but when you assume something, it can sometimes make an as-(out of)-u-(and)-me. When your friend tries a new activity and says its really great and you should try it, normally all you can think of is the negative effect of what the activity entails. Like what your friend could have done with his time, or how much worked he/she needed to do, or how much knowledge he/she needed ahead of time. It is because of our lack of knowledge for the activity that we only assume it is a waste of time or no fun at all. Just as in the story, were when the man left the cave, then came back to tell the others, there was no physical way to explain to them what was “out” there. The other men could only see the negative effects, like the fact that he could not see in the dark, or that (in the other men’s perspectives) he had lost his mind. I wondered how many things I have passed up because of what I assumed.

Perspectives - Catu Berretta

While learning about Plato's Cave Allegory, we began discussing the idea of what it's like for someone who has infinitely more knowledge to relate to someone with a much lesser, more basic perspective. The way each sees the other will obviously be skewed. In Plato's Cave Allegory, the man that is dragged outside, after living his entire life inside the cave, is dumbfounded by the new reality he meets. His perspective grows immensely and suddenly, the life back at the cage seems terrible, and all he feels is pity for his fellow prisoners. So he returns to tell them of the wonderful things he saw, he learned, he understood. But the prisoners were unable to understand properly. All the saw was a strange shadow (the man's shadow) speaking of strange things they couldn't even begin to fathom (just as the man had before he'd left the cave). In their eyes, the man had lost his sight, despite the reality of the outside world being, he gained far more valuable insight. They each thought each other as ignorant, unknowledgable, and unable to see the true reality. This ideal echoed with me when looking back at my various returns to my homeland, Uruguay. I've always been a bit strange compared to my friends. Perhaps, it was because I had a mother with whom I constantly spoke English with, which led me to cultivate an American accent (unlike the rest of my classmates), helped by the constant viewing of American movies. While all my friends switched the language of the films we watched to Spanish Translated, I cringed at the idea of it and constantly begged we keep it in english. Aside from this, I simply did not fit in as well as my friends seemed to. However, I was still able to form a connection, to relate to them. Until I left.

The thing no one tells you about moving to a new country, whether it is due to your parent's job or whatever it may be, is that you when you go back, nothing is the same. This is the unavoidable, heart-breaking truth I came to terms with when going home to Uruguay after three years of living in Brazil and attending an international school. Sure, I had gone back before that multiple times and while I was always met with an uneasy feeling of not-belonging, I had brushed it aside, not wanting to face what was happening. Here are the facts: When you leave your home, and are immersed in different cultures and experiences, you will return to find that nothing has changed. The houses are still numbered the same, your friends still live 5-minute bike rides away from each other, and they still watch their movies in Spanish translation. It shouldn't be a problem. Except, the fundamental thing that has changed, that's made it impossible for you to go back, is you. 

While I may have struggled in the beginning of my yearly trips to my hometown, it was nothing like it is now. I don't understand my friends anymore, and they don't understand me. I sometimes feel pity for them, knowing they'll always be in their little world, probably going to the same university, marrying some guy and having children, only to send their children to the same school they went to and thus the cycle continues. I always knew that was not what I wanted. But it took me a long time to accept that maybe, it was okay that it was what they wanted. Obviously, I want to thrust them into the real world in regards to issues like feminism, racism and homosexuality and such. These topics are viewed in a very conservative manner and it saddens me to think of the way my female friends view themselves, for the only view they have is the one where women are shamed no matter what they choose and drunk teenage boys get to feel them up without consent. These issues I can't validate the different perspectives because I know they are wrong. But aside from those, I've been coming to terms that maybe they like their little worlds. And I don't wish to use little in a belittling way. Their worldview is small. Their lives are in one country, with one neighbourhood, one set of childhood friends that may have changed a bit but remained fundamentally the same. For a long time I never thought I should be the one who is pitied, but rather them. Yet it never occurred to me that perhaps they pitied me. I had left and come back, every year more Gringa. Unable to properly express myself in spanish, to understand the unspoken but elementary social cues of the Uruguayan upper-class adolescent groups, to have solid ground beneath my feet. Regardless, I have learned to respect their goals and wishes. Sometimes I am infuriated by their small-minded perspectives, but I try to remember that their environment, family and social surroundings, like the prisoners in the cave, have never offered anything to make them believe it's any different.

Blog on Perspectives - Anoushka G.

In the allegory of the cave, the prisoners were only allowed to see the wall of the cave, and the shadows that danced upon it. They believed that this was a valid world, and that a world without these shadows didn’t exist. For many people, this sounds like an allusion to the work we live in, and the line between knowledge and ignorance. However, this allegory takes me back to a video I watched, about disability in the world today, and simulations that help people understand what it’s like to be disabled. What messages do these simulations send to people who aren’t disabled (in this society)? In many ways, we, the majority are the people who can only see disability through a large shadow, and we can never fully grasp at what it means to be disabled in our society. Also, we take disability at its face value. We never think about how disabled people are just as able as us, and that they are not suffering every day of their lives. Just as the people in the cave are perfectly comfortable living int he shadows, not experiencing a loss of anything, disabled people function in our world today without suffering from an inability to wake up and go through their day because their life is so hard. I feel as if we are the people who are chained inside the cave, trying to see disability through a lens which can’t really replicate what the “real” thing is, or give us an experience that is truly disabling or shows what it’s like to have always been like this. What we don’t realize, as people in the cave, is that disability exists, but only because our society isn’t “disabled” friendly. We always exclude ourselves because we are the majority, but it’s a little like the situation in which you are not only sitting in traffic, you are the traffic. This is because disability isn’t easy to live with, but just because people are doing it everyday doesn’t mean it’s “inspiring” or “amazing” that they can just make it out of bed everyday and live their “misfortune- filled life” with a smile. Just because disabled people don’t function well in society today, doesn’t mean that there is no society in which able bodied people would not function as well as disabled people, like the world outside the cave.

Blog on Perspectives- Rafael Wurzmann

Plato's cave allegory exhibits prisoners that are chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. The only thing they can see are the shadows caused by a fire. A man is released from the cave and exposed the the world he has never imagined. He then returns to collaborate his knowledge with his fellow companions of the cave. His companions believes he is a mad man, and all of his stories cannot be true, since they have not experienced the outside world of the cave, and the only knowledge they have about the world are the shadows. This allegory is a symbol for the contrast between ideas and what we perceive as reality, or true knowledge. Plato argues that we are slaves of the cave, since we live on a world of shadows, in which we don't see reality of ideas. Reality in plato's cave is the visible world, however it is much larger than it. Plato’s idea of the cave can be applied to various real world situations such as; the conflicts between Israel and Palestine for the acquisition of Gaza. Different perspectives are acquired toward this conflict based on the knowledge each side has. Even though, one side exposes their arguments and knowledge about the conflict, the other side cant accept these arguments since they have not grown up with the same vision of the world. A experience in my own life that involved different perspectives is something as simple as a soccer match. During a soccer match their is a fowl, both teams advance toward the referee to put pressure among his decision. Both teams will never agree that it is fowl for the other team. This happens due to the different positions each are put, as much as one knows that the fowl has happened he will not admit due to the consequences of it. It is a bit different than plato’s cave allegory, however the main concept is the same; different perspectives will cause different opinions. The cave allegory is also related to the video we watched in class the first day about maps. People who live on different areas of the world, will have different views about maps, always centralizing and expanding on the area he or she is exposed, therefore every map of the world is inaccurate, it is impossible to achieve a completely accurate map. Again, the idea that different perspectives will cause different opinions about the world is once again mentioned, and people who are exposed to new knowledge will often not respond well, since according to plato, reality is based on the visible world, or in other words on what you see. 

Blog on Perspectives - Pedro Salles Leite

During class, when we were shown the maps video, it got me thinking deeply about maps and how the video made sense, that every map is biased. Throughout the video, several examples were given of how sizes of countries were not proportional, locations were inaccurate, and even the orientation were biased. Towards the end of the video, when the map is flipped, I found very interesting how the woman said: “you can’t do this” and later added “because it’s freaking me out”. This made me realize how stuck we are to the current perception of the world, a perception where Europe is centralized, the USA is on the top left, and everything else is not as important. After reflecting upon that idea, I began to question myself about the map I drew on the first day of class. Later on, I went even further with my thoughts, and began to question why I used this map type. Finally, I was able to convince myself that I would choose another map type to follow and a drawing that is not so biased. Therefore, after some research, I figured something out. Every map will need to be biased, just because you can’t properly portray a 3D globe on a piece of paper. At this point, I was experiencing a small interior crisis, unable to find a “true” representation of the world. Looking at the Peters Projection Map, it felt strange to me mainly because of my culture. At my school, my house, and everywhere I’ve been exposed to, portrayed the earth with the “Mercator Map”. For 16 years, I have been used to look at certain proportions and certain placements that weren’t available in other representations of the world. The thing is, this representation made me feel comfortable, it made me feel like I knew more of the world than when I looked at the other type of map. This is when I realized how hard it is to look through other perspectives. However, I do think it is possible so I will attempt to change the map that I use and get used to seeing the world according to the Peters Projection Map. Even though the map will have proportional land sizes, it will still be biased in a couple of other ways. However, if I searched my entire life, I would not be able to find an accurate map so while changing maps won’t make me see the truth, it will definitely help me understand different point of views.

Blog on Perspectives - Nina Mayer de Paulo

Choose one idea from thinking about maps, Plato's Cave, the distinctions I've made in class, comments people have made in class, or any of the other texts and sources we've looked at. From that starting point, elaborate your thinking about this idea, showing how it might apply to one of your subject areas, a real world situation, your own experience, or another text you have read or watched.

When we looked at maps we saw how the person's culture impacts their perspective. And last class I mentioned that I was raised Swiss, meaning that I am excruciatingly punctual and I hate, like truly hate, being late. For you to truly understand I'll tell you that last year before my first day of school I made my driver take me to school so I would arrive there no later than 8, to have a idea of what the traffic would be like on a morning. It worked; I wasn't late once last year, with exception for days that I had a doctor’s appointment or was sick in the morning.

 To me being late to a “professional” situation is something that is not tolerable; it was the way I was raised and one of the very first things that my parents taught me. As a kid I was the first one EVERYWHERE but this made me prepared and is probably the reason why I'd rather be 1 hour early rather than 10 minutes late. Because I was taught that those 10 minutes are big enough for you to miss something that is really important. In class those 10 minutes could have been used to explain how you are supposed to format future essays or how osmosis works. And then comes time to format your essay you don’t know how to do it and you could loose points for that, or there is a question about osmosis in a quiz and you can't remember the exact definition because you missed it. To me there is no excuse to be late, it's simply “get out of your house earlier if you know you live in a city that is prone to traffic”, because if you lived here for over 2 weeks you kind of figure that out.

But once I was here in Brazil for about 2 months my original perspective shifted to one that allowed lateness for social events, my rule for this is that it must be ore than me and one other person or else I feel guilty making someone wait for me. But this change was caused by Brazilian culture, in which being 15 minutes late is not considered late, a concept I did not truly understand until living here. And when they tell you to get that the event starts at 10 they really mean anytime after 11. My mom likes to call the time they give an indication of what time not to arrive at.  And though arriving late feels wrong to me, it doesn’t to the people who have a Brazilian perspective on the topic of timing. 

Blog on Perspectives - Leonardo Kim

During class, we received a specific task. There was a car accident, creating a horrible traffic, and we were supposed to demonstrate the reaction of different types of people with different "jobs". How would a police officer react towards the accident? What about a nurse? A mother? What about us, students? Because people come from different places or have grown with specific people, they tend to show unique thoughts or reactions toward something. For example, a man who is late for an important meeting would most likely get frustrated about the accident because it is delaying him to his meeting. Therefore, this kind of person wouldn't care about the accident, how bad it was or how hurt the driver was, but he would care about his own personal interest or, in this case, his appointment. However, a police or a nurse's reaction would be totally different from the late man. Because their job is to help and save people, they would have worried and went right away to help those who got hurt on the accident. A mother would have thought about her children first, because she is the mother, and her job is to take care of her children and give the kid a healthy education. This activity clearly shows that people are different, each individual have different perspectives. It was very interesting to see how people would really react differently. If we would have asked how each student would react for such situation, I am pretty sure everyone would have reacted in a unique way. That is a good explanation to why some students are good at a specific subject area but bad at others. The education that they received and how they grew up affects people's academic skills as well. For example, most Korean are good at math because of the country they are from and their strict parents. Risk-takers are better off at economics because they tend to go further on the market in order to get the best use of scarce resources to satisfy human needs. This is all based on the real world, whatever happens on people's daily life, whether it is related to social or academics, they will do and think differently from everyone else. On the TOK book, it clearly shows that people often have different perspectives because they come from different cultures and governments. Therefore, individuals are most likely to react in a unique way to specific scenes.

Blog on Perspectives

Choose one idea from thinking about maps, Plato's Cave, the distinctions I've made in class, comments people have made in class, or any of the other texts and sources we've looked at. From that starting point, elaborate your thinking about this idea, showing how it might apply to one of your subject areas, a real world situation, your own experience, or another text you have read or watched.