danielsmosaics-blog

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The last text that I am going to talk about is Karl Marx and the Communist Manifesto. This text is one of the more bizarre yet interesting texts that I have read this semester because it talks about a word that I’ve always looked at to be so wrong. That word of course is communism. On page 22 of the text, it states, “We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a man’s own labour, which property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal freedom, activity and independence” (22). Marx doesn’t believe that free trade and private ownership is what makes freedom. I strongly disagree with this statement. Being able to own land and own a home and make goods and sell goods and work hard to make money and live a plentiful life is what freedom is all about. Now how does this post have anything to do with the theme of the truth that I’ve been talking about? It has everything to do with the truth because it proves the truth in that Karl Marx is wrong about communism. The truth is shown now being able to look back at Karl Marx and his communist ideas because communism is now proven to fail. We can see the truth about communism as clear as glass in today’s world as we look at a country like North Korea who boasts about being the greatest country in the world yet can’t even provide enough food and electricity for it’s largest city. The truth in this case is simply hind sight being 20/20 and how sometimes the truth only comes out over time and after theories have failed before us. This is similar to the way Kuhn talks about the truths in science and how the truth changes over time as new discoveries are being made. 

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After reading Woolf’s literature this semester I learned even more about the truth and more specifically, what outsiders in society do for the truth. In part one of the text, Woolf says, “We have now to help us that record of the public life which is history. Even outsiders can consult the annals of those public bodies which record not the day-to-day opinions of private people, but use a larger accent and convey through the mouths of Parliaments and Senates the considered opinions of bodies of educated men” (One). She speaks a lot about outsiders and that she even considers herself an outsider. What this means as an outsider for the truth is that you have a completely different outlook looking in from the outside. A society of outsiders is necessary in order to reform institutions. If everyone in a society was on the inside looking out, nobody would ever be able to see the wrong in their systems. Having outsiders from the outside looking in allows the outsiders to spot wrong doing in the systems of the society. If there are no outsiders in a society their would be little truth in that society as nobody would be able to see the truth. Very similarly to how in the Allegory of the Cave everyone inside the cave was unable to see the real truth in which an outsider could spot instantly. Therefore Woolf teaches of the truth through the importance of outsiders in society.

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While reading The Republic there was plenty of talk about gender and jobs. Through reading such an old book that talks about issues that we still face today from a completely different mindset, I found the truth out for myself about genders role in different jobs. Socrates says on page 139 “Is it possible, then, to employ an animal for the same tasks as another if you do not give it the same upbringing and education?”. As well as, “Then if we employ women for the same tasks as men, they must also be taught the same things.” Coming from such a different mindset I believe Socrates holds a higher idea of the truth about gender in jobs. The truth is that it does not matter what gender. It simply matters if you can learn and perform the job. This in which Socrates is saying any gender is capable of doing. Socrates says on page 147, “That all these women should be shared among all the men, that no individual woman and man should live together, and that the children, too should be shared, with no parent knowing it’s own offspring, and no child it’s parent.” This quote just gives more truth to Socrates beliefs in gender equality because it shows that he is not very sentimental and that he simply believes in his ideas because they work best. Therefore he is not just saying women can do anything men can do just to be a nice guy. He is saying it because he sees it as the truth.

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Coates as well brings great discussion to the table when it comes to the theme of the truth in this world. Coates book talks all about being an African American in America and all about the the truths of being an African American in America. Something he mentioned was the Civil War and slavery and how kids are taught about these horrible historical events in schools. On page 131 of Coate’s text he says,“As slaves we were this country’s first windfall, the down payment on its freedom. After the ruin and liberation of the Civil War came Redemption for the unrepentant South and Reunion, and our bodies became this country’s second mortgage”. While I read passages like that it made me question whether I was really taught the truth about these historical events in my public school education. The answer is no, I was not taught the truth, along with millions of other Americans. I was taught the “watered down” version of everything. The school systems failed to show the truth about America’s past and the truth about our founding fathers. We are tough to idolize them and look up to our founding fathers. We are taught to look past the horribleness of what they did in America. We are taught all of this through the absence of the truth and reality of what really happened in this country. 

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Kuhn brings a whole new aspect and idea of truth to the table from his book about scientific revolutions. I think that Kuhn and Plato can relate together as well when talking about truth. The prisoners in the cave looking at the pictures on the cave wall all agree that those pictures are the truth. Since there are multiple people looking at the same thing from the same perspective, they all agree on those pictures and agree those pictures to be true. Likewise in science, when many scientists come together and agree on a new paradigm or theory, they all believe it is the truth because there are multiple people agreeing on the same thing and looking at it from the same perspective. On page 47, Kuhn says, “Scientists who share a paradigm generally accept without question the particular problem-solutions already achieved”. Since the prisoners of the cave were actually not seeing the truth, it could be said that just because a bunch of scientists agree on something does not by any means mean that they are all seeing the actual truth. On page 2, Kuhn says “Perhaps science does not develop by the accumulation of individual discoveries and inventions”. If only one prisoner in the cave saw the pictures it would not be seen as truth because none of the others see it from the same perspective. Although since they all see it the same, it is the “truth”. This is an interesting aspect of truth that Kuhn brings to mind because it really makes to think about the “truths” in science and how that truth will evolve as new scientists come through this world with new discoveries.

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Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a great way to start talking about the truth and what the truth is. In the Allegory of the Cave the cave dwellers see images on the wall and fire as the sun every day. They believe this to be the truth but tjey are falsely mistaken and are being lied to everyday of their life. In the text it says, “You have again forgotten, my friend, said I, that the law is not concerned with the special happiness of any class in the state, but is trying to produce this condition in the city as a whole, harmonizing and adapting the citizens to one another by persuasion and compulsion, and requiring them to impart to one another any benefit which they are severally able to bestow upon the community, and that it itself creates such men in the state, not that it may allow each to take what courses please him, but with a view to using them for bring together of the commonwealth” (520 e). The world does not care about you and the world does not care about the truth. The world wants you to believe what it wants you to believe in order to manipulate and mold people to society. This is why the truth is so important and why it is so important that we don’t believe everything we hear until we prove it to ourselves to be true. What happened in the cave can be seen as an extremely negative story but I believe that this is just shining light on the truth and creating room for progress in society and the future of the truth.

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When I think about the array of literature that I have consumed this semester, so many ideas and themes come to mind. At first when I look back at all the texts I see very negative ideas and very negative themes about the world we live in and the past world that people lived in before my time. Although are these negative themes or are they just the truth and reality that is needed to be heard in order to progress as a society. This is why I decided name this blog and the theme of this mosaics semester, the truth. What really is the the truth and why is it so important that we know what is the truth and what is a lie? This blog will be going back through six of the texts I have read and pulling out more information and ideas on the subject of the truth.