What do we actually remember?

Theory of Knowledge Journal Six

During my dance lesson last week one of my classmates turned to me and said, "Do you remember at last years recital when we had like six dances?! It was crazy!" I looked at her and replied with, "Casey, don't you remember? I wasn't here last year for the recital, I was in Austria" This has happened to me so much since coming home. My friends and family will talk about an event that happened while I was away as if I was there. When I remind them that I was out of the country they get surprised, think for a moment and then say, "Oh I guess you weren't there...thats so weird! I totally remember you being there!" It got me thinking about memory and how it can deceive us. I have danced in every spring recital with Casey since we were four. So when I missed one, her brain just filled me in. Even though I wasn't there, she remembers me being there. I believe our memories become distorted from the actual events based on if the event was repeated in the past and how we were feeling. But is it in fact a distortion or simply and illustration of emotion? What can we rely on from our memory? Do we remember a sequence of events or do we only remember them by how we connect them to a feeling and what logically makes sense? For example when Casey thought I was at the dance recital she remembers how it felt to have me there from the past ten or so recitals so her brain just filled me in, because logically that would make sense. Our memory can also block out things that we don't want to remember or and even change events so that they appeared better in our favor so that we can remember ourselves in a better light. In a book I read this year called "An Abundance of Katherines" a boy is dumped by nineteen Katherines. In the book he runs into one of the first Katherines. A girl he dated for couple days at a summer camp in fifth grade. They got to talking and she tells the story of when he dumped her. He says, "No you dumped me" and tells the story how he remembers it. Which was entirely different. But as she told her story again he began to remember it. His memory changed how the event happened based on what he WANTED to remember. So how accurate is our memory really? Is it possible that we remember things that never even happened? Its a scary thought but in the end does it really matter? Because in the end that is what we remember, whether it happened or not its going to seem like it did.

Can we really know another person?

Theory of Knowledge Journal 4

I opened up the document to work on my TOK essay this morning and I stared at the quote, and I had a ton of ideas but I didn't know where to start. So I closed the document and just thought for a bit. And this is what came to mind.
The quote that I am supposed to discuss in my paper is "We see and understand things not as they are but as we are” I agree with this, but the fact that I agree with this suddenly scared me because, I suddenly felt as if it is impossible for me to know anyone. If I understand the world not as it is, but as I am then I am not understanding other people as they are, but as how they are in relation to me. So how can I really know them? I can't. But at the same time, I would not be the same person if I wasn't friends with the people in my life. They have an influence on how I see the world. They change me, yet they don't change by changing me. Therefore I still see the world as I am. That means knowing a person is making their knowledge also your own, but their opinions you will never fully understand. Say a I meet someone for the first time. I find out that they are avid lovers of a book series I have never heard of. They suggest the books to me and so I read them. I don't like the books. I know they like the books, they told me they did. I now know what the books are about, but I don't like them. I see the books the way I am. They gave me the knowledge about the books, they gave me their opinion of the books, but yet I still see them differently. I guess the best we can do to really know someone is try to understand their opinion through our own lens. Thats the best we can do I think.

Double Standard

Theory of Knowledge: Journal 3

Today in class we were discussing the double standard. Many of the examples given were regarding the double standards between the genders. At one point Mr. O'Leary shared a story about how a friend of his was followed home one night from where she had parked her car. When she called Mr. O'Leary to tell him this she said something like, "It bothers me because you will never have to worry about that happening to you." And suddenly I realized that certain things that I thought were common knowledge to everyone were purely common knowledge to females. Things like watching your drink at a party. Things like putting your keys between your knuckles. Even just the feeling of being on the look out, always on your toes, when walking home alone at night. I have been told countless times when going out at night, traveling somewhere new, or attending a party to "be careful, be careful, be careful!" And it never once occurred to me that my brothers wouldn't be told the same thing. When I realized this I had two things suddenly come to mind. The first was frustration. Why in our society does that double standard have to exist? Why do I have to be more careful as a woman? It angers me that even as I write this my brain is saying, "well because as a woman you are easier to take advantage of" But why should I have to have the fear that I will be taken advantage of? Does society encourage the weakening of women? I don't think so, but it certainly doesn't encourage them to become stronger either.
The second thing was: How many other parts of my perspective, my world, do I think apply to everyone but only apply to either myself or a small group I am a part of? It makes me feel so uninformed. There are so many other perspectives I might not even be aware I am oblivious to.  It comes back to the question "How do we know what we know" and I almost think we can't. But I can't go into that question because that would ruin my presentation... coming soon to TOK Block D!