At the beginning of this class, I did not know exactly what I was going to learn. Going into this class with an open mind definitely made learning easier. I have learned not only the content taught, but a lot about myself as well. I feel this class has some very valuable life lessons and asks the kind of tough questions needed to analyze who you really are. I have enjoyed the many books, films, pieces of art, and other readings that we have studied and I believe that this class is essential in learning about the human experience.
Our introductory unit was about cognition and the different ways people think. One of the first pieces of text that we read was the Leonard Shlain reading of an excerpt from The Alphabet Versus the Goddess. This reading was about the different hemispheres of the brain and their functions and impact on the human experience. It also talks about verbal and nonverbal communication and what the hemispheres of the brain have to do with it. Continuing our education on the brain, we watched the TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor about her experience with a stroke. A blood vessel had exploded in the left hemisphere of her brain and when she woke up with a pounding headache, she could hear her brain telling her muscles what to do. Soon, the “chatter” in her head stopped and when her brain went silent, she felt a sense of nirvana. Additionally, we learned through Karen Armstrong's What Is a Myth? about the origins of myth and why it is so important in today’s society. She says that mythology was created to help us understand our place in the world and to help cope with death. Understanding the brain is the basis of understanding the human experience. It is where everything starts and leads us to comprehend things that we might not be able to comprehend the day before. Understanding the world is the foundation of understanding the human experience.
The next unit was Nature, Human Beings, and Sacred Space. In this unit, we looked at what it meant to be human and how the world around us influenced our existence. One of the first pieces of film we watched was National Geographic’s Australia’s Aborigines. This film highlighted the lives of indigenous people of Australia and how they live in a much simpler world. The Australian Aborigines have a special connection to Earth and are very in tune with nature. Another piece of text we read was the introduction to the book of Genesis. This includes two stories, one of how the earth was made and one of how humans were made. A third text we read was a piece entitled “Of Cannibals” by Michel de Montaigne. This text was comparing cannibals to people who kill and torture others in warfare. Montaigne explains how society views cannibals so badly because they eat the flesh of dead people, but what people do in war, torturing before killing, is not frowned upon but should be. This unit is important to the human experience because it shows us different creation stories and different cultures. It opened our eyes to different beliefs and started to make us question what our own beliefs were.
Love, Beauty, and Art was our next unit that explored what exactly made something beautiful. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a perfect example of this. The book explored the importance of beauty and ultimately determining that a need to be beautiful will lead to an unhealthy life of obsession and contributed to Dorian Gray’s death. To some people, the definition of beauty is different. We see this by the different ideas of aesthetic philosophies by many great philosophers, like Wilde. These philosophies from Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Ficino and others continued our exploration of what beauty and art really means to us. The movie The Shape of Things also demonstrated explorance of what is considered art and beautiful and what isn’t. Evelyn took advantage of an overweight, socially awkward man and succeeded in changing him into the person she wanted him to be. She took this transformation and used it as an art exhibit. Exploring love, beauty, and art is essential when looking at the experience of being human. We are experiencing love throughout our life; whether it be loving a spouse or loving a child. We continue to make judgements based on beauty and something we see as pleasurable, such as art.
The next unit, Law, Ethics, and Human Frailty, may be the most important unit in the human experience. In this unit, we explored the ten commandments, buddhist ethics, and watched Crimes and Misdemeanors. The Ten Commandments are the set of rules given by God that one must follow. It includes things from “do not murder” to “do not desire things.” The buddhist ethics that we read explained how to live a virtuous life according to the Buddha. It includes the Ten Non-Virtues which are very much like the Ten Commandments, with the addition of actions of speech. The movie Crimes and Misdemeanors explored the ethics of many different characters. The two main characters both acted unethically (at least in my opinion). They both had/wanted to have affairs and felt guilty about it in the end. I believe that Law, Ethics, and Human Frailty is the most important unit in understanding the human experience because our ethics shape how we live. Exploring our own ethics gave us a deeper understanding into who we are and what we believe in.
Our final unit, The Inner Journey and the Meaning of Human Reality is fitting to be the last. This brought everything together and looked at the bigger picture of what it means to be human. We explored suffering, death, and the possibility of an afterlife. We read Hamlet by William Shakespeare which follows an unstable and suicidal man Hamlet whose father was killed by his uncle, who then married his mother. He has a certain attachment to his mother that makes him incapable of loving Ophelia. We also read Siddhartha, the story of the Buddha explaining his journey to enlightenment. He realizes he must be his own teacher and therefore chooses not to follow under the teachings of the Buddha before him. Another piece of text we read was Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave.” In this, Socrates is explaining that if people lived in a cave, shackled, their whole life, all they would know is whatever is in front of them. If there was a fire behind them and people made shadow puppets, they would believe those are the real thing. If they were to go outside one day, they would be unable to comprehend and they would not be able to go back to the way life was in the cave. The inner journey of a person ultimately is the human experience. It is the path a human takes that shapes them into the person they are meant to be, and this is true for the human experience.
The order in which the units were taught coincides with the steps of the human experience. In the beginning, we learn about our brains and how to use them. Then we learn what it means to be human, how to comprehend love, how to form our own ethics, and finally, we see the path which we have taken to get us to who we are today. This humanities class taught me so much about who I am and who I want to become, and I am thankful I signed up for it. The topics covered in this class brought up tough questions that needed to be asked in order to find what our beliefs are. I think everyone should be required to take this class before college, because at least for me, this class has taught me so much about myself that I never even knew existed.
I agree with what you said about the law, ethics, and human frailty unit being the most important, although it wasn't my favorite unit that we studied it was definitely the most important to how we live. We restrict ourselves as humans and to me our ethics and moral code is what separates us from wild animals. I would be interested to hear if you agree with the ten commandments or the ten non-virtues more. I also agree with how you said that both Judah and his secretary were guilty or there crimes or 'sins' especially when looking at the ten commandments and the ten non-virtues. They both committed adultery and Judah kinda sorta committed murder. You really did a great job reviewing each unit of the class I enjoyed reading your post.
ReplyDeleteWith the body paragraphs, I think you started out strong and ended the last paragraph strongly, but the middle paragraphs didn't have the flow or depth of analysis that the beginning and end did. You picked many good examples of works read/viewed that often fit well together and were a fair representation of the unit each was a part of. A few of your examples I'd complete forgotten about, but they were interesting ones too, like the TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor. This blog post is also far better organized than mine. It's evident that you put time into this and reread, edited, and possibly had someone else look at it to get their opinion.
ReplyDeleteYou and I picked several of the same examples, and it's interesting to see how someone else connects them in different ways. Also, I liked your intro. It is important to have an open mind when going into a class your unsure what to expect, and throughout the class if it has various topics that make you think. I liked the class too. It is very thought provoking, which is more than I could say for nearly every other class I've taken. It becomes a little easier to enjoy the human experience when you understand it, and that's what this class was about--understanding the human experience.