One Mans Meat...

This idea was an interesting read. The entry starts off with a story of King Darius asking two groups (Greeks and Callatians) about their dead. King Darius asks the Greeks if they would eat their dead (they traditionally burn them) and the Greeks refused, he then asked the Callatians if they would burn their dead (they traditionally eat them) and the too refused. The question was posed who is right? The entry describes that the way we view our world is through our perspective. I found that very interesting because it holds true. I noticed that everything is relative, and when I worked in Social Services i found it especially true. I had clients who found it hard to get past their perspective so they can see an argument from another side. When clients reached that point to understand that their relative point is not the only right point, resolutions came around very quickly. Can two people be right? Yes they both can be right just in some cases there has to be a resolution.

What is it like to be a bat?

What is it like to be bat? It was an interesting thought process when I read the section. When presented with Thomas Nagels' thought process about the perception I can understand where he is coming from. What I liked about his perspective is that while we can study a subject (in this case the bat) we can know all there is to know. When it comes down to it we can never understand the view of the bat because we cannot become a bat and understand how it really is. In my experience working with human services, I can never tell someone "I know how you feel". Truthfully no one can never know how another person feels, because it was a unique experience that the person had. One can only empathize with the person and the situation. Frank Jackson's explanation with Mary seems to me a tangible way to experience something that you have learned about. Although it seems more of an extreme example. It was a very clever way of describing how someone can experience something that has been learned and experienced uniquely for the first time.