waldentwo

Welcome Summer 20' Students!  I look forward to reading your posts :)

Chapter 10 discusses Gestalt psychology and its founders and champions. Gestalt psychology is rooted in Kantian philosophy, a philosophy focused on empiricism and rationalism. The core tenant of the Gestalt belief system is that the whole is not merely the sum of its parts. The purpose of this belief system was an admirable one which aimed at approaching systems for what they are: systems, and thus understanding all the mechanics of a system regardless of complexity or apparent simplicity. The key concept to this set of beliefs is to approach things within their context, the more data one can attain about the object of interest the more accurate the analysis can be. In experiments and general analysis, accuracy is highly important. The Gestaltian set of beliefs have had quite impactful implications over time as this rigorous type of investigation is the gold standard in research and analysis.

The Swerve Introduction: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern is a non-fiction novel about the adventures that a book hunter endures to find a lost poem that changes the course of the way in which society thinks about the world we live in. The book hunter in the novel is named Poggio Bracciolini who is after the Roman philosopher, Lucretus's poem. The novel begins in the 1400's and continues throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth century alternating between Poggio's quest to find Lucretius's poem and an analysis by Greenblatt of the different societal conflicts at the time.  Chapter 4: The Teeth of Time Chapter four was one of my favorite chapters. This was a more light hearted and quite honestly humorous chapter of the book. Greenblatt uses dense language that at times can be a bit overwhelming. However, in this chapter Greenblatt discusses the reason in which I chose this book and that is books themselves. This chapter evokes the importanc...

The purpose of Chapter 18 is to highlight the weaponization of cynical interpretations of psychological findings in contemporary society. This chapter employed the concept of subliminal messaging as an advertising strategy. For example, the advertising industry weaponized the findings of subconscious messaging by placing subliminal messages in their ads which manipulated viewers to become more likely to buy the product. Another interesting misuse of psychological research is the predatory industry of self-help tapes. Tapes were advertised as a way to alleviate issues relating to a various of cognitive issues despite there being no empirical evidence supporting the claims made by the producers. The implications of this are that, while subliminal self-help tapes are no longer in fashion, advertising and other industries employ a more covert, sophisticated version of this in order to push their agenda, be it a political or profit driven one. An example comes from the anti-vaccinati...

Jake Murphy The Optimism Bias The Optimism Bias by Tali Shalot was an excellent read. It was easy to understand and contained a great deal of interesting information. Shalot covers topics of illusions that your mind creates all the way to how optimism may not always be the best outlook in some cases. This book shows that most people think similarly despite all of our diverse backgrounds and beliefs. Before i read this book I did not see myself as an optimist, but now I have a different perspective.  Chapter 1 was one of my favorite chapters in the book. It shows how the optimism bias is a cognitive illusion that is created to keep our minds at ease and bodies healthy. Can you imagine if there was always a looming feeling of doubt or uncertainty that you had to live under? It would be stressful and intolerable. The illusion of the optimism bias is very similar to visual illusions. We are blind to the illusion until hard data is presented to us to prove that it is an illusio...

Chapter 10 discusses Gestalt psychology and its founders and champions. Gestalt psychology is rooted in Kantian philosophy, a philosophy focused on empiricism and rationalism. The core tenant of the Gestalt belief system is that the whole is not merely the sum of its parts. The purpose of this belief system was an admirable one which aimed at approaching systems for what they are: systems, and thus understanding all the mechanics of a system regardless of complexity or apparent simplicity. The key concept to this set of beliefs is to approach things within their context, the more data one can attain about the object of interest the more accurate the analysis can be. In experiments and general analysis, accuracy is highly important. The Gestalt set of beliefs have had quite impactful implications over time as this rigorous type of investigation is the gold standard in research and analysis.