HW 2- Comments 1

To Neville:
Hey Neville!! I liked how u started your post off with a scenario that
almost anyone could relate to. It made your post easier to read, and it
also made the David Banach response more relatable to everyday life.

From what I got from your post, it seemed like you were in the middle
with your viewpoints. YOu believed that Banach was right about "no
matter how much we try, we can only see someone from the outside" when
it came to the train scenario. However, in everyday life you thought
that he was wrong, that you could get to know who someone really was.

I totally agree with your views about BAnach's ideas. I agree that there
are certain cases where u may not know everything about a person just by
looking at them, but I don't think it's impossible to get to know
someone on a deeper level.

I think it would be interesting if you spoke more about why you
disagreed with Banach. It would have been cool if you gave more examples
of how it doesn't work, like somemore real life examples like the train
example.

Your post made me think about meeting new people in general. If by
looking at someone you can't tell what they're feeling or who they
really are, what makes us interested in someone. What makes us WANT to
get to know someone. Also how do we know that we're getting to know that
real person, or who they are posing to be?

This was a great first post Neville!!!! Keep up the good work =]


To Dinorah:
In your post I appreciated the light tone you had. As I wad sreading I
could tell that as you were writing many questions and thoughts were
comming to mind.

In your post you did agree with Banach's ideas of absolute
individuality, and believed that being an absolute individual meant
being alone. However, you disagreed with "other people only see us from
the outside objectively" because you have had experiences that goes
agaisnt his theroy.

I noticed that your post and Neville's post was similar. You both agreed
with Banach about not being able to really know someone, but only on
certain circumstances. YOu both thought it was possible to relate to
people on a deeper level because you may have something in common. You
may see something about yourself reflected in them. I thought that that
was interesting too.

Dinorah I thought that your post was so good, and well thought out that
I couldn't really find anything that you needed to elaborate on.
However, as I was reading it was hard for me to follow sometimes. I
think it would have been helpful if you organized it into 2 sides. How
you agree, and how you disagree. (Maybe it was just me tho =])

In one of your paragraphs you talked about how society gives us
"definitions" for our emotions. This made me think about my feelings. Is
what I'm feeling really what society says it is. Or for example am I
feeling sad just because that is how society described it?

Dinorah this was one of the best posts I read. Keep up the good
work!!!=]

David Banach Response

In the beginning of David Banach's lecture, he keeps mentioning that we "are absolute individuals". He believes that being an absolute individual means being "trapped within ourselves", only being able to know who we truly are. He thinks that we are unable to relate to anyone else, or show feelings because we never truly certain. I t seems like he is saying that we are the only ones that we can truly know.


I agree with Banach somewhat. I agree that an absolute individual really knows themselves, but i don't think that it makes us unable to relate or feel with other people. It may make it harder, but i don't think that it's absolutely impossible. Hes right when he says that people can't know how a person really feels just by looking at them, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Spending enough time with a person can lead to being able to relate to them on a deeper level. He says " we only feel our pains, our pleasures, our hopes, and our fears" which is true. However, if we get comfortable with people and let them into who we really are, they can possibly feel our pains, pleasures, hopes, and fears. Knowing about our selves, and being comfortable with ourselves first is what being and absolute individual is. If we know our selves best, we can let other people in so they can feel what we feel... that is MY idea of an absolute individual.