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.
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Aja, i agree with your comment about David Banach. David's ides of an absolute individual is based of the idea that we as humans can only feel our feelings. When we hang around with a friend and feel that friends emotions what we perceive from it is only our own feelings. Not the same exact feelings that our friend is feeling, but something often close.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that i cant agree with all of what david banach said, just like you. There are many people out there in the world, that at least someone had to have gone through the same emotions you are going through. One, example that i like to think of is the fact of having a best friend. You know, someone who grew up with you all those years. I do think that a person who you grew up with all your life would know a lot about you and vise verse. So when you open up to a person who knows you best, they too feel the emotion that you are going through.
To Aja:
ReplyDeleteGreat first post! I liked how you summarized Banach's idea at the beginning. It is very clear and helpful for me. Although it is a summary I can identify what your point of view is on this idea by briefly explaining and restating his point. Then you continued by explaining your thoughts which makes your post very organized overall.
On your post you discuss your idea regarding the definition of an Absolute individual. I understand that you agree with Banach at some extend. It is indeed true that "we only feel our pains, our pleasures, our hopes, and our fears" However it is possible to relate to other people who have experienced similar emotions. This contradicts Banachs idea of us, as absolute individuals, "being trapped within ourselves." It is not impossible to be able to know what other people is feeling or thinking after getting to know that person and spending a fair amount of time with him or her in order to do so.
This is similar to what Neville wrote on his post. Similar to you, he did not entirely agree with Banach's idea on only seeing people objectively and not being able to know what they were feeling. Neville said: "As humans some of us share some general aspects. And since their are so many people on this earth, their at least has to be someone that went through the same thing as you did. Although that person felt emotions in their own way, if its closely similar then there could be reason why some people say its the same". In other words, as previously mentioned, there are other people out there with a very similar situation like ours. By the simple fact that we live under the a very similar culture. And those people will be able to connect with us in some way and understand our emotions.
In order to develop your work and your knowledge on this topic I recommend you to write down all your ideas or arguments. Then you can find evidence from the text to support your ideas and explain why it supports it. By doing so you will be able to have a deeper understanding of this complex topic. The question of what is being an absolute individual? has no right or wrong answer therefore you have to show the reader how your own answer to this question will impact his. You are already organized so you could only add more of your opinion with more evidence.
I personally agree with your definition of an absolute individual. I do think that people are capable of knowing what other people are feeling based on their own experiences. After reading your post I realized even more that in fact there are other people who think similarly to me. So, I continue to wonder what made Banach think differently. I think that our own society teaches us to connect to other people in a way, but it could also be our own nature to do so.
Thank you for writing this post. It made me think more about my own ideas and arguments regarding this text. I appreciate your work and I am glad we share a similar point of view.