Eric Schwitzgebel's Analysis

Introspection has an incredibly large history with the first record of it being used going right back to the great Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, however this was in a philosophical sense about discovering oneself (Boring, E. G. 1953) which lead to the scientific methodology being born in the laboratory of arguably the father of psychology Wilhelm Wundt who used the method to measure peoples internal thought processes when presented with various stimuli in which the subject would self-perceive their internal thought processes and describe them to the experimenter. An example of this would be to present the subject with an object such as a pencil or odour and to describe it and their stream of consciousness as a result of this. Whereas Edward Titchener expanded this somewhat to break down the stream of consciousness to find its component parts and so as such when having to describe the item they could not say the item as that was to make a stimulus error and did not achieve anything and instead had to describe it in individual parts such as length, colour, shape and other such characteristics of the item however even these were frowned upon with more emphasis being put on the statements such as it is causing feelings of sorrow and tension within my body (Boring, E. G. 1953). However the definition of this process seems to be somewhat fluid

The history of the united states is illustrated and told in A Patriot’s History of the United States written by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen and A People’s History of the United States written by Howard Zinn. Both authors chronicles the history of the united states from the discovery of the new world to some of the more recent events, however with contrasting opinions and perspective . Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen curves towards a more conservative view with focus on a glorified america where sacrifice was necessary for the betterment and advancement of the people. On the other hand Howard Zinn focuses on views from the suffering or underprivileged groups that seems to show a pessimistic

In Daniel L. Schafer’s book Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner, the life of a somewhat mysterious African born woman is broken down. There were many challenges to writing a biography on a woman who did not write any letters nor kept a diary on the events of her life. This and the fact that she was an African slave in the beginning of her life over in Florida made writing such a biography all the more challenging. I feel that Schafer has succeeded in providing an organized and descriptive piece on a historical figure whose background has very much been shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. The book stays true to the thesis and keeps Anna Madgigine Jai at the center of

What is the point in measuring something that is unique to every individual? In “The Pain Scale,” the author, Eula Biss, attempts to convey her pain to the reader. She tells the reader how she has tried to describe and measure her pain. There is a system set up for doing so, but it leaves much up to individual interpretation. The arbitrary process by which we are supposed to evaluate the level of pain we are experiencing doesn’t seem to accomplish much. Throughout the essay, Biss uses unique ways of comparing the suggested levels of pain to other “scales.” This raises the question, why can the scale, itself, doesn’t do adequate job of helping people understand pain.

The person who was doing the introspection would be fully aware of when and what stimulus would be presented to them. This ensured that the observer was in full control of the experience. The stimulus would then be presented many times. Introspection was commonly done when the observer was awaiting the stimulus and when they were reacting to its presentation. It was through using introspection that Wundt and his students concluded that the sensations and feelings are what constitute the activity in our minds. They believed that the combination of or the relationship between sensations and feelings are what creates constantly shifting psychological processing. (King et al 2009)

  1.  Discovering the Self – How do we perceive ourselves and our interactions with others?

In chapter seven, it talks about emotions which are internal sensations that are shaped by physiology, perceptions, language, and social experiences. It is said that we feel emotions when external stimuli cause a physiological change in our bodies. For example, before and while giving my identity presentation, I felt anxious and nervous. I knew this because I was sweating, light-headed, and my stomach was turning. Another example for me would be whenever I get extremely mad because it feels like my whole body is on fire.

The article “Louisiana is losing a football field of wetlands an hour, new U.S. Geological Survey study says” by Mark Schleifstein provides the reader with lots of detail on how much land Louisiana is losing. By giving statistics and reason why Louisiana is losing so much land.

    This summer I was a counselor at a social justice camp at Wheaton, during my time there we made sure to set time for introspection so that delegates could explore their own  feelings and thoughts, and reflect on what they have learned.

Christakis and Fowler state that emotions themselves contain several elements. Emotions contain a conscious element, meaning people are aware of what they’re feeling. They have a physical aspect; emotions are tied to an individuals’ health. They also have a neurological affect; altering activity and blood flow levels in the brain. Finally, emotions contain a visual aspect; they can be expressed in facial expressions and body language.

Often the most important trait a person can posses is to be aware of their surroundings. If someone is aware of their surroundings on a physical, mental and emotional level, they have the power to fully immerse themselves in their experience, without hesitation or limitation. In Saidiya Hartman’s memoir Lose Your Mother, the reader is presented with an orator who lacks complete awareness of their surroundings, which later translates to a lack of self-awareness, while in both Jamaica Kincaid’s and Caryl Phillips respective memoirs the reader is presented with authors who are fully aware of their surroundings and thus self aware as well.

A famous statement from Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, “How can a Rabbi not live with doubt? The bible itself is build with doubt” (). The statement above is an excellent way to summarize Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg symposium on Simon Wiesenthal story of the dying SS Soldier. Rabbi Hertzberg advises on the SS Soldier, is that he blamed the parents for not speaking out against their child joining the Nazis youth.(Wiesenthal 166-167) He also blames the SS Soldier because he could have chosen a job that did not require him to kill innocent people. Since, the SS Soldier has been too caught up with trying to be victories he did not realize the vile actions he was committing against innocent people. Rabbi Hertzberg uses two examples from the Bible, and both

Arturo A. Schomburg who is the writer, explained to us of what it the purpose of one group justification. Then the author said that history has become less a matter of argument and more a matter of record. The author keeps repeating the same things in this paragraph. In fact, what the author wants to convince us is that the history is more than propaganda and more systematic scientific. In the first paragraph, the author kept confusing me when he said that the Negroes have being through out of the history. Furthermore, the author was very contradicting when he talks about Negroes contributions in the freedom. In the second paragraph the author described on how the Negroes in the pass suffered maltreatment and was unfairly disassociated from

Pain is something that connects all of us. From birth to death we can identify with each other the idea and arguably the perception of it. We all know we experience it, but what is more important is how we all perceive it. It is known that there are people out there with a ‘high’ pain tolerance and there are also ones out there with a ‘low’ pain tolerance, but what is different between them? We also know that pain is an objective response to certain stimuli, there are neurons that sense and feel pain and there are nerve impulses that send these “painful” messages to the brain. What we don’t know is where the pain

When talking about emotion it seems a fairly simple topic and immediately "feeling" words come to mind; sad, happy, and confused. These are basic emotions and easy to understand. What isn't so simple about emotions is their process and how they form and work. Emotions are reactions to sensory information like sight, smell, taste, touch and sound (Tracing Emotion’s Pathways 94). However, it is not that simple; an emotional reaction or response is made aware of and understood by a part of the brain called the sensory cortex. These emotional responses or reactions to sensory stimuli are processed by a part of the brain called the amygdala (What’s An Emotion). The amygdala is a huge asset to the cognitive factors of emotions because in processing emotions you become able to understand, recognize, and control them. So then how do emotions evoke a physiological reaction such as tearing up when one feels sad, laughing with joy, and trembling with fear? These physiological reactions that one may experience come from the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is, “a collection of fibers that extend throughout