Kristina Pepe
Dr. Mosko
PHI 101-D
September 12, 2014
Take-Home Assignment 1
1. In higher education we often invoke a distinction between theory and practice or between the abstract and the concrete. Percy invokes a similar distinction, but he argues that we value the theoretical and abstract more than we do the concrete/real. In your response, explain 1) why YOU think we value the theoretical/abstract over the concrete/real, and 2) Percy’s argument that this is a problem.
Society entices us to value abstract over real because knowing the abstract is important today in order to succeed in the world. This is extremely pertinent in obtaining a well-paying job; in order to get the job, we need a degree, which is given to us after we can prove that we know the theoretical. Theoretical knowledge is …show more content…
We value this abstract knowledge because we think we are truly learning since we are learning the facts and other information on a topic. However, many times we learn the abstract but do not know how to apply it to real life. This is why Percy argues that our values of education are skewed. It is clearly important to know the theoretical side of concepts, but if we cannot apply it to real life then what value does the knowledge truly have to us? Percy claims that in order for a person to truly learn, we must experience it in real life. He uses the example of the dogfish to portray this problem. The student in the lab is learning things about the dogfish by dissecting it. Since the dogfish is a tangible creature, it seems that this type of learning would be concrete, however, it is not. The biology student is told what to study in the dogfish, allowing the student to generalize his study of the dogfish rather than focus on
Dr. Mosko
PHI 101-D
September 12, 2014
Take-Home Assignment 1
1. In higher education we often invoke a distinction between theory and practice or between the abstract and the concrete. Percy invokes a similar distinction, but he argues that we value the theoretical and abstract more than we do the concrete/real. In your response, explain 1) why YOU think we value the theoretical/abstract over the concrete/real, and 2) Percy’s argument that this is a problem.
Society entices us to value abstract over real because knowing the abstract is important today in order to succeed in the world. This is extremely pertinent in obtaining a well-paying job; in order to get the job, we need a degree, which is given to us after we can prove that we know the theoretical. Theoretical knowledge is …show more content…
We value this abstract knowledge because we think we are truly learning since we are learning the facts and other information on a topic. However, many times we learn the abstract but do not know how to apply it to real life. This is why Percy argues that our values of education are skewed. It is clearly important to know the theoretical side of concepts, but if we cannot apply it to real life then what value does the knowledge truly have to us? Percy claims that in order for a person to truly learn, we must experience it in real life. He uses the example of the dogfish to portray this problem. The student in the lab is learning things about the dogfish by dissecting it. Since the dogfish is a tangible creature, it seems that this type of learning would be concrete, however, it is not. The biology student is told what to study in the dogfish, allowing the student to generalize his study of the dogfish rather than focus on