Affective science

Joseph Needham’s The Grand Titration: Science and Society in East and West seeks to answer the question of why modern science developed in the Western world and not in China. He answers this question by “titrating,” or essentially comparing, scientific and technological advancements between China and the West. To conduct his comparison, he investigates the relationship, in both civilizations, between science and a variety of topics. The topics that Needham covers include politics, economics,…

Throughout my formal education, I have always been learning about science. It began with relatively basic information regarding the solar system, weather, and other “simple” topics in elementary school. I can distinctly remember being very fond of space and wanting to learn more information in regards to it. For two consecutive years, I made a model of the solar system and gave a presentation on it to my class. Additionally, in the second grade, we took a class trip to the planetarium, which I…

Andrew Niccol presents Gattaca as a world destroyed by the pursuit of perfection and raises the question of what it means to be human. Niccol explores how personal identity and happiness are destroyed by pursuing perfection through the characters of Irene, Vincent and Jerome. Irene and Vincent struggled with their personal identities because of their genetic imperfections and Eugene suffered from the burden of perfection. Nonetheless, Niccol shows that these issues with perfection and…

For thousands of years, humans have wondered what controlled their lives and determined their future—was there a god that set out our paths before we were alive, or perhaps were we the only ones to explore the roads of life? Do we control how our existence plays out, or are we played by the hand of luck or a greater power from the start? Authors Malcolm Gladwell and William Ernest Henley toyed with their beliefs on this subject. Gladwell, writer of the short non-fiction titled Outliers: The…

For thousands of years, humans have wondered what controlled their lives and determined their futures—was there a god that set out our paths before we were alive, or perhaps were we the only ones to explore the roads of life? Do we control how our existence is to be played out, or are we played by the hand of luck or a greater power from the start? Authors Malcolm Gladwell and William Ernest Henley toyed with their beliefs on this subject. Gladwell, writer of the short non-fiction titled…

In Immanuel Kant’s “Duties toward Animals, Spirits, and inanimate objects” he makes his stance on animal rights very clear. He believes that we have no direct duties to animals, yet we have indirect duties towards them in order to benefit mankind. Though many philosophers agreed with his way of thinking, many modern day philosophers and scientists are able to find flaws in Kant’s arguments. Kants belief that “we have no duties to animals, plants, material objects, or the environment as a…

These stories highlight some of the most important issues of the current era, both in different ways. In Eisenberg’s book The Carnivore Way, a more modern take on the current state of the ecological system. Eisenberg presents lots of logical facts and scientific statistics that are used to prove her point. In the other spectrum, Faulkner’s Big Woods collection tells a more narrative approach to telling the reader. He uses fictional characters to invoke emotions from the readers and insight his…

works “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” and “On Exactitude in Science” by Jorge Borges epitomize the modernist shift by confronting the drastic scientific changes occurring during his time through surrealistic interpretations of reality and by raising different epistemological questions and the ethics of exploring the untamed recesses of science. During the time…

maintain that the special force driving life cannot be detected or measured quantitatively. On the other side, mechanism demonstrates great flexibility and patience. Phenomena that could not be explained by mechanism were only temporary setbacks, as science would advance far enough that an explanation would always be forthcoming (Peterson…

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). In other words, when Emerson says “experiments,” this can be referred to McCandless as his adventure across the U.S. From meeting many new people, to canoeing in the Colorado River. McCandless went on a crazy, risky trip and it can be compared to the words of Emerson. In Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless displays his view on life, just as Ralph Waldo Emerson did, by being self reliant,…