Knowledge Evaluation and Conclusion: What Makes Humans Bad?

          Through out this quarter in my Liberal Studies class I have learned so much more of what happens around the world beyond what I witness in my own everyday life. We have been constantly keeping one question in the back of our heads whenever we have class discussions, do our readings, and engage in presentations given by our peers, and that is, "What makes humans bad?" Upon stepping into this classroom I was asked right away what I thought made humans bad, and since then that same question has been following me all along. I came into this class having a mere true belief that humans, like Hobbes believes, are naturally born bad, evil, greedy, and self-centered. I wrote my blog entries in the beginning about how humans are born selfish because they only care about fulfilling self need when they are young. It is not until they learn through their parents or experiences that they have to share with other people and not only look out for their own well being. Although I do still believe that experience is how you learn and grow, I have merged more towards Locke's belief in the end of the course, where humans are born with a blank slate (tabula rasa). With that blank slate, or blank paper, humans learn and make mistakes through experiencing many different situations in life to learn, build knowledge, and become molded into the person they become.
           With that in mind, I believe that after reading the articles and listening to presentations, a person can be considered as a bad person if we judge them right away. In addition, there seem to always be justifications for almost every situation that we have discussed. According to our Mindomo Map that we all contributed to as a class in the beginning of the course, a human being who commits murder, lies, and does not feel remorse after doing something bad are all examples of a bad person. While we automatically think that these people are bad people for doing these things, we often forget that there are different situations a person can be in that may be causing them to do those actions. For example, as we mentioned in a class discussion, if a person committing a crime with homicide is actually a serial killer who may be a psychopath, are they really to blame for their actions? If being a liar is bad then what about pathological liars who do it unknowingly and out of their control? Is a person with a mental illness also a bad person if they commit bad actions that are more extreme? We have to also be aware that some people in the world who are "normal" may also have bad actions because perhaps they were just raised differently, in a rough environment, or maybe lacking love and education. Can we blame them for being this way for trying to cope and get by in life? It seems that everything we have covered in this class, all human beings are susceptible to being bad, but there can also be justifications along the line in almost all of the cases.
             Two people's work which have greatly influenced me this quarter are Prichard and Blackmore. Through reading articles regarding epistemology, the theory of knowledge, I have been able to see things from a different perspective to better understand the idea of what knowledge really is. Prichard described in an article, What is This Thing Called Knowledge, the two different types of knowledge: propositional knowledge and ability knowledge. Ability knowledge is defined as the knowledge that you gain through personal experiences in life. You can see something be done and learn how to do it, it is the "know-how" knowledge. Propositional knowledge is defined as as assertion by a sentence that something is the case. There are also two different types of beliefs: mere true belief and true belief. Though they sound very similar, they are actually very different from one another. Mere true belief is an opinion, second-hand knowledge, and what one thinks to be true based off of prior experience and is resulted by chance. It is not until he/she finds facts to back up the belief, when it becomes a true belief. In the beginning of the course, I have had mere true beliefs about countless readings and topics because it is what I "know" based off of my personal experiences. However, after the entire course and learning everything that I have, some of my mere true beliefs either changed along the process, or were supported by true facts from reliable sources in the end and became true beliefs.
              Blackmore has introduced to me the idea of a very complex theory of consciousness and whether or not us human beings possess it. I have been able to question whether we control our conscience or if our conscience controls us and our bodies before our brains are even aware of it. Are we aware of the mind itself and the world? Are we even awake? The topic of consciousness is what I've learned called, inquiry-based, which is without a correct answer. There hasn't been a clear definition to what it is exactly, but just how each person perceives it to be. I believe that every human being posses this complex feature in our minds and that it warns us what is right from wrong and whether we should carry on with an action or stop it. Our consciousness has the ability to help us
make choices in life and we have the option to either do it or don't. As a class, we have also presented the idea that we cannot possibly know someone else's consciousness, for example, a bat. We know the facts of a bat about how they sleep in the day and how they have wings and hang upside down, but do we really know what it's like to be a bat? We have no absolute understanding of something/someone else because we simply only know our own conscience and no one else's. We have also been introduced to the idea that one's consciousness may be altered through the usage of drugs and it makes us think if the person who is under the influence can be considered bad if they're doing bad actions. Technically they would be considered "bad" for making the wrong choice, but as an individual, I wouldn't consider them a bad person. I think that over the course I have found that there is a fine line between making a bad decision and pursuing a bad action, than from being flat out "bad." Readings from both Prichard and Blackmore allowed me to see that.

               Knowledge in the humanities, social science, and natural science has really helped to encourage me with an open mind and not judge negatively too soon like I have. Specifically in humanities, I have learned the culture in human societies through out the world and how linguistics come into play when it comes to human interaction. Although swearing is bad, we learned that it can be used to create emphasis in, for example, Pulp Fiction. It can also be because the person was brought up that way since childhood and therefore, we cannot exactly blame them for doing something that was basically part of their nature. I learned in social science about human behavior and why humans do the things they do and what may be the cause for them to do it. For example,
bullying occurs and we automatically view it as a bad thing, however, if we take a step back to see the bully's point of view, we can understand that maybe they were raised with the lack of love and the reason to bully is their way to cope. We've also taken a look into explaining, predicting, and describing natural phenomenon in natural science and learned how the brain works and sometimes it doesn't work the way it should for everyone. If someone who is mentally ill commits a bad action, do we blame them for it? Before walking into this class I wold think "Yes, they are still people who are doing bad things." However, that is where I learned about the fine line between bad actions and bad people. I can now walk out this class thinking, "No, these poor people are suffering from a condition that is out of their control and they may not even be conscious of their actions."
 

     I have come a long way into being more open minded after this Liberal Studies course and this picture I drew on the Paper App. is a representation of growth. The tree that is planted in the ground represents the root of our knowledge through what we "know," or, our mere true belief. The many branches from the tree is an idea I got from our Mindomo Map. Since the Mindomo Map branches out into countless different directions with different ideas of what makes humans bad, I thought of drawing the branches to represent how much knowledge I have gained through out this course and how much I have grown as an analytical thinker. In conclusion, I believe that what makes humans bad cannot be a simple label of black or white because in most cases, it can be situational ("grey"). I believe, however, that people tend to be bad when they purposefully hurt other people or put other people down. If that is the case, then I would label them as "black." Otherwise, what makes a human being "bad" would be depended on their situation.

Blackmore, Susan J. Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 2005. Print. 

Pritchard, Duncan. “Some Preliminaries.” What Is This Thing Called Knowledge?London: Routledge, 2006.