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Yashaswini's picture

Subjectivity and Something Else.

I really enjoyed Week 3, a lot more than the previous two! I loved the range of discussions we had in class, in both the 'lectures' as well as the lab. I now find myself asking myself random, and not always 'sensible' questions at the most absurd times -- walking back to my dorm, spending time with my Customs Group, even, to the covert annoyance of my friends, while having dinner! It's sort of like the.. after-effects!

I think the main reason why I was initially finding it a bit.. overwhelming to continuously strive for being "less wrong" is because, as high-school science-students, we'd all been accustomed to a certain level of hand-holding and spoon-feeding! It had always been about someone else's experiments/observations/findings. And as a result, atleast for me, my brain had became somewhat.. lazy. I subconsciously knew that I'd always have someone else to do my 'scientific thinking' for me. Bio 103 is a refreshing change!

After Monday's class, I was thinking about subjectivity and what David had mentioned about understanding always being relative to some objective. It got me thinking, what IS subjectivity? Doesn't it ultimately boil down to a matter of perspective? And isn't perspective what makes each of us unique and gives us a sense of individuality? And isn't it chiselled over years of interactions with our culture and society?

We'd also talked a bit about how 1+1= 2 and 1+1= 10 are both correct. Similarly, when we look at a glass placed on a table we're actually looking at One Glass. Supposing, one of it's edges gets chipped. Does that make it any LESS than One Glass? We still spot One Glass, right?

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