Welcome back! Unfortunately this week's post will be very similar to the last one in that this week was used to try and narrow down my interests in relation to my research question. I met yet again with my On-Site Mentor, Mr. Nair, and was able to read through multiple different articles and portions of books that were related to my topic.
Before I get into a few of the things I researched during this week, I would like to elaborate on the problems that I have been facing since the beginning of the Senior Project. As most of you know, my research question is notoriously vague. I believed this to be one of the strengths of my Senior Research Project as I thought this openness would allow me to pursue more ideas over the course of 10 weeks. Instead, I realized that this quality would force me to either research so much philosophy that it would be impossible to do during the 10 weeks I have, or to narrow my overall question to a much more specific question, but still very closely related. Over the past two weeks, I have attempted to do the latter, but with little success. That being said, my overall direction and focus of the project is being formed, and I hope to share that direction with you guys next week.
After all that, let me briefly tell you about what I did this week! I read into a book that focused on desires and tried to draw analogies between different types of desires and the corresponding type of knowledge. For example, the book defined a myriad of different types of desires, including warm, cold, base, trivial, and immoral desires. Each of these have there own respective qualities, but what I unfortunately concluded from this book is that actionability and desire are extremely intertwined, as a desire is what often triggers an action, and vice versa. In spite of this, I did find another quality that would determine what could make some types of knowledge more valuable than others, and that is well-being. The satisfaction of desires is what increases your well-being, and as such, the acquisition of knowledge may do the same thing, assuming it is not a desire of its own.
Outside of the book, I read into an article that defined the knowledge-action principle. As you can see, many philosophers do identify the link between knowledge and actionability, and this has been another of the problems I have faced, for it is very difficult to find a source that doesn't say that knowledge is valuable simply because it allows you to do more stuff.
I am sorry I wasn't able to go into more detail this week, as much of the research I did do ended up being trivial and unrelated to my topic. That being said, I am optimistic for next week and I hope to see you guys then!
Hi Liam! I thought that it was interesting that you were looking into different types of desires and how that related to actionability. Just out of curiosity, what philosophers have you been focusing on?
ReplyDeleteHi Nichole! As of now, I have looked primarily into John Stuart Mill, Aristotle, and Plato.
DeleteHi Liam. It stinks that you're running into so many problems. From what i believe, satisfaction/well-being will be interesting to research, but in some cases i think you may run into the same problems as you did with actionability, but i hope that doesn't happen.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cole! I hope to get these problems fixed so I can be able to narrow my research.
DeleteHi Liam,
ReplyDeleteI have been where you are. I myself have thought something i was doing was for the best but in reality it only brought me down. I understand that the knowledge one gains is dependent on things such as desires but are you going to go into the full idea of knowledge. Is "what you need to know" only for your survival or for other things such as love and maybe street slang as to fit in?
Hi Akash! Your question is something that leads directly into the problems I have been having during this research project. Unfortunately, I am unsure how far I will go and therefore do not have an answer to your question, I do hope to soon though.
DeleteHey Liam! That does really put a damper on this project doesn't it? You seemed very excited in the beginning, but hey, I know you'll find the right direction very soon. Having started this project, have you found your daily life to be influenced by your findings at all?
ReplyDeleteHi Adam! I like your question! As of now, my daily life hasn't changed because of my findings, but I do think that my way of thinking has changed slightly ever since the start of the project.
DeleteI liked your connection between actionability and desire, but what do the different kinds of desires mean? How could a desire be warm, cold, or base? Your analysis of well-being was also very interesting. If acquisition of knowledge satisfies a desire and leads to well-being, does the opposite occur as well? Will well-being necessarily decrease if we do not satisfy our desires?
ReplyDeleteHi Ziba! In its most basic form, a "warm" desire is any desire that will give you a feeling of excitement or the will to fulfill the desire, and a "cold" desire would be the opposite. An example of a base desire would be a person who would simply want to play video games all day. Well-being wouldn't necessarily decrease if our desire aren't fulfilled, simply we would have more of our desires be frustrated.
DeleteHi Liam! It seems that you were more confident last week than this week in terms of your project. I'm sure you will solve these issues very soon. As for this week, which one do you think was more useful for your research, the article or the book?
ReplyDeleteHI Urmi! The book was definitely more useful, as it went into more detail and was less complex than the article to understand.
DeleteHi Liam. I'm sorry to hear you ran into problems. While you were researching the relationship between knowledge and actionability did you find a general pattern in what types of knowledge philosophers thought were valuable?
ReplyDeleteHi Aditya, in response to your, question, I did not notice that pattern as of yet because what I have been reading into so far are theories that can suggest what makes one type of knowledge more valuable than another.
DeleteHey Liam, this sounds like a pretty exhausting process. It sounds like you want to try to move away from looking at actionability, is that something you were thinking about?
ReplyDeleteHi Luke! That is something I am hoping to get away from as actionability is often the most proposed reason for why knowledge is valuable.
DeleteHi Liam! I think it is interesting how you explained the different types of desires, I had never thought of them grouped into those types of categories. As well, I was curious whether the psychology you are studying is based more on data-proven analysis. If not, perhaps studying more of that type of psychology could add a fresh angle to your project. Best of luck in your future research.
ReplyDeleteHi Nicolas! I have not used any data-proven analysis as of now but that may be a possible method of research for future topics in my project, thank you.
DeleteAlthough you are facing challenges with your research, it sounds like it is valuable information that you are learning regardless! I am sure that you are not the only philosopher to run into this problem. What steps have they taken in their own research to narrow down a topic/question? Is there anything that you might be able to try out?
ReplyDeleteHi Ms. Conner! I have not thought of that, I will look into it in order to narrow down my research for the overall project.
Delete"The satisfaction of desires is what increases your well-being." Is this your own conclusion or one you found in the book you were reading? If the latter, do you find it convincing?
ReplyDeleteHi Mr. Lambert, this was one of the conclusions that were reached in the book I was reading, I do find it convincing but I do not think it is the only factor that could increase your well-being.
DeleteAs a clarifying question, if it is true that the satisfaction of desires is what increases your well-being, is this true of all desires or only some? For example, suppose you had a strong desire for revenge. Would gratifying this desire necessarily increase your well-being?
ReplyDeleteIt would not be true for all desires, as some desires can be unwanted or frustrated and that would not decrease overall well-being. If a desire for revenge were fulfilled, then it may increase well-being.
DeleteHow do you define "wellbeing"?
Delete