People use the expression 'lived experience' with increasing frequency. We usually mean it as the first-person privileged access to a particular way of experiencing something. Usually, this particular way is intertwined with and expressed in various social identity terms. My lived experience as a woman, as a migrant, as an Eastern European, and so on. … Continue reading Spreading the Word: What Is Lived Experience?
Spreading the Word: Being Ashamed Of Your Accent
Immigrants are often ashamed of their accents or feel uncomfortable because of how they sound. Why? Because language is not just a tool, it contains a world of implied social and cultural norms, values, beliefs, and presuppositions. In many languages, there is one way of speaking it that is considered 'proper'. I have read and … Continue reading Spreading the Word: Being Ashamed Of Your Accent
To Speak A Language Is To Participate In A World
In his book, "Black Skin, White Masks", Frantz Fanon argues that language, far from just a tool for conveying information, expresses a world implied by it. In other words, words matter in shaping who I am in your eyes, as does my tone of voice, accent, dialect, and so on. If I am a foreigner speaking your … Continue reading To Speak A Language Is To Participate In A World
Spreading the Word: Art, Understanding, Meaning
Can art be a channel of understanding? Does it have a claim to truth, to knowledge? What comes first, understanding or knowing? Does art have a part to play in our processes of meaning-making? These are just some of the fascinating and stimulating questions explored in the video I share with you today. It is … Continue reading Spreading the Word: Art, Understanding, Meaning
Spreading the Word: When Words and Worlds Collide
Does it matter how we name things? Do words influence our worldviews? A curious case of renaming a dinosaur suggests there is more to words and worlds relation than meets the eye. Check out this fascinating article over on aeon, "A dinosaur is a story". Enjoy! Keeping up the "Spreading the Word" tradition, I hope … Continue reading Spreading the Word: When Words and Worlds Collide
Intuitive Beliefs, Cups, and Worldviews
I like a nice cup of good black tea. In fact, one such cup stands in front of me just now as I am typing this. I do not have any doubts about it, I do not need to reflect on it to establish whether it is indeed so. There it is - my cup … Continue reading Intuitive Beliefs, Cups, and Worldviews
Let’s Talk Miracles – What Are They?
Last year around this time I wrote about miracles. More specifically, the 18th century Scottish philosopher's David Hume's views on them. It is that season again when my thoughts, at least sometimes, turn to the topic of miracles. Perhaps especially this year. Wouldn't the world really need a few good miracles now! It turns out, … Continue reading Let’s Talk Miracles – What Are They?
Understanding is an Interaction
Whenever we are trying to understand the world, we are, by extension, trying to understand ourselves. Whether we are aware of it or not. Indeed - whether we want it or not. We bring ourselves along to every encounter with the world, and we experience each such encounter through ourselves. We don't really have any … Continue reading Understanding is an Interaction
One Way to Rule Them All?
What is your preferred way of looking at the world? Of assessing it? Of discriminating between various options and choosing your course of action? Not easy questions, no easy answers. Unless there is one Way to rule them all. But is there? Photo by Alex Kalinin on Unsplash Having read a discussion between two philosophers … Continue reading One Way to Rule Them All?
humanfactor 