This makes me think about the famous David Foster Wallace essay, "This is Water," which begins: The sensory inputs are a combination of:ģ.
The reason it feels as it feels when water touches the skin is actually a complex electro-chemical reaction which works at amazing speeds. However, thereafter once we ascended onto the land and trees, the feeling of wet became a sensory reminder of something out of the ordinary it is raining - get shelter, you fell in a creek - start swimming. Therefore, the feeling of wet is a primal sensory reminder. We as beings had to be immediately aware if we were going in or out of water. Back in the old days, when water was where we needed to spend our time, touch was a lot more important than it is now. Just going to give you words from a scientist's pen. I get when you say “water is wet” but your not stating something, you’re just describing water. Water makes things wet but it is not wet itself. Things become wet after it’s been “touched” by water not while it is being “touched”.
Water isn’t wet Wet is what you would use to describe the feeling of water, not what it is. Timpf goes on to snark that "water is objectively wet," which must feel comfortable and cleansing but says little about how the human mind works and how some human beings gain and keep power over others.ĪND: At (whatever that is) the question "Is water wet?" is polling at 49% "yes" and 51% "no." "No" might be winning because it's more interesting, but check out some of the arguments! For example: I'd say that's so obvious that I feel like I don’t even have to spend time explaining why. The course description doesn't really mean that objectivity is a myth, but that people in power use claims of their own objectivity to solidify and extend their power. Well, ironically, that's an emotional reaction to a misreading of a text. The idea that objectivity is somehow a myth, or that it has anything even remotely to do with “whiteness,” is so absolutely stupid that I feel like I don’t even have to spend time explaining why. How do you reach people who feel like that? If you think the answer is by continuing to pressure them in the way that feels white-privileged, then you have lost touch with the real world of human beings. I'd say it's objectively true that some people think that stressing "objectivity" is a power move associated with white males. It's possible that lateral thinking could be especially appealing to black people, at least that's what occurs to me after reading this piece by Katherine Timpf in National Review about a college course that teaches that supposedly teaches that "objectivity" is a "white mythology." The course - according to its official description - looks at "systematic logics that position ‘the West’ and ‘whiteness’ as the ideal manifest through such social constructions as objectivity, meritocracy, and race." The National Review calls that "crazy." A person uses lateral thinking to move from one known idea to creating new ideas. Lateral thinking is more concerned with the "movement value" of statements and ideas.
Critical thinking is primarily concerned with judging the true value of statements and seeking errors. To understand lateral thinking, it is necessary to compare lateral thinking and critical thinking. He cites as an example the Judgment of Solomon, where King Solomon resolves a dispute over the parentage of a child by calling for the child to be cut in half, and making his judgment according to the reactions that this order receives. The term was promulgated in 1967 by Edward de Bono. Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic. Here's the Wikipedia entry for "lateral thinking": This is the stable genius par excellence. What Trump is doing here is using lateral thinking. "In what he seemingly sees a solution, President Donald Trump said he wants NFL players and other athletes who kneeled during the National Anthem," CNN report-opines.