I Lack an Experience

SI've spent the entire two weeks since this post first popped up desperately wracking my brain for an experience of this sort, and I honestly can't think of any at all. I guess I have the most average senses in the history of humanity.

Since I can't think of a time I've sensed something differently than others (besides preferring certain foods of course, but that's not very intriguing), I figured I'd write about something (still sense related!) we've surely all heard before:

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody's around, does it still make a sound?

This question has been the topic of debate since philosopher George Berkely first poised it in 1710. The split of opinions resulting is obvious, and people (as people often do) have found countless ways to justify their ideas. Those that say it does not make a sound proclaim that sensations must be sensed to be real, and without a human to sense these sensations they are simply senseless. Those who say it does make a sounds justify their belief by examining the minutae of the sound itself-of course, the tree will produce kinetic energy as it falls, which will always, always be transmitted into sound energy when it hits; humans are irrelevant. Personally, I agree with the second opinion. Our senses do not determine reality as a whole, but rather our personal realities. There was an earth before humans, and a universe before the Earth, and surely sounds were emmitted without humans there to appreciate them. The first opinion is in my opinion a sign of human arrogance, and the belief that humans are for some reason more important than other living organisms. Of course, we can't KNOW that the tree would make a sound, but-and here's where I get TOK to the max-what CAN we know, if we don't sense it? I know I have a functioning brain; I'm alive, after all. I've never seen, felt, heard, tasted or smelled this brain, but I've experienced its effects. The same goes for the tree. Although I didn't sense it fall, from personal experience and mysterious "common sense", I know it made a sound even though I wasn't there to hear it. Humans only determine their personal realities; actual reality is much more concrete.

Plato's Cave

This week, we learned about Plato's allegory for enlightenment, The Cave. Pictured below is my modern take on the allegory.

 The prisoners are watching TV, where images similar to themselves are projected-as opposed to the fantastical figures of yesteryear. This is to show how our culture has become fixated with simple human interaction, like the modern Sitcom and reality television, rather than fantasy and other, more creative forms of escapist media. The people watching the screen aren't shackled like those in Plato's cave, because we are always free to escape the realm of television and Internet-it is by choice that we stay. 

The puppeteers are large media companies, such as CNN, Time Warner and Fox (among others). This is to show how large media corporations control our realities through the media we consume, and how their agendas are directly passed on to the consumer and taken as truth-just like the shadow puppets in Plato's cave were accepted to be enormous. 

The sun, which Plato used to represent truth and enlightenment, is a novel, because reading is the most basic and important form of media consumption, and it's also much more truthful and thought provoking than binge-watching Toddlers and Tiaras, or watching endless cat videos online (both of which I've definitely been guilty of on multiple occasions). The stairs to enlightenment in my cave are novels I found to be of significance to myself and society as a whole, including 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Oryx and Crake. 

In hindsight, I think my cave was weirdly detailed, but I also think it accurately portrays a modern, media-and-pop-culture-based way of interpreting Plato's Cave!

Also, the allegory made me think of The Cave by Mumford & Sons (below)

:)