The Allegory of The Phantom of the Opera makes a creative connection between The Phantom of the Opera and Plato's Republic. The student interlinks both of the examples by stating that knowledge comes with social experience.
"This allegory defines knowledge -- that it is unlimited, but we only know what we know based on the social experiences we are exposed to." This particular line from the post it what really triggered my thoughts.
 |
| It's a way of life |
"Smart people learn from their mistakes but wise people learn from other's mistakes" That was the ideology that my parents tried embedding throughout the years. That motto might work for some people, but I sure am not a believer of it. Making your own mistakes is how a person fully grasps the reality of things. We gain knowledge through the social experiences we are exposed to. I have gained most of my my knowledge through all of the mistakes I have made. The experiences are what have made me grow as a person. When I see how the allegory defines knowledge, I take it in the context of a person having first hand experience, even if it means making mistakes. With making your own mistake, you experience the aftermath of it. The aftermath is what assures you that it was indeed a mistake, which then makes it less prevalent to be repeated in the future.
When I say make mistakes, I go by John Mill's argument that it is alright for someone to harm themself as long as they are not harming others. Mistakes are more than okay as long as they're not harming anyone else because the only person that is getting effected is the individual.
 |
| Test the waters |
My way of learning from my mistakes is a Trial and Error type of concept. I analyze the mistake I have made to learn from it and make sure I do not repeat it.
Test out the waters and see what's out there and learn from it.
What does my title have to do with my post? What I mean by my title is that don't be so quick to say no because a learning experience is guaranteed with every encounter.
Disclosure: I am not condoning nor condemning the use of drugs or any self harming activities.
As Burke, another political philosopher we've looked at, once said "those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." I think this applies for everything. Some things, like meth, you just can't even try once. Politically speaking, things like Nationalism and Imperialism are things that we shouldn't have to experience ourselves to understand they're a mistake. Should each generation have to go through a holocaust simply because that generation hasn't had to deal with that experience themselves?
ReplyDeleteSome things are nice to try yourself, but there are certain things, such as drugs and alcohol, where you shouldn't just say "yolo" and go ahead. While it is true that you live and you learn, you should learn from the failures of others as well. What is keeping you from jumping of the bridge for the experience, even if it would be a failure?
Aya,
ReplyDeleteI really like where you went with this post. I do agree with you in the analysis of the quote you provided that I'm sure more than a few of us have heard from our parents as well. I believe that this is the foundation of decision making and learning, and those who don’t make mistakes never get to learn from them.
However, I think that the distinction that must be made is that in today's hedonistic society (and I'm not about to bash having fun, I'm just saying we're an ethically messed up society), many people can't decipher what is an experience worth having and what is yet another mistake. I'm sure Mill would agree that doing an assignment at 6am is probably a mistake which is harmful and you should learn from it. However, I've done this before and I will probably do it again.
So I conclude, smart people learn from their mistakes, wise people don’t make their own mistakes again.
Aya,
ReplyDeleteI think the quote your bring up from the allegory of the cave is especially pertinent to this topic. We do learn from the social experiences we are exposed to. You could read 10 articles about how to, for example, study early for exams. But until you are put in the position where you are cramming at the last second, you probably won't learn how to study early (although, that may just be my inner procrastinator speaking..). I like your connection to Mill though because some mistakes aren't okay to make in order to learn. In our society, it is not okay to kill someone just to learn that you shouldn't kill people. In the instance of hurting others, I'd say its best to learn from others mistakes. Because of this I'd change the quote to say, "Smart people learn from their mistakes AND from other's mistakes". Very interesting post!
Maddy
Aya,
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I completely agree with your post, as making mistakes is a part of life and also a way for us to learn. As humans, we are naturally imperfect, so mistakes are inevitable. They teach us first hand what to do and what not to do in society, or what choices may affect us negatively. The idea of free speech that Mill supports coincides with the freedom for us to make our own choices, some of which could end up being mistakes. Mill supports this, because sometimes choosing to do the unpopular plan of action can turn out to be beneficial, and if its not then it reminds us not to make the same mistake again, while also helping us to form our own thoughts and ideas and advance ourselves and society. Mill even directly says in his piece that humans have the ability to make mistakes and correct themselves from them as he says, “it is owing to a quality of the human mind, the source of everything respectable in man either as an intellectual or as a moral being, namely, that his errors are corrigible. He is capable of rectifying his mistakes, by discussion and experience.” Mistakes encourage problem solving, communication, and deeper learning for the individuals and those it has affected.
The one problem with mistakes is that they are unpredictable. We may know we are entering a risky situation with a high chance of failure, but we do not know beforehand if our mistakes will only affect us or if they will also affect those around us. It is possible to accidentally harm other people in the process of making a mistake, which is where Mill argues this mistake is not ok. These are rare, but still occur and have consequences.
Overall, I thought your post was a great comparison from the idea of free speech to the idea of freedom of actions and the results of these freedoms. Making mistakes is a key part of life.
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”-Mahatma Ghandi
Aya, this post got me thinking, too. Honestly, that's why we have to do all these things -- trial and error -- to learn for sure. Even in science, people run experiments to get to that single conclusion. I think there is this underlying assumption here that it mainly applies to people in developed nations rather than developing ones since developed ones tend to me more liberal in rights. So this is why we are allowed to experiment in a way that harms ourselves but also allows us to teach ourselves. My question is then what do you think about countries, say Iran or North Korea, where people make mistakes but do not have as much liberty in making those mistakes? Do they learn the same? Or do you think that they observe the mistakes us silly Americans make and try to apply them to their lives?
ReplyDeleteCool post!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of this post and it reminds me of one of my favorite TED talks by Kathryn Schulz on regret. You talked a lot about how we learn from bad choices we make and Schultz takes it a step further to say that we shouldn't even regret the bad choices we make.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka8L1YMR88U
Schulz uses the example of a tattoo she got when she was younger to have us embrace our regrets over bad choices because they can tell us a lot about ourselves and why we even make the choices we do. Schulz even talks about how we can overcome our regret and how those bad choices we make will lead us to make better choices in the future.
Aya,
ReplyDeleteI agree that learning from your own experience is the best way to do things...sometimes (we'll discuss that later). Not only does it make the lessons stick more soundly, but it makes you more empathetic with people dealing with the same issue. For example, I always thought that if I was cheated on I would leave the person immediately and never talk to them again. If one of my friends was cheated on and didn't do that, I would be judgmental about it. I had seen that in other situations, that was the best thing to do. However, when I got cheated on, it was a totally different story. I planned on never talking to the guy again, but it didn't happen, and I got back together with him. Eventually, I learned that this was not the right move, as the cheating was a sign of deeper personal issues he had that created problems for our relationship. I couldn't do anything about these issues. Also, while I thought I could trust him again, it was impossible to do. So, I eventually ended it and now KNOW what I thought I knew at the time: leave a cheater and doooo noooot look back. Unless I had learned that on my own, I would never have truly understood it.
Now, I'm not saying we should all go try to get cheated on so we can learn that lesson. But I AM saying that we shouldn't try to understand situations we haven't been in ourselves. That being said, there are some situations that are too dangerous for us to even try to understand. For example, heroin. You should probably stay away from it. Although you might only be harming yourself, the harm is too detrimental to justify the learning experience. In fact, there's a good chance if you do heroin you won't be able to live long enough TO learn from it.
Overall, I think we can only truly learn from experience; however, it is important to take a nuanced view of this and understand that some experiences are just too dangerous to have. Don't do hard drugs.