Post #6: Conclusion

Prichard introduces two types of knowledge: the propositional knowledge and the ability knowledge. The propositional knowledge is a knowledge of a statement whether the statement is true or false. The mere true belief is not knowledge because people can gain mere true belief by luck or accident.

The theme “what makes human bad” is an open-ended question; I approached to answer the theme by making a statement i.e. people tend to be bad when they do not have empathy for others. In order to prove that the knowledge that I possess contributes to the understanding of the theme, I need to read journal articles written by scholars who have been certified by the higher education degrees and who have been used the sources that are credible.

Blackmore has helped me to think about the knowledge of consciousness. By reading Blackmore’s book Consciousness, I was able to distinguish that some of my propositional knowledge about human consciousness were just mere true beliefs. For example, consciousness seems to be the one that makes decision, but there are many evidence that the brain makes decisions and the brain may not even need an extra force to do it.

Humanities have helped me to see how others have different views and perspectives about the world. Breaking Bad is the film that displays the transformation of Walter White from a chemistry teacher to a criminal. Walter’s desperate need for finances definitely contribute him to become a drug dealer. The environment may change human moral values and may lead people to commit crimes.

Social sciences helped to understand the human interactions. Social scientists observe the patterns of the human behaviors by using scientific methods. By reading the journal articles from social sciences, I found that criminals tend to have family issues in their young age. The lack of maternal warmth seems to be one factor that damages the brain which may cause the lack of empathy for others. 

post #5: Do laws make people bad?

The story of Nelson Mandela was presented in the last week of discussion facilitation and it was rarely discussed in answering the theme “what make human bad.” The autobiography is the history of a human which falls in the humanities disciplines. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) defines humanities as “the study and application of the humanities and human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life.” The definition of humanities from NEH seems complex and just by reading the definition, it is difficult to fully understand what humanities are. Indeed, the humanities are complex studies because they look at how humans interact with each other and with the environment. The humanities include the broad spectrum of disciplines: history, philosophy, literature, art, religion and etc. Social sciences also deal with human interactions like politics, psychology, laws and so forth.

From the excerpt of Mandela’s autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, provides his experience of imprisonment at the Pretoria Local Prison and shows his viewpoint on South African government and the apartheid existed in South Africa. Although Nelson Mandela used non-violent methods at first, he created the armed group called Umkhonto we Sizwe and used violence to fight back. Despite of use of violence, his story of revolt and imprisonment fighting for the equality and the rights of black people is seen as heroic acts and people do not criticize his unlawful acts toward the government. Hobbes would argue that Nelson Mandela’s unlawful actions are justifiable because he said in Leviathan that all humans have right to defend yourself and your rights. On the other hand, the government would argue that Nelson Mandela is evil because he is a tremendous threat to the government authority.

As Nelson Mandela’s story shows, Nelson Mandela can be both a good person and a bad person in terms of different perspectives. In the mindomo map, one of the classmate said “there are often free-persons who are “worse” than incarcerated prisoners who are able to avoid jail time because they have an elevated social status.” While Nelson was incarcerated in the Pretoria Local Prison, he met the guy named Moosa Dinath who was a prosperous businessman serving a two-year sentence for fraud. Because Dinath was wealthy enough to pay the prisoner authorities, he had privileges in the prisons: “he wore clothes meant for white prisoners, ate their diets, and did no jail work at all.” In this case, it shows the power of laws can be abused by the authorities.

Work Cited

Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Boston: Back Bay Books, 1995. Print. 

Post #4: Are all liars bad?

   Natural science consists of knowledge in natural phenomena based on empirical studies, which emphasizes the quantifiable data and systematic observations. It covers the life science and the physical science. The physical sciences are the studies of non-living objects which is contrary to the life science and which include branches such as physics, astronomy, chemistry, and earth science. The life sciences are the studies of living organisms such as plants, animals, and human beings.

   In class, the physical sciences disciplines were hardly discussed by presenters and students. The life science knowledge was frequently discussed among because one presenter from Knowledge Fair presented the case study of a man who was diagnosed with Pathological Lying (PL) and brought the neuropsychology knowledge which raised interesting discussions and questions.


   The journal “The neuropsychological correlates of pathological lying: evidence from behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia” is a case study in neuropsychology which is an interdisciplinary field that collaborate with the fields of psychology and neuroscience. The case study observed a 57-year old male who was diagnosed with PL and it sought to find the relationship between the brain dysfunction and PL. The participant took series of examinations to assess any possible brain damage.

   The study found that the participant had impairments in Executive Function (EF) and Theory of Mind (ToM) which concluded that he had the behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The finding suggests that t is possible that pathological lying may be a symptom of brain damage.

   Based on the finding, it is difficult to conclude that the pathological liars are bad people because they probably have no control over their lies. Lying is considered as breaking the social rule and destroying the relationships with friends, family, and so forth. However, in this case, the pathological liar is just like a child who doesn’t understand what they are doing because of immature development of brain. I believe that it is society’s role to take care of those who are helpless and the pathological liars may be one of those who can’t help lying.

Work Cited

Michele Poletti, Paolo Borelli, Ubaldo Bonuccelli. "The neuropsychological correlates of pathological lying: evidence from behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia." Journal of Neurology, 2011, Volume 258, Number 11, Page 2009