Objectives:
- Become familiar with basic relationships of human values to psychological and philosophical endeavors
- Understand that values are formed from external and internal drives of an individual
- Explore one’s own value system
Original Post:
Life Values
In the latter part of the reading, the passage discussing the idea of ranking our values based on our personal experiences drew my attention. I think it is safe to assume that most people tend to believe in certain morals and intrinsic values based on their personal experiences and feelings about the source of their beliefs. For instance, I take to heart and follow the beliefs and values of my parents, as they are the number one figures in my life that taught me the first lessons in life. As mentioned in the reading, we are also “drawing upon [our] own accumulated sense experience” (16). Although our parents were probably one of the first elderly figures to show us what their beliefs are, we are also influenced by outside sources daily. Our teachers, friends, and colleagues are few of the most influential people in our lives who constantly have us wondering about our initial beliefs and values either through justification of their own experiences and beliefs. When we grow up and become our own individuals, is it possible that we have completely different views on the world around us or do we innately act in some ways more than others based on our upbringing? This also surprised me while reading that our outside influences may also have an affect on our beliefs and values by simply ” ‘selling’ a particular approach to personal values” (16). Some individuals seek out spiritual meaning and support to better certain views on their beliefs. I feel in this sense we are losing a part of our true selfs based on the experiences of others. What if what they were telling us was completely made up to twist our views on our old beliefs when in fact what we had first believed in were to be true?
I also agreed with the analogy of individuals taking a poll about people’s ideas and beliefs on their personal values. It is unfortunate that nowadays and perhaps even back then people would not tell the truth in its entirety. People never really tell the whole truth, which brings me to question why an individual holds this kind of moral? Perhaps due to an old personal experience where they deemed appropriate that less the people know the better? Although through personal experience the whole truth always comes out regardless how much you attempt to cover it up. From that I have created a new personal value of my own to always completely 100% tell the truth even though it may be rude or inappropriate.
Reflection:
It was a little hard for me to truly explain the stemming of my beliefs and values when linking it to the article we had to read. I feel I have a hard time expressing my true meaning behind my values with the incorporation of the article as I felt it was limiting the way I could respond and allow my peers to fully understand why I am the way I am.
I truly believe in parental guidance as our bases for majority of our values, and to this day I still follow the values and beliefs my parents instilled in me. I understand that some people may have different upbringings or have been educated and realized an outlet and contradiction of what they now believe and what their parents had originally taught them. Yes I have learned from my educational system, which I am very thankful for my parents allowing me and paying for superb education, that some of the things my parents have taught me are not fully correct.Pictured above is the love of my life, my family. Without them, I would not be the person I am today. After completing this assignment, I have come to realize how influential my family has been molding me into the person I am today. I guess you could say I am caught between what my parents have instilled in me and what my education has taught me although fully believing in both ways. Throughout my college career I have come to the realization that everyone has their own beliefs and if it works for them, it works for them. There really is no wrong or right way as there are endless reasons to backup people’s standpoints.
What makes me the person I am today is mostly due to my intrinsic drive and motivation. I am the kind of gal to pursue my own personal goals not because other people tell me to or want me to but purely for self satisfaction. My parents have always taught me to work hard and pursue my goals as an optimal pathway for success. I am partially immune to external drives influencing my decisions in life. Although here I may contradict myself as if I were to be offered a promising job from working hard, I would most likely be inclined to be able to achieve that. However, it is mostly due to my intrinsic values and beliefs stemming form both my parents and experience that will motivate me to work hard. I have come to conclude that my family means everything to me and what they say has the most impact on my decisions.
Completing the assignment of ranking what aspects of life mean the most to us. Health and security where my top two which mostly I believe in this due to my parental education. My parents have always forced the idea of having health is the most important aspect of life. Without health, nothing really matters. You could be the most successful person but if you are sickly, what value does money even hold anymore? I also felt that security was an important trait to hold. If you do not feel secure about monetary needs, physically, or intrinsically with yourself, you spend your life worrying and stressing unnecessarily. This may be more of an extrinsic drive for me as I pummel through my school work to ensure I will be secure financially so I can give me future family a good life. This is also an intrinsic drive as my goal is to be successful enough to enjoy life and not worrying about paying the bills every month.
Future Goals:
I believe in the future I will still uphold these values and beliefs to drive my motivation to be a successful happy individual. My parents will continue to play a major role in my life. I hope to widen my horizons with life lessons of my own experience or the people I choose to surround myself with or random encounters. I hope to one day instill the values I carry with my future family and friends I meet along the way.
Bibliography:
Lewis, H. (1990). A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices That Shape Our Lives. Axios Press.Pg. 6-16.
Table of Contents:
Student Portfolio
Artifact 1: First Blog
Artifact 2: Life Values
Artifact 3: What is Art?
Artifact 4: Food as Art?
Artifact 5: Personal Adornment
Artifact 6: Creative Spirituality
Artifact 7: Remixing Culture
Artifact 8: Public Art
Original Post:
Poop Power
Searching for an interesting blog for this first assignment, I stumbled across this intriguing yet eye catching article. This post was about a new founded system that turns sewage waste into purified drinking water, electricity, and clean ash. Bill Gates was the one of the first people to try the engineered drinking water. After you get past the idea that he has just drank water derived from sewage waste, it doesn’t seem so bad after all. This machine is self sustaining as it runs on steam creating electricity that is derived from the dried sewage “sludge.” The prototype for this machine is located a little north of Seattle. This project is still well under construction as they aim to almost completely reinvent the toilet. Although this seems like a great idea to input into developing countries, I feel the cost to create and upkeep the machine may be probable issues. On the up side, we would be saving energy and our environment by recycling human waste.
I chose this blog post because it immediately caught my eye with the title and it’s uniqueness. At first I could not believe that there was an actual machine that could do the impossible. Knowing that there are endless possibilities to reuse natural materials to create sustainable energy is quite mind blowing. Those who are unable to have easy access to clean and safe water are at risk of many health diseases and illnesses. We take advantage of having purified drinking water at the tips of our fingers. I think this is the beginning of a bright future for our environment but for those countries who are limited to resources. I hope that one day the world will be able to run on less expensive and environmentally friendly resources to save our earth from depletion of natural resources. We are already on our way of saving the earth with the electric cars, increasing the awareness of recycling, and now using poo to create drinking water.
Reflection:
I chose this particular article because I was truly fascinated by the technological advances that are being made to better our world. It is vital to our future that we find ways to use our available resources to harvest sustainable energy that will reduce our carbon foot print. I think it is so awesome that Bill Gates is using his success to fund projects such as these to better our environment. The fact that he and his and his research team could construct a working machine using fecal matter to produce several different resources that we take for granted has the potential to reduce other confounding issues by re-using our external waste. I thoroughly enjoy reading about these kinds of articles as it fuels my interest in finding alternative ways to make our world a “greener” place.
This article fulfills the requirements for the first blog post assignment. We were instructed to post an article that was interesting to us. I think this post also envelops my passion for saving the environment and wanting to reduce the amount of natural resources that we are quickly depleting from the earth. I think this could educate my classmates and peers about the work and effort our society is putting in to reduce the trash we are collecting on this earth as we damage our ozone layer and wrecking the beauty of the earth. This also shows my classmates who felt like reading the article on the type of person I am. Given this class never meets outside of the blogs and internet discussion, I wanted to show my peers one of my interests that I hope will motivate them to help save our earth.
I also learned how to work this new blogging system. Before this class I had no idea that the UO blogs existed nor did I know how to set one up. I find this internet blogging engine very useful and easy to use. I think more classes should incorporate blogging into their course. I feel being able to blog interesting posts that they find intriguing or a good representation of their personality is a good way to enlighten other people about different issues that we may not be aware of.
Future Goals:
In retrospect of this article, I hope to further my interest in participating in the research and study of finding alternative ways to use our resources into sustainable fuel. Although my major limits my ability to further my research, I hope to find different movements or organizations that will allow me to help them brainstorm more ideas or add input to their ongoing research. I hope to further educate my peers and other people about these types of studies and research that is going on in hopes of peaking interest in saving the environment.
Bibliography:
Price, R. (2015, January 6). Watch Bill Gates Test A New Machine That Turns Poop Into Clean Water. Retrieved May 4, 2015, from http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-sewage-water-electricity-2015-1
Table of Contents:
Student Portfolio
Artifact 1: First Blog
Artifact 2: Life Values
Artifact 3: What is Art?
Artifact 4: Food as Art?
Artifact 5: Personal Adornment
Artifact 6: Creative Spirituality
Artifact 7: Remixing Culture
Artifact 8: Public Art
I believe in dressing in what you feel most comfortable in physically and mentally. I am pretty lazy on school days and do not take the time and effort to get ready in the morning. I see it as I am going to school not caring about how people perceive my appearance. However, I dress in a way that will not make people think I don’t care about up-keeping my hygiene, but comfortably. Also, since I am from Hawaii, I dress mainly for warmth. Even though I may not have the most fashionable warm clothes, I do not care. I care about being comfortable and warm first and foremost. On somedays, I do take the time to get myself ready with makeup but under two conditions: I have a lot of time before my class or I am really tired so putting on foundation and powder will hide the enormous bags under my eyes.
I also have my ears pierced. I feel this makes me feel girly when I am able to adorn myself with dangly earrings for special occasions. Wearing earrings makes me feel like I am completing my outfit with a pair of jewelry matching my outfit. I pierced my ears because I wanted to wear earrings to express my love for adorning my ears with jewelry to look and feel pretty.
I have a deep and forever love for my parents. They gave me the bases of all my core values and beliefs in life, which helped mold me into the woman I am today. Even though I have learned through my own experiences and college schooling, I still hold the same core values as I did when I was a little girl. I used to go to church every Wednesday night in high school with my family. I have a gold chain that adorned my neck which represented my religious beliefs. I still wear it from time to time, however not as much as I used to. I was never good remembering to wear jewelry.
In my upbringing, my family taught me humility, humbleness, and the idea that family comes first. My mother always emphasized the way I present myself whether it be at school, a function, or going out with my friends, should be a reflection of my parents. I am the kind of person to represent my parents in the best way possible. I make it a point to make sure the way I dress I would be able for my grandparents to approve. I also dress and present myself in a way that if a friend or family member saw me walking on the street, they would think I am a respectable young woman. My family is a well-respected family by high authority back home, Even when I go out with my friends, I make sure that I dress tastefully yet appropriately that if one of my dad’s business associates were to see out in public, they would not think I was trashy and that I represent one of the best lawyers in Hawai’i. I do not have any tattoos and only ear piercings. I was brought up being taught that tattoos were hazardous to your health as the ink is semi-toxic and the process of getting a tattoo is unsanitary. I always think about when I get older, I prefer to not have any tattoos even though are becoming more socially acceptable.
As I made new friends and created my own life for myself in college, I have changed some of my views but kept majority of my original beliefs with me. I am more accepting of people’s individualism. If they prefer to dress very flashy or revealing, that is up to their own discretion. Through my schooling and classes, I have learned from my professors and my peers that the only person you should worry about caring about yourself is you. Your parents may have a certain opinion as well as your friends, teachers and colleagues. However, you don’t have to listen to what they believe is the correct way. Sure they may have their input but honestly I believe that we have the right to make our own decisions and go about our lives the way we feel is most beneficial to our happiness. If getting a crazy piercing or tattoo makes you happy, then go for it! The people you surround yourself with, they are the good people you believe them to be, should be supporting and accepting of your individualism.
I believe at this day and age, people are starting to care too much about what the social media and society thinks about them. I have noticed an increasingly amount in people getting plastic surgery to create this image of perfection or what they think is perfection. By getting yourself modified is just not something I believe in. I believe in natural beauty and to be happy in your own skin. If you feel you feel the need to modify the way you look because you are trying to be perceived as perfect or an ideal body, that is totally up to you and your judgement. I think people who feel they need to dress and act a certain way to impress other people tend to be slightly insecure. For those individuals who adorn themselves with tattoos, I believe they are doing so because of a fond memory of someone or a specific moment in time that they want to envision and think about every time they look at their body art. Society is starting to become more accepting of tattoos seeing them rather as meaningful art rather than looked down upon.
