. . . thinking about thinking . . .

Katherine Merritt writes:

Thinking is the process in which a person searches through past memories and stored information to draw conclusions about the topic at hand.  It’s amazing how the mind stores so much.

Mark DiMeglio writes:

Thinking takes no form, unless one is aware of the format of an idea. . . . Thinking is the act of cognitively re-visiting an idea, or re-forming an idea.

Like Anglo-Saxons and their “word-hords,”  our task involves looking at thought as it surfaces in words which can be known, repeated, and understood.  I want us to take some time to think about thinking.

Many of you think of thinking as synonymous with consciousness.  However, does simple consciousness constitute thinking.  For example, I am aware of the excruciatingly hard back of the chair I sit in.  Does awareness equal thought? 

As you work through the works we read, how do you understand the relationship of words and thought.  Can thought take place without words?  Can you share your thoughts without words?  Can we define “thought” without discussing words and language?

the Charlie Burrus memorial post

Hunter Cesinger said...

This video relates to our writing in many ways. Just as there are four basic forces in the universe (Strong nuclear, Weak nuclear, Electromagnetic, and gravity), there are four basic forces in writing " (Phrases, Words, Vowels, and Consonants)." For our universe to exist as it does and perfectly support life, these forces must be perfectly balanced. Similarly to achieve perfection in our writing we must learn to balance these four forces.

September 5, 2011 1:50 PM

We talk this year about connections:  the apple tree in “Game of Catch” connects to Genesis 2-4, which connects to the tree in Separate Peace.  As Hunter suggests, I want to explore the interrelatedness of all human endeavor by discerning connections between particle physics and our exploration of language.  All things in the universe are somehow connected; the word “universe” advertises that unity.

So what?  You will read and write the rest of your lives.  Many of you will make your livings reading and writing.  All of you will have to thread your way through written and spoken statements, some of which may contain misinformation or distortion.  For instance, when a political candidate makes claims about science, how do we seek and find the truth of the matter?  As Hunter understands it, discovering elemental particles, whether physical or linguistic, is the way to get at understanding and build articulation.

Many of you have puzzled over the claim that nothing “human can be alien”; all things human are connected.  This does not mean I must experience something directly to comprehend it.  I do not have to murder and pillage in order to comprehend murder and pillaging.  I read the Iliad or Beowulf to comprehend terror and its outcome.  The first hundred lines of Beowulf remind us that human beings throughout time have built towers and halls of clever fashioning.  A tower or hall tempts wreckers to pull it down.

http://us.paceacademy.org/~dondupree/English10/beowulf1.html

(This post is dedicated to Charlie Burrus)

. . . the Higgs Boson and our search for prepositions

Mainly, I think of sophomores as noble, though incomplete, creatures who stride with giants and preen with gazelles.  My one quarrel with the species is its polite acceptance of authority.  The other day when I showed a little clip on the search for the Higgs Boson, everyone received it quietly, but no one raised a peep about its appropriateness in sophomore English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_HrQVhgbeo

 Standard model theory of the universe speaks of four forces and posits the Higgs Boson as a binding particle which prevents any gaps in the system.

As we move forward this week and next, we pay attention to four elemental forces in language:  vowels, consonants, words, and phrases.  Our language builds on these forces and the way they combine to form articulation.  As we pursue writing and articulation these next weeks, I hope you will raise more questions and accept things a little less readily; do not hide your skepticism under a sophomore’s innate politeness.