Q&A#2 Question 2

Could a concept be constructed on the way a person would construct and impose their thoughts or is it dependent on sensory experience? Could it be both, and if so which is more influential?

The way a person’s concept is constructed/developed I feel is highly influenced by their thoughts and is just as equally validated by sensory experiences. Depending though on the person, it would determine which aspect is more influential when they apply it to their concept of reality. For instance, Einstein it was probably more reliant within his thoughts, while the man walking down the street both are pretty equal in his idea of reality, but for the Amazonian tribe they rely more on their senses of what is around them to determine reality (this is hard to gauge though, because their beliefs and knowledge are radically different than ours).

It goes to show then that our lifestyles present obstacles with our reality. This is because they reflect what we will experience and how we think. At the core we are all human though, so we all have the ability to understand and experience things similarly (although not the same). This is dependent on innumerable factors, but the strongest would probably rely on how we define reality. An example in how we define reality can be shown by how scholastic monks of the dark ages viewed the world. They were the people with the most knowledge in Europe at the time, but they saw roses in terms of symbolic ideas which resinated through God’s ideal plan. The color red from the petals for example, was reflective of the blood of Christ and other numerous Biblical insights became apparent in their concepts of things. These connotations originate from their idea that God created it all. This is just one example of how a belief in how reality works can effect how we judge our senses and thoughts in all things. 

       Most Americans today seem to be very strong realists. This is apparent in their love of material goods. I used to be in a similar view, wanting more and more, but as I've been in college I've been wanting less and less. This is because my view of reality has been changing by many forces. This is getting off topic though. Essentially, both sensory experience and thoughts produce our view of reality, but what swings us to what is more important/influential is a matter of opinion (that would stem from our knowledge of our thoughts and sensory experience) and lifestyle. 

Q&A#2 Question 1

Is a personally constructed concept stronger than one based on the opinions of others?

          I think the first thing to point out with my question is to answer it with another question; can a concept be personally constructed? I would say yes. When someone takes into account a play the first thing one must do is look at the script. Once they have analyzed the script, they then have a concept of what the play is. This aspect, especially for anyone who has seen two productions of the same play, can tell that, no matter what, they are both going to be different. This I think serves as a good analogy then. The script is our sensory impression of the world and the way we go about creating the play would be our past experiences and thoughts on the particular script (world), thus resulting in different productions (views of reality). Someone could feel very different about Romeo and Juliet than another (almost getting back into a view on aesthetic judgement). 

         Keeping with this theater analogy, if a new script is written then a new vision/concept of the play will need to be brought up, or at least will eventually come into being once someone reads it. It is then that a concept must originally be thought up by someone, to which it is personally constructed (you could say it was developed by the playwright, but someone like Ibsen wrote and directed his works). This concept is then either accepted as agreeable or disliked by the view of others. Maybe this is why RC  doesn't seem coherent at times, because if its only something you can "construct" or conceptualize what good is it doing? Realists can at least validate with one another to a degree. 

         If you were to try and copy a production, or replicate it, I do not think it would ever be as good as the original. Since the concept of the original production was conceived through the views of those involved, it would fall short in some aspect. This is the same with a concept of reality, since it was not brought upon by yourself how could you ever understand what the person was really thinking/conceptualizing? To this end, I would say that a personally constructed concept is stronger than those of others. This is not to say you can not learn from others, for inquiry is apart of finding truth. If you are closed off you will never find the connections that are surrounding you. You can copy a few things you've liked from a past production (philosophy) and make it your own, but a total reproduction would never live up to its predecessor. Someone's conception may not correlate to another person's own concept, but to have experienced that will only build your own ideas stronger. 

       - A side note, I may be trying to correlate what we learn in class with theater because this is what interests me. I think it should interest you, the reader, to some degree too, for theater is constructing reality.