Response to questions for Monday

Hi all, here are my responses to what was discussed today feel free to comment since I can't attend labs your criticism or comments could be helpful. To me "paths to knowledge" points to the different ways that we obtain knowledge, the different forms of knowledge, and how we apply that knowledge to our daily lives. So far I've learned that truth is objective, not absolute, and based on a justification of knowledge that most likely is true. This ties into what I think of the title because we are beginning to see ways in which knowledge can be and is useful in regards to the truth. We seek knowledge in order to seek truth both because it is good to believe what is true and we as humans generally don't enjoy being wrong. The presuppositions behind this title maybe that there is a correct path to take vs. a wrong path and that knowledge can lead us there.



As I posted last week I chose the painting Last Supper by Da Vinci I believe that this is a painting about Jesus and his apostles during the ritual known as The Last Supper from the Bible. I reached my conclusion on this simply by what I have heard about the piece and also from the title Last Supper. I also have heard the story when I was a kid in school and so I briefly know about religious event. You could probably determine what a painting is about by maybe what you have heard about it because it is a famous painting or by trying to relate the work to yourself in some way. Also if say you could recognize the time period of the work it may give you some insight as to what themes it may hold. Hopefully this painting will show me new things about religion, history, and ethics that I didn't know before. As I understand there is a lot of controversy about this painting I would like to better understand that conflict as a part of my research. I would also like to know more about Da Vinci himself. Why did he paint this particular painting? I would like to explore these elements of The Last Supper and see how they may be pertinent now. In other words, How can what the artist was trying to say and the topic of the work make me a better person today or is the story irrelevant today?

I think that even though the terms believing, knowing, and understanding are intertwined they are different terms and mean different things. For me personally when I say I believe something it could come from two different places 1. seeking justified knowledge or 2. my heart. When you say you know something, or have knowledge about something, it implies that it is backed up by facts or that it is probably true. Finally you can understand something with out believing it so they can't be the same. It seems that you have to have some knowledge about an issue to understand it but that doesn't make the meaning of the terms the same.