At what point does bullshit become knowledge? I often find myself writing essays for classes and completely BSing them. It's not that I make up information, but that I just expand on things logically and make it pretty so that the teacher is impressed. Of course, I feel as though I've pulled one over on the professor and am ashamed, but later get the paper back and realize that it's really decent. I'll even read my classmates papers and find mine to be better written with a higher grade. It even extends to the point that I realize that I know the material. What happens in the inbetween stages that brings us from bullshitting to actually comprehending the material?
I don't let high grades fool me into thinking I have a complete grasp of the subject. I wrote a physics paper that got 100%, but I am ashamed of it because I cleverly sidestepped a concept I didn’t fully understand.
Wow, I have the same problem as you, Darkeyes. At least, through high school I did the same thing, logically exapnding on a concept, thinking I did really terrible, then getting it back and turning out that I faired well. Really well. It wasn't until I got college professors that were looking for specifics (ie, research papers) that I realized I wasn't such hot shit. Writing an english paper, for those of us with critical minds, isn't terribly hard. As long as whatever I write remains in the metaphysical, it's pretty easy. Just make things up, and as long as your argument is cogent and coherent, you're good. Essentially, one only convinces another in these kinds of papers. I'm not sure if one really learns anything. What if you got the papers back with poor marks, and the teacher told you it wasn't at all what they were looking for, that it was all wrong? Do you think you would percieve that you learned anything?
Bullshit does not becomes knowledge. Bullshit is always bullshit. I've bullshitted tons of papers. I've been paid to write bullshit papers for other students even in different classes. All for the sake of a high grade. The difference is when I get back my papers, I read it, and it's still bullshit. Teachers have a standard for checking to make sure your paper was written clearly and within the proper parameters. As long as you abide by the standards, and cater to your teacher's point of view, you will do well. So you bullshit a paper according to your teachers POV. When you get it back you realize it is a well thought out well structured commentary on whatever the subject matter was. Congratulations. You came to class to get a good grade not to learn. It turns out you learned something anyway. Pretty gross if you ask me.
You start to believe your bullshit? You had a better grasp of the subject then you realized and inadvertently turned out a good paper. Same happened to me during my ap classes in HS.
Sure it's cool to rail at alchemy, but it's all the scientists of the period had to work with. First, they had to contend with the political and economic behemoth of the time, the Church. If they removed religion from their work, they practiced the black arts and burned for it. Secondly, there was the overriding paradigm set by the Greeks, and a lack of observations for the alchemists to come up with something that us moderns don't view as nutters. The Greeks figred everything in the world could be determined with logos. When Europeans began experimenting, they hadn't any other set of rules, besides Christianity and symbology, to go by. But after centuries of trial and error, experimentation and concoction, modern science arose. There would have been no scientific revolution had it not been for the precedent set by the alchemists.
Maybe I'm not expressing myself clearly. At some point I actually came to understand the concepts. I'm actually a tutor for most of the classes that I've done this for. It's just that I start out not knowing anything, and thinking I've written a paper full of BS, and in the end I know what I'm doing. I still feel a lot of the time that I am BSing when I talk to people about things, maybe because the ideas aren't my original ideas, but I've studied them and know a lot about them. Still, they are somewhat alien to me. Anyway, I most certainly do not go just for the grades, I'm the biggest advocate of learning for the sake of knowledge. I used to write up petitions in my high school to change the curriculum for some advanced placement classes that I was in because kids were taking them and slowing the class down. I'll restate my question: When does something you've learned about...something you've heard of become knowledge for you. When does it transfer from something you've simply been briefed on to something that you have as a mental resource?
There isn't an exact reason or time for this. Different people, different strokes. I know stuff by heart which i'll never use and I couldn't begin to comprehend why I know it so well. i.e The chemical name (36 letters long) of the most powerful nerve agent VX...I know it and can spell it for anyone in a heartbeat....why? who knows I'd suggest subconcious meddling of the brain but hell...I wouldn't know. Constant repetition seems to help....even if the subject matter doesn't interest me I seem to know and remember. Also it depends on how you process information....some seem to pick it up even when daydreaming while looking out the window and others well written flashcards don't get them the grade. Memory and information intake is very individual characteristic in humans.
Can anybody say control freak? Hey I hear the Nazi party is hiring. White supremists love that type of stuff. Go to school to learn. Be a good little conformist. Jesus forbid you help other students by giving them all the answers to the test. You did work oh so diligently on for them. Why should you give answers away. Let them work for it themselves. After all. they might not learn anything if they don't do it themselves. They don't belong there, and you do. Get rid of them. They shouldn't be there. They should be taking PE. Burn them. Lynch them. Conformity will get you everywhere. What's next on your rampage list? Petition to torch all the toddlers on the third world streets begging form money. They are slowing up traffic.
DArk Eyed You do have a point in the curriculum thing. I'm taking university level courses in preparation for after highschool and some of the smartass gangbangers and troublemakers that can't add 2 and 2 are there and they have no idea what there doing so we end up getting half the shit done per class that we're supposed to because the teacher has to constantly cader to their ignorance
Some people would actually like to learn at a pace that suits them. I shouldn't be taking advanced classes that are being slowed down boy less than par students.
Sounds like you would rather control others than cope with the situation. There is no significant difference in the learning paces between the human individuals.
