As a full-time staffer at BBC&S I get the benefit of taking one free class per semester. This semester I opted to take an undergrad philosophy class: Microexegesis - Theology 1. A typical class period consists of reading a section of St. Augustine's The Teacher, paraphrasing it, and discussing its implications. It has forced me to think more carefully about the basics, and I have enjoyed the thought provoking conversations we have had in class.
For our first written homework assignment we were to write a "clear, cogent, and highly polished" paragraph about any topic pertaining to what we have read or talked about in class. Since I spent a fair amount of time working out and refining my paragraph, I decided I would share it. Hopefully it will be somewhat thought provoking and worth your time for at least that.
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"Within the realm of human communication lies a paradox. Despite the human capacity to clearly and effectively communicate thoughts and ideas, various elements rob this information transfer of attaining perfection. Language, words, and an individual's understanding each place limitations on communication. Though arguably some of the most widely used and effective means of sharing thoughts and ideas, language and words ironically remain constrained by the individual's understanding of them. The concept one thinks may not correspond directly with the words they say, and the words spoken may not translate to the hearer the actual meaning intended by the speaker. Thus, language used in this transfer of information fails to reach a point of absolute precision. Speaker and hearer will never possess equally exact understandings of the words involved. Consequently, one can never assert whether specific thoughts and ideas have been accurately communicated or not. Yet amidst these difficulties, the paradox persists. For although language, words, and an individual's understanding certainly impede communication's absoluteness, humans still retain the ability to clearly and effecdtively share thoughts and ideas through the use of them."Labels: education