John Searle

John Searle discusses language as a subject of philosophy, in this fascinating YouTube clip from 1978.

He is speaking with Bryan Magee, a fascinating writer in his own right.

Source: http://cfaille.blogspot.com/2010/08/john-searle.html

»»  read more

Attention Span, what's that??!!

Technology has surely made our lives much easier. I surely cannot think of my life without washing machine, vacuum cleaner, DVD player, Mp3 player, Television and of course computers. While we are using washing machines, vacuum cleaners for cleaning purposes, appliances like Television, MP3 players, DVD players and of course computers are used for recreation, for studying, for news, music, etc.

Today, we have so many sources to keep us occupied that sometimes I really can’t choose one among them to entertain me for say 2-3 hours continuously. I will be distracted by these multiple “options” very often. Most of the time, I stick to television and try and spend only few minutes in front of computer for news, blogging, to write to my friends and family and only "limited" time into community networks.

Off late, I do not spend too much time into facebook and other community networks. This is because I get distracted by many updates it shows on the “home page” :). So I realised that the best thing to do is to avoid logging into it. But this was not the situation 2 years ago. I used to sit in front of these community networks for not necessarily quality time, but to check what others wrote on it, the photos they published, videos etc., and this was not giving me any entertainment or any happiness at all. Then
I started blogging, so that I can spend time in front of computer doing something worthwhile.
Take even blogging, one of my reader once said, “I like your blog, its very interesting, but I don’t usually read long blogs” - Talk about level of patience in life and also talk about attention span. To some people, everything should be as fast as it can be and as brief as possible.

Off late, I see many parents not only sit in front of computers doing many things at a time, but also allow their children to do the same. For example Farm ville on facebook.

My questions are:

• How appropriate is it to do so many things at a time for one’s own good and one’s own attention span? (We do not and should not live only for our kids isn’t it?? )

• I feel children should cultivate attention span in order to develop good concentration levels to study well and also to attain knowledge. If parents are surfing many exiting things one after another, what kind of examples are we becoming to our children?

• I see children into facebook not only on computers, but some have it on their mobile phones during school, college hours. What kind of attention span are they developing?

• What about reading habit which increases attention span? Children, apart from studying what’s in the school syllabus, I think should also start reading lots of literature including literature in their own mother tongue. This will keep them involved with their own language and reading literature in one’s own language would also help to retain it in the longer term. (Is it big deal to read only English literature all the time? ) What is happening to the reading culture? Children learn it all from their parents, only if their parents have made it as a habit.

I think it is indeed a very challenging job for parents to make sure that their children are cultivating attention span given the “boons” of technologies in today's competitve and stressful world. But I wonder if these thoughts are obvious to parents across globe!

Source: http://bhavana-pen.blogspot.com/2010/08/attention-span-what-is-that.html

»»  read more