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Notes on video lecture:
Laozi: He Who Speaks Does Not Know
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on October 20, 2016 (go to class or lectures)


Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
loyal, frivolities, primed, two, Daodejing, repulsive, overshadowing, benevolent, rate, suspect, steal, reality, ritual, charity, Daoism, negative, Confucius, judgements, chaos, distorts, filial, discrepancy, know, hypocrisy, contradicts, verbal, sincere, lack, Laozi, amateurs, language, intuitions, morality, disruptive, anorexic, tastes
Laozi: "He who speaks does not "
famous saying from the
very easy to make satire of, since it itself
but it maps to the suspicion of , since language can
cut us off from our experience
our experience in various ways
a common theme in the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi
two foundational texts of
language can impair our ability to experience reality
Daodejing
language not only gets in the way but distorts our experience of
language damages our nature
chapter 2
"Everyone in the world knows that when the beautiful strives to be beautiful, it is "
wei = striving
when everyone calls that which is beautiful "beautiful", it becomes less beautiful
you're setting up an ideal that his not the right ideal
media presentations of beauty
female body: tall, models
society sets up an image that it pushes as beautiful
beauty for Confucius
we have crude natural tastes, we have to get trained up and we refine these over time
beauty for Laozi
natural tastes are fine
Confucius is taking away from our basic , which are the right ones
hedonistic treadmill
social strife
"no showing reverence for precious goods leads others not to "
danger of
Confucianism is
talking about it just as bad as talking about beauty
hypocritical social values destroy honest, natural relations between people
calling someone benevolent impedes their ability to become
a corrosive force in human nature
when the Way was lost there was Virtue
if you are talking about virtue, things are already messed up
when virtue was lost there was benevolence
when benevolence was lost there was righteousness
when righteousness was lost there was
and rituals are the wearing thin of loyalty and trust, and the beginning of
Daodejing, Chapter 18
"When the great Way is abandoned, there are benevolence and righteousness."
you don't start talking about morality until morality is gone
"When the six familial relationships are out of balance, there are kind parents and children."
when you have to talk about kind parents and filial children, this is a sign there are some that are not kind and filial
when you really have it, you don't need to talk about it
"When the state is in turmoil and chaos, there are ministers."
people don't call themselves loyal ministers unless they are not
a real loyal minister doesn't have to talk about it
healthy relationships don't need ceremony and you don't need to talk about it
ritual scripts will turn people into hypocrites
inhibits their ability to experience and live in a relationship
contemporary psychology
moral licensing
consciously considering yourself moral may impair actual moral behavior
people were asked to meditate, and consider how compassionate they are, yet these were the people in the study who were more likely to spend money on for themselves
one feels one is good and therefore can engage in bad
experiment
people were asked to donate $10 to a
people who were primed with normal words, would typically give $2.71 on the average
people who were primed with words such as caring, generous, and kind, gave $1.07 on the average
people with words such as greedy, mean and selfish spent an average of $5.30
verbal labels can
be a smoke screen for the lack of the quality
distort our experience with reality
verbal
consciously reflecting on our perceptions can have a negative effect on recalling experiences accurately
Jonathan Schooler
how language interacts with perception in a way
when people try to talk about things that they really don't have good words for, this can be
e.g. a face
we don't have a good vocabulary to describe
we can recognize them but not describe them well
people who described the face afterward after the crime were less accurate in identifying the robber
when you describe a face, it can reduce your ability to recognize it
same with a color, shapes, voices,
reasons
people the vocabulary to describe e.g. the face in sufficient detail
with experts who have the right vocabulary the effect was the opposite
e.g. professional wine-tasters
who tried to describe the wine they tasted afterward, showed a high rate of verbal overshadowing, whereas wine experts showed a modest gain in their ability to identify wines later, if they described them right after tasting them
study: multiple face recognition
participants were shown faces and told to describe one of those faces
verbalition interfered with both the face they had described as well as the face they hadn't described
this suggests a generalized processing shift when people make descriptions
from a non-analytic mode to a more analytic mode
study: not just memory but other non-verbal
participants tried a number of jams
some were asked to explain why they made that choice, other were asked not to explain it
they were then asked to the jams
those who made verbal descriptions showed more of a with generally recognized high-quality jams and low-quality jams
experts don't seem to be subject to verbal overshadowing
reflection and verbalizing have a positive effect in accuracy of descriptions
the experience of non-experts tend to support the view of
the experience of experts tend to support the view of
training is important and leads to greater accuracy
Spelling Corrections:
annerexic ⇒ anorexic
frivolties ⇒ frivolities
Ideas and Concepts:
On the distorting power of language, via the Daodejing, from this morning's Ancient Chinese Philosophy class: "When you call that which is beautiful "beautiful", it becomes less beautiful."
Laozi on the path from intrinsic to extrinsic values, via this morning's Ancient Chinese Philosophy class: "When The Way was lost there was Virtue. When Virtue was lost there was Benevolence. When Benevolence was lost there was Righteousness. When Righteousness was lost there was Ritual."
On the importance of acquiring a rich vocabulary, via this morning's Ancient Chinese Philosophy class:
"Verbal overshadowing is a psychological phenomenon in which the act of describing our experiences can have a negative effect on recalling these experiences accurately at a later date.
Studies which have been done in this area show that this is particular true of recognizing faces. In an experiment where people are shown a video of a person committing a crime, those who are asked to write a description of the person's face directly after seeing the video, later were less likely to correctly identify the criminal.
The reason for this is that most people have a low vocabulary available to describe facial features in sufficient detail, and thus the process of using less-than-accurate words to write a description of the criminal's face, generally has the effective of inaccurately altering the person's memory of perceiving the criminal's face.
Further studies with wine experts, however, who have rich vocabularies to describe the experience of tasting wine were the opposite:While the control group of amateurs showed high rates of verbal overshadowing, wine experts with rich vocabularies to describe their experiences, showed modest gains in their ability to identify the wines that had tasted at a later date, if directly after tasting the wine, they expressed their experiences in writing."
"Verbal overshadowing is a psychological phenomenon in which the act of describing our experiences can have a negative effect on recalling these experiences accurately at a later date.
Studies which have been done in this area show that this is particular true of recognizing faces. In an experiment where people are shown a video of a person committing a crime, those who are asked to write a description of the person's face directly after seeing the video, later were less likely to correctly identify the criminal.
The reason for this is that most people have a low vocabulary available to describe facial features in sufficient detail, and thus the process of using less-than-accurate words to write a description of the criminal's face, generally has the effective of inaccurately altering the person's memory of perceiving the criminal's face.
Further studies with wine experts, however, who have rich vocabularies to describe the experience of tasting wine were the opposite:While the control group of amateurs showed high rates of verbal overshadowing, wine experts with rich vocabularies to describe their experiences, showed modest gains in their ability to identify the wines that had tasted at a later date, if directly after tasting the wine, they expressed their experiences in writing."