Anyone of you recently encountered " blank states" when you were discussing some views which you were trying to explain to someone like a lecturer or tutor?
Well. i did (or else i wouldn't be talking about it now). It happened many times to me especially in uni ( especially philosophy classes, surprisingly not in economics class) when i tried to explain the relationship i saw between Horgan and timmons' debate supporting Stevenson the emotivist on the issue of disagreement that he disscusses as one of the requirement of moral judgements.
I tried to explain the following which i wanted to ask whether it was relevant in my essay:
Moral truths cannot be objective.Since disagreement is not coherently referring to the same meaning of the moral terms when moral properties differenent in different communities then the moral terms that supervene on the moral properties will also be
different. Hence disagreement is not coherently or logically construed to be disagreement at all.
Okay, well.. although i took some time to think through this idea in my head and i had to recall what i had thought about previously in my head during that tutorial, this idea didnt come out as instinctively as compared to the time i was writing my essay. The awkard thing is that the tutor was staring at me waiting for me to speak up! the silence lasted for more than a minute i think...so dreadful. My mind was just in a total blank. To kill the awkardness of silence , i had to keep making "pause fillers" and unnecessary/ stupid laughs of dissapointment until i thought of the argument. what's happening?
Why is conversing ideas and arguments so difficult? Is it because one has to recall the arguments and put it into proper grammatical english? Or issit because of the fact that lessons are always so late in the evening that make my brain to tired/ lazy to think?
Sometimes when i have some idea to explain, the ideas don't really get through to the listeners. is it because of hte complexities of the topic? or isit just the language barrier?
One of my philo friends have this problem too. But i dont think the duration of the " blank state " of mind is as serious as mine.
Maybe i think i need language courses and toastmasters to learn how to convey ideas fluently. I am also always so shy to speak up in class.
Any suggestions for improvements?
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2 comments:
Hi
This is just an opinion, nothing fancy nor based on scientific research. Cheers.
I think that "blank" states of mind are quite common. As you rightly pointed out, people have varying degrees of "blankness" for lack of a better word =x
From a guy's perspective, its akin to blanking out when you are talking with a lady that you like
We can see that emotions are involved. A nervous state of mind greatly hinders thinking and recalling, and making connections, and philosophy involves a great deal of both.
Perhaps you can do breathing exercises to calm yourself down before presenting your idea. Similarly, you may replay the idea of the argument and actually presenting the argument in you head several times. This will help to calm any nerves and make recalling the argument easier.
Good luck
Hi Joshua!
I think your comments are really well-thought out. I see that you are really putting in effort in explaining in a sort of sociological perspective.Thanks a lot for the insights.
Yup, i will try the "replaying in the head" method, sounds feasible. i think it should work=)
Thanks!
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