From owner-cse575-fa07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Fri Aug 31 12:32:54 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l7VGWrL9018142 for ; Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:32:54 -0400 (EDT) Received: from front2.acsu.buffalo.edu (upfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.4.140]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.8/8.13.6) with SMTP id l7VGWkkd054405 for ; Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:32:46 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 1618 invoked from network); 31 Aug 2007 16:32:46 -0000 Received: from mailscan1.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.133) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 31 Aug 2007 16:32:46 -0000 Received: (qmail 24543 invoked from network); 31 Aug 2007 16:32:45 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 31 Aug 2007 16:32:45 -0000 Received: (qmail 1282 invoked from network); 31 Aug 2007 16:32:42 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 31 Aug 2007 16:32:42 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 1970729 for CSE575-FA07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:32:42 -0400 Delivered-To: CSE575-FA07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Received: (qmail 9458 invoked from network); 31 Aug 2007 16:32:42 -0000 Received: from mailscan4.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.136) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 31 Aug 2007 16:32:42 -0000 Received: (qmail 5965 invoked by uid 60001); 31 Aug 2007 16:32:41 -0000 X-Mailer: University at Buffalo WebMail Cyrusoft SilkyMail v1.1.11 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Originating-IP: 128.205.234.239 X-UB-Relay: (internal) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <1188577961.46d842a9d542f@mail4.buffalo.edu> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:32:41 -0400 Reply-To: yjkang@BUFFALO.EDU Sender: Introduction to Cognitive Science From: "Youngjin 'Sung' Kang" Subject: From Youngjin 'Sung' Kang : Falsehood and lies of the past To: CSE575-FA07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1336; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.2 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.1.8 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.8 (2007-02-13) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.90.2/4110/Thu Aug 30 19:49:40 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 2167 "Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself." — Chinese Proverb "Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire" — William Butler Yeats - From The syllabus of Dr.William J. Rapaport for his cognitive science class in UB -------------------------------------- After the class of 'Culture and History' in Anthropology Department, what pop up in my mind was the film called 'Memento'. It is an American film in early 2000. The man in the film only has one hour memory and he always write down everything he has experienced at his body. He read these notes at the body, construct and organize his past, and move forward in accordance with his interpretation about the past which is self-constructed. He ultimately drive himself into disastrous situation because of his complete mis-construction about his past. This film is very, very good reference of how we construct and interpret the past which can be memory, experience and even history. By the way, what I was trying to say at the class was that we had two ways of constructing the past. One is from evidences(not self experienced), the other is the memories(self experienced). You see, when you construct the past from the evidences, you can never lie, because what you have concluded never have undeniable proof for it to really has happened. So,it can be 'truth(real)' or 'falsehood' but 'not lie'. But when you construct the past from your memories, you can tell the 'truth(sincere)', otherwise it can be more 'lies' than 'falsehood', because 'being sincere' can be 'falsehood' and 'lies' can be 'real' under a self-confusion of memories, and 'being sincere' or 'not' more depend on your emotional intension of how to behave apart from its physical result. These are my personal analysis of two categories, one is 'real vs falsehood and the other is 'sincere vs lies', which belong to VERACITY of HISTORY. The former are presupposition for history but the latter not. The man in the film mis-constructs the past, and it is 'falsehood' but 'not lie', because he depends on merely evidences without his memories. Youngjin 'Sung' Kang Cultural Anthropology