Spencer Lofthouse Chapter 3 Questions 1. Human beings are creatures of limited logic.

We cannot comprehend the totality of what happens around us so we need explanations for these phenomena. By saying that earthquakes occur because of tectonic plate movement we comfort ourselves that this massive event, entirely beyond our control, is in fact controlled by a law. The sciences focus on a limited understanding approach to explain the world around us; taking piece by piece until we achieve an understanding of the whole, as we see it. We do the same with people, attributing actions to culture, hormones, or ideologies. These ideas are the sum of what we believe about our existence. We rely on these ideas to make sense of a complex world. I do not believe there is an alternative to ideas because each person needs to be able to reduce the infinite complexity around them to a finite understanding. 2. The way I have come to believe what I believe is no different than any other person. Through my experiences with life I have come to accept different ideas than anyone else. I see the world as a conglomeration of different actions and reactions and null-actions than anybody else because I have been in a different place, literally and figuratively, than others. However, it is not enough to base ideas off what we have seen and felt, but we must reason. In this way I have gathered others ideas along with my own. Because I am able to see the validity of what was experienced by others I can accept that as part of what I believe. These thoughts, opinions, ideas, and truths are all subject to change, of course if anything that makes more sense based upon my experience is presented to challenge them. 3. Like a man standing on a hilltop and speaking to a man in a valley, perspectives dictate what we take from the world. The man on the hill sees much farther than the man in the valley and perhaps is able to comprehend more of the world; however, this same perspective and glorious view is likely to blind this man to what is immediately around him on the same hilltop. Different peoples a43