Personal values of other people are accessible. We can “see” the values of a person if we want to. As values affect actions, it is extremely important to know the value-system of a person.
In this video, I present 3 effective rules to know someone’s values.
This presentation is based on Edith Stein’s phenomenology of empathy.
Basing on Edith Stein’s understanding of it, I present a brief analysis of sympathy.
Misunderstanding breeds unnecessary hatred. To have proper understanding, putting yourself in the other’s shoes is indispensable. This is precisely what being empathic means.
We all want to become the best version of ourselves. In this video, I present a holistic approach to personality development.
Hello everyone!
I started a new YouTube channel.
I’m gonna stick with Edith Stein’s empathy as the topic. Then, I might widen the scope in the future.
I already uploaded three videos. Please watch, like, share and subscribe. Thanks! 🙂
I’m also gonna post my succeeding videos here on my blog.
Reflection is a special term in phenomenology. Edith Stein uses it to mean a “looking-at” the experience itself, especially of the experience of empathy.
The acts of the subject are considered experiences. Perceiving the laptop in front of me is an experience. Empathizing with my mother about the slowness of the internet connection is an experience. Reflection, itself, is an experience.
The act of reflection does not “go out,” unlike the other acts (e.g. outer perception and empathy). Rather, it looks at the subject’s experience of the object. So, when I “reflect,” in the phenomenological sense, I am focusing on my own experience at the moment. I go out from myself to look at my experience from a certain distance.
What is unique with reflection is that it captures the relationship of the subject and its lived experience. That is why when the subject reflects, it always shows the subject’s intimacy with the experience at the moment.
The Toulmin method is a tool for creating a good argument and analyzing other’s argument. We will know the connections the author makes to get to his or her point.
Through this deconstructing method, we will have a clearer picture of the author’s flow of argument.
This will be a good tool for my thesis.
The Toulmin method has, generally, six (6) elements.
The claim is what the author fights for. It is his or her stand or position on a subject matter. The grounds are the various data to support the claim. The warrant is the connection of the grounds to the claim. The backing is the support for the warrant. The qualifier puts certain limitations or conditions on the warrant. The rebuttal is a set of counter-data (i.e., which are against the author’s claim) that the author acknowledges to be valid.
I claim that all people are inherently good. My ground is that people help each other in times of crisis. My warrant is that being helpful is a trait of goodness. My backing for the warrant is that helpfulness motivates other people to help others also.
Now, as a qualifier for my warrant, there may be circumstances where being helpful is undesirable. And a rebuttal for my claim could be that people are capable of evil actions, actions that are done deliberately with no remorse.
Pure acts are acts of the subject targeting objects of the real world. These acts are, precisely, the mediation between the subject and the object world.
After a few days of reading On the Problem of Empathy, I finally came up with a matrix showing the targets of some pure acts, categorizing them into two (2): the “I” and the other.
What is shown below is that the acts (the ones in the rows) can or cannot access certain parts of the individual (the ones in the columns).
Outer perception can access the physical body of the self, and also the physical and living body of the other. Bodily perception can access both physical and living body of the self. Inner perception can only access one’s own psyche. Empathy, which is a sui generis form of perception, can access the psyche of the other.
An insight that I get from this is that the subject, which is a psycho-physical individual, has itself acts which may be of help in getting a clearer picture of itself and of the other individual.
Due to the worldwide outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, I am one with those who believe that it is prudent for workers to be at home for safety. All may continue working, but at home. Kudos to those companies who support the “work from home” policy.
Let us continue to hope and pray that our scientists and doctors, with the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO), will be able to contain the virus contagion and develop a cure or vaccine as soon as possible.
Where I work, the school implemented a “work from home” policy just a few days ago. It was forced to do so due to a directive from the city government to all schools because the country has rising cases of COVID-19. As to now, where I live, there is a province-wide community quarantine to prevent further transmission of the virus SARS-CoV-2.
Since I would be working from home, I decided to use Google Classroom for my classes. It is an option encouraged by the school. All classes would be online-based. So far, so good, but with issues here and there. Issues are to be expected, of course, given that I was not trained for online teaching, and so were the students. I am still learning as to what really works. Some students like the new online-based classes, but some do not.
As expected, some students are complaining about the new setup of the school. They are voicing out their opinion on social media. They point out the difficulty of online-based classes, and also of the limited availability of the internet access.
But I told some of them that classes need to continue, and the teachers, together with the school, are doing their best to have a good transition from face-to-face class setting to online-based class setting. It is not as if we all want this to happen. We are just forced to work some things out given the disease outbreak.
I think that all of my online classes are well set. I utilize calendar blocking for class preparation. And so far, the new setup has not adversely affected my thesis reading and writing.
May all those tasked in developing the cure be given wisdom.
May all the doctors, nurses, and the medical staff be given a healing hand.
May all people cooperate for safety and security.
May all those infected with the virus have a strong will to live.
May all those who are not infected keep themselves safe.
May God bless us all!
St. Edith Stein, pray for us.
It’s better late than never!
Since last week, I have been implementing calendar blocking, so as to maximize the studying time I have each day. I was inspired to get my life in order and finish my master’s (Jordan Peterson, you rock!). I researched about time management techniques on YouTube, until I clicked on some block scheduling (or calendar blocking) videos.
Yeah, I know. I know. It’s common sense. I should have done this eons ago. But, hey, I’m not perfect and like most people, I’m the kind of person that needs push and inspiration to do certain tasks. So, again, better late than never. And it’s not like this is my first time implementing time management techniques.
The great thing about calendar blocking is the ability to block out times for certain themes. Instead of scheduling a multitude of tasks, for example, they will just be combined into a single category, then I block out a time for it.
Now, to the fun part.
What I did was to block out some portions of my time each day. As you can see from the photo, I implemented a morning block. The time starts when my alarm rings. It is when I do my morning prayer (meditation), have a breakfast, and do other menial things.
At 8:00 am, on Mondays to Saturdays, I go to my room and immerse myself for my thesis. I call it Master’s Thesis block. It is all about my thesis (reading, writing, researching, etc.). All in all, I allotted four and a half hours to five and a half hours each day (Mondays to Fridays) for my thesis. On Saturdays, I allotted only two hours for it.
I also have block times for class preparation, spiritual reading and general reading. Break times, which I named Enjoy!, are also included, of course.
I designed my block schedule to be uniform as much as possible. On Sundays, because of teaching work, my blocks are obviously different. Scheduling for it is primarily subject-based.
I hope that I will be faithful in following the schedule I set for myself. My block schedule is still a work in progress, as I try to experiment on the best block times and themes.
P.S. I also applied other time management techniques. The Pomodoro technique and the Eisenhower Matrix come to mind.
Empathy 