The immediate context includes the title, “Necessary Edges: Art, Empathy and Education”, which was written by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. It was published in January 2014 in the World Post. Before Yo-Yo Ma begins his work, there is a short biography about him and the World Post. I noticed that the bio included some of Yo-Yo Ma’s extensive accomplishments and awards, which gave the audience an idea of whose work we wold be reading. It also mentioned his degrees from…
PART 1 Quote 1: “At the beginning of the piece, he wrote, “this is often what EA comes down to: working hard to earn money and then giving as much of it as you can to the needy”.” I believe I could analyze this quote more effectively. Using one of They Say/I Say’s templates for explaining quotes, I could say something along the lines of “In other words, Effective Altruism is centered around money and donating to charity.” and then…
BEFORE: In Rhys Southan’s “Is Art a Waste of Time?”, EA was introduced and it was clear from the start that EA members do view art as a waste of time. Southan explained EA’s shallow pond analogy, which stated “Suppose you saw a child drowning in a pond: would you jump in and rescue her, even if you hadn’t pushed her in? Even if it meant ruining your clothes?…Any break we take from working to reduce suffering throughout the world is…
I’ve had a good experience with peer reviewing in this class so far. I think that giving my peers comments has allowed me to become a more critical thinker. Reading through a paper looking for ways it can be improved and strengthened has helped me be a more thoughtful reader. It has also helped me get better insight into what I can fix in my own work. For example, something I know I need to work on in my papers…
One comment I made on a peer’s paper was that I thought they could make their arguments and thesis more clear. Having a clear thesis is definitely one of the most important parts of a paper, and without it, the paper is wishy-washy and a little confusing. This comment was under the “ideas” category because it had to do with the ideas the author brought up. Another comment I made on two papers was that I thought my peers could…
I thought that reading my classmates’ introductory paragraphs gave me a new prospective on my own essay. For the paragraph that I complimented, I liked that she started her work with a quote from Southan’s “Is Art a Waste of Time?” because I thought it was a good representation of Effective Altruism’s views on art. On the other hand, for the paragraph I critiqued, I thought that comparing art to English or math was interesting, but that my classmate could…
I chose to watch the Ted Talk by the conductor Benjamin Zander. As a musician, I agree with and appreciate many points he made during the talk. At the beginning of his talk, Zander imitated children of different ages playing the same piece of music. He then went on to play a famous piano piece by Chopin to introduce his point that it’s the musician’s fault that the audiences are “falling asleep” during classical music. He asked the audience to…
My second reading of Southan’s piece “Is Art a Waste of Time?” enhanced my understanding of the writing and the meaning behind it. While I wasn’t sure I agreed with some of the passage the first time I read it, I now strongly disagree with multiple claims Southan made about EA. I really picked up on how radically EA members believe that art is indeed a waste of time. On the first page, Southan wrote “The idea that someone’s book,…
