Monthly Archives: March 2015

Prompt #2: My research topic and the self

Research Project: Extended Mind and Self It took me quite a while to determine my project topic, though it now still seems a little broad. I was fascinated with Alva Noe’s thesis that our mind (probably our self as well) … Continue reading

Posted in Mind and Brain, Noë, Research topics | 2 Comments

There Was This Goat.

A disturbing period of racism in our times, coterminous to slavery, Apartheid in South Africa was another way to reject and humiliate part of the human race because of colour. Apartheid has been dissolved for a few decades still it … Continue reading

Posted in Assignments, Mind and Brain, Narrative, Social Relations | 4 Comments

There was this Goat: to Understand and Live with Mrs. Konile

1. When I read Mrs. Konile’s testimony before TRC, it reminded me of Cassandra in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, who prophesies her and Agamemnon’s death in a language full of broken flashes and metaphors to an extent that the chorus she is … Continue reading

Posted in Krog, Narrative | 5 Comments

Paradox in There was this Goat

After reading a few pages of this text, I thought the authors must have titled the book “There Was This Goat” because of the phrase’s randomness. I thought it indicated the unknowability of Mrs. Konile’s story. On page 47, however, … Continue reading

Posted in Narrative | 1 Comment

The social self and the political self

It’s fitting for us to have read There Was This Goat immediately after Social. If Lieberman’s book is about the neuroscientific foundations of our social selves, then Krog, Mpolweni and Ratele’s book is about the formation/reformation of a particular kind … Continue reading

Posted in Mpolweni & Ratele, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

There was this Goat

This book emphasizes what I believe to be an immeasurably important aspect of the self, the mind and psychology, which is context. To what extent the environment shapes us is still argued and attempts are made everyday to understand the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

There was this goat

For me, this was the best book I have read all semester. It was particularly poignant because I have two “daughters” in Nairobi Kenya who refer to my wife and myself as “mum and dad”, and through this book I … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Discussion Questions: There was this Goat

First of all, I could not help but compare the book with my own experience as a former journalist and how the mundane job of transcribing and translating could, in this book, become the central task out of which an … Continue reading

Posted in Discussion Questions, Narrative | Comments Off on Discussion Questions: There was this Goat

Prompt 2

(First, I am sorry to be late and to only be posting in response to prompts 2 and 3.) My project is a video exploration my own selfhood vis-a-vis my body, my mental illness, my sexuality. Using the frame of Viegener’s … Continue reading

Posted in matias viegener, Media, Mind and Brain, Phenomenology, Research topics | 2 Comments

Prompt 3

I don’t know if I have missed any previous posts, but it doesn’t appear that there are any projects that resemble mine…I hope that the project is within the scope of the course. With this, I must bid you all … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments