{"ops":[{"insert":"Podcast on concepts. While watching the video, please complete these activities:\n\nWrite out the organizing idea, or the primary organizing ideas, being conveyed in the video. \n\n−      A concept is “an idea of the mind”.\n\n−      Your concepts can be accurate and inaccurate/skewed or at least the meaning you attribute to them can be incomplete.\n\n−      You can access, reflect, critique your (and other’s) concepts. Sometimes this requires checking current understandings as with looking up a concept in a dictionary where other times it may be a concept not found in a dictionary where you need to check with others, including those with other perspectives, regarding their understanding of the concept. This reminds me of the book by Pip Williams “Dictionary of Lost Words” where the main character (Esme) grows up around the men who are drafting the first Oxford dictionary and realizes over time that decisions made regarding what words make it into the dictionary are biased by male perspectives in writing and history and that there are many commonly used “women’s words” that never make it in. I wonder if every word we use is itself a concept? The meaning of words depends on the context they are used and the perspectives of those using them.\n\n−      Simple versus complex concepts (ink pen versus democracy)\n\n−      Concepts are ubiquitous in that they are the ideas we use that influence our perceptions, interpretations/inferences, assumptions, conclusions; they underpin our lives and our thinking.\n\n−      Animals also have concepts, but I wonder if their concepts are less complicated by the multitude of influences to the shaping of human concepts, for example a dog’s love/affection/pleasure seems to be more simple, more unconditional?\n\n−      Concepts, like assumptions, can be taken for granted where they are unconsciously learned and used without critique (hence the need for critical reflection). It is difficult to recognize your own concept errors when they are based on non-critical habits of thinking. \n\n−      You can apply concept reflection to your own life by asking “What are the concepts driving my behaviour?”\n\n−      Concepts only exist when they are identified (e.g. inferiority complex) however, I wonder if they are only categorized through labeling for some purpose when in fact they existed before this but probably called by some informal name (well evidenced in Dictionary of Lost Words).\n\n−      Me: Concepts also facilitate communication as with the alien who comes to earth and asks what a “chair” is. To answer this, we need to say a chair is something we sit on that usually has four legs, a seat and a back. However, there are other variations of these things we call chairs as some are designed to kneel on, etc. It is not efficient to say would you get me a thing to sit on with four legs, a seat and back etc., instead communication is facilitated by the concept “chair”.\n\nWrite out three insights you gained from viewing the video. In other words, how can you use the content in your own thinking and life?\n\n−      I have had a long-standing interest in concepts and clarifying how I use them when I write and speak. I have NOT applied this to critical reflection of my behaviours.\n\nWrite out three questions you have as a result of viewing the video. These questions can be focused on clarifying the theory or applying it.\n\n1.    Is every word we use itself a concept?\n\n2.    Are animal concepts simpler being uncomplicated by the endless influences humans have on their concepts?\n\n3.    Should we be more critical of the formation / definitions adopted of concepts, including those that appear in dictionaries? While they may be accepted by some pre-defined criteria, who determined those criteria? Definitions still represent a particular perspective and some meanings may not be captured.\n \n"}]}