“WHEN THE ONLY TOOL YOU HAVE IS A HAMMER, ALL PROBLEMS BEGIN TO RESEMBLE NAILS” 

I may be misinterpreting this quote, but I think it means that we as humans have so many tools and don't utilize all of them. We only use one tool for all purposes, and that we overly rely on the one single tool we may have. When we use the hammer to solve problems, we will continuously use the hammer and treat every single problem like nails. In the situation of the theory of knowledge, this means that we may be relying on one certain way of knowing too much, using that way of knowing for all our pursuits of knowledge. We have so many ways of knowing and areas of knowledge to utilize. We could use a combination of intuition and reason together to solve a problem rather than always using just one. A person needs a balance of all the ways of knowing and areas of knowledge to be a well-rounded and level headed person. 

"THERE ARE ONLY TWO WAYS IN WHICH HUMANKIND CAN PRODUCE KNOWLEDGE: THROUGH PASSIVE OBSERVATION OR THROUGH ACTIVE EXPERIMENT." TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT?

We discussed this in class quite a bit. We came up with the conclusion that almost everything fits under the category of experiment of observation. If one were to take an area of knowledge such as history, one observes history and passes it down so people of the world learn from it. In math, people experimented with theorems and now others observe them and learn from them. Creation comes from experiment and more people learn from the creation or observe it. The question of emotion and intuition came up as a way that humans gain knowledge. I believe that emotion come from observing others and watching how people react to certain situations. Although both emotion and intuition are more personal to the individual, the individual learns to develop their own intuition and emotion through observing others. In conclusion, I do agree with the statement and believe that it can be stretched to apply to a lot of areas of knowing and ways of knowledge.  

DO WE GENERALLY USE REASON OR EMOTION TO MAKE ETHICAL DECISIONS? WHICH ONE SHOULD WE USE?

In my opinion, we make ethical decisions based on our emotion more so than our reasoning. The definition of ethics is moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior. Reason is more based on knowledge and facts. Ethics is more subjective depending on the person you are talking to. The presentation on Thursday talked about if animals have rights. All the people that abused animals like dog fights did it based on emotion "because it was fun and made them feel good". They had no real reasoning or facts behind why they did it, but it was just for pure enjoyment. We also save and care for animals because we feel emotional about a creature being hurt or abused. When we make ethical decisions I think we should mostly use emotion but a bit of reason couldn't hurt because sometimes emotions can skew our perception of things so a balance of both is always necessary.   

IS EDUCATION A RIGHT OR A PRIVILEGE?

While education may not be a "fundamental right" under the Constitution, the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment requires that when a state establishes a public school system, no child living in that sate may be denied equal access to schooling. So what about college? Well from the movie "The Ivory Tower" and our discussion it seems like making college free wouldn't be the best option due to the surplus in workers and decrease in workers' positions. I believe that education can still be a right if you pay for it but it doesn't have to cost as much as it does today. The cost for luxury in the facilities must be dropped and students should only have to pay for their education and livable or mediocre living conditions. We also need to strengthen public elementary to high school education so everyone has a shot to get into college. the gap between education in for example South Carolina compared to Virginia is huge. Kids will be left behind in that case when they get to college. The solution is to give everyone equal opportunity to high school and see what they do with the opportunity in college.