Oliver Sacks, "The Mind's Eye" and:
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Jonathan Boyarin and Oliver Sacks
Both Boyarin, in "Waiting for a Jew: Marginal Redemption at the Eighth Street Shul", and Sacks, in The Mind's Eye: What the Blind See, act as observers attempting to make sense of alien worlds. While Sacks watches, as it were, from the outside, Boyarin often alternates between the roles of actor and spectator.
How does the status of the observer, with respect to the system under observation, affect the nature of observations made and what implications does this have for an observer attempting to understand him/herself?
Monika Krishan, Rutgers University, Fall 2005
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Jonathan Boyarin, Oliver Sacks, and Robert Thurman
Use Boyarin’s Waiting for a Jew: Marginal Redemption at the Eighth Street Shul by and Sacks’ The Mind's Eye: What the Blind See, to show how consistently excelling at a chosen endeavor, as opposed to being “average” at it, might prevent one from attaining the ideal of selflessness as described by Robert Thurman in Wisdom.
Things to think about:
How does being “average” make one feel?
What does being “average” at something prompt one to do?
What are the personal drawbacks of being skilled in one’s chosen profession or at any task, in general?
What are some of the positive outcomes of failure?
What does a novice have that an “expert” lacks?
What changes when one transforms into the other?
Can one choose to relinquish an ability?
Why is it hard for an “expert” to act otherwise?
What steps must you take to strengthen your less dominant hand?
Monika Krishan, Rutgers University, Fall 2005
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