Summary Of Arrival By Nathan Vedal
In the article, “Aliens, Neo-Confucians, and the Power of Language”, the author, Nathan Vedal, utilizes the film “Arrival” to introduce the controversial idea proposed by the Neo-Confucian scholars of the Ming Dynasty who were attempting to transcribe Confucian teachings from before 5th century B.C.E. This idea consists of the belief that decoding an unfamiliar writing system can teach new ways of seeing the world. Although I do not necessarily believe in this idea, I find the study itself interesting as I have recently learned about the Confucian religion. According to the article, Neo-Confucian scholars of the Ming Dynasty thought that by transcribing the Confucian teachings from before the 5th century B.C.E. one could see the world from the writers’ point of view. One particularly prominent scholar by the name of Wei Jiao preached a particular approach to this belief that gained quite a strong following. According to the article he once said that, “the ancient script apprehended before me that which is common in my mind with everyone else’s”; which is to say that by analyzing the composition of the ancient characters from the ancient
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Confucian writings, Wei thought that one could understand the “methods of the minds of the ancients”, so to speak.
In one of his examples, he declared that when looking at the character that stood for the word obtain, one could see it as a combination of either the character for “hand” and the character for “to see” or the character for “hand” and
the character for “shell”. According to Wei Jiao, whichever way one decided to interpret this ancient character affected one’s view on the moral message that the ancient sages had supposedly embedded in their writing. While this method may seem eccentric today, back in those days it was a very popular thought process and many dictionaries on the ancient Confucian text maintain the premises that the ancient writings conveyed ancient values that could be detected only by seeing the world through the writers’ point of view; by writing the way that they once did. Nowadays, this thought process is widely debated between scholars. For the most part however, Wei Jiao’s ideas are considered quite eccentric and do not have much backing behind them, but people might believe in them to a lesser extent. In the film “Arrival”, the idea that one’s mind view could be altered by the languages that one knows is addressed. Although it is a science fiction film and therefore is probably quite exaggerated some consider this idea to be plausible. I, for one, can see how learning to write in a different manner might shift one’s perspective but I do not believe that it would be a drastic shift. While it may be possible to alter your perspective so that you could “see through the eyes of another”, it would not result in “bringing us into different conceptual and behavioral realms”. Although, well I do not believe in this train of thought, I did quite like this article. I have recently been learning about the Confucian religion that the Neo Confucians were basing their ideas off of. What we had learned was that Confucianism was based on knowledge and wisdom to the point that even though it was a religion, it was less focused on a higher being and more focused on higher moral standards. So, learning that some Neo-Confucians were attempting to gain knowledge and wisdom by using this practice was intriguing to me. It seemed very fitting that they would try to absorb the moral lessons buried in the old Confucian writings as it was, more or less what the religion was based upon. So, while the Wei Jiao method was once considered popular and many people continued his writings, today it is largely considered too eccentric. I believe that while it is an intriguing idea, it is not likely. While it is possible to see things in someone else’s perspective, as indicated by the common saying that one should “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”, it would not shift one’s mental landscape. This idea has been considered for years, constantly debated, and even portrayed in science-fiction, however, most agree that it is more or less simply what the movies portray it as, science-fiction.
Confucian writings, Wei thought that one could understand the “methods of the minds of the ancients”, so to speak.
In one of his examples, he declared that when looking at the character that stood for the word obtain, one could see it as a combination of either the character for “hand” and the character for “to see” or the character for “hand” and
the character for “shell”. According to Wei Jiao, whichever way one decided to interpret this ancient character affected one’s view on the moral message that the ancient sages had supposedly embedded in their writing. While this method may seem eccentric today, back in those days it was a very popular thought process and many dictionaries on the ancient Confucian text maintain the premises that the ancient writings conveyed ancient values that could be detected only by seeing the world through the writers’ point of view; by writing the way that they once did. Nowadays, this thought process is widely debated between scholars. For the most part however, Wei Jiao’s ideas are considered quite eccentric and do not have much backing behind them, but people might believe in them to a lesser extent. In the film “Arrival”, the idea that one’s mind view could be altered by the languages that one knows is addressed. Although it is a science fiction film and therefore is probably quite exaggerated some consider this idea to be plausible. I, for one, can see how learning to write in a different manner might shift one’s perspective but I do not believe that it would be a drastic shift. While it may be possible to alter your perspective so that you could “see through the eyes of another”, it would not result in “bringing us into different conceptual and behavioral realms”. Although, well I do not believe in this train of thought, I did quite like this article. I have recently been learning about the Confucian religion that the Neo Confucians were basing their ideas off of. What we had learned was that Confucianism was based on knowledge and wisdom to the point that even though it was a religion, it was less focused on a higher being and more focused on higher moral standards. So, learning that some Neo-Confucians were attempting to gain knowledge and wisdom by using this practice was intriguing to me. It seemed very fitting that they would try to absorb the moral lessons buried in the old Confucian writings as it was, more or less what the religion was based upon. So, while the Wei Jiao method was once considered popular and many people continued his writings, today it is largely considered too eccentric. I believe that while it is an intriguing idea, it is not likely. While it is possible to see things in someone else’s perspective, as indicated by the common saying that one should “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”, it would not shift one’s mental landscape. This idea has been considered for years, constantly debated, and even portrayed in science-fiction, however, most agree that it is more or less simply what the movies portray it as, science-fiction.