Rationality, Perfectibility, and Mutability Premise

 I do believe in the rationality, perfectibility, and mutability premises, but only to a certain extent.  I think that they are a major part of who we are and how we got this way but I still think others are more important. But for the rationality part I think people do use that, but it's not an answer to everything. Things can be found out using common sense, past experiences, and some of us don't think when making decisions. Yeah there's times when we think deeply about all the logic that goes into what were doing or trying to figure out, but I don't think it's one of our top premises. The next one is perfectibility, I do believe in this one. Except for the god given talent they are given when their born, making them an expert in certain areas where they just simply don't need practice or effort to achieve. Lastly, is mutability. Mutability is the one that I agree with most. I agree with this because we do everything we hear and see around us. What our peers taught us in and out of school. This is the most crucial one out of all theses because we learn new things everyday and it's just part of our nature to adapt to all of our surroundings everyday.

"Creatures of our Culture"

I do agree with Benedict's "creatures of our culture" our shaped by our culture. Think about how you grew up. Your parents taught you everything they know, corrected what they did wrong, and learned new things themselves while trying to force the good habits on you. Whether you are Hispanic, English, Dominican, etc; you take in everything you see around you, no matter where you're from. If you go and visit Mexico or Italy it is nearly impossible to go there and only use what you know in your culture, therefore you adapt to the languages and visual aids you see and hear in order to get by. Think of it as a exchange student who is staying at your house for a month: They come in with only their knowledge from where they are from along with maybe a tiny bit of the American culture as well. But they eat our foods, try and communicate with our language, act as we are acting and follow in our footsteps. And we would do the same if we went somewhere outside the U.S.

Nonverbal Messages

Because nonverbal messages can be ambiguous, they are open to misinterpretation.  Have you ever been wrong about the meaning of someones nonverbal message?  Describe what happened.  How can people increase the accuracy with which they interpret nonverbal messages?


I in fact have been guilty of misinterpreting someone's non verbal message. It turns out I met a girl working out and her parents help out with their county fair. So she was going to be there both of the days during the weekend. She ended up having to leave so I didn't get a chance to tell her I wanted to go to the fair one of the days and spend the day with her. It was a beautiful day out that day so I wrote a little note about when we would meet up and stuck it under her windshield wiper. Also leaving my name and number on it so she could call me. She never did call me or text, so I gave her a non interesting look the next few times I saw her at the gym but still said hello. It was just a few days past the fair and I saw her and we got a chance to talk for a good 15 minutes or so. And it turns out, she does have a boyfriend and I didn't know that. So that was one reason why she didn't contact me. Which I can understand.


I think people could just not assume things right off the bat. Maybe they can wait it out for a little while and not jump to conclusions. I mean there is not much more they can really do except not to respond until you get an answer from the other person.