Post Zero: Faris

Hello, I'm Faris Chebib, a Cognitive Science student at Simon Fraser
University (SFU). I transfered to SFU's cognitive science
program from the University of Utah in the fall of 2008, and have been an active
member of the program ever since. This is my last year in the program, and is
also my honours year — for the next two semesters, I intend on appyling the
various principles of cognitive psychology, philosphy, and linguistics in order
to better the learning environment of post-secondary environments.

Education is just one of the many disicplines which cognitive science can be
readily applied to. When considering the many things which one can study in
university, I like to think that principles of philosophy and cognitive science
can supplement any of them. I've held this view long before SFU. I remember
how a professor at the University of Utah described the value of these studies
to us, he said that student should consider their philosophy degrees as
"frosting" and their other course of study as the "cake". Taking this to heart,
I personally declared a double-major in Philosophy and Biology. As a result, I
can safely say that I learned more about both subjects than if I had taken
either of them on their own.

In the course of my biology studies, I stumbled upon the stunning simplicity of
neurons. Even as the facts were written out before me in lecture notes and
textbooks, I still kept getting more and more questions — how can a cluster of
such seemingly simple cells be responsible for every thought, word, and action
rendered by the beings who possess them? I started reading more and more into
the philosophies of language, but was left further stupified and in continuous
amazement.

If philosophy is the frosting, then I had found my cake (I always like to go
meta when I can). Cognitive Science, this inter-disciplinary study of the mind,
had captured the thoughts of yet another student. It is with this curiousity that I make my journey from Vancouver to Portland. As I write this, I am on a train bearing south to Portland. Each bumpy rattle is another mark of experience colouring my perception. Each uncertain step the passengers around me make is another second closer to a convention of the mind and of the Minds. A day which started before the sun made its presence known, foggy with the haze of sleepiness and Vancouver storm-clouds, now explodes unto the beautiful Oregon scenery.

My future posts will document my Portland adventures; stay tuned!