what did Charlotte Perkins Gilman mean by saying this? “Two simple..

what did Charlotte Perkins Gilman mean by saying this? “Two simple..

what did Charlotte Perkins Gilman mean by saying this?

“Two simple laws of brain action are responsible for the difficulty of convincing the human race of any large general truths concerning itself. One is common to all brains, to all nerve sensations indeed . . . . It is this simple fact, in popular phrase,—that what we are used to we do not notice. This rests on the law of adaptation, the steady, ceaseless pressure that tends to fit the organism to the environment. A nerve touched for the first time with a certain impression feels this first impression far more than the hundredth or thousandth, though the thousandth be far more violent than the first. If an impression be constant and regular, we become utterly insensitive to it, and only respond under some special condition, as the ticking of a clock, the noise of running water or waves on the beach, even the clatter of railroad trains, grows imperceptible to those who hear it constantly. It is perfectly possible for an individual to become accustomed to the most disadvantageous conditions, and fail to notice them. It is equally possible for a race, a nation, a class, to become accustomed to most disadvantageous conditions, and fail to notice them.”

2.Gilman is making an argument about subjective experience. How might this apply to sociological research, in the sense that sociologists are often interested in people’s experiences?

3.Provide an example of something which you can relate to what is central to the excerpt and explain why it is an example of it