Assignment: Research the reading’s keyword “handle” in any of the New School’s encyclopedias or databases. Then, gather your interesting findings into a LP post and write a NEW paragraph for Benfey that could be inserted into his essay, “Wittgenstein’s Handles.”
Lily Rabinow considers the significance of handles through the control it gives the user. In order to carry out our everyday lives, we must utilize tools which usually consist of handles that allow for the function to be carried out. Through the handle of a tool, they are able to manipulate the functional end.1 She focuses her research on spoons and how effectively babies are able to feed themselves using the handle to transport the food from plate to mouth. Ultimately, the handle and how its shaped and made, affect how the function of the item is carried out. “A rigid handle, for instance, affords grasping with one hand for effective hand-to-mouth transport, while a flexible handle is more likely to require grasping with two hands for effective transport.”2 Age is also a factor in the efficiency of the action being carried out. Additionally, motor behavior adapts to the object, specifically the handle, as the movement and action is repeated. In order to carry out our everyday lives, we must utilize tools which usually consist of handles that allow for the function to be carried out
- Lily Rabinow, Infants Use of Handles to Control Spoons, (Michigan, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2014), 2.
- Ibid., 12
Bibliography
Rabinow, Lily. Infants Use of Handles to Control Spoons. Michigan: ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2014.
Reflection:
This was my first time using the New School’s databases so in my search for new definitions of the word “handle,” I figured out how to navigate the online resources and use them effectively. There were many options to specify and narrow down my research and many different things popped up, so I will definitely be using these for my future assignments.
