After yesterday's class I began to think about how both knowledge and action played a role in my life.  More importantly, I began to consider how the combination of knowledge and action played a role in my life.  Advaita and Mīmāṃsā agree that, "Action and cognition cannot in themselves change the other" (Ram-Prasad 105).  I disagree because I believe that not only do they have the ability to change the other, but that this ability is actually incredibly beneficial in understanding and perfecting a concept.

I played four years of varsity soccer in high school.  I was a defender, and every single year for the first two weeks of preseason, our coach made us learn, review, and review again, the fundamentals of defense.  By the end of the two weeks, every defender knew every little thing about how to operate the defense, but this information only goes so far.  In our first scrimmage, the opposing team scored an early goal because one of the freshman defenders didn't cover for the first defender on a counter attack.  The freshman knew that he should have covered for the defender, so why didn't he?  Because this was his first varsity game, and he needed some prior experience before feeling comfortable with this type of defense.  This is how I view the relationship between action and cognition.  Cognition is important, but if you lack the ability to apply this knowledge, it's worthless.  Knowledge is only beneficial if action performed correctly.  I agree that knowing how to play defense is different than playing defense, but only when the knowledge of defense is combined with the action of defense, can the concept of defense be correctly applied.  There are hundreds of examples in my life where action without knowledge, and knowledge without action is useless, and only until I utilize both I am effective in performing the task.  I do believe that action and cognition are intrinsically able to change the content of the other, and that this interaction allows you to have more of a well-rounded grasp on a concept.