My first term is over next week. Two papers to write by than. It is amazing how quickly the time has gone by. I do not feel as if I have really experienced England, which is entirely my fault. During the break I am going to Vienna to see my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. Two small cousins that I have not seen in a couple years. The older one, Adrian is apparently mischievous. The last time I saw him, about 5 years back, he was this blond headed blue eyed kid. I use to walk with him on my shoulders. It was fun he liked me. Every-time we talked on the phone after that he has always seemed in awe of me. The other one, Marius, was a baby when I last saw him. Sweet kid. My Aunt has always had a special place in her heart for me. She is my mother's sister and I was the first born. There seems to be something about the first born, and apparently I was a cute baby. The cuteness has worn off. She is an interesting woman, a pianist following in my grandfather's footsteps, who turned to medicine and now has given that up to work with computers. My uncle has been in medical school for about the last 15 years, its seems that almost every season he has to pass a new test. He wants to become a psychologist. Vienna is undoubtedly the place for it.
After Paris I think Vienna is my favorite city in Europe, considering how few cities I have been to that does not mean very much. Vienna has a certain air of majesty about it. Paris seems like an enchanted place, and London like a bookkeeper's paradise.
I will also be going to Brasov my hometown. It is a beautiful, beautiful city and I am proud to have been born there. It is a poor city with a history of industry that has disappeared in recent times. I will be seeing my grandmother there, not to mention the hordes of relatives whose names I don't remember. It sad, they are so proud of me and I don't even know their names, nor to be quite honest do I really care. Family has never been a big draw for me, an accident of birth. My grandmother is a very Christian Orthodox woman, like catholic but less groveling and more intellectual disparaging. She considers herself an intellectual and is very elitist in that way. Anyway it should be interesting if nothing else. I haven't shaved since I left the states should I should awe my cousins even more, hah.
I have been thinking about my next vacation. It will be in the spring. I think I am going to by a Euro rail pass and travel around Europe. I will probably buy the most expansive one and just go from place to place as the whim strikes. Its not something I would think myself doing, but it seems the thing to do. There are several places I want to go to and others places where I ought to go. I defiantly want to go to the big ones, ie. France, Italy, Spain, Amsterdam but there are also spots that I feel as if I need to visit. I think I should go to the Somme, and to Auschwitz. The gas-houses at Auschwitz are sinking in to the ground, and they will soon be gone.
When I was younger, in middle school, I wen through a Nazi period. I read so much about that time, all the secrete organizations, the SS, SA, SD, Gestapo, about Himmler, Heydrich, Mengele all of that shit. I was and remain mystified how something like that could have happened, what I would have done. I am the introspective sort, a complete narcissist so it is always about me. I asked myself could I have stood up, would I have done anything. I know the answer, I would have done nothing, look at what is happening in Darfur, what have I done? Thrown some money in a tin can, listened to some insipid speeches? What good? No I don't care, it is to far removed from my life. I remember a while back, long before the hip to care about Darfur, reading about this 13 year old girl that was raped an murdered by soldiers on her birthday. Anecdotal stories like that make you hurt, until you move on to the next horrible thing. In some ways there are simply too many things to care about that it seems wrong to care about anything too much. That is of course no excuse to remain paralyzed. It is so very hard to imagine other people's pain, as Elaine Scarry has eloquently pointed out, we cannot imagine what it means to live in that sort of environment. In principle we know that there is someplace out there that someone is suffering, but we see, distracted by something like the price of gas. To abstract from our immediate existence is almost impossible for some people. Not to mention that issues such as Darfur, are over there. How do we help? Throw some money in a tin? Its almost like carbon offsets, we purchase clarity of mind. Some how that seems too contrived, too easy. All the while another 13 year old girl gets raped....
I want to go the Somme because of what it represents. My thoughts on war revel some of my flagrant internal contradictions. Something like the Somme reveals the very worst of war, but something like the beginning of WWII demonstrates the very worst of fearing war. Violence is never the answer until it is the answer. I like the idea of non-violence, I really do. I think it is very effective in protesting governmental wrongs. I do not see how it would work against someone like Hitler. I do not see how it would work against someone intent on doing harm. It is a fine choice to make for yourself, but when you make the choice you are condemning people to suffer who shouldn't. I was against the war in Afghanistan, I was one of the few. I believe that in many instances diplomacy does work. But it is so very hard to relay on it when you have the ability fight. I do not want to be Chamberlain with the Treaty of Munich in my hand, but I do not W either. When do you determine when violence is correct? It seems absurd to say it is never correct, but when it is a possibility we turn to it too soon. When is it right to fight? What is worth fighting for? Some situations you are forced to fight because the other person is so intent on fighting. The ghetto in Warsaw should have rebelled. That situation is very clear cut to me. If ever any rebellion was justified that one was. But the Somme, how do you justify something like that? It is so absurdly silly to think of two groups of people pelting each others with billions of tons of metal. To what end? When is it right to fight? when every other option is exhausted. When is that? How do you know? How much are you willing to risk? I am willing to say that I do not want to fight ever, but when I make that choice do I not condemn others to the same fate? If I were in the Warsaw ghetto would I have found a spot an lit myself on fire? No, would I have fought? I hope the answer to that is yes. Nonviolence requires more courage than violence, but you too often condemn others to a fate of your choosing. As the incomparable Churchill, or perhaps Burke said (and various others) "All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." But we should be careful to judge to quickly, but again we need to act, now.
I have this friend that went to Settle for a year to dig himself out of a ditch. He went there hoping that it would revitalize him. I maintained that he would simple bring the ditch with him. A year later he was back. We had a falling out (over my emotional inadequacies or something). The other day I noticed he go engaged, to this girl that he has been dating for less than a year. She is a singer whit hopes of becoming a librarian. Lives in Albany. He moved there from New Platz. It seems strange to decide to spend the rest of your life with some one so very quickly. But than again he was always very romantic, and Catholic. It is nice to see him engaged. I know that he will do well for himself, he is a very smart guy.
I have been thinking about my graduate school today. I think I will finish my undergraduate having taken more philosophy classes than most people. This year, in which I am taking nothing but philosophy classes, will not count towards my major allowing me to take up to 8 philosophy classes when I return to my school. Yet, I do not feel as if I know anywhere near enough to begin teaching in the next couple years. I will probably spend the next 10 years of my life in graduate programs trying to learn enough to be able to marginalize myself. I will undoubtedly end up teaching philosophy at some mediocre school. Is that what I really want out of life, to become self absorbed via philosophy? Philosophy is both a curse and a blessing. I love it, but it will ruin my life.
If you have not yet seen The Darjeeling Limited I highly recommend it. The film is life many other Wes Anderson films but what is very striking here, even more so than in the Life Aquatic is the colors. The colors are simply stunning. I there are films I love which are devoid of color i.g. most Bergman, Godard, and Kurosawa films but I love some films that simply radiate color. I love the scene in Vover when Penélope is mopping up the blood with that brightly colored mop in her kitsch kitchen. That is simply amazing. Or the scenes in Cinema Paradiso or the sky scene in Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding. The films could be shit (they aren't) and the color alone would prove their salvation. Besides I have always love India, there is a certain je ne sais quoi about it. Perhaps I just prefer it to China.
There are fireworks going off outside my window... it is strange... I don't think there are any British holidays this time of year. I wen to a market today with my room mate. They may have fired off fire works, but they are not coming from that direction.
So, what else..? I want to write something more but I I do not know what you might find interesting...
Ha, so it was thanksgiving.. pffft. Holidays defiantly under the category of things I do not understand about the human race. First there is the whole family element to it all, then there is the celebration of a non event. Thanksgiving never reall happened the way we remember it. Holidays such as this are never about what they are really about what they are about. Its a shame we need special days to remind us to care about such obscure things as each other, but such is the case with the human race. It is truly a shame.
I still have this bottle of absinth, about two thirds of it to be exact. I have decided to try to see if it still has some potency after they removed all the wormwood. So far nothing. I am increasingly drunk but it is a regular drunk nothing special. I am not a big fan of drugs, besides caffeine, alcohol and nicotine(no longer!). Its just that I feel as if it is something I should do, absinth that is. An absolute let down. I am going to see some short films later tonight, I guess now I really nothing to write about...
I have been listing to this song almost non stop since I saw the The Darjeeling Limited
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
little boxes
Some of my books came today. My dad sent me my symbolic logic book, the rest of my Wittgenstein, Being and Nothingness, and Jon Rawl's Theory of Justice. I doubt I will read them, besides the sybmo I am thinking of taking a class in that, I think it would be fun, i really like doing logic, something that demonstrates that there is a surprising amount of creativity allowed within a narrow set of rules. To be perfectly honest my books did not come today, seeing as it is Sunday and the UK is a union town. It probably came one Friday, but I was not here to receive them.
The program that is organizing this whole study abroad experience sponsored a weekend in London where they fed us and too us on a boat tour. So I left on the rail Friday mid day and didn't do very much, actually we went to a couple bars and we met this very interesting guy from South Africa/Ethiopia. He had studied in the UK, the US, Sweden, and Mexico. And for about a half hour he just went on and on telling us how much he wished to be back in school and how much he missed it. He worked as a recruiter for some IT company, and judging from the neighborhood, how he was dressed, and the tax he paid on his apartment (£600) he has done very well from his self. But the one thing he seemed to miss the most was freedom. Whichever way you want to look at it we, or rather I, as a student have so much freedom. Sure I have much less freedom in some ways than others because of certain financial situations. But I have the freedom to get up and leave. I have not become settled into a life not yet.
I spend most of the day saturday with 35mm camera in hand taking pics for the family. My roommate said he would take the film back to the states and mail it to my family, no point in wasting money here. The boat trip was a bit of a waste of time. Seeing the Thames at night was nice, but the boat was crowded an there was only one deck outside. I spend most of my time there... smoking. I've decided to quite that, yellow was never my favorite color. Unless of course, its a Van Gogh yellow. I saw some Van Gogh in the National Gallery, I just quickly walked through. The more I think of it the less I like museums as a form for presenting art. Once you make an institution of something like art you sap all its power, it becomes something lifeless and dead.
I was too cheap spend £4 on a tube ticket this morning so I walked the 2 miles or so to Paddigton station. I would say it was a nice walk but, most of the walk was through a very residential area, and affluent residential area. London is unlike New York in that regard, affluence and whatever the opposite of non-affluence would be, are not mixed. London is a very expansive city and it lacks the tall residential areas that in many ways define New York. There are places like that but they are shoved on the outskirts of the city hidden from the prying eyes of tourists. Paris is like that as well. Looking at a map of PAris in is amazing to see the growth of the city in the last 50 years compared to all the centuries before that. But one rarely things of anything new relating to Paris, besides the Center Pompidou, and the Eiffel Tower. But those were both very controversial.
I have always liked trains. One of my earliest memories is of ridding on the train to Vienna to visit my Aunt, and the trolly going to preschool. There is a certain majesty in trains that is lacking in every-other form of transportation. The train seems to have more power, more presence more nobility. Something about adhering to certain laws. Niestzche would certainly make fun of my preference for self tyranny. I abhor the idea of absolute freedom. I see no value in a thing which hurts others. Perhaps I am weak, so be it. This idea of freedom as unconstrained will is ridiculous. What you do or do not do has an amazing echo, and it should not be something that destroys. Littering has always annoyed me. I do not understand why someone would be so careless as to simply drop something on the street. They are not thinking of the person that has to pick that up. We do not think of the long term influence of our actions. But that again if we were to thing of the impact of our actions we would be petrified to do anything.
On the train we passed many different kinds of neighborhoods. I remember looking at one set of houses with their own couple feet of fenced in back yard and seeing how they were all very different. Some had paved their backyard, others had trash, others had a trampoline, others a small flower garden. The outside looked all the same, but inside in this fenced in backyard each house was unique. I never understood the obsession with symmetry, with neat rows of houses all bunches up together like little boxes. Yet, perhaps I have been to often too quick to judge. Everyone wants to maintain the same front, but in their backyard where they really matter they have a very different idea of what they want. Nobody wants to be ordinary, not really (this generalization may not be fair but..). Laws that seem constraining often allow for the greatest freedom to be shared by all. Certain things have to be certain, to abide to laws to allow others to flourish. I do not think we should have the laws dictated to us, but they should come from within us. When we act we know what we should do and if we were to think about are actions a little more we would begin to better understand the power that actions have.
The program that is organizing this whole study abroad experience sponsored a weekend in London where they fed us and too us on a boat tour. So I left on the rail Friday mid day and didn't do very much, actually we went to a couple bars and we met this very interesting guy from South Africa/Ethiopia. He had studied in the UK, the US, Sweden, and Mexico. And for about a half hour he just went on and on telling us how much he wished to be back in school and how much he missed it. He worked as a recruiter for some IT company, and judging from the neighborhood, how he was dressed, and the tax he paid on his apartment (£600) he has done very well from his self. But the one thing he seemed to miss the most was freedom. Whichever way you want to look at it we, or rather I, as a student have so much freedom. Sure I have much less freedom in some ways than others because of certain financial situations. But I have the freedom to get up and leave. I have not become settled into a life not yet.
I spend most of the day saturday with 35mm camera in hand taking pics for the family. My roommate said he would take the film back to the states and mail it to my family, no point in wasting money here. The boat trip was a bit of a waste of time. Seeing the Thames at night was nice, but the boat was crowded an there was only one deck outside. I spend most of my time there... smoking. I've decided to quite that, yellow was never my favorite color. Unless of course, its a Van Gogh yellow. I saw some Van Gogh in the National Gallery, I just quickly walked through. The more I think of it the less I like museums as a form for presenting art. Once you make an institution of something like art you sap all its power, it becomes something lifeless and dead.
I was too cheap spend £4 on a tube ticket this morning so I walked the 2 miles or so to Paddigton station. I would say it was a nice walk but, most of the walk was through a very residential area, and affluent residential area. London is unlike New York in that regard, affluence and whatever the opposite of non-affluence would be, are not mixed. London is a very expansive city and it lacks the tall residential areas that in many ways define New York. There are places like that but they are shoved on the outskirts of the city hidden from the prying eyes of tourists. Paris is like that as well. Looking at a map of PAris in is amazing to see the growth of the city in the last 50 years compared to all the centuries before that. But one rarely things of anything new relating to Paris, besides the Center Pompidou, and the Eiffel Tower. But those were both very controversial.
I have always liked trains. One of my earliest memories is of ridding on the train to Vienna to visit my Aunt, and the trolly going to preschool. There is a certain majesty in trains that is lacking in every-other form of transportation. The train seems to have more power, more presence more nobility. Something about adhering to certain laws. Niestzche would certainly make fun of my preference for self tyranny. I abhor the idea of absolute freedom. I see no value in a thing which hurts others. Perhaps I am weak, so be it. This idea of freedom as unconstrained will is ridiculous. What you do or do not do has an amazing echo, and it should not be something that destroys. Littering has always annoyed me. I do not understand why someone would be so careless as to simply drop something on the street. They are not thinking of the person that has to pick that up. We do not think of the long term influence of our actions. But that again if we were to thing of the impact of our actions we would be petrified to do anything.
On the train we passed many different kinds of neighborhoods. I remember looking at one set of houses with their own couple feet of fenced in back yard and seeing how they were all very different. Some had paved their backyard, others had trash, others had a trampoline, others a small flower garden. The outside looked all the same, but inside in this fenced in backyard each house was unique. I never understood the obsession with symmetry, with neat rows of houses all bunches up together like little boxes. Yet, perhaps I have been to often too quick to judge. Everyone wants to maintain the same front, but in their backyard where they really matter they have a very different idea of what they want. Nobody wants to be ordinary, not really (this generalization may not be fair but..). Laws that seem constraining often allow for the greatest freedom to be shared by all. Certain things have to be certain, to abide to laws to allow others to flourish. I do not think we should have the laws dictated to us, but they should come from within us. When we act we know what we should do and if we were to think about are actions a little more we would begin to better understand the power that actions have.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Il Troubadour
I wonder, if anybody ever took love seriously enough to die for it. Or rather I am talking about Love, not the plain love. Love the thing which has metaphysical properties, somethings intermingled with the concept of purity, chastity, respect, and duty. Isn't that the Love found in operas about 15th century baronesses. Love that can be lost, gained or transfered at a moment's notice. That love is certainly the love that the bible describes, especially in that standard wedding reading, 2nd Corinthians 13, I believe. The Love in this opera was much more like a possession. They seemed to be saying put your will in me, property in Hegelian terms. Isn't that what Love is? Mutual self sacrifice for mutual benefit, never mind the companionship bit. The idea of complete and utter devotion, to one and only one thing, one person. Seems somewhat silly, no wonder Love doesn't mean anything. Especially when such great Loves are lost from one moment to the next.
Theater was ok, the staircase smelled like piss. There seems to be a British custom to sell sherbet at shows. Than the customers are required to leave the containers in strange places. A sort of hide and seek for the clean-up gang.
Operas would sound horrible in any other language, besides Carmen in french... and Carmina Burana in whatever language that is. The lyrics leave a lot to be desired.
Well off to the paper I've been avoiding.
Theater was ok, the staircase smelled like piss. There seems to be a British custom to sell sherbet at shows. Than the customers are required to leave the containers in strange places. A sort of hide and seek for the clean-up gang.
Operas would sound horrible in any other language, besides Carmen in french... and Carmina Burana in whatever language that is. The lyrics leave a lot to be desired.
Well off to the paper I've been avoiding.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Healthcare and Welfare
Went with my roommate to the hospital on Friday night. Actually we walked there, it was a nice walk all two miles of it at 12 and then coming back at 5. He wasn't really sick or so I assume: shortness of breath, and poor circulation. The doctors left at him or so he told me, he was quite angry that nobody took him seriously. There was also a kid from catz who had an unfortunate collision with a dance-floor.
Its been a while since I had last been in a hospital, was in one a couple of years back getting an EKG. Before that was there once getting my hand sewn up after it had an unfortunate collision with a pane of glass. The only time I really remember spending time in a hospital is with my grandfather. I never really liked hospitals and after reading Foucault and a book from one of my former professors, "Beyond Caring," I liked them even less. Every-time I walk into a big institution like that I feel a little less human, a little less like an individual. The hospital itself was very clean and modern looking, all besides the elevators, the elevators seemed the most beat up of all.
Waiting there for five hours we got to talking about which is system is better the US or the UK. I generally like the idea of socialized health care. I think everyone should have the ability to receive healthcare and that such a stem may actually save more because it prevents the need for more serious treatment. I do not think that the Uk system is perfect yet and I think that dental service over here is shit. I feel hesitant to conclude that the reason the healthcare system in the uk is generally poorer is because it few people are motivated to become doctors due to the low salaries. The UK imports a lot of its doctors which caused some problems earlier this year. There is a lot of pressure on the NHS to import doctors because there are simply not enough. From what I have heard, actually read, France isn't much better. Perhaps it is not a matter of health care but of culture but I heard that french doctors are more judgmental. No system is perfect but I think the semblance of universal health care is better than what the US has.
Both of my professors last week indicated that I should be evaluated for dyslexia. One told me that his daughter had it, and his wife was a teacher in that area. I am somewhat disgusted by the idea of medicalizing personality traits. If was to be diagnosed as having dyslexia what would that really change? Why can't I just say that I am a horrible speller and have a hard time reading out loud and prefer certain ways of learning. I see no reason this should become part of the socio-medical complex. I am what I am, and that has gotten me this far, there is no reason to apply a name to certain personality traits so that I am to make them more sensical to others and to in some ways excuse what I am.
I am thinking about writing an article for an undergraduate philosophical journal on the research I did this summer. I just don't have very many of my sources with me, but there is a rather nice library here which should provide me with most of the sources. I just need to get my shit together and bite the bullet.
I
am writing a paper today which is reminds me why I started doing this whole philosophy thing. It allows me to see how many things are connected together. I am probably not going to finish the paper in time, I am going to see Il Trovatore with my roommate.
Its been a while since I had last been in a hospital, was in one a couple of years back getting an EKG. Before that was there once getting my hand sewn up after it had an unfortunate collision with a pane of glass. The only time I really remember spending time in a hospital is with my grandfather. I never really liked hospitals and after reading Foucault and a book from one of my former professors, "Beyond Caring," I liked them even less. Every-time I walk into a big institution like that I feel a little less human, a little less like an individual. The hospital itself was very clean and modern looking, all besides the elevators, the elevators seemed the most beat up of all.
Waiting there for five hours we got to talking about which is system is better the US or the UK. I generally like the idea of socialized health care. I think everyone should have the ability to receive healthcare and that such a stem may actually save more because it prevents the need for more serious treatment. I do not think that the Uk system is perfect yet and I think that dental service over here is shit. I feel hesitant to conclude that the reason the healthcare system in the uk is generally poorer is because it few people are motivated to become doctors due to the low salaries. The UK imports a lot of its doctors which caused some problems earlier this year. There is a lot of pressure on the NHS to import doctors because there are simply not enough. From what I have heard, actually read, France isn't much better. Perhaps it is not a matter of health care but of culture but I heard that french doctors are more judgmental. No system is perfect but I think the semblance of universal health care is better than what the US has.
Both of my professors last week indicated that I should be evaluated for dyslexia. One told me that his daughter had it, and his wife was a teacher in that area. I am somewhat disgusted by the idea of medicalizing personality traits. If was to be diagnosed as having dyslexia what would that really change? Why can't I just say that I am a horrible speller and have a hard time reading out loud and prefer certain ways of learning. I see no reason this should become part of the socio-medical complex. I am what I am, and that has gotten me this far, there is no reason to apply a name to certain personality traits so that I am to make them more sensical to others and to in some ways excuse what I am.
I am thinking about writing an article for an undergraduate philosophical journal on the research I did this summer. I just don't have very many of my sources with me, but there is a rather nice library here which should provide me with most of the sources. I just need to get my shit together and bite the bullet.
I
am writing a paper today which is reminds me why I started doing this whole philosophy thing. It allows me to see how many things are connected together. I am probably not going to finish the paper in time, I am going to see Il Trovatore with my roommate.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
358 and counting
didn't my leave my room today at all, besides two trips to the kitchen
i was able to perfect making "bird in a basket,' which is a combination of toast and egg easy over.. or hard for that matter,
I've been pretending to write my paper the whole day but that was rather unsuccessful.. in fact its 11 and i have 358 words and i need ten times as many in the next 11 hours
hank williams was an interesting guy, i've been reading about him on the wiki, its amazing how such a short life can produce so much, at times it seems that their production isn't in-spite of their short life but because of it, when you die young you have no time to grow old and "sell out" and make commercials for cadillac on youtube
schiele is another one, but he produced so very much in those few years, it makes me thing what have i done?
the obvious answer is not much, perhaps it is a bit early to start having a mid life crisis, but it seems that even in philosophy so many of the worthwhile contributed when they were young, when youth was still running in their veins energizing them to create, than again Kant was well into the his life when he begun is "mature period"
kant never left his home town, writing long papers such as the one I am writing now i often think what's it all worth that i can distinguish between the way that kant establishes his ethics on synthetic a priori deduction and hegel doesn't think our morality can have any determinate content and doesn't have an ethics, its not about making me a better person kant was tad puritanical and hegel, well nobody really knows what to make of hegel
i've been thinking about going and getting a kebab, they are the night time snack over here, during the day its sandwich shops and at night it is kebab vans
i've decided that i will try to make an index and a dictionary of the critique of pure reason over the next break, just go through the whole book flag key concepts and develop an outline of what kant is trying to do, doesn't sound like much fun does it?
but that is what people like me do we don't go to vietnam and study how to dig ditches we read incomprehensible books to give us a sense of ... well something... i have been looking at one of my friend's facebook photo-albums from vietnam and that looks horrible, i mean there are certain things that look attractive, but on the whole i cannot conceive the value of such an experience, i mean you see beautiful things sure, and you test yourself physically but the experience you get, well how does it make you a better person? perhaps better is wrong, it makes you a more complete person, it makes you more aware of life, which is all and nice and good, but towards what end? i very much doubt that my friend, caring person that she is, will now few motivated to help the third world in some substantial way, it seems experiences such as this are what one has before descending into the obscurity of middle age
when I choose my program abroad, the dean was looking at this as an wasted academic year, you go abroad to absorb a different culture and then you return to your home university to continue you academic studies so that once they kick you out you will not only have a a solid educational basis but you would have a "global perspective"
if that was the intent they should have not stirred me to oxford, they take academics rather seriously, and due to the way the classes are structure (one on one tutorials) there isn't much room for some that has what may be roughly described as a self imposed social phobia, social life here generally consist of working until dinner, going to hall which is a huge room where everyone sits at communal tables and is served a three course meal, after that comes the pub followed shortly after that by the club, not only is this life style financially draining it is not terribly interesting, i would much rather prefer vietnam
i was able to perfect making "bird in a basket,' which is a combination of toast and egg easy over.. or hard for that matter,
I've been pretending to write my paper the whole day but that was rather unsuccessful.. in fact its 11 and i have 358 words and i need ten times as many in the next 11 hours
hank williams was an interesting guy, i've been reading about him on the wiki, its amazing how such a short life can produce so much, at times it seems that their production isn't in-spite of their short life but because of it, when you die young you have no time to grow old and "sell out" and make commercials for cadillac on youtube
schiele is another one, but he produced so very much in those few years, it makes me thing what have i done?
the obvious answer is not much, perhaps it is a bit early to start having a mid life crisis, but it seems that even in philosophy so many of the worthwhile contributed when they were young, when youth was still running in their veins energizing them to create, than again Kant was well into the his life when he begun is "mature period"
kant never left his home town, writing long papers such as the one I am writing now i often think what's it all worth that i can distinguish between the way that kant establishes his ethics on synthetic a priori deduction and hegel doesn't think our morality can have any determinate content and doesn't have an ethics, its not about making me a better person kant was tad puritanical and hegel, well nobody really knows what to make of hegel
i've been thinking about going and getting a kebab, they are the night time snack over here, during the day its sandwich shops and at night it is kebab vans
i've decided that i will try to make an index and a dictionary of the critique of pure reason over the next break, just go through the whole book flag key concepts and develop an outline of what kant is trying to do, doesn't sound like much fun does it?
but that is what people like me do we don't go to vietnam and study how to dig ditches we read incomprehensible books to give us a sense of ... well something... i have been looking at one of my friend's facebook photo-albums from vietnam and that looks horrible, i mean there are certain things that look attractive, but on the whole i cannot conceive the value of such an experience, i mean you see beautiful things sure, and you test yourself physically but the experience you get, well how does it make you a better person? perhaps better is wrong, it makes you a more complete person, it makes you more aware of life, which is all and nice and good, but towards what end? i very much doubt that my friend, caring person that she is, will now few motivated to help the third world in some substantial way, it seems experiences such as this are what one has before descending into the obscurity of middle age
when I choose my program abroad, the dean was looking at this as an wasted academic year, you go abroad to absorb a different culture and then you return to your home university to continue you academic studies so that once they kick you out you will not only have a a solid educational basis but you would have a "global perspective"
if that was the intent they should have not stirred me to oxford, they take academics rather seriously, and due to the way the classes are structure (one on one tutorials) there isn't much room for some that has what may be roughly described as a self imposed social phobia, social life here generally consist of working until dinner, going to hall which is a huge room where everyone sits at communal tables and is served a three course meal, after that comes the pub followed shortly after that by the club, not only is this life style financially draining it is not terribly interesting, i would much rather prefer vietnam
Monday, November 5, 2007
Remember the V of November
Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Fireworks have been going of here since thursday. Every-night after the sun sets, about 5, fireworks go off, you can't ever really see them you just hear them. That is the extent of irregular in the past week. Well besides having fish and chips at a pub, horrible by the way. Frozen fish is utterly horrible. I bought tickets for Vienna the other day, my flight leaves at 5 in the morning, I think I am just going to go to London the night before and walk around until the time, might need someplace to store my shit though. I have and acquaintance studying in London, but I don't think he likes me enough for me to impose myself.
I've been reading about Kant and Hegel's moral theories and it has made me realize just how badly taught I was. I took this ethics class my freshman year in school. When we covered Kant we were presented with a dilemma if a Nazi comes up to somebody's house who is harboring Jews and asks if there are Jews there, should the person a) lie b)give up the Jews. The idea in Kant (in the way that it was presented in the text and by the professor) is that any action has to be universalized it is one of the four moments of the "categorical imperative." Lies cannot be universalized because that would create a "practical contradiction," if everyone would lie it would be pointless to assume that anyone was telling the truth. We would have to assume that honesty is a good thing for this to work. So we would have to choose a, we could not lie to the Nazi. The professor acted as if there were ways to get out of it such as saying the that the Nazi being a Nazi has lost his worth as a person (Kant also says we should respect everyone because they are human beings and we should not treat others as means to ends but as ends in themselves) but the final conclusion was that it was a devastating critique because it was counter intuitive. The issue comes down to wether or not Kant can in some way order laws so as one does not have two follow two seemingly contradictory laws. Assuming he can't (even though he can, and anyone that has read more the the Groundwork should realize that) there is a section in the metaphysics of morals specifically addressing such issues, he gives to certain ambiguous cases one being of necessity. If your action would in someway negate the base of the (roughly self perfection and promoting the happiness of others) than you should not engage in that action even though that action may seem moral. This is rather straight forward, don't do something if it causes more harm than good. This should be rather obvious to anyone teaching Kant's moral philosophy much the less writing a text book about it.
People like my philosophy professor raise up straw man just to be able to dismantle them. Simplicity seems to necessarily give rise to straw men. I have been recently accused of doing that very thing in my writing. Creating caricatures of authors just to be able to criticize the hell out of them. Leaving aside the issue that I do this, it is hard to simplify a work and analyze it. Simplification always produces error. See?
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Fireworks have been going of here since thursday. Every-night after the sun sets, about 5, fireworks go off, you can't ever really see them you just hear them. That is the extent of irregular in the past week. Well besides having fish and chips at a pub, horrible by the way. Frozen fish is utterly horrible. I bought tickets for Vienna the other day, my flight leaves at 5 in the morning, I think I am just going to go to London the night before and walk around until the time, might need someplace to store my shit though. I have and acquaintance studying in London, but I don't think he likes me enough for me to impose myself.
I've been reading about Kant and Hegel's moral theories and it has made me realize just how badly taught I was. I took this ethics class my freshman year in school. When we covered Kant we were presented with a dilemma if a Nazi comes up to somebody's house who is harboring Jews and asks if there are Jews there, should the person a) lie b)give up the Jews. The idea in Kant (in the way that it was presented in the text and by the professor) is that any action has to be universalized it is one of the four moments of the "categorical imperative." Lies cannot be universalized because that would create a "practical contradiction," if everyone would lie it would be pointless to assume that anyone was telling the truth. We would have to assume that honesty is a good thing for this to work. So we would have to choose a, we could not lie to the Nazi. The professor acted as if there were ways to get out of it such as saying the that the Nazi being a Nazi has lost his worth as a person (Kant also says we should respect everyone because they are human beings and we should not treat others as means to ends but as ends in themselves) but the final conclusion was that it was a devastating critique because it was counter intuitive. The issue comes down to wether or not Kant can in some way order laws so as one does not have two follow two seemingly contradictory laws. Assuming he can't (even though he can, and anyone that has read more the the Groundwork should realize that) there is a section in the metaphysics of morals specifically addressing such issues, he gives to certain ambiguous cases one being of necessity. If your action would in someway negate the base of the (roughly self perfection and promoting the happiness of others) than you should not engage in that action even though that action may seem moral. This is rather straight forward, don't do something if it causes more harm than good. This should be rather obvious to anyone teaching Kant's moral philosophy much the less writing a text book about it.
People like my philosophy professor raise up straw man just to be able to dismantle them. Simplicity seems to necessarily give rise to straw men. I have been recently accused of doing that very thing in my writing. Creating caricatures of authors just to be able to criticize the hell out of them. Leaving aside the issue that I do this, it is hard to simplify a work and analyze it. Simplification always produces error. See?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)