Procrastinating with Purpose! Science, Teleology, Religion and Ethics!

Howdy!
 So its essay time again! its actually technically been essay time for some time but it has taken me a little while to come to terms with this... I've done that silly thing again of coming up with an argument before doing any background reading! This isn't quite as ignorant a thing to do as it sounds, I think I have a reasonable grasp of the concepts I want to work with, and I have discussed them in lectures at length and done a lot of valuable introspection regarding my position, what i have not done is prepared myself to fulfill the necessarily quota for academic name dropping set out by the university.
My chosen topic- Teleology and science! which I was pretty excited about until i started searching blindly for academic literature on the subject! The point that I want t make is that, whilst scientific endeavors are usually undertaken with some purpose in mind, the selection of this purpose will most likely be unable to be shown to have a sound scientific justification. This position, I believe, has all sorts of exciting implications, for one thing it puts an interesting slant on certain religiously oriented discussions pertaining to science, it also has a whole lot of impact in the field of scientific ethics.
Whilst not religious myself I do have some sympathy for those who do believe in God and do not trust the morality of those who do not. Where does morality come from if it is not something woven into the universe at creation? In a religious picture the value of everything is written onto it like washing instructions on a garment of clothing; dry clean only, do not murder and saw limbs off, Simple!  If we accept a commonly held view of God and his role in forming reality then we accept that there is some purpose manifested in nature and the condemnation of actions which defy that purpose might seem understandable. If however we see our existence, and the existence of everything we encounter, as something in no way governed by some wonder-being  then where on earth do the 'shoulds' and 'should nots' that we all throw around get their authority from! Is there some empirical method of discovering why I shouldn't  harvest the organs of my housemates whilst they sleep? Can such a conclusion be reached through logical deduction from uncontroversial premises? I am unconvinced that either of those questions can be answered positively yet I desperately hope that this unfounded imperative of not slicing up those you live with is strong enough to keep my housemates away from my kidneys!
Sleeping with the door locked from now on!
L
xxx

I need a PhD to ponder professionally!

Hello!

 So recently I've sort of given up on the whole 'trying to find a job I might like and be competent at' thing and have been hurling all of my energies into PhD applications! This process has proved exhausting. I love epistemology, really I do but never has this affection been so strained. I have a good idea of the research that I want to do, but unfortunately this research falls into a sort of vague interdisciplinary area which nobody is offering specific funding for. I have had to rewrite my research proposal over and over again to try to make it appeal to philosophy departments, sociology departments and next, science communication departments and a couple of ethics enthusiasts. I am so tired of having to align my interests with preexisting channels of thought! My life would be so much easier if I could just win over some wealthy eccentric who would find contentment in providing me with the funds to follow my own train of thought in peace! I have been offered a place at one university already, but unless they also offer me a studentship i'm afraid I will be forced to turn them down. I wont find out about that until May and i think i risk permanent deformity if i keep my fingers crossed for that long. 

Please please, if this message comes to the attention of some greater power, be that power of  divine or economic origins,  let them help me on my journey to the wonderful life to which i have been told i would be so suited, that of a socially stunted academic recluse.

Love

L

xxx

 

I ordered my sides split!

Hey!
 So last night I went to see some student comedy on campus and I must say that I was surprised by the quality of some of the performances. The sketch comedy, though amusing in parts, was veiled in the mandatory level of awkwardness but  some of the stand up was genuinely impressive.
I have the utmost admiration for everybody who was involved, personally I cannot think of anything more petrifying than overtly taking on responsibility for the amusement of a large group of silently seated strangers. Its one thing to be funny in conversation where you can slip in and out of humorous context at will, but to be on a stage imprisoned in that genre regardless of how it is received seems like it has the potential to be endlessly burdensome.
I like to make people laugh, its fun and quite gratifying but I find that a whole lot harder to do when people expect amusement. once you take comedy out of the comfortable setting of conversation it becomes a sort of service and an audience has a sense of entitlement to see that service delivered effectively to them with little to no effort on their part. Those with the ability to deliver this service may well have a long and successful career lapping the comedy circuit but what should be remembered is that this is an ability entirely separate from that of being funny. Not all funny people make good comedians. This doesn't make them any less funny, the ability to effectively play off the contributions of others and knowledge of their interests and mannerisms is a skill in itself and one worthy of appreciation. It is just unfortunate that it tends not to be a skill with any direct moneymaking potential.
On a tenuously related note, as we think about undervalued humour I think we should take a few moments out of our day to ponder something. In this hectic modern world which we inhabit technologies  are moving quicker than ever from state of the art to woefully outdated. An issue that I feel is rarely given enough attention is that, as we say goodbye to these devices of bygone times, we also say goodbye to the humour that they inspired. As one generation hands the comedic baton to the next, jokes about VHS and cassette tapes will undoubtedly be put to rest in the same way that so many other once topical observations have been. They will take their place in the graveyard of the generationally irrelevant alongside witticisms about Walkmans, snaps about steam trains, quips about quills and puns about penny-farthings and and I for one hope that their loss will be duly mourned.
In light of this let us all look with a new found respect at the humble knock knock joke which has, against all the odds, survived the invention of the doorbell and lives on to inspire strained chuckles across the globe.
Have a nice day :)
L.
xxx

Lactose Love...Unrequited?

Howdy!
  How're things? Good I hope, but if not you have my deepest sympathy. Today I would like to confess something to you, something which has recently begun to cause me some worry.
I Love Milk. Like seriously it is amazing! Its everything that water should be and I can dink pints of the stuff. Not only is it a wondrous liquid in its own right, it has so much potential to reach even greater heights. Unlike many popular drinks, milk responds to shaking in such a way as to produce a beverage almost heavenly. Admittedly some other ingredients are required at this point but if we take a while to review some of the great milkshake flavours and recipes available to the connoisseur then we shall find that so many of these additions have their basis firmly in the delight that is dairy. Ice cream, chocolate, yogurt, butter (peanut, scotch or otherwise); these are the sweetest nectar that life has for us, I am convinced of it. Milk is what mothers give to their babies and is enjoyed by many of the most adorable creatures in this world (seriously, if unconvinced thus far just take a moment now to think about kittens), Surely it is obvious that this substance is the purest incarnation of love!
In this happy little universe that I inhabit, where love really is something that money can buy me from any supermarket, it may seem strange to find me forlorn but this is how I am currently to be discovered. My outlook has turned sour! (sorry couldn't resist...) For this wondrous liquid that i so constantly crave is no longer providing me with the pure and unadulterated joy which I have come to expect. Recently my feelings of bliss following dairy consumption are followed the less pleasant sensations of stomach cramps and nausea! I was in denial until an observer to my distress uttered the dreaded words... 'Lactose Intolerance!'
Is this even possible?! i have been a lifelong lover of milk, would it really betray me at this late stage? Why?! I am yet to thoroughly investigate this line of inquiry fully but the results of personal experimentation certainly point to a correlation between dairy products and my stomach based distress. I fear that i cannot put off attaining a final verdict for much longer, but i do not think I could bear to hear the result that I dread. Bad news would surely result in the sort of low empty feeling which life has taught me can only be combated with lactose heavy treats! Oh I do not think I shall cope! Wont somebody please save me from this whirlpool of dairy despair?!
Ruefully Yours
L
xxxx

The first sign of madness

Hello You!
 I don't know who you are or even if you are and so i feel it might be comforting to imagine that I am talking to a dear friend. How are you? well that was a silly thing to ask I suppose. If you really were a dear friend I could expect a prompt response to that question, but as you are most likely nobody I think I would find it most startling if an answer were forthcoming. Whilst I am still greatly puzzled as to my motivations for continuing to write to you, I must admit that i am starting to quite enjoy it. Its comforting somehow I suppose, to think that my thoughts, once had, are not lost forever through the fast draining sieve of my memory. Its not that i think these thoughts are of any great importance to the world at large, its just that for the most part they are all that I really produce so i would be disheartened to think of them fizzling out entirely. This is why i'm showing them to you.
A friend asked me today what i wanted to achieve and i wasn't entirely sure what to tell her. I envy her for all of her idealistic ambitions about changing the world for the better. I am far to bogged down with the question of what better is to get along with bringing it about. If i am perfectly honest i don't think there is such a thing! when you have reasoned yourself into a spot where all your seemingly moral imperatives are stripped down to mere preferences its hard to feel all that motivated to change the world in any particular way. This is somewhat limiting on the ambition front, as i'm sure you can imagine, though i think that maybe i have one. Its not a noble ambition, or one whose legitimacy comes from any great authority but nonetheless its achievement is eluding me at this stage in my life. My simple an soul ambition is to be contented. I hope you don't think me hideously selfish, though i suppose i must be. Either way if i am consistent in my imaginings then i have only told this to a dear friend who surely will not judge me too harshly.
All the best (how hypocritical!)
L
xxx

Wherefore art thou graduate level job...

I seem to have missed the point at which everybody decided what they wanted to do with their lives. Perhaps i fell asleep and missed the visit from the magical aspiration fairy, or perhaps i am simply impervious to ambition. At what point did earning enough money to live comfortably become an inadequate reason for wanting a job? Am I really the only person willing to apply for a position in a field that I don't ave an intense passion for?! I like things, of course i do; but nobody seems willing to pay me to eat, take naps and smell flowers all day. Is it not enough that I promise to work hard to do what is required of me?

I think there is something quite sinister about stipulating mandatory passion! How far can this trend be stretched? In the future will job applicants be required to display overwhelming romantic devotion to management staff? Will people be expected to literally marry their jobs, adding LTD. to the end of their surnames and spending every other Christmas with their parent-in-law companies? What would the children look like?! I daren't imagine.

Problems would surely arise regarding the gender of the jobs to which individuals would be matrimonially attached; what with same sex marriage being such a contentious issues in some quarters. Perhaps this would encourage divergence from traditional gender roles in the work place. A man applying for a male role could be interpreted as homosexual and so would perhaps be more inclined to consider work as a child minder or party planner, whereas heterosexual women would be drawn to the sciences and high powered roles in senior management. 

I suppose I can forgive those companies who demand my devotion, their feminist plight is a worthwhile enough cause. I just hope that by the time I finish my masters I will be on track to find 'The One' that is worthy of the career based lust that is clearly required for entry into the workforce. 

Am I only dreaming?! Or is epistemology just a source for song lyrics?

How do you know you're not dreaming right now?!
It sounds sort of pretentious doesn't it? It is the kind of question that causes the vast majority of people to roll their eyes whilst certain groups latch onto the ideas contained therein in an attempt to loose their ties with the all to cliched notion of 'reality'. I wonder how this came to be the case. To me, questions of this sort seem entirely legitimate, and legitimate questions are usually met with attempts at an answer aren't they? Exceptions arise when the answer is obvious or ridiculous or deliberately provocative, but that cannot be said of this question. Centuries of discussion by philosophers of what is known as 'the skeptical problem' have produced no conclusive answer yet and study of the topic has lead me to believe that it never will.
It is not the inability of any individual to prove that he is truly engaging with reality that bothers me; it is the reluctance of most people to address this inability in an appropriate manner. The imperative to hold beliefs about the external world with absolutely no reasonable foundation for doing so is thrust upon all of us by Descartes' evil daemon working in partnership with human nature and yet it is as though we also enter into some sort of secret pact never to mention this. Somehow it is those who correctly recognize the lack of logical foundation for the majority of our beliefs and seek to discuss this openly that are deemed silly or childish.
For those unfamiliar with the skeptical argument and its conclusions I will present a shortened version below:

(1) If I am a brain in a vat then I do not know that x
(2)I cannot rule out the possibility that i am a brain in a vat
(C) I do not know that x

where x stands for any given fact about the external world and 'I am a brain in a vat' can be replaced by any sort of weird perception distorting scenario you fancy (e.g. dreaming or evil daemons).

To my mind this argument is pretty convincing, but you wouldn't think it the way people roll their eyes when I bring it up!

I suppose this is just a rant, but it is a rant about epistemology so I don't feel too guilty...