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
Saturday 30 March 2013
Wednesday 20 March 2013
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
Saturday 2 March 2013
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
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
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