It is Friday 9.26.08 and it is cool, but very comfortable.
So Wednesday went poorly. I spoke to my adviser, made my proposition for another paper next week and she told me that she wished I was telling her I was volunteering to opt out of this project with her. I really understand her position and I think it’s ultimately better, but I can’t help how let down I feel. Philosophy and ideas are really important to me, and I just feel like I’m only really scratching the surface of what it’s all about. By that, I mean the immense kind of concentration and reading that it takes. It’s true that I’m probably not ready for it, in that I have so much trouble writing in a clear way, and that there are certain “hoops” that i have to “jump” through to show my position. The problem with that is I’m trying write a thesis on a person whose outlook is that economic schemes, politics, every day social interactions ought to be more authentic and honest. Continue reading ‘Somewhat Devastated’
It is Wednesday, 9.24.08 and it’s cool and I woke up late.
Missed my Japanese class this morning. I’m sick and feeling really sore from work yesterday. My brother works on a carpentry crew framing garages in Winnipeg and I’m now working as part of that crew. It rained yesterday, so we worked inside at one of the boss’ homes. I sanded and stained a floor, insulated and hung drywall in a garage. It really made me want to get back working on my own home. It went fine, working with my brother Drew is a breeze, surprisingly.
As for today, I thought I would be really set on quitting my thesis project, but I’m actually considering giving it another week or so. I’ll talk to my adviser today now that she’s had a chance to read my latest (shit) paper. We’ll see how it goes, I just can’t see myself NOT being involved in a project like this throughout the year, but at the same time, I don’t think I have the chops.
Jeannine is still in Kenora working really hard on the NDP compaign there, and I miss having her around a lot. I’m meeting my Mom for lunch, I have class tonight and I’ll be going to my friend Leslie’s tonight for dinner.
It is 9.23.08 and it’s raining. It’s also 5am.
I’m working part time with my brother framing garages on my days off from school. It should be interesting if I can stand him. These past few weeks have been really difficult. I haven’t worked this hard, ever. The problem now is my thesis advisor has basically told me to seriously question my interest in writing a thesis. Writitng has never been my strong suit, and she’s extremely disappointed in what I’ve been producing. It’s not that I can’t keep up with her, it’s that I can’t translate what we talk about to writing. Continue reading ‘Questionable’
It’s 9.18.08 and I still can’t seem to get to the gym yet.
This morning I at least made breakfast for myself. Jeannine came home last night, she had news that she’d be moved to northern-ontario’s riding to work on the federal election temporarily. It’s not very good news, because we’ll apart for the entire month unless I come out to visit her. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive. Continue reading ‘Much Needed Structure’
It is 9.17.08 and it is cool, but warm in the school’s uplink computer lab.
I only feel a little ashamed. I have stopped recording my life for the past few days because I’ve been instead reading and writing more than I ever have in my life up until now. It’s also been due to the face that the boxes I had sent from Japan have still not arrived. My ricecooker and my camera and my harddrive and my favourite jacket. They’re all still in transit. Continue reading ‘Still in Transit’
Our Ontological Baggage: Charles Taylor’s Account for Modernity’s False Conception of Self
The character of modernity has led us to have freedom from a set of moral restrictions. Our ’self’ is no longer suppressed and labelled as any one particular thing. I’m not just an insurance salesman, man, I’m also interested in social and political philosophy. There is a considerable amount that we have lost with the shedding of these supposedly oppressive labels, and more distressing is what have we have ‘gained’. Continue reading ‘Our Ontological Baggage’
This was a mid-term paper I wrote in April of 2007. It is an examination of T.H. Green’s Prolegomena to Ethics. I had forgotten about it, and while digging through my old material I happened upon it and was extremely impressed with myself. It’s probably one of my favourite things that I’ve written. This midterm paper entire encapsulates what I’m attempting to draw out in my thesis on Charles Taylor and I think really benefits the ‘Holism’ project I’ve been trying to articulate recently. I intend to go back through several of my old papers throughout my research this term and will let other projects happening here fall to a lower priority while I’m finishing my honours degree. I hope these coming updates will still be entertaining.
If You Can Read This, You Are Already Presupposing Many Complex Conceptual Frameworks.
In the Prolegomena to Ethics T.H. Green, speaking to us from 1883, offers a different way of thinking about what a person is. What Green seems to salvage (and by ‘salvage’, I mean ‘preemptively prescribe’) is an account of the individual that is neither isolated from the exterior world, nor biologically determined to carry out their pre-set performances. For Green, a person is not an empty vessel, and knowledge is not a substance in which it might contain. We have rich and developed set of tools as soon on as we are conscious. Continue reading ‘If You Can Read This, You Are Already Presupposing Many Complex Conceptual Frameworks.’
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