Terry's Philosophy Notes

Martha Stewarts 30 things

2006-07-24T16:51:00.000-04:00

So these are the top 30 things Martha says someone should know. Obviously to be some sort of genteel host-nothing wrong with that. I guess I see her point but I'll keep some and add a few- more like how to be a civilized adult :
Marthas top 30 things edited to "Things every grown up should know"
How to Create a first aid kit
Tie a bow tie- even being able to tie a regular tie would be nice for some men I know--
Prepare a green salad-eh -ok how hard is that?
Mix a margarita- I say how to mix a decent drink- and to know to have decent vodka in your house and not swill.
Paint a room- and how to put up wallpaper
Know to send a thank you note!
Know to bring a gift to dinners and parties!!!!!!!
Know how to do the laundry-Remove stains from clothes- mend stuff as you wash it- all of it - correctly- and then hang it up and put it away.
Load a dishwasher- well that's just silly
Make a bolognese sauce- jeesh at least-
Open a champagne bottle - yes, please-
Make chocolate chip cookies
Arrange flowers - why? how about how to buy flowers when you're NOT in trouble-
Take a good photograph
Change a tire- yep that one's mine - don't drive if you can't change a tire-
Prepare and carve a roast turkey
Know how to Iron a shirt and then actually iron them! and while you are at it- Don't leave the house with unpolished shoes - it takes one minute and makes a huge difference!
Sew a hem
Brew a cup of tea and make a decent pot of coffee. Even if you don't drink either- be civilized for Gods sake. If someone sets foot in your home you offer them a beverage - ALWAYS!
Make a grilled cheese sandwich
Make a bed- so it looks nice - and matches
Make french toast- use cinnamon and vanilla
Make a perfect omelette - trickier than it sounds
Cook fluffy rice
Assemble a BLT - why? Learn how to get reservations and leave a good tip instead.
Pack a suitcase
Make crudite

and Read a book! all the time have at least one book that you are reading!

Take a little quiz!!

2006-02-17T22:19:00.000-05:00

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

So this was my favorite joke growing up - I used to hang out at this bar and I told it to my best friend there, she laughed and laughed. She told me then that it was my Uncle Jim's favorite joke too- he also hung out at the bar.
When I asked her why she laughed if she heard it before, she said, "It's a good joke!"
So here it is - with love to my Uncle Jim .

A rabbi, a priest, and a minister are out fishing in the middle of a lake. The priest tells his two colleagues, "I left my fishing rod in the car; I'll be right back." He gets out of the boat, walks across the water to the beach, goes to the car, walks back across the lake, and gets into the boat. The rabbi stares at this in amazement. 30minutes later, the minister says, "I need to go to the toilet." He, too, gets out of the boat, walks across the water, finds the nearest men's room, walks back across the water and gets into the boat. The rabbi is absolutely dumbfounded! The rabbi keeps thinking, "My faith is as great as theirs!" So he speaks up and says, "I need to get something to drink; there's a refreshment stand on the beach." He stands up, puts his feet on the water, and SPLASH, he goes straight down under the water. The priest and minister help him back into the boat. He is embarrassed, not to mention wet, but he knows he can do it if the other two can. So, he stands up again, steps out onto the water, and again, SPLASH!! Again, he is dragged out and again he decides to try. As he is going down for the third time, the priest turns to the minister and asks, "Do you think we should show him where the rocks are?"

Create me

2006-02-07T12:57:00.000-05:00

Well my brain is filled with 3rd century Neoplatonism. If Final and efficient cause are linked - as of course they are but the link is harder to see - them being transcendant and all and formal and material causes are immanant and operate in tandem, then why does Plotinus need the unity of the one at all? My head hurts . I am not sure of the purpose of the One , well ok to provide unity.

If a chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half in a minute and a half, how long would it take a monkey with a wooden leg to kick all the seeds out of a dill pickle? So that just cracks me up! I am freaking about my thesis --

So what am I doing right now?

2006-02-06T11:22:00.000-05:00

Lately I just haven't been me. I have become quite dull. I think I need to get out and do all of the fun things I've missed for the last 9 years. Work on my thesis is plodding along. I haven't spent much time with my friends. I also haven't worked as hard on the art auction as I should - what happened to my drive?? I guess this stupid cold didn't help. I should make a list of ten cool things to do every week and get them in. I'm turning into a couch potato. Although part of that is because I haven't seen any tv in the last 10 years except Survivor-

Maybe because I feel like I have nothing to do I 've been doing nothing!!

So this week:
Sign up for yoga class-
Try rice diet-
Finish my cv and resume-
Take Rachel bowling - really!!
Go to the wine bar-
Get my hair cut and highlighted-
Spend time with at least 3 of my friends I haven't seen in a while-Terry, Polycarp, Maria, Shonnie theres a start--
Get birthday presents for Kim - order cake- plan something
Get anniversary presents for Jeff and me-
Buy valentine presents and cards-

Jeesh there is ten without trying-

I also want to plan a garden.
Buy a palm pilot
Plan my graduation party

There is a really cool Italian wine tasting I really want to go to but who to ask....
maybe I'll ask Noah as a birthday present for him - he would like it- maybe..I need to get Rachel a valentines present...I should get Alex some candy for the office- he likes that!

Quick Thanks

2005-07-18T11:27:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Jeremy and Rebecca for showing me the restorative power of a beer!

Thanks to Maria and Shonnie for reminding me of the restorative power of a good haircut-color and pedicure!!

Terry and Jeremy's Fantasy Intro Course

2005-02-25T21:43:00.000-05:00

So Jeremy and I were goofing around trying to decide what we would teach when we taught philosophy- but this is all me so I'm not going to blame him! This will be fun and when and if I ever do teach I'll look at this and go yeah - like you could do all that--what was I thinking??

So this is an intro course - a survey - First - give 'em some terms- and some types - they are always throwing terms at you and you bluff a lot- things like ontology - and metaphysics- and epistemology. Just to warm em up- and for some types- like scholasticism, utilitarianism and nihilism and existentialism and phenomenology and pragmatism. Give them those the first day and start explaining- maybe a quiz- in week two so they are warmed up.

So lets see- content :

At least review the pre socratics-They get short shrift and are significant.

Plato - Apology- Parts of the Republic- ( forms - divided line- analogy of the cave- the gold silver and bronze people-)

Aristotle- The categories-- The four causes?? Maybe that's too much for intro...

At least mention -Plotinus- Augustine - Boethius- Abelard ( or is that really just for the good story) maybe - maybe not

A little on the Arabic philosophers- and of course, Maimonides, my man!

Anselm's Ontologogical argument, I think it needs to be in here. And of course Guanilo

Aquinas- The big cheese- The five proofs

Ockham- His Razor, and the whole nominalism, realism hoo haa

Descartes-First Meditation

Kant- Can't know philosophy if you dont't know Kant but- What to pick - what to pick - The categorical imperative? Wouldn't that belong in ethics?

Locke- Jeremy threw that one in - he says Locke is so influential on American History and government you have to put him in. Hmm ok

Nietzche-What to pick - what to pick?

So plonk here we are- the 20th century- Its hard to decide who's important without a couple of centuries of perspective. Maybe Husserl and Heiddegger? Russel, yeah Russel is better than them. I like Wittgenstein a lot. Frege? Are you kidding? Theres the two headed monster rearing its head up and me showing my bias. Sartre? That would be good if I did Husserl and Heiddegger and had time !!

Last week - review of philosophical methods- analysis of where we've been and where these philosophers fit in....

Lets see what I think tomorrow........ No Spinoza? - No Leibnitz?- no Dewey? - no Hume? no Hobbes? hmmm I think I'm going to move up Leibnitz to a must do - not Hegel, I dont think.

So now its morning and I think Hobbes is a must do...hmmmmmm -how many weeks do I have?

Da doo run run - da doo run run

2005-02-19T22:21:00.000-05:00

So I like Dewey. I could understand why that girl in class felt lost. Both Heidegger and Dewey give you a fast track hop skip and a jump through the history of philosophy and you better keep up 'cuz they're not going to tell you - you just better keep up-
In 'The Origen of the Work of Art" I thought a really extraordinary part of that was his reference to the 'rootlessness of western thought " that was really fascinating. It think he means that every time we take something and put it through the machinery ( like Kant says) we change it, in some tiny way until eventually it becomes perverted. Its like cooking , things start out light and you add more -because well more is better isn't it? and you exchange this for that because you don't have this - and you get slop. So I see his point.
Back to Heidegger- after reading The Thing, The Origen of the Work of Art and Building , Dwelling, Thinking, a few things stand out. First taken as a triad, they make a lot more sense. Taken alone Being, Dwelling, Thinking is almost meaningless. Taken together they are interesting and insightful.
I think the The Origen of the Work of Art is the best. I think good art should and does open up a world.
I think it is strange that he writes the way we are told never to write. The edict I am usually given is that in philosophy you : tell them what you are going to say and then say it. He gets to it - but it really builds up through repetition. He uses a nice repetitive, almost poetic, device in Building, Dwelling, Thinking , with the repetition of " when we speak of X we are already thinking of the other three along with them , but we give no thought to the simple oneness of the four." in his development of the unity of the fourfold.
I'm not sure why he shifts from Dasein to the fourfould, because a lot of the idea is the same- it is being in the world as the world worlds you receive being. It's interesting - I wonder why he moves away from the early Heidegger.
I have got to read Meister Eckhart- everyone says 1) he is amazing 2) that I will love him

Heidegger - poisoning the well...

2005-02-19T21:47:00.000-05:00

So this is my second exposure to Heidegger, having read Sein und Zeit in last years DM seminar. Most of it was English , but I found it easier to get away from the English meaning of the terms when I used the German. I also found it less mind numbing to read the German than to read the English. Ah well... it was a pleasant distraction

I don't know how we're supposed to 'get over' the Nazi part. I read a really great article at
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml . Not only was Heidegger a nazi - he was a particularly odious nazi.

And it bring one to this philosophical dilemna- to quote the above article "if it is true that the thought reflects the man, and if the man is known to be morally and politically reprehensible, then the thinking behind the man must be equally reprehensible"

or

"Heidegger apologists, that there is no relation between a thinker and his politics. particularly in technical areas removed from political and sociological concern—where theoretical work can be pursued unrelated to a person's biography or social status, it does not follow that such a dichotomy is present in the work of any particular theorist.

So a little bit of a dilemma here- can you still have good ideas and be a heinous excuse for a human beign. Or can you - how can you be schooled in aretetic ethics and Platoninc ideas of the good and come up with that the heinous nazi "final solution" is anything other than pure evil?

Lets see if we can find an ethical system that says you can still be a good philosopher and be a vicious card carrying, friend and mentor betraying, non aplogetic nazi, (and then lie about it - sorry I digress).

Platonic Ideal - the aim for all things is the good, no good can from evil. Sorry, but being a nazi is evil. So Heideggers philosophical system can't be good, because it comes from a nazi. (If you do read the article you'll see where one persons interpretation is that Dasein is little more than nazi propaganda.)

Aristotelean virtue ethics- Hmm final solution , what kind of mean is there for nazis? Nope no help there .

Deontological- Kantian deontologists say that judgments of right are justified only if derived from principles of practical reason. To act upon rules or principles that are universally binding and without exception. Good comes from Good character that you are already supposed to have. Hmmm that does not sound like a nazi to me.

Utilitarian the same argument works from above - to maximize happiness we rid ourselves of the impurities, but it means accepting some pretty heinous things as truths. I suspect this is the closest to the ratioanl that they used. Everyone will be happier if we rid ourselves from these impurities.

Well, I actually think Heiddegger should be taught but I think all of it should be taught in context, because it does relate. Because he was a nazi doesn't mean you shouldn't read him because you would be guilty of not letting people make up their own minds. But I genuinely think the apects of nazism are important and should not be 'gotten over' as insignificant. Especially if it is true that it influenced his philosophy to the extent that is mentioned in this article. I would hate to think that Alethia refers to the 'uncoveredness' of the truth of the nazis. that is surely not the kind of truth I expect to be revealed. I was kind of looking for a 'we are all one interdependent world'.

I sus pect my biggest dilemma is how do we teach Heidegger. Well, I think we should teach him , but I actually think that this part should not be brushed over or minimized. I think its too important and it does influence his philosophy to ignore.