19th August 2014: Ed's Philosophy Degree Timeline.
I decided to do a degree in philosophy. It's a subject that has fascinated me ever since Monty Python's 'Philosophy Song'. Who were these people they were going on about? The boys had already taught us about the Spanish Inquisition, which were the longest rivers (The Yangtze was third or something, but very popular with english goalkeepers and climbing up the league table), and that Venuzuelan Beaver Cheese existed. It doesn't: they were mucking about some of the time. And then I saw a documentary on philosophy and happiness. It turns out that most of the thinking that these great thinkers do is an attempt to find a happier existence.
An example is the author and philosopher Michel de Montaigne who so enjoyed the act of falling asleep, that he had his servant wake him every hour so he could enjoy the experience all over again. More importantly perhaps, Blaise Pascal worked out an equation or 'Wager' so you could decide if you were better off believing in God or not (apparently you should, who'd've thunk it, eh?).
Me, I just like thinking. We do it all the time! It's great! Make a cup of tea and is that one act? Or is the filling of the kettle, moving to where the kettle goes, waiting for it to boil, putting in the tea bag.... all different acts? And bingo, the tea is made and you can move on. During that five minutes or so you could have faced an imaginary over from Mitchel Johnson, walked out in front of a capacity crowd at Wimbledon to face Jocky Whoeveric in the singles final, or described the whole process to the audience of 'Saturday Kitchen'. There are no rules. Unless there are real mind readers, everything that goes on up there is private.
More on the thinking once I learn how to think and how to think about the thinking. I've enrolled. It's an Open University course so I won't be "hanging out" on campus and discovering drugs; but it needs paying for. When I did my HND in graphic design in the late 80's I got a grant. To new listeners, a grant was a payment of monies that payed for your studies. If you didn't spend all day in the pub you could easily make a profit, especially if you nicked everyone else's pencils (I'm looking at you, €∞√øså Bø˙Kx&)*.
Those days are gone of course, and I had to apply for a student loan. Sadly, my passport expired only weeks ago; this made applying a much more tiresome affair. I had to send my original birth certificate and find some upstanding member of the community who would vouch for my commitment while not living here, being in a relationship with me, or having just met me. This part of the process is still pending. It is possible the finance will not be sorted in time for my October start; I assume I'll have to try again for the next 'term' if it goes skywards.
*name removed to protect the guilty
I was given a list of books to buy. None of them contain the word 'philosophy'. I was expecting 'The Complete Works Of Those Old Greek Guys IN LATIN', but happily no. And a DVD! Remember school classes when you got to watch a film? I'll be able to sit at the back and muck about.
Here's the list:
Heaney, Seamus (tr) 'The Burial at Thebes'
Gurinder Chadha (Director) 'Bhaji on the Beach' (Channel Four DVD)
Marlowe, Christopher: O'Conor*, John (ed) 'Doctor Faustus the A text'
Muldoon, Paul (ed) 'The Faber Book of Beasts'
Prescott, Lynda (ed) 'A World of Difference: an anthology of short stories from five continents'
*The OU spelt 'O'Connor' with one 'n', which is strangely encouraging.
If I read them before the studying starts, I'll be a shoe-in...
An example is the author and philosopher Michel de Montaigne who so enjoyed the act of falling asleep, that he had his servant wake him every hour so he could enjoy the experience all over again. More importantly perhaps, Blaise Pascal worked out an equation or 'Wager' so you could decide if you were better off believing in God or not (apparently you should, who'd've thunk it, eh?).
Me, I just like thinking. We do it all the time! It's great! Make a cup of tea and is that one act? Or is the filling of the kettle, moving to where the kettle goes, waiting for it to boil, putting in the tea bag.... all different acts? And bingo, the tea is made and you can move on. During that five minutes or so you could have faced an imaginary over from Mitchel Johnson, walked out in front of a capacity crowd at Wimbledon to face Jocky Whoeveric in the singles final, or described the whole process to the audience of 'Saturday Kitchen'. There are no rules. Unless there are real mind readers, everything that goes on up there is private.
More on the thinking once I learn how to think and how to think about the thinking. I've enrolled. It's an Open University course so I won't be "hanging out" on campus and discovering drugs; but it needs paying for. When I did my HND in graphic design in the late 80's I got a grant. To new listeners, a grant was a payment of monies that payed for your studies. If you didn't spend all day in the pub you could easily make a profit, especially if you nicked everyone else's pencils (I'm looking at you, €∞√øså Bø˙Kx&)*.
Those days are gone of course, and I had to apply for a student loan. Sadly, my passport expired only weeks ago; this made applying a much more tiresome affair. I had to send my original birth certificate and find some upstanding member of the community who would vouch for my commitment while not living here, being in a relationship with me, or having just met me. This part of the process is still pending. It is possible the finance will not be sorted in time for my October start; I assume I'll have to try again for the next 'term' if it goes skywards.
*name removed to protect the guilty
I was given a list of books to buy. None of them contain the word 'philosophy'. I was expecting 'The Complete Works Of Those Old Greek Guys IN LATIN', but happily no. And a DVD! Remember school classes when you got to watch a film? I'll be able to sit at the back and muck about.
Here's the list:
Heaney, Seamus (tr) 'The Burial at Thebes'
Gurinder Chadha (Director) 'Bhaji on the Beach' (Channel Four DVD)
Marlowe, Christopher: O'Conor*, John (ed) 'Doctor Faustus the A text'
Muldoon, Paul (ed) 'The Faber Book of Beasts'
Prescott, Lynda (ed) 'A World of Difference: an anthology of short stories from five continents'
*The OU spelt 'O'Connor' with one 'n', which is strangely encouraging.
If I read them before the studying starts, I'll be a shoe-in...
Note: it's an own goal!
No comments:
Post a Comment