My epistemology exam is done, and with it perhaps my final ventures into contemporary analytic philosophy. I’m not sure exactly why, but the course/material didn’t grip me as I had hoped it would. The Philosophy of Mind course I took four years ago was completely different, I loved it. Two possible reasons come to mind: one is that I was younger then and more nimble-minded, the other that I simply had more time to put into it. Given that many... Read more

Last Friday marked the final day of lectures at UM, including mine in Intro. to Buddhism. The final days of the course centered on the questions of a new revitalization of Buddhism, a reintegration of the various sects and schools and divisions of the past thousand years, and a creative solution to the seemingly unique ills of life in the 21st century. Friday we reopened the question we began the course with: What is Buddhism? Change: Impermanence, Transformation – both... Read more

Life has (tried to) crush me like the ant I am, but I have managed to slip out from academia’s heavy thumb once more. [Groowwwwllllll] the oppression of finals… Kant: Presentation on non-existent paper: done, well enough. Test over material I haven’t read yet: Monday. Epistemology: Paper concerning my knowledge of what I ate for breakfast this morning (oatmeal damnit, I remember, I know I ate oatmeal!): done. – the author of the paper argued that belief in God is... Read more

“Not in abstract reason but in shared structures of discourse ethics will we find a common foundation for faith in the human future.” I’ve moved on to ‘indefinite extension’ with my Kant paper, which will now deal explicitly with his works in Anthropology and secondary literature therein. It is in the Anthropology that we find Kant saving himself from excessive abstraction and irrelevance. The above quote is based on a review on Habermas (here), who uses Kant to revive the... Read more

From Christine Korsgaard, “CREATING THE KINGDOM OF ENDS: RECIPROCITY AND RESPONSIBILITY” (Philosophical Perspectives, 6, Ethics, 1992), p.323 Another kind of consideration comes from Kant’s iterated demand, in the Metaphysical Principles of Virtue, for generosity of interpretation. As I mentioned at the beginning of my discussion, Kant believes that we cannot know people’s most fundamental or intelligible characters. But he censures contempt, calumny, and mockery as much for their disrespectful and ungenerous nature as for their lack of a theoretical basis.... Read more

I was asked recently what my favorite holiday was, and with little thought I answered, “Thanksgiving.” It is, for me, a time solely dedicated to gratitude. Little bad can be said of gratitude, whereas other holidays in my experience are overrun by commercialism and/or silly traditionalist dogmatism (“don’t you go calling that thing a holiday tree!”). Sure, it’s a holiday commemorating the turning point in the European invasion and colonization of North America, the subsequent horrors imposed upon the native... Read more

My Kant paper (previously due last Thursday, now the Monday after Thanksgiving) will be an evaluation of Kant as an advocate for a radical and perhaps unreasonable liberalism (liberalism here in the sense of simple human freedom). Just how free are we ever? This question has vexed philosophers at least as far back as the rise of Christianity in philosophical circles. We must be free to accept Christ. But then doesn’t an omniscient God already know what we are going... Read more

Nearly through the semester, the end is in sight. My first semester, 140 students. Breathing deeply, moving forward. Recently I corrected an essay by one of my wiser students and was given a tiny moment of awakening. In writing about the emergence of Mahayana (Great Vehicle) Buddhism, he summed up what perhaps no one in 2500 years has yet been able to articulate. The wisdom of his whole work could be summed up in the first three words: “Change is... Read more

Ahh… winter in Montana… almost. Today has actually been gorgeous, cold, but sunny. I’ve been relatively lazy: finished an article for my upcoming Kant paper (“The liberal-communitarian debate in contemporary political philosophy and its significance for international relations” by David Morrice); sat on the sun porch and talked with my lovely girlfriend (so far away in Spain…) did laundry ate lunch (Persian yogurt with rice, thanks to my housemate Ali) contemplated starting my Kant paper (due Thursday) jumped onto blogger... Read more