Opening Day is here: Happy New Year!
First day of class means a fresh start, a blank slate, a chance to sew “fresh seed” into our discussions. We’re like birds fluttering into a lighted hall to roost briefly before flying back out into the darkness.
We’re all whales wondering what’s happening as we whoosh towards that large unnamed expanse below.
But this is crucial: we’re birds of a feather, a plurality of plummeting whales, a surfeit of seed-sewers. We don’t have to wonder wordily in solitude, we can talk about our thoughts and experiences and the transient objects of our world.
We won’t always see eye-to-eye in philosophy class, but our arguments won’t just be exercises in mutual contradiction either. Though of course they can be.
In any event, it should all be eye-opening. “We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones…”
Ready, set…
Oh, wait. Those remarks are tailored to the Intro/CoPhilosophy course. I think they can readily be adapted to Environmental Ethics and Activism too, since collaboration very often does lead to ethically-rooted action in pursuit of shared goals like, say, sustainable ecosystems. I’ll talk about that a bit on the radio this afternoon.
Here’s where we begin in EEA:
Go!
Tags: Douglas Adams, Monty Python, opening day, Wallace Stegner
August 28, 2012 at 9:07 pm |
After watching the second video, I am honored to have the opportunity to die. So many things that could have went wrong didn’t so I’m here now to learn whatever the universe has to teach me. I’m hoping that there is a Heaven for those who get it right on the first try, or some type of reincarnation process for those of us that might not be so good. If not, then at least I will know that I lived instead of just existed.
August 30, 2012 at 2:02 am |
Hi! I’m guessing this is where I do my introduction. I’m Jonathan Walters, in Secion 14 of your TR philosophy class. You already have my comment card, though.
August 30, 2012 at 6:45 am |
Here’s fine, but so is our course homepage at cophilosophy.blogspot.com.
August 30, 2012 at 6:46 am |
That was Thoreau’s quest, Edrell, when he went to Walden: to “suck the marrow,” to live while he could. Good plan.