Anything I Can Do For A Better Grade?

May 4, 2014 By in Uncategorized 7 Comments

Worth a look.

Daily Nous - old

It is that time of the year when the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, the semester is ending, and the students are asking, “I know I missed a lot of classes and didn’t complete some of my assignments but I was wondering if there is, you know, anything I can do now to get a better grade.” It is tempting to recommend “invent and use time machine.” But perhaps these words from George M. Felis (UNC Wilmington) are more edifying:

Maybe I shouldn’t admit this as a professor, but a significant part of what you demonstrate by earning a college degree has nothing to do with what you actually learn in college: completing college is partly about showing that you have the discipline to show up and do the work—whether you want to or not, whether you’re interested in it or not, and regardless of the distractions life presents—

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A Homemade Day (Poem)

May 4, 2014 By in poetry Leave a comment

A Homemade Day

 

I woke up

this morning

that is the time

to wake up

I think

I guess

 

anyway, I woke up

this morning

no birds sang

the frogs

had croaked

in the night

 

not me

 

so I sang

sat about

making the day

my own

Lurching Restart

April 26, 2014 By in Metaphilosophy, Philosophy 1 Comment

I’m back.  Sorta.  Anyway, I do expect to begin posting here again over the next few weeks.  I’ve missed working on the blog and interacting with those of you who follow it.  But I want to restart by shouldering Heidegger’s reminder:

There is a significant darkness in every philosophical endeavor, and even the most radical of these endeavors remains finite.

No Systems Go

December 28, 2013 By in Uncategorized 3 Comments

Obviously, things have been slow around here.  I’ve tried a few times to get back to regular posting, but it seems that each time some new difficulty arises and all I end up with is new ideas partially developed but then abandoned.  So–I am going to shut Quantum Est down for a while, maybe for a few months or more.  I have really enjoyed the conversations the blog has started and the new friends I have made.  I hope that after I have caught up, really caught up, I can come back to the blog with new perspective and new resolution.  For now, I will turn off the lights and wish you a good night.  “Yes; good night, good night.  Good night, any surviving dear old Carian guests.  Good night, ladies.  Good night, all.”

Winter is Icummen in–Poem (Pound)

December 9, 2013 By in poetry Leave a comment

Winter is icummen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm.
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.

Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damn you, sing: Goddamm.

Goddamm, Goddamm, ’tis why I am, Goddamm,
So ‘gainst the winter’s balm.

Sing goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm.
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.

The God of the Philosophers (Herbert McCabe)

December 8, 2013 By in Philosophy, religion, Thomas Aquinas 4 Comments

It is true that philosophers, generally speaking, are the most dogmatic of men, but they cannot claim any divine authority for their dogmatism.  The kind of philosophical reflection that is called “natural theology” exists because God made the world and men.  I think that this reflection can lead to the conclusion that there is a “beyond” that transcends all that we can know.  Broadly speaking, we look at the world and it has a created look about it, which is as far as we can go.  There used to be an idea (invented, I think, by Pascal) that the God of the philosophers was a different kind of being than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Now of course the God of the philosophers that Pascal had in mind may very well be different from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the God of my philosophy (and here I am at one with St. Thomas) is not well known enough to be different from Yahweh of the Old Testament.  Philosophy tells us almost nothing about God, certainly not enough to set up a rival religion.  –The New Creation