Which discipline?

Brian Hamilton — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:59:48 +0000

For the most part I’m quite happy with my decision to end up studying ethics, rather than philosophical or systematic theology, since it’s nearly always the material meaning of philosophical concepts I’m interested in emphasizing. But I do sometimes have a pang of regret, not knowing when it is I’ll finally have a chance to do the kind of reading I’d really like to do in Trinitarian debates, fundamental ecclesiology, etc. It may actually be that I occasionally regret not being a philosopher: what really fascinates me in the Trinitarian debates is the viability and consequence of the thought of the infinite, and my real interest in fundamental ecclesiology has to do with the essential relation between individual and the collective subjects… Though in a philosophy department of the sort that intrigues me, I doubt if I would have been able to think those questions in an unapologetically theological frame; or at least, a great deal of prolegomena would always seem necessary.

Not really saying anything. Especially after a long conversation this afternoon about “making ourselves marketable” to one institutional niche or another, just once again feeling the strictures of academic life that, as often as not, severs thought into so many discrete lifeless pieces.

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Brian Hamilton — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:55:03 +0000

I really hate x-for-reading courses on modern languages. I’m in the middle of one on German right now–having taken exactly the same class three summers ago–and I’m painfully aware of how little is actually sticking in my head. It’s impossible to learn the language this way, without writing or speaking a single word. My professor even avoids saying anything in German, preferring just to spell German words out so as not to overtax us with the burden of proper pronunciation.

Just like last time I took this class, I’ll learn enough to be able to very roughly translate a short passage from German to English at the end of the summer, and so pass the test. And then I’ll forget everything about the language within three weeks, since my knowledge of it never penetrated its purely structural aspect.

Brian Hamilton » Academia

Which discipline?

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