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Geoff's Miscellany

Miscellaneous Musings

Archives for November 2017

Don’t Switch The Blade

November 3, 2017 by Geoff Leave a Comment

This song is just perfect. Incidentally, somebody combined it with Roddy Piper’s best film: 

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Your Calling as a Teacher

November 3, 2017 by Geoff 2 Comments

One of my favorite lines from classical literature is this brief quote from Socrate’s Apology:

For I tried to persuade each of you to care for himself and his own perfection in goodness and wisdom rather than for any of his belongings, and for the state itself rather than for its interests, and to follow the same method in his care for other things. Pl., Apologia 36c

I think that if you’re a teacher of any subject, at any level, this is your calling. Even in the sciences, teaching somebody to be the best rather than to make money, is your calling. This is not always easy and school has almost no connection to the concept of schole (σχολῇ) which constitutes the etymology and the alleged philosophical foundation of our education system.

Anyway, getting students to know things is one thing, but challenging them to think seriously about taking the reigns of their lives is another entirely. You partly do this precisely by making them learn your material. But also by taking personal interest in their development.

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Filed Under: Education

A Recipe for Link Sauce

November 2, 2017 by Geoff Leave a Comment

A few years ago I read this horrifying article: Males can lactate. A recent event, which does not include me lactating occurred which reminded me of it. Enjoy this unsettling series of anecdotes: “Among them was a South American man, observed by Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who subbed as wet nurse after his wife fell ill as well as male missionaries in Brazil that were the sole milk supply for their children because their wives had shriveled breasts. More recently, Agence France-Presse reported a short piece in 2002 on a 38-year-old man in Sri Lanka who nursed his two daughters through their infancy after his wife died during the birth of her second child.”

But in related news, you can increase your testosterone naturally. Here’s the author’s experience: “After 90 days, I had my testosterone tested again. My total T had gone up to 778 ng/dL and my free T had risen to 14.4 pg/mL. I had doubled my testosterone.” I’ve never had my t-levels checked. 

William Briggs has hopefully participated in the final death blow to the p-value as a statistical tool. But, since the same misinterpretations of this useless tool keep appearing in social science journals, it seems likely to me that it’s a dead horse that remains to be beaten.

Bruce Charlton’s paper on the metaphysics of biology was accepted and published last year, but I had missed it. This line will be sure to disturb many, “Furthermore, I will suggest that a teleology of biology having the required properties entails ‘deism’; deism being belief in a single, overall, unifying – but potentially abstract and impersonal – source of order and meaning for reality.” 

Over at Albion Awakening, William Wildblood (hopefully his real name) wrote Jesus was Left-Wing. Here’s a great line: “Liberals mistake being nice for loving but what is the greater love, that you support someone walking over a cliff or you turn him back? Love does not confirm someone in their errors but directs them towards the truth.”

Edward Feser wrote about Lewis’ doctrine of transposition. “By “transposition,” Lewis has in mind the way in which a system which is richer or has more elements can be represented in a system that is poorer insofar as it has fewer elements.”

The article, “Staying Friends with Ex-Romantic Partners,” claims that evidence suggests that among the reasons such friendships remain, ‘security and practical’ reasons have the most positive outcomes. 

Jordan Peterson’s paper “A Psycho-ontological Analysis of Genesis 2-6” is available free on Scribd. It is the academic background to a great deal of his Biblical lecture series. He posits, rightly in my view, that the early chapters of Genesis are essentially making the narrative argument that, “If the world of experience is made of chaos and order, then the choice between the path of Cain and the path of Abel is the most important choice that anyone can ever make.” There are elements that some might find theologically objectionable, but it’s a great article. 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Links

Love Your Neighbor and Marus Aurelius

November 2, 2017 by Geoff 1 Comment

In the passage below, the word “as” can mean ‘as though’ or ‘while.’ This is so in the Hebrew and Greek Old Testament:

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:17-18)

Most interpreters take the word ‘as’ to mean ‘as though.’ So ‘love your neighbor as though he were yourself.’ But it might be a useful thought experiment to think of it this way, ‘love [seek the well-being of] your neighbor as you love [seek the well-being] of yourself.’ I’m not saying that’s what the passage means. I’m just saying that it’s suggestive. Below is a paragraph from Marcus Aurelius about doing good by others in such a way that it benefits more than just them:

This will be clearer to you if you remind yourself: I am a single limb (melos) of a larger body— a rational one. Or you could say “a part” (meros)— only a letter’s difference. But then you’re not really embracing other people. Helping them isn’t yet its own reward. You’re still seeing it only as The Right Thing To Do. You don’t yet realize who you’re really helping. 

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) (Kindle Locations 1657-1661). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

And so such a thought experiment might go: as I do what is best for myself, how might I do it in such a fashion that it is a blessing to others? Or, to put it the other way, how might I do what it best for others in a way that is good for myself and my family as well?

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Filed Under: Bible, Christianity Tagged With: discipleship, Jesus, Marcus Aurelius, philosophy, Leviticus

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