Of long days and mixed cultures
Today I went to a lecture on the Pragmatism of John Dewey as a way to understand Confucian thought in opening up a dialogue between North America and China. I found the talk a bit light on Dewey and a bit heavy on Confucius, but since I know some Dewey, I could see his point. He simply did not make it explicitly.
I attended this talk for five reasons:
1) I have an interest in Eastern philosophy
2) I have a seminar on Pragmatism this term
3) I would like to see (and help develop) a study of philosophy which breaks down regional sects (and unseats the dominance of Anglo-European philosophy)
4) The speaker came from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, one of the only schools to seriously do comparative philosophy, and one I would like to attend for my PhD
5) Free sushi
However, going to this talk extended my day by a few hours, so I got home a good bit later than I normally do. I don't think I will get any work done, meaning that I took this whole week light on work. On the other hand, my reading for nest week doesn't seem too bad. I can get a minimum done by Friday, leaving the weekend for term paper reading. I have done a bit of reading for my Pragmatism paper, but I still need to get cracking on the Epistemology of Testimony paper. I intend to get one solid A this term. Those A minuses from last year really bug me. I can manage if I work pretty hard. Granted, I don't have too much to worry about since UBC has a good reputation among philosophy faculties, and my grades stay at least close to the class average. I haven't done very badly, I just haven't done as well as I wanted. Some of these issues come from size of fish relative to size of pond concerns. However, the quality of my work this term ought to demonstrate that I figured out how to do this grad school thing, and now I know what to expect at the next level.
Today I went to a lecture on the Pragmatism of John Dewey as a way to understand Confucian thought in opening up a dialogue between North America and China. I found the talk a bit light on Dewey and a bit heavy on Confucius, but since I know some Dewey, I could see his point. He simply did not make it explicitly.
I attended this talk for five reasons:
1) I have an interest in Eastern philosophy
2) I have a seminar on Pragmatism this term
3) I would like to see (and help develop) a study of philosophy which breaks down regional sects (and unseats the dominance of Anglo-European philosophy)
4) The speaker came from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, one of the only schools to seriously do comparative philosophy, and one I would like to attend for my PhD
5) Free sushi
However, going to this talk extended my day by a few hours, so I got home a good bit later than I normally do. I don't think I will get any work done, meaning that I took this whole week light on work. On the other hand, my reading for nest week doesn't seem too bad. I can get a minimum done by Friday, leaving the weekend for term paper reading. I have done a bit of reading for my Pragmatism paper, but I still need to get cracking on the Epistemology of Testimony paper. I intend to get one solid A this term. Those A minuses from last year really bug me. I can manage if I work pretty hard. Granted, I don't have too much to worry about since UBC has a good reputation among philosophy faculties, and my grades stay at least close to the class average. I haven't done very badly, I just haven't done as well as I wanted. Some of these issues come from size of fish relative to size of pond concerns. However, the quality of my work this term ought to demonstrate that I figured out how to do this grad school thing, and now I know what to expect at the next level.