Half-way Done

Well, to begin I should apologize for not having posted anything in the last two weeks but after I discuss it you'll understand.

Well I guess that I'll back up to where I left you guys last. After the weekend in London and Dover I had to hit the books hard. I had my first paper of the term due on the Monday following that trip, and of course I hadn't begun writing it yet when I got back to Colchester Saturday night! So Saturday night and all of Sunday was devoted to getting that paper done. It was for my class in Philosophy and Mind and I had to write on the following; "Explain and assess Daniel Dennett's account of intentionality. [In addressing this question, pay careful attention to Dennett's conception of a designed system.]" It was a fun paper to write, other than the fact I wasn't really asked to argue anything. Of course that didn't stop me from making a few arguments in favour of Dennett's account of intentionality!

So I finished that paper and then had to move straight on to another one that was due for the following Thrusday (the 18th) for my Contemporary Political Philosophy course. This paper was a great deal more enjoyable to write because I actually got to argue a point. The question asked that I chose to respond to was whether we "should aim for equality of welfare or equality of resources" in political theory. I argued that we should aim for equality of welfare because it gets closer to the heart of what we are aiming to do when we strive for equality in society.

So I handed that paper in on Thursday and probably should have begun working on my other two papers but I chose to take the day off. Well the day turned into two, and then three, and all of a sudden it was Monday and nothing had been done yet, oops. But I buckled down, headed to the library early in the morning and began researching for my next paper for my Joint Seminar in Philosophy and Law.

This paper was by far my favourite to write because I was actually able to incorporate some Kantian ethics, that I had studied last term back at Creighton, into the paper. The question for the paper was "Does the idea of role morality make sense?" I argued that it did, based on a Korsgaardian theory of practical identity. It was a blast to write, and I think probably my best paper of the four I wrote.

Well I began researching and finished writing that paper on Monday and was too burned out to begin on my final paper so I put that off until Tuesday. Tuesday came and after class I turned to work on my paper for my Ethics class, but I just didn't seem to be making any process in my reading and researching and thereby couldn't formulate any arguments for my paper, the topic of which was "Can we derive and justify specific duties by using the Categorical Imperative?"

So I benched it and chose to come back to it on Wednesday, in the hopes that my thinking would be clearer. It was, which was nice, and I was able to reread the material and write the whole of the paper in one day so that it would be ready to hand in on Thursday as well. So I handed in my last two papers on Thursday and was done for the term other than a presentation I had to give in my Contemporary Political Philosophy course on Friday.

The presentation was on Thomas Nagel's essay on positive discrimination (what is called affirmative action back in the States). It was a relatively short essay so the prep time was minimal and I think the presentation went well.

But back to last weekend. When I mentioned that one day turning into two and then three when I was putting of the paper, it wasn't just because I chose to fiddle with my thumbs over essay writing. I actually took a trip to Canterbury. Many of you might have heard of this city, it is a relatively small town in the southeast of England, but it holds enormous theological influence and has for centuries. It is the the home of the beautiful Canterbury Cathedral, St. Augustine's Abbey, and Saint Martin's Church, as well as being the home for the Archbishop of Canterbury (duh...) a position that a great deal of highly influential theologians and thinkers have wither held or been in direct correlation to over the past several hundred years. Thinkers such as Saint Augustine and Anselm of Canterbury have been it's Archbishop, and the history is hard to ignore when you walk the grounds of the Cathedral.

As you can now see, its been a crazy two weeks. But that's enough for now.

My next post will detail my travel plans for the break.

I hope all is well with all of you!