Life and the World

This is a philosophy and philosphical blog.

For those that need to know, I am embarking on studying towards an AS Level in Philosophy and my little brain is jumping for joy. After a few years as a 'professional', my grey matter feels as if it is starting to atrophe through lack of use. The study towards being a 'professional' was briefly diverting, but now that I have settled in... same old, same old. The Brain is Bored. My conversation seems to be consist more and more of the state of the Underground, and the soft furnishings in my flat and less and less 'what's it all about then...'.

I have erudite, intelligent and interesting friends, but the balance of my discussions with them sometimes seems to be tipping towards pension and travel arrangements. Partly this is because I know them, and their views, well - so maybe it takes a new thing happening in the world to bring out new conversation. It is a kind of laziness on my part; a taking for granted, a comfortableness with the certain and well known, a resting on my life-laurels.

I also take responsibility for my being less likely to leap into confrontation, by which I mean that I don't now rush into debates that I anticipate might be heated. An explanation could be (not sure about this one) that my aforementioned 'profession' is demanding, pretty long hours and not infrequently stressful. Debate takes mental effort and sometimes I don't have any mental effort left after a long day. This is a vicious circle of boredom - I work, I come home mentally tired but not mentally stimulated, I want to relax, I get bored, I go to work without any mental-energy jumpstart.

This is of course a description of the worst - I love my friends and my other half and we can all talk and talk till the hind legs have fallen off all the furniture (no donkeys in London) - life and the world have been covered many times over. The world has been put to rights so many times that I don't know why everything hasn't been sorted out by now. Tsk.

Really this is about me and my wanting to push myself onwards. I want to start the circle in a virtuous direction. It is not so much about the qualification (though that would be nice) but about the learning. And it is totally under my own control (eek). The course is via correspondence, with no one to pressure me but me (and my other half who, though he doesn't know it, is my course 'mentor'), and so for the first time in my life I will be learning merely for sake of learning. And, with any luck, coming up with thoughts of my very own.

I do not want to just be a sponge, and the early signs are good. Last weekend I made about 10 sides of notes for six sides of 'Introduction' in the course material and vehemently disagreed with the writer of said Introduction on several occasions. I have already found myself curiously frustrated by the writer's obsession with the Ancient Greeks and I suspect that that might prove to be a continuing theme. Although I should bear in mind that my scepticism about the hero-worship on display should not close my mind to the insights they have to offer. Apart from anything else, I want to know why ancient world philospohers seemed so happy to commit suicide when ordered to do so.

So, the experiment beginneth. Let the fun commence!