2012 Fall Proseminar Professor Blog

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August 29, 2012

What an interesting group we have for this class! I thought we had a good introductory discussion about philosophy using that prompt. Thanks for tracking all of the things we put on your "to do" list. A couple of notes for next week:

With the Deleuze reading you may feel pretty lost. This is a continental French postmodern philosopher, so the writing is less analytic than, say, Hadot. Just let it wash over you and try to pick out a few things he's saying that seem important. Really, that kind of works with this sort of text early on. With the Hadot reading, take some time to look up terms like "stoicism" and some of the figures. Try jotting down a couple of dates if you don't have this Hellenistic period down yet. Of course, we're after his main thesis, so don't get lost in the historical detail. Just pick up enough to follow the argument.

I didn't emphasize this last night, but you should be using lots of online resources (see the wiki page) to "tenderize" your readings. Spending a few minutes googling or reading an article about your topic often makes the text much easier to digest. (I have "purist colleagues" who would give you the opposite advice -- that you should have a "pure" relationship to the text and not read secondary sources.) You decide, but I really think using secondary material like wikipedia and internet encyclopedias of philosophy is a really good strategy. Don't substitute it for the text, of course.

Also, I usually mention that you have about a six hour workload outside of class for this course. That's normal as far as I know. So please keep track of your prep time. I assign alot of reading, and I want to know how long it's taking you to do and how much your getting from it. It's this whole accountability and teaching thing I'm into. Crazy. But I don't want the course work to take much longer than that either. Maybe you should schedule that reading time in your calendar now. It's going to be wonderful.

I'll bring desert next week, but I would like most of you to post to the wiki with questions, favorite quotes from the reading, objections, links to resources you found helpful in understanding the readings, etc. Post to the in-class notes for next week. That's what good seminarians would do.

Ok, I need to get ready for another class. Please come by the office (Rebmann 203) in the next few weeks to talk about something philosophical or just to get more of an introduction going. I'd enjoy finding out more about all of your interests, and it helps me connect topics and suggest readings for you. Just email me with a time if you aren't too busy.

Looking forward to next week already.

Alfino