Gossip

One of my habits that freaks me out is my ability to collect random gossip. In spite of the fact that I live on the northern tip of an island that is eight thousand miles from where most of my family and school peers live I still seem to know far too much about there lives. Well I have some great gossip (that is, not the bad kind) about a fellow TACer. Well actually I don't know him since he graduated long before I ever went to TAC. Here is the gossip. Sean Kelsey just got tenure at UCLA, I think that means sometime this year.

How do I know this? Well that is the funny bit. I was talking to a St. Andrews professor last night, and she asked me where I did my undergrad. I told her. She said that she knew the place because she was a Princeton when Sean Kelsey was there, that she keeps in touch with him, and she reads his papers for him. She ended with, "oh and he just got tenure". Yet one more proof that the world is a small small small small place.

My First, Last, and Only Post About Anime

Most, if not all, of my readers will have spent a good deal of their lives in Ridley's van drinking. If you are one of these readers, you'll remember the all night drinking, hot boxing ten packs of smokes in an enclosed space, Marian and Joe going out to talk every ten minutes, and me going out to puke in the bushes ever fifteen minutes. (Now that I think about it, that was only two years ago. Why does it feel so much longer?) You will also remember watching movies and Family Guy, and Futurama and all sorts of random stuff on Ridley's laptop. An all time favorite, at least for Nomikkh, was Cowboy Bebop.

Although I do not consider my self a devotee of the Japanese Animated arts I was quite impressed by the show. I even went so far as to introduce my brothers to the Cowboy Bebop movie. They were not amused.

Since I am on break from class this week I just sit around and watch stuff on my computer. However, the University does not allow me to use P2P software via their network (I guess they don't want to get sued). So you could imagine my excitement when I found a website in which I could stream all 26 episodes of Cowboy Bebop (youtube.com). Well I spent all day Saturday and all day Sunday (minus one hour for mass) watching every episode in order.

I must say the show is more impressive when watched in one go and in order. Also I think the show is far superior to the movie. I think that is because the movie lacks a lot of the humor that the show has. The show's eccentricities are also easier to take when you really know the ins and out of the whole metastory. For example Ed, the first time I watched the show I was not exactly a fan of her. This time when I watched it I really liked her, and I could see why Nomikkh was her biggest fan. It even got to the point that when I watched episode 24 I ... Well I felt really sad.
That is the hallmark of a great TV show. When we flip channels all day, and see Fear Factor and Big Brother we forget that TV can be artistic, every bit as good as movies. Cowboy Bebop is in that category of truly great TV shows, that is something I say about only four other shows: Fawlty Towers, Simpsons, Futurama, and The Office (UK). Pretty good company I say.

Capote

I finally saw Capote at the local theater. Only six months after it came out in the US. I liked it, of course. Much better than the gay cowboy movie.

Mea Culpa

If you read my blog regularly, which I don't expect you to do, I recently posted about some nut job who happens to think he is more Catholic than the pope. This blogger has pointed out that I should show respect to the trad movement, and not judge it by one crazy person. I see the point and accept the criticism. I do try to show genuine respect, but I often stumble. So I recant any comments I made about the wider Trad Catholics based on this one jerk.

Analytic Thomism or Averroism: There Is No Third

In the book Essays on the Aristotelian Tradition by Anthony Kenny there is an essay called "Body, Soul, and Intellect in Aquinas". This essay should be required reading for any one who gives a fig about Aquinas' philosophy of the mind; which should be everybody. For any good TACer there is a lot to think about and a lot to disagree with, but I just want to quote Kenny's conclusion,

We must add Wittgenstein to Aquinas if we are to save Aquinas from falling despite himself into the arms of Averroes.

Aquinas in October

You guys know about the 61 volume edition of the Summa Theologiae right? It was published in the 60's, and translated and edited by the Blackfriars of Oxford University. You know, they had it at school, and they came in three colors (on for each part of the Summa). It was great for four reasons,

1. The translations where fluid and not overly technical.
2. There was the Latin test on the facing pages, just in case the translation was bad.
3. There where extensive notes, introductions, and appendices.
4. The whole edition was divided up by treatise, so you didn't have to carry around the whole summa, if you just wanted say the treatise on law.

Well, guess what? Cambridge University Press is republishing the whole 61 volumes. Also they are revising a few of the translations, and keeping the facing Latin. We just have to wait until October that's all. Oh, and I think they are doing hardback and paperback (though I am not too sure about that). I figure the hard back will be about $60 a volume, and paper $20 a volume. So that is $3660 or $1220 for the best investment in you life.

However, for all of you serious Thomists out there (who know you're Latin too) that means that the Leonine Opera Ominiais cheaper (at about $3400) than the Cambridge Summa. But You can buy the Cambridge Summa piece by piece.

I am going to go for the hard back, how about you?

Finally Someone Who Thinks I'm Too Liberal

Alright, so some SSPX* guy came up with a quiz. It is a fine example off why the SSPX is dying; good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. Not only is it foolish, but more than a little offensive; as well as homophobic**. Click on the link and enjoy.

Oh and if you want to know, I scored between being the Anti-Christ and worshiping dirt. Kinda funny since I am a Catholic in union with the Church.



*You all know what this means, unless you don't. If you don't, you're lucky. Oh and I want to point out that I love Pius X, and I think that it is a bad thing indeed that the SSPX have stolen him from his rightful Church.

** Homophobic in that closeted self-hating gay sort of way. I would not be surprised if the author is a gay man in denial.

What am I doing in philosophy?

From the New York Press,

A recent job posting at the City University of New York offered a position in teaching literature, rhetoric and composition. The instructor (not professor) had to publish and carry a full load of teaching, which includes grading papers and consulting with students after class. Candidates had to have a “doctorate from an accredited university” and “demonstrated excellence in teaching.”?The salary started at $35,031

Another job posting offered a position that required a bit less education:?plumber. The qualified candidate had to know how to repair pipes and have five years of experience.

The salary began at $77,483.

"I think we should see other philosophers"

Alright, I was going to do a serious post today, but Dianne D. sent me a hilarious list of philosopher's breakup lines. I did, however, find them a little unrealistic; because philosophers usually don't have girlfriends to break up with. Anyways here they are (my top three are 'Plantingian', 'Polish Logician', 'Kripke 2' (especially if you've ever heard about Kripke's predilections).

Plantingian: A possible world with you and I together for the foreseeable future hasn't been actualized.

Chisholmian: The ideal definition, which I've taken seventy-five little steps toward, doesn't contain your name. So hit the trail.Posted by: David at March 12, 2004 10:19 AM

Quinian - To you it might have appeared that we were really together, but our relationship was just a bunch of undetached dating parts.

Paraconsistent logician v.2 - We can break up, but we'll still be together. . . and that does not imply anything (everything).

Polish Logician - BreakupYouMe

Structuralist Logician - You and I do not satisfy what it is to be in a "going out" relationship.

Hempel -
Explanans:
People are only together when both parties want to be seeing each other. (General Law)
I no longer want to see you (particular fact)
Explanandum:
Therefore we are no longer together. (explanation of why we are not dating)

Plato - We no longer participate in the Form of dating.

Leibniz (v2) Our relationship clearly did not make for the best of all possible worlds, and that is why we are no longer in it.

Kripke - Our relationship does not exist in the actual world, but perhaps in some other possible world.

Kripke 2 - I thought I was going out with someone named "Schmidt".

Indeterminacy theorist - I was never able to quite pinpoint our relationship anyway.

William James - Our breaking up is live, forced, and momentous. So take it on faith that we are no longer together.