Academics week March 17-20

We had a short week because there were no classes on Good Friday. Also, we have Monday off, so that should give us a chance to get caught up a little bit on some work and also keeps us from having Philosophy and latin homework (although I'm sad there'll be no philosophy lecture!).

Here are the highlights from last week:

Philosophy

We continued to talk about John Stuart Mill and utilitarianism. It differs from past ethical systems in that it says actions have to be decided on with regards to their outcome, but the only way to know their outcome is from human experience. There is no set end like Aristotle's "Man of Virtue", Mill simply determines right and wrong by way of a test: since the aim is to increase pleasure and decrease pain, only do things which do this. To decide between two pleasures, ask someone who has experienced both and is endowed with an appreciation for his 'higher faculties' (i.e. reason) which is the higher of the two. Mill is also differend from Hume who said our judgements of right and wrong are feelings within us. Mill says we can have no sensory instinct informing us of right and wrong. He also objected to Kant, because he says Kantian ethics "does not logically rule out the adoption by all rational beings of the most outrageous immoral rules of conduct." Kant doesn't give us any list of what is right/wrong, he just gives us a standard to apply to actions:If people are universally in agreement about an action, it is acceptable. It is an ethics of what you should do in trying to figure out what to do, but not an actual ethics of what you should do. Is it not possible that people might be able to universalize things that are not good? So Mill thought he'd really come up with something in utilitarianism that would make it impossible for this to happen: do that which brings the greatest happiness. This sounds quite sensible, even in agreement with Aristotle and Aquinas where the good man is the happy man. But we know that it all depends on your definition of happiness. For Aristotle happiness=excellence, a state of being in accord with what your function/purpose is. This is very different from a feeling. But Mill talks about happiness in relation to pleasure. So his argument that his ethics would not give rise to immoral conduct is doesn't make much sense- for example, the sexual immorality of our day has been in "pursuit of happiness and pleasure"! Mill's problem with Kant comes up again in his own ethics.

We talked about various other problems with the system:

-there is no recognition of absolutes, such as absolute rights like the right to life

-it's implicit metaphysical materialism. It is committed to materialism, even though of course the presumption materialism is not a question of facts but of faith, because its not provable.

-it has a reductionist view of evil. Evil (for example, the holocaust) is seen only as a wrong calculation of consequences.

-it can hardly be called 'ethics' at all, because it doesn't anser the basic ethical question: Why be Good? He says 'we should all be concerned for the happiness of all" but doesn't give any backing to his 'should'.

J.S. Mill

We also started talking about Martin Buber's I and Thou. More on him next week...

Art

We had a really great class on Romanticism, although I was a little tired since I'd stayed up late finishing my paper. Since artists weren't under patrons anymore but were vying for popularity at the salons and in the art academies, their aim was to stand out and make an impression. The idea of avant-garde came in, and instead of portraying "the good" artists started to focus on losses and human failure. Romantic culture accepts the middle class, but it also has a streak of disaffection with culture altogether.

This is "Marengo", Napoleon's horse. People had seen Napoleon's horrific reign that so utterly failed to live up to expectations.

Fransisco Goya was drawn to macabre subjects. He painted terrifying images of war and nightmarish subjects.

Humor entered art, and Blake started making images of his own fantasy world. In the last part of the class we looked at Kenneth Clark's claim that "Landscape was the chief artistic creation of the 19th Century".

J.M.W. Turner saw meaning and beauty in everyday scenes.

Latin

We had a test on relative pronouns and subordinate clauses, we're now only the passive system and have a whole load of memorizing to do, once again.

Music

Berlioz, Franck, Bruckner and Tchaikovsky! We heard the last movement of Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique (the Dream of the Witches' Sabbath- which funnily enough we'd seen Goya's paintings of on Tuesday), some choral music by Franck, a bunch of orchestral stuff by Tchaikovsky and the Os Justi motet by Bruckner which is really pretty. It sounds almost like Renaissance, Palestrina-esque. He adds a little bit of chant at the very end, which was being recalled during his day. "The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just. The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip."

Literature

We talked about two short stories by Wendell Berry: Pray without Ceasing and A Jonquil for Mary Penn. These are beautiful pieces, really well written and all about family and home and although they are realistic they are hopeful, unlike a lot of 'realistic' writing that is really depressing. We also watched the first half of a film called "The Apostle" which kinda relates to Frederich Bueckner somehow... (obviously I wasn't listening very well). Its a super uncomfortable film about a preacher from the south who goes around doing tent revivals yet his personal life is super messed up. We'll watch the rest of it next week...

Scriptures

We had a small class since a lot of people had gone home for Easter by this time. We finished up with Calvin, talking about the sections in his institutes on the Ministry of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and Eschatology, and also his commentary on Romans 8. Even though he saw people as very rotten to the core, he was able to hope in the fact that Christ is our Head and God would not sever the Head from the Body. Doubts will assail us but they will not overwhelm us. Next week we start on John Wesley. I've started writing my Sciptures paper on the Resurrection (appropriate for this time of year, I think) and what Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin say about it, especially with regard to what it means for us. We are assured of the victory of our faith and our God over death, we can have new spiritual life and live righteously, and we can wait in hope for the resurrection of our bodies in the last day.

I get really frustrated with myself for struggling as I do with writing papers. It takes me so long to get my thoughts into ordered and coherent paragraphs! I also have a hard time knowing how to get just the right thesis, not trying to cover too much. 'm definitely better at grasping concepts like in math or physics, but I'm grateful for the practice I'm getting with all of this and I'm trying to remind myself that my grades here don't actually count for anything, so its nothing to stress about. Am I better at thinking than I was in September? Absolutely. Am I better at producing those thoughts in the form of a paper? Probably, but as the papers get more challenging and I deal with stuff I haven't thought about much before it feels like I'm not making a lot of progress. Also, my roommates are both really quick and good at writing cohesive and coherent papers. I'm thankful that I have them for inspiration and for their editing ability haha but I do fell a bit of an inferiority complex some times, especially in busy times like this when I realize how much longer I have to spend on everything than they do. So while my roommates take a four day weekend, I am only taking today off and hope to have things somewhat out of panic mode for next week.

There are 3 papers and 3 presentations left for the next 3 weeks. Time is flying and I'll be so sad when its over, although there is no way I could keep the frantic pace up for very much longer. I bought my bus ticket home this week- it was only 147 dollars to get from here to Regina! I'll have to pay a bit extra for the extra baggage I'll have, but still, so cheap. Surely it'll be worth the 50 hours of travelling, right???

We've been invited out to the Tucker's once again tonight for Easter dinner and a film night. I plan on reading a little this afternoon and playing some guitar. I wish I could be in Vancouver this weekend to hear Robyn's opera, be with the fam, and see some green. Tonight will be fun, however. We'll get to see the Tucker's kids who are soooo much fun!

peace and love,

Starr