7 Dec 11 - So...what's the point?

[Ameyal]

Could be "think for yourself".

That's what I got too.

That or "That's for you to decide"

[adamiani]

Seems like a guy too intent on undermining the material (in the interest of furthering a personal academic agenda) to actually be any good at teaching it to first-week freshmen.

[Valerie]

Seems like a guy too intent on undermining the material (in the interest of furthering a personal academic agenda) to actually be any good at teaching it to first-week freshmen.

That's kinda what I'm feeling, too. I had a teacher in 12th grade who was supposed to be teaching us about plays, but instead he would tie every possible thing to how evolution is a hoax. Maybe he should be working at, like, a Catholic school or something.

(Shit, I attended a Catholic school before that, and we learned that the creation story was a metaphor...)

Anyway, it's too early to really say. He just kind of gives that vibe.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

Unless I'm mistaken, I think that the point DMDOaD is making is - life only has whatever meaning you yourself attach to it. Which is where I get a tad confused, as... oh. Wait, Sara attaches tons of meaning to things, the caveat is that she doesn't always have her personal meanings line up with the reality of the situation, too. Unless I'm totally off here.

[brasca]

To paraphrase Henry Ford "philosophy is bunk."

[Arky]

My approximate translation: "Now you're starting to think..."

That's how I interpreted it.

His advice to them to act as if they are still being supervised is the best advice he could give a bunch of freshmen. It's the "taking responsibility for your own work" part of higher education that tends to send people off the rails. You have to make yourself do the homework for your own benefit, you have to make yourself get the assignment in on time for your own benefit, you have to make yourself not drink yourself stupid the day before a test for your own benefit. Hopefully you will have some friends and family support, but you won't have an entire school structure devoted to directing you to do what's best.

[Silversmith]

My approximate translation: "Now you're starting to think..."

That's how I interpreted it.

His advice to them to act as if they are still being supervised is the best advice he could give a bunch of freshmen. It's the "taking responsibility for your own work" part of higher education that tends to send people off the rails. You have to make yourself do the homework for your own benefit, you have to make yourself get the assignment in on time for your own benefit, you have to make yourself not drink yourself stupid the day before a test for your own benefit. Hopefully you will have some friends and family support, but you won't have an entire school structure devoted to directing you to do what's best.

Long time I haven't posted here (pretty much a lurker).

"Think. You."

Think for yourself.

That is the purpose of the movement of the Enlightenment and Descartes' work that created modern philosophy. To doubt everything and free yourself from superstitions.

I remember Rick Roderick's videos (watch them please) on Youtube and I liked when he said that despite the Enlightenment, people believe in some of the wackiest things ever in this time. That Elvis is still alive and the church of Maradona.

[DudeMyDadOwnsADealership]

"Sufficiently advanced philosophy is indistinguishable from bullshit. Or vice versa. Whatev."

Same for a lot of advanced moral reasoning that philosophy seeks to understand. Kind of the whole point. Bear's gotta learn how to successfully hibernate for the winter, antelope's gotta learn how to outrun it's predators, Global Age human's gotta learn what's bullshit and what ain't.

[Pink Freud]

Yes, okay, I am a child, but damnit I couldn't resist...

[Alice Macher]

You can pick your profs, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your prof's nose?

[bunnyThor]

He's saying "Temple You" which means she needs to go to synagogue and ask the rabbi, because rabbis are mensches like that.

[Hexr]

It's a highly sophisticated hand gesture, that translates roughly to "You're on a right track. Getting there, I might say. Keep thinking about it. Discover YOUR own answers. This is the kind of thing where there are no clear, readily-made answers your professor, mentor or spiritual leader can give you. Build your own truth."
Or maybe "I'm trying to play HEADgames with YOU."

[mindstalk]

I hope you're right. (Even if your hint didn't help.) Because the interpretation I got is, this guy just told a young woman in the 1st round match of the tournament that is her life, that life is meaningless. That nothing matters.

And if a college professor, a man in charge of molding young minds, is saying shit like that to impressionable youth, I hope the dean of the school fires him and dropkicks him in the balls. (Pro wrestling dropkick, not football dropkick.)

Actually 'shit like that' would be basic existentialism and other philosophy. Life, or anything, doesn't *have* meaning, we ascribe meanings to things. A record of Mozart is just pitted plastic until played and listened to and interpreted by a human mind.

"If nothing we do matters, the only thing that matters is what we do." -- Angel

[Corneel]

I'm baffled by all this analysis of what Prof. Noton means. How did you get past the "Can't sleep, Prof. Noton'll eat me" stage? That guy looks seriously creepy crazy.

[yeorenzen]

I hope you're right. (Even if your hint didn't help.) Because the interpretation I got is, this guy just told a young woman in the 1st round match of the tournament that is her life, that life is meaningless. That nothing matters.

And if a college professor, a man in charge of molding young minds, is saying shit like that to impressionable youth, I hope the dean of the school fires him and dropkicks him in the balls. (Pro wrestling dropkick, not football dropkick.)

Well, even if he himself have a personal conviction about the meaning of life, it's not his job to lay it out to a student like that to take on authority . That would be preaching, - and God (!) knows there's plenty of that in society. His job is to make students think for themselves, which is probably the most important thing anyone could learn in college or anywhere. (That and whatever subjects Sara finds exiting enough to make the basis of a career.) - So no, the teacher should not be dropkicked in the balls

As Socrates once suggested about himself instead of a death-sentence: He should be he should be given free meals at City Hall