Monday, December 15, 2008

philosophophee

One of the main things that studying Philosophy has taught me is that when it comes to a lot of things, there aren't really any rules. There are frameworks that we apply to things because it makes it easier to deal with them but when you actually investigate them, the things we take for granted can be knocked down like a house of cards. Governments do not simply have the right to power because they are governments, art cannot really be defined in any universal sense, "right" and "wrong" cannot be defined external to our own moral compass.

All this might seem painfully obvious but still we seem to operate our lives on the basis of contrary beliefs. Are we as creatures so conflicted in our nature that we choose not only to act, but to KNOW contrary to what we believe? The only real way of negating this is to accept that perhaps there is no one universal truth but just a number of different truths that operate in greater and lesser spheres. That can either be immensely disquieting or wonderfully freeing - robbing one of all purpose, or lifting a burden.

I'm getting a bit fed up of Leeds at the moment, I think it's just pre Christmas malaise. Actually, that's complete bullshit, it's because a lot of stressful stuff has gone on this past month and I miss my boyfriend. The knock on result of this is that I'm looking forward to going home for Christmas even more than usual. I'm going to miss everyone but I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks holed up on the sofa with a dvd collection, playing computer games with Fenrif and eating until I'm more stuffed than the turkey. Not to mention the usual christmas reunions and shindigs - always fun catching up with other Wirral escapees!

I'm looking forward to next Semester a lot more than this one - the modules I have chosen are a lot more enjoyable than this years - Political Philosophy has been great but Renaissance and Restoration Literature are just two massive behemoths of modules; both enjoyable in their way but I'm struggling to really immerse myself in both of them - I think I could do it if I was only studying one or the other but together they're a bit much. However I'm hoping to just get a comfortable 2:1 really, and hopefully really pull my grades up next year.

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