My philosophy teacher is at times hard to take. She obviously knows the material, but she approaches it as if it is integral to philosophy to be confusing. I disagree, of course, but that seems to be the case. Today she took a simple concept such as Locke's assertion regarding sensation and reflection, and ended up making this huge, convoluted rendering on the white board, with arrows and boxes within boxes, all filled with terms and words yet more arrows and boxes and...
It could have all been explained by drawing a circle with a single arrow pointing into it. Boom. Sensation provides raw materials for reflection. Done.
It doesn't help that the most argumentative guy in the world is in the class. Wait, I take that back. Artie isn't in the class. He's in New York. This guy, however, is a close second. Everything relates to either God, or is labeled as "contradicting itself". He's said that about every single philosopher thus far. "But what about God? How does God fit in that?" or "I disagree. He's just contradicting himself." It's like this guy is a robot with two pre-programmed responses.
Ugh.
Anyway, enough bitching for now.
It could have all been explained by drawing a circle with a single arrow pointing into it. Boom. Sensation provides raw materials for reflection. Done.
It doesn't help that the most argumentative guy in the world is in the class. Wait, I take that back. Artie isn't in the class. He's in New York. This guy, however, is a close second. Everything relates to either God, or is labeled as "contradicting itself". He's said that about every single philosopher thus far. "But what about God? How does God fit in that?" or "I disagree. He's just contradicting himself." It's like this guy is a robot with two pre-programmed responses.
Ugh.
Anyway, enough bitching for now.
emelaeth:
that sounds irritating...i hated it in philosophy classes in college...there was always that one boy or girl who made me want to insight violence just so that the rest of us could have a normal conversation....and the prof was usually too pompous to respect. It was much nicer to discuss with friends over coffee than in a classroom enviornment.