Spinoza!

Wow... It's been a pretty hectic week this week. Especially seeing as I have been doing a six day weekend thing.
Tuesday night was the RMO cocktail night. I got very very drunk, as drunk as I have been in about a year (Since I thought it was a good idea to mix bundy and red wine in the same glass anyway). The cocktails were good, the company was good and at times amusing and mentally stimulating. Plus is was another shave for a cure thing. As you would have seen in previous entries, I have been pretty good keeping up my end of the shave for a cure bargain. Being me though, I stupidly said in the staff tea room 2 weeks ago, I would wax my chest for over $100. I was thinking student budget when I said it. Being surrounded by doctors however, the money was raised in less than 2 minutes. So now, I look like a luekaemia patient, with bruises all over my chest from overzealous waxing. Never again.
Wednesday was a show holiday here, so, some of us went to the show. It was fun, and I even won a huge stuffed toy in sideshow alley. A big grey warthog, who was promptly dubbed Grey-ham. Nice.
I had to leave the show earlier than I wanted though, as the intern recruitment talk was that night. It was interesting, yet entirely painful, consisting of four hours on every hospital taking interns saying pretty much the exact same thing. Except for Rocky, where Dr Benton started to say something, but stopped. My first reaction was, uh-oh, he's going to say something inappropriate. I found out last night however, it was just a case of mind blank.
Thursday was a horror 8 hour train trip to Brisbane to see The Ticket, who rocked out in a pretty good, radioheadish kind of way. Rob informed me that there was a fair element to Sigur Ros in their songs as well. Unfortunately I couldn't hear Rob's lead work too well, as I was wearing ear plugs (Always do these days, you feel so much more the better for it in the mornings), and they tend to block most of the higher frequency stuff. I enjoyed it though, and I look forward to hearing more of The Ticket in good course.
So yesterday morning, it was breakfast in the city with Rob before he went back to work, and a quick dash into Dymocks to buy a book to keep me sane on the train trip home. I bought The Great Philosophers, which in between strong urges to snot a few people in the back on the head, keep me busy for the ride back.
Synopsis so far:
Socrates - Didn't believe in writing things down, claimed not to know much, was a bit of a smart arse and got about asking people questions to disprove their beliefs. Extolled living your life by the five virtues; courage, moderation, piety, wisdom and justice.
Plato - Fawn eyed follower of Socrates. Most of his work consisted of transcribing conversations that Socrates had with different people. Was suspected to use Socrates as a conduit for his own beliefs in his later works. Hated democracy, did a lot of stuff about what sort of laws an ideal society would live by.
Descartes - Dualism guy. Gave us the line I am thinking, therefore I exist, which is often shortened to I think therefore I am. Started out quite promisingly, aiming to separate from his theories things that were held without proof. Thus his line. It was the simplist reduction of what could be proven. All he could prove was that He thinks. Came to the conclusion that means he exists, but could never determine in what sense. Then came the idea of mind being separate from body, yet could not explain how when repeatedly asked by Princess Elizabeth. Sort of lost the plot in the end, died young of pneumonia in Amsterdam.
Spinoza - Devised a series of proofs for the existence of God. In his Ethics series it basically came down to there are two fundamental types of things. Those of the universe, and those the universe came of. Both are linked to each other by definition. That which the universe came of must be the entire whole of everything, and this he concluded is God. Seeing as we all came of God, we are inextricably linked, and to attain happiness and fulfillment, we must strive to reassimilate with God. Some think he's a genius, some think he's a prat.
Berkley - Was a big supporter of trying to remove words from philosophy, as he felt they were too clumsy to express the fundamental truths. Used a lot of thought experiments to explain himself, such as asking people to imagine a triangle, in all it's physical states but no particular one, at the same time. Basiclly trying to get people to comprehend things as concepts rather than objects. Big guy on perception and it's subjectivity, but not adverse to fudging things to support his beliefs.

So the question is, what am I learning from my little foray into philosophy?
So far it is that these great men were not as bright as I first thought. I also wonder why philosophers are such lousy communicators... But hey, it's not like anyone is going to be writing books about my dazzling theories in 2000 years, so I think for now, I'll just let it go and get back to passing my degree.

Wow... I can't believe you just read all of that. You must really like me ;)


Cheers!

Grim.