The anatomy of an idea
Just wanted to update with what's what..

* Finally finished my referat paper in "Kant's Critique of Pure Reason" entitled "The Roles of Analyticity: On the Synthetic-Analytic Distinction for Kant and others" in which I managed to squeeze into 14 pages 3 versions of Analyticity as they appear to me for Kant, Frege, The Vienna Circle, and Quine, with a little reference to Leibniz and Hume in the beginning too. The question being begged of course, is are these differences of analyticity between these thinkers conceptual differences, or do they agree on the concept, just not of it's extension? In either case, how does that affect Kant's work?
Interestingly, for the most severe criticism (that of Quine's Two Dogmas of Empiricism), Kant's work stands either way.
I didn't always think Kant's Copernican Revolution was so.. well, revolutionary til lI wrote this work. My personal intuitions lead towards a Dennettian version of strong Materialistic Empiricism, but it seems that Kant's work, from his point of view, is pretty much immune to criticism, and yet is anti-dogmatic by it's virtue.
Very powerful stuff, I've really finally come to newly appreciate Kant, for the sheer magnitude and depth of his project.

* Apparently, we're still on strike. I want to say how rotten this strike is, how retarded it is for students to go on strike, let alone when most of the students in the country don't even belong to the student body union, but honestly? I'm a lazy fuck, and I do enjoy some off time.

Ah, what the hell, let the ranting begin. This shit's tricky though, since, technically, I'm paying for these classes that aren't taking place. This is something the Stalinist authoritarian Student Union people probably didn't bother taking into account. You're not hurting anyone with capital when you go on strike! You're hurting me. Which is completely irrelevant, since they quite clearly state that they had no intention of helping me, but rather (at least they claim) future students, who are of course not my problem at all. I'm just being hijacked for the ride, which to be frank, is more probably related to the Student Body Union's director wanting a piece of the political pie. He doesn't want to be left out, because he's probably planning a future in politics, like several of his predecessors. Because seriously, who even wants to be a part of the SBU? Most students in Israel don't. I'm ashamed to say I'm a member, but for purely pragmatic selfish reasons; If I weren't I'd be denied certain rights. More than anything it was an expensive lottery ticket for the chance to be able to park my car on campus, who the University authorities gave the monopoly to the SBU for some unfair reason or another.
Now honestly, my fellow students, what are we complaining about here? Some committee that will discuss certain options that we (and by "we" I mean the head of the SBU) do not approve of? Has anything concrete been done to academia to provoke this? No. Do we agree that something needs to be done about the state of academia in the country? Yes. So what are we striking about? That Mr. SBU President wasn't invited to take part. That is all it is, and don't let them tell you otherwise. At least this round they didn't hire bullies (with my money) to deny people such as myself, (false consciousnesses as we are often hatefully called) their right to enter the campus, a right which is protected by law, mind you. They know they can count on students not-showing up for anything they ever organize. After all, if it were actually a protest they wanted to arrange (which is what this legally is, as it is by no way a 'strike'), they could have done so, but they know nobody gives a shit, which leaves them powerless. One thing they know they can count on is students not-going to school if asked not too. A kneejerk reaction by the masses whomiss the fact that unlike highschool, they're actually paying good money for each and every one of their classes to take place.
Sigh, I really do want to end this rant, so I'll just admit that the only good thing about this is that I get to sleep more, which is of course, always a positive.


* The title of this post is an idea that's been running around in my brain that I'll eventually put into words, probably on my blog. As you can gather, it has to do witrh creativity. Hey, those who cannot do, teach, right?

Tough shit if you'd like to know more, because there's not much more I'm ready to say about it at this point. Think of it as Memetics on speed. And for dummies.


* Started reading Marcel Proust's Remembrance of things Past. Still not sold on it though. The pile next to my bed isn't getting any shorter, sigh.