Rebecca, Writing, and Me (H3)

As Thanksgiving prepares to dawn on us and I am assailed on all sides by a host of final papers, essays, and blog posts firing broadsides of technical or content snags at me I cannot help but be amused by the fact that Ms. Goldstein doesn’t fail to somehow surprise me.  For example, I never thought I would ever discover that the term, and I quote “bullshit” had a philosophic context, or that I would need up reading a history of the Peloponnesian War which I am still uncertain as to the purpose of some of it in this context.  I am not sure why but somehow I feel that if she taught an intro to philosophy course here at MTSU I would much prefer to take Prof. Oliver’s course.  Never the less, she does make some interesting points.  Such as the way she points out the interesting character of Socrates, which she highlights quite well.  In one of my other classes we, and I believe quite aptly so, called Socrates the “Jesus of philosophy”.  Because indeed there are parallels that Rebecca Goldstein also seems to pick up on herself.  For me the fact that at the same time I cannot enjoy her book but enjoy reading it points to a philosophic understand that I would probably greatly appreciate in her if I ever met her.  Because while I am not particularly fond of what she is saying in some of the chapters.  The way she says it, the way she really says it, is something I find quite ingenuous.