![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Jul. 21st, 2009 11:53 amI did another of that "five things meme" because I was curious about what the person would give me. It's probably lucky for me she doesn't yet know she's inspired my New England Undergraduate Philosophy conference paper for next year, because then she'd have made me tip my hand. If you want five things ask, but this meme made the rounds pretty well the first time.
Aristotle is a sexy beast
This was said in response to someone else (cinchntouch, I believe) saying that Martin Luther thought Aristotle was a beast. First of all, this is objectively true: google images that shit and try to tell me you wouldn't go for that bearded hunk of Athenian. Besides which, he taught Alexander the Great, so that makes him hot by association. If Heath Ledger and Kupono from So You Think You Can Dance had a baby who was genetically enhanced to be a genius, you might get close to Aristotle.
But seriously, folks, Aristotle is far and away my favorite philosopher. I enjoy him so much I'm even willing to translate him, and I hate Greek so, so much. In seventh grade I brought his Rhetorika in for reading time, because we were supposed to talk about what we were reading and I wanted to show off because my teacher was horrible.
This whole conversation is reminding my of a pet theory I have that Alcibiades' speech in Symposium is a replacement for Plato's frustrations at not getting chosen as Socrates' favorite boy, but I digress.
"My whole problem is my lips move when I think"
I love my Calvin icon to death. I chose it and a couple others back when you could only have three userpics and just never used the other two. I also think it's true: I'm basically incapable of coming to conclusions or thinking things through without argumentation and a back and forth debate, which is why I have them in my head. When I argue it isn't personal, it's just the only way I can understand.
Melkites
In the course of coping with my life and the many, many problems of my archdiocese (the Latin Archdiocese of Boston) I was informed that there is another diocese in Massachusetts - the Melkite Eparchy of Newton, which inexplicably has its chancery and cathedral (paid for in part by no less than Cardinal Cushing) in Roslindale. It covers the US but there's a large Melkite population in Greater Boston and Rhode Island, which is why it's here. They are the uniate analogue of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and that liturgical tradition, and the rite is largely composed of people of middle eastern heritage. It started in the 18th century because of a dispute with Constantinople over the election of the Patriarch of Antioch, with those following the electing Patriarch coming into the Catholic Church and those following the installed Patriarch remaining Orthodox.
The unfamiliarity of the liturgy and the new surroundings made me almost child-like in my giddiness, and it gave me a rest from the problems and struggles of scandals and Voice of the Faithful meetings. The people there were somewhat surprised this random white boy was showing up and the first time I didn't get communion because they didn't understand that I was a Latin Catholic rather than a random interloper (since you don't need to change rites to receive, but they weren't used to Latins dropping in), but I found it to be a place where I could relax and be anonymous and not have to take the baggage home with me. Plus I like the food at the parish events. I wouldn't raise kids as Melkites, but it gave me an appreciation for Eastern tradition and I'm sure my whole life I'll be using it (and Latin masses) as an escape.
Thomas Aquinas
The Thomistic approach makes sense to me. It's all about the synthesis of various disciplines of learning to understand religion and about a particular understand of morality and the human person that has to do with habit and virtue rather than laws and obligations. I think it's most authentic method and form for Western Theology and because of its intellectual inclusivity it welcomes all kinds of input, from scientists to Fr. Sobrino, in seeking a coherent, technical and exhaustive articulation of our understanding.
He's hard to read sometimes, and I think if you go down the route he lays out too far you end up without a proper sense of the mysteries of the faith, but I enjoy struggling with him. In the Great Conversation, he's my favorite interlocutor.
Being smarter than most people your age
It's funny. When I was little I used to insist that other people were easily as smart as me but their parents didn't help them and they chose stupid things to be smart about. I often get down on myself for not being nearly good enough, because I'm such a terminally bad fit with the education system and how other people do things, and because it never comes out of my mouth the way it worked in my head.
The biggest thing is how alienating it is. Everybody likes someone that challenges them, helps them advance, but at my age I'm already like the lover in Plato's conception of relationships, rather than the beloved, more challenging than challenged, and more teacher than student. In classes I'm a know-it-all and someone who fights with teachers, and it's nearly impossible to find people who operate on my level when it comes to how I think and what I'm thinking about.
I don't want to sound all woe is me, because I'd never trade it, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. And, as Abigale Bartlett says "Don't fall for the geniuses, they never want to sleep."
Aristotle is a sexy beast
This was said in response to someone else (cinchntouch, I believe) saying that Martin Luther thought Aristotle was a beast. First of all, this is objectively true: google images that shit and try to tell me you wouldn't go for that bearded hunk of Athenian. Besides which, he taught Alexander the Great, so that makes him hot by association. If Heath Ledger and Kupono from So You Think You Can Dance had a baby who was genetically enhanced to be a genius, you might get close to Aristotle.
But seriously, folks, Aristotle is far and away my favorite philosopher. I enjoy him so much I'm even willing to translate him, and I hate Greek so, so much. In seventh grade I brought his Rhetorika in for reading time, because we were supposed to talk about what we were reading and I wanted to show off because my teacher was horrible.
This whole conversation is reminding my of a pet theory I have that Alcibiades' speech in Symposium is a replacement for Plato's frustrations at not getting chosen as Socrates' favorite boy, but I digress.
"My whole problem is my lips move when I think"
I love my Calvin icon to death. I chose it and a couple others back when you could only have three userpics and just never used the other two. I also think it's true: I'm basically incapable of coming to conclusions or thinking things through without argumentation and a back and forth debate, which is why I have them in my head. When I argue it isn't personal, it's just the only way I can understand.
Melkites
In the course of coping with my life and the many, many problems of my archdiocese (the Latin Archdiocese of Boston) I was informed that there is another diocese in Massachusetts - the Melkite Eparchy of Newton, which inexplicably has its chancery and cathedral (paid for in part by no less than Cardinal Cushing) in Roslindale. It covers the US but there's a large Melkite population in Greater Boston and Rhode Island, which is why it's here. They are the uniate analogue of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and that liturgical tradition, and the rite is largely composed of people of middle eastern heritage. It started in the 18th century because of a dispute with Constantinople over the election of the Patriarch of Antioch, with those following the electing Patriarch coming into the Catholic Church and those following the installed Patriarch remaining Orthodox.
The unfamiliarity of the liturgy and the new surroundings made me almost child-like in my giddiness, and it gave me a rest from the problems and struggles of scandals and Voice of the Faithful meetings. The people there were somewhat surprised this random white boy was showing up and the first time I didn't get communion because they didn't understand that I was a Latin Catholic rather than a random interloper (since you don't need to change rites to receive, but they weren't used to Latins dropping in), but I found it to be a place where I could relax and be anonymous and not have to take the baggage home with me. Plus I like the food at the parish events. I wouldn't raise kids as Melkites, but it gave me an appreciation for Eastern tradition and I'm sure my whole life I'll be using it (and Latin masses) as an escape.
Thomas Aquinas
The Thomistic approach makes sense to me. It's all about the synthesis of various disciplines of learning to understand religion and about a particular understand of morality and the human person that has to do with habit and virtue rather than laws and obligations. I think it's most authentic method and form for Western Theology and because of its intellectual inclusivity it welcomes all kinds of input, from scientists to Fr. Sobrino, in seeking a coherent, technical and exhaustive articulation of our understanding.
He's hard to read sometimes, and I think if you go down the route he lays out too far you end up without a proper sense of the mysteries of the faith, but I enjoy struggling with him. In the Great Conversation, he's my favorite interlocutor.
Being smarter than most people your age
It's funny. When I was little I used to insist that other people were easily as smart as me but their parents didn't help them and they chose stupid things to be smart about. I often get down on myself for not being nearly good enough, because I'm such a terminally bad fit with the education system and how other people do things, and because it never comes out of my mouth the way it worked in my head.
The biggest thing is how alienating it is. Everybody likes someone that challenges them, helps them advance, but at my age I'm already like the lover in Plato's conception of relationships, rather than the beloved, more challenging than challenged, and more teacher than student. In classes I'm a know-it-all and someone who fights with teachers, and it's nearly impossible to find people who operate on my level when it comes to how I think and what I'm thinking about.
I don't want to sound all woe is me, because I'd never trade it, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. And, as Abigale Bartlett says "Don't fall for the geniuses, they never want to sleep."
