Fast semester...

Whew, been a while since I last posted.
This semester has really flown by, especially with things being so busy her at the close. I swear I say this every year, but I just got used to writing 2008, and now we have to switch already!

The big thing this week was registering for my classes next semester. I had this great plan with interesting classes and plenty of down time, then everything collapsed when I learned that some of them had prerequisites. Plan B!
So, first I've got Elementary Spanish, which will be loads of fun to wake up to every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I still remember the language pretty well from high school, so hopefully it wont be too much of a drag.
Next is History of Ethics, which is kind of a followup to this semester's Problems of Philosophy. This past week has been about ethics, starting with Aristotle's The Nature of Virtue (which I talk about later) which has been interesting and looks like it has some real life usefulness. 'Cuz to tell the truth, all of this semester's stuff has been extremely interesting, but it seems like most of it doesn't exist in the real world per se. Though, if nothing actually does exist (besides my mind), then that doesn't really matter much, huh?
Then (because my other class fell through) I have Environmental Ethics. I'm hoping this will different enough to stay interesting. Who knows, maybe when I come back home this summer I'll be the most ethically knowledgeable person in Lakeport. Need to know ancient Egyptian right of punishment for stealing sacred cats?! I'm your Mr. Ethics Person!
Last is Intro to Sociology, which should go well with the others. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing when my Lit class didn't work out. I think I remember Mom saying how much she enjoyed the class, and it sure looks like a thought-provoking subject. Yeah ok, it's true I knew basically nothing about it before looking it up online, but afterwords it looked good. Really!

Class-wise this semester, next week is going to be a hurricane of due dates and frantic, late studying. Hurricane Pomona. Foremost is a big paper and presentation due in Archaeology about the Viking influence in North America before Columbus's discovery of 'India.' It shouldn't be much of a problem; I know I can produce and deliver a quality PowerPoint, but I need to make sure I practice the speech enough. I still cringe over my first semester's presentation on Sir Kay.... Oh yeah! I got my second test back from that class, the one I thought I didn't do real well on, and it turns out I did better by about 10 points. It's tough to tell, but I think my grade is balancing between A/B there. All of those early papers weren't worth many points, unfortunately.
Speaking of tests, I just got the last one in Geology, which I was confident about. Despite the great potential for irony here, that one actually turned out as good as I had hoped, with like 97.5/100. I think that makes the grade there a high B, which the soon-to-be-due project and final should raise up.
Economics is coming along well. The A/B is going to ride on the final, but as of now I think it's like a 92 or so. All things considered, it should be alright. At the moment we're studying everything having to do with international trade. Tariffs, quotas, globalization, the whole deal. Interestingly, it appears that both tariffs and quotas, which we use all of the time in the US, tend to do more harm than good. Go figure.
Aristotle's views on what make a virtuous life are pretty interesting. He had a special word for the best life one can lead: Eudaimonia, which roughly means good spirits. It doesn't really have a good translation into English, and is often (wrongly) interpreted to mean happiness. Happiness is more of a psychological state of being, while Eudaimonia is a kind of permanent evaluation of life. According to Aristotle, the 3 best lives are those of pleasure, honor (fame), and money-making. This is hotly disputed, but generally makes sense with a little explanation. First off, pleasure is an end unto itself. You can ask why someone does anything they do, and there will be an underlying purpose of some kind; but asking why someone does something for the purpose of pleasure is a moot question, since the purpose of pleasure is self-evident. He assumes (justifiably in my opinion) that even the painful things a person does are meant to bring pleasure to oneself or others.
As for fame, he's not talking about critical acclaim so much as knowing that one is the best at what one does. This is where 'honor' comes in. It's more personal than others seeing you as the best in that your own desire can be completely independant of those around you. It's kind of like the Olympic competitors not recieving money professionally, if you take out all of the endorsements. It's not saying there's anything wrong with getting praise, only that it should not be the driving factor behind your honor.
Moneymaking didn't seem very convincing to me, and in truth this kind of life just leads to the other two; getting pleasure or knowing you're among the richest. Overall, all three are just meant to be lives of virtuous activity. I like this stuff since it more of what I can relate to personally, and I like thinking about what makes a 'perfect' life. I especially like the idea of living without needing the approval of others; we all strive for personal satisfaction, but few, if any, really do. I don't mean like indifference, more like...perfect self-confidence? I dunno.


Alright, onward to those crazy vikings. Odin protect me!
Talk to you all later.