[lit-ideas] Re: The Big Mistake

  • From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:14:53 -0500

JL:
Education is indeed a service profession, like nursing, dentistry,
medicine, etc.

Yeah, well so is Air Conditioning, Heating, Ventilation, Refrigeration and Commercial Cooking Equipment repair a 'service profession' like nursing, dentistry, medicine, dog grooming, septic tanker cleaning, manicuring, waiting tables, waiting buffets ("they also wait who only stand and serve" -- I think Jesus said that), etc.

Are you or is Walter saying that philosophy is not a service profession? If so, then what the hell good is it? Must you teach philosophy to justify your philosopherness? Or is the fact of asking after the meaning of things a service to humanity in and of itself? I dunno. (JL would probably say the "I" is otiose, but if you knew me, you'd say that the "dunno" is otiose.) I'm not a philosopher. I sometimes wonder why heat seeks out cold, but I soon get bored and start whittling. No service to mankind there. I'm a firm believer that we do what we do because that's what we ended up doing given the visissitudes and exigencies of getting through the wrangle of days. Nothing very noble about the vast majority of us, I'm afraid. But then, there are a lot of good laughs out there as well as the tears -- gotta figure that into your philosophy too. As Eve said to Adam: "Swallow the apple, damn you!" But no, he still holds it in his throat, a frightened little boy, making her take full responsibility for humanity's woes.

Such is life. Gotta get back to work. We're in the midst of a heat wave. ACs are a-poppin'. Ka-ching!

Mike Geary
Memphis




----- Original Message ----- From: <Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 10:21 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The Big Mistake


In a message dated 6/26/2009 10:58:35 A.M.  Eastern Daylight Time,
wokshevs@xxxxxx writes:
The students I was referring  to below are my Education students. The grad
students among them are assumed  to be both personally responsible and
professionally accountable for replying  to my comments. The undergrads,
however, are not yet "professionally"  involved in teaching since they are
still
doing their pre-service BEd. They  remain personally responsible and
"professionally" accountable in a  projective sense of "professionally"
that I
should have specified more  precisely given that we have amnongst us the
likes
of JL. That projective  sense is akin to the projective sense in which we
attribute "autonomy" to  children and claim that teachers ought to respect
their
rational autonomy.
Trust this clears things up----


---

Yes, it does.

"Projectively professionally accountable" sounds very good.

I guess the "Education" bit of the programme confused me.

I was thinking of degrees in "Philosophy".

Bachelor of Arts -- Philosophy.
Master of Arts -- Philosophy.
PhD -- Philosophy.

Education is indeed a service profession, like nursing, dentistry,
medicine, etc.

That's why I was wondering.

I suppose the responsibility of a serious student in philosophy is to
_hear_ the professor, etc. But a lot of brain-washing that is expected from them
as they go through professor's notes should not be part of what they are
projectively professionally accountable.

When Grice died, the obit read, and it made me laugh, "Professional
philosopher and amateur cricketer".

Seriously, 'professional philosopher' makes no sense. 'professorial' is
perhaps what is meant?

I would also distinguish between a theoretical degree in education from a
degree one can get from a 'teacher TRAINING' college, where people are
_trained_ as dogs are. Also a 'teaching certification' versus a real degree. It
seems  'pro' applies only to situations where the individual is pro-
employed, not before. And then, only if she is not self-employed, of course, or
the company is  private and she runs it.

Talking of 'projective', I wonder if you'd agree with A. Coulter that the
abortionist was not really killed but 'terminated on the 203rd'. I still
haven't  done the mathematics of how she reached that number. I think
'terminated' is a good verb, and Coulter's implicature seems apt -- but the whole argument seems slightly fallacious, though -- between 'legal' and 'moral',
but that being  precisely Coulter's point, that the boundaries are
_challengeable_?

JL Speranza
  The Swimming-Pool Library
     Villa Speranza
         Bordighera
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