Opening Day!

LISTEN. A new dawn is breaking on us CoPhilosophers, and I've finally arranged a Fall schedule stacked entirely on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"Believing in philosophy myself devoutly, and believing also that a kind of new dawn is breaking upon us philosophers, I feel impelled, per fas aut nefas, to try to impart to you some news of the situation." Pragmatism 1 (Students who've looked at the syllabus know that this is one of our recommended texts, today and forever.)

Three CoPhi classes beginning early, interrupted by a Farmer's Market lunchtime break (and Office Hours) at noon, capped late in the afternoon with Environmental Ethics. An intense teaching schedule is worth half as many I-24 commutes, for reasons ecological as well as emotional. Happiness studies do consistently report a strong correlation between life satisfaction and (less) time behind the wheel. Plus, I can defer that gas money to fluids more gratifying and less guilt-inducing than fossil fuels. 

On Day 1, per usual, we'll tell each other who we are and why we're here, which philosophers we like, what new philosophies we've tried to live by (I still like Sally Brown's "No!" for pith, if not for attitude), and what wisdom might have to do with truth, facts, and reality.

We'll note Mark Edmundson's thoughts about why we're all here and how, if we do it right, we'll lay greater hold on reality in these difficult days of shamefully-gaslit public discourse. I'll endorse our convocation speaker's implied advice about using these precious college days to best effect, to figure out who we really are and how we can leverage our brief time to acquire some genuine wisdom.

In Environmental Ethics our opening questions also include: What do you consider to be your environment? How does that relate to nature, the climate, and society? Do you think most college-age students are concerned about the present and future condition of the environment? Are you optimistic about the future? Then I'll send everyone off to read Wendell Berry.

To that last I still say what Michael Chabon said long ago, from a parental perspective:

If you don’t believe in the Future, unreservedly and dreamingly, if you aren’t willing to bet that somebody will be there to cry when the Clock finally, ten thousand years from now, runs down, then I don’t see how you can have children. If you have children, I don’t see how you can fail to do everything in your power to ensure that you win your bet, and that they, and their grandchildren, and their grandchildren’s grandchildren, will inherit a world whose perfection can never be accomplished by creatures whose imagination for perfecting it is limitless and free. The Omega Glory

So I'm still pro-natalist. But not pro-compulsory natalist.

I'll get a plug in for my new charge, American Studies.

I'll cast my usual aspersions on the cliche notion of guru philosophers and sedentary Thinkers.

Then I'll send my new CoPhi collaborators off to think about what Socrates and Plato (Wendell's spiritual ancestors) might have to say to us about all that, and prepare to talk about it Thursday.

And of course, I'll make sure no one leaves without understanding what it means to be Peripatetic... Or hearing the hallowed name of William James. 

I hear my colleagues have been going maskless, "playing it by ear"... If we're too crowded and it's not too hot, we'll go check out the grounds of the MTSU Lyceum. Comfortable shoes, everyone. See you in class.