I think it was that for today.
See you later :)

Update: Laura har været så venlig at minde mig om at hun altså også har været oppe til tre eksamner. Så jeg fører altså ikke... Men jeg har sommerferie før hende!

Nicolaj siger:

Mundtlig kemi om en uge - det bli'r vildt!

Nicolaj siger:

Skolens er droppet.

Når jeg nu ikke er færdig med at lave hvad jeg skal skrive om, så er det jo lidt svært at tage den glæde på forskud. Skal jeg overhovedet lave gaschromatografi? Hvor vigtig er tyndtlagschromatografien? Hvis jeg når at lave både oprensning og omkrystallisation giver det så ikke bedre mening at lave andre renhedsbestemmelser?

Nicolaj siger:

Puha

Jeg laver en organisk syntese af sulfanilamid. Det er sådan en lille svend.

Spændende på en meget nørdet måde. Sådan er det.

Nu er det et antibiotika vi laver, så vi kører nu forsøg, hvor nogle stakkels bakterier skal lade livet, men det er for videnskabens skyld så det er okay. Det er faktisk millioner af bakterier der skal dø og vi sorterer ikke i dem for at lade alle de flinke overleve. Nej, vi dræber dem alle.

Ja, det bliver et massemord uden lige, men hvad gør man ikke for at få lidt ekstra krydderi til hverdagen?

Nicolaj siger:

Okay, millioner kommer til at dø, men hvis jeg får en god karakter er det vel okay...

Gør op med dig selv nu. Er dette et tema du tror du ville kunne relatere til? Få noget ud af? Hvis det ikke er, så vil det være ufrugtbart for dig i den kommende uge at læse bloggen.

Så er det sagt.

Grunden til at det er skolens uge nu, er at værkstedsugen starter. I den kommende uge fra tidlig morgen til sen aften løber alle elever på min skole forvildede rundt.

Det skal fejres.

Nicolaj siger:

Jeg skal ikke kunne sige det på forhånd, men jeg har lidt en følelse at der bliver galde i den kommende uges posts.

 

But the request does raise the question "what does a business advisor with a strong technology background have to say about philosophy?". This is not as strange as it might appear, although I have certainly met more than one philosophy professor in my time who has pooh-poohed the very idea that anyone who dresses in a suit and tie and goes to work in offices with others of that ilk would have anything much to contribute to the issues of that discipline. With that, I fundamentally disagree as much as I did when I was doing my B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. pre-thesis work in and around holding down a full-time office job, managing people and projects and generally burning the candle at both ends.

If philosophic positions hold water, they have applicability in the lives of so-called ordinary people doing ordinary, everyday things. Indeed, I think this is one of the acid tests one has to apply: what happens if you take this idea out into the world? Does it make sense to people without the specialised training in academic philosophy, who are unfamiliar with the technocratic lingo of the schools? Can they tie it to things they know and do, recognise it in situations they encounter, even "put it to work" in their own lives? If they can, then there's something there worth working on further; if it lands with a resounding thud of disinterest and disuse, perhaps it is hair-splitting and distinction-making to no purpose.

One of the concepts Thomas Langan has put forward for the last quarter century (perhaps longer, but I know for certain he was teaching to it in 1983 as I was in the classroom) is the notion that there is an overlaid social structure on the societies, nations, cultures and civilisations of the world which he labelled the HTX (the "high-tech I don't know what to call it"). It is not a culture in its own right, but rather poaches from some of the world's cultures, and is best visualised as a nodal network of connections between people and locations. HTXians have little affinity for place, community or neighbourhood; their loyalties are to others who share their symbolic-analytic interests.

Tom always noted that I was one of these people, at home in and a part of the HTX (indeed, his book on the HTX, Surviving the Age of Virtual Reality was dedicated to me as an exemplar of someone living the experience directly) but also with one foot still in community. Perhaps that foot has atrophied somewhat in the eight years since Surviving was published; that will be one point of reflection to consider while thinking about my remarks for September's conference. What's more interesting is that the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management has created an institute dedicated to the exploration of the very "spikiness" of the world that the HTX tried to describe, headed by Richard Florida, author of a number of books on the "Creative Class" and their clustering style.

Another idea, from Thomas Langan's Tradition and Authenticity in the Search for Ecumenic Wisdom, that resonates with business leaders, Little League baseball coaches, Executive Directors of not-for-profits, and Deans of Medical Education (to pick but four) is the notion of the hypocrisy that infests institutions as they diverge from the principles of their founding tradition. Institutions thus are always in need of reform, even as one holds onto the tradition (indeed, the reform is to preserve the tradition). One need think only of politics in Canada, the deformation of Parliament, the focus on leaders at the expense of MPs, the parties' faux democratic methods in candidate selection, etc. to see how the institutions have radically diverged to work almost antithetically to our tradition of responsible government, Crown-in-Parliament. Again, a possible point of departure for a reflection on the nature of our society, and its prospects, a topic that was and is near and dear to Thomas Langan's heart.

But the final point of take-off may come from his master work, Being and Truth. I had the pleasure, two years ago (and will do this again in May and June this year) of leading a philosophers' café composed of 9-12 year olds. The core chapter, "Kinds of Objects, Kinds of Truth", was not made into a reading, but rather several of the examples (Langan's approach is resolutely phenomenological: first go to the things themselves and see what they reveal) were talked about. The children involved were able to reason out what the things were "saying" without prompting, and come to moments of enlightenment for themselves that parallel the arguments Langan makes. Einstein is reputed to have once said that if he couldn't explain his theory of relativity to a six year old, he didn't really understand it himself. Seeing these children grasp the different between an object and what it symbolises, or the built-up construct we call "a nature", or even the inter-relationship between different kinds of truths (not just a world with shades of grey, but indeed, a world with colour) shows how essential these arguments were, and how well linked together to build up a world-view, yet graspable by anyone without scholastic training. An "Einstein test" moment, indeed, and perhaps also a worthy starting point.

In any event, I have found myself today turning these over again and again in my mind, and although I have no intention to return to the campus for a fourth time to teach, or even to complete my abandoned doctoral programme, I am "on fire" with the thought of this event and this speech/paper.

Every so often, you are presented with a gift. When your next gift is presented to you, will you see it? Will you accept it (and the responsibilities it will entail)? Or will you let it go, and then wonder why life is passing you by?

Vores lærer har givet os ordre på at oprette en blog, så det har jeg gjort.

Jeg har  ingen anelse om hvad jeg skal skrive, eftersom mit liv er fuldstændigt blottet for indhold :-)

....Jeg vil dog prøve alligevel.

Jeg er lige kommet hjem fra en vildt fed skiferie i Østrig med HTX i skjern. Vi tog afsted d. 11/1 og kom hjem i går (d. 16/1). Vi boede i byen Scheffau, ved Østrigs andenstørste skiområde Wilder Kaiser. 

Jeg stod på snowboard, hvilket jeg har gjort i 4 uger i alt.

Alt i alt en monster fed tur.

Sodavand, slik, junk food - det har ikke været let, men jeg har kæmpet.

Nu er jeg så godt som færdig.

- Nicolaj