Monthly Archives: May 2007

Blog Help Needed

Please feel free to drop comments about how ugly this blog is, how useless the sidebar is, etc. I’m trying to fix the place up to be more user-friendly. I can barely find my own posts on here, I know full well the site is a mess. So any help or suggestions you can give …

May 26, 2007 – 1:16 pm | By ashok | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Man and the Angels: On Frost’s "Bond and Free"

Bond and Free Robert Frost Love has earth to which she clings With hills and circling arms about – Wall within wall to shut fear out. But Thought has need of no such things, For Thought has a pair of dauntless wings. On snow and sand and turf, I see Where Love has left a …

May 25, 2007 – 9:40 am | By ashok | Posted in frost, poetry | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

For My Readers: Is This Dangerous?

I can’t make up my mind whether this is dangerous or not. I came across it while searching philosophy blogs and was really stunned by how enticing the soft-sell is.Your thoughts are welcome. Is it particularly effective, you think?Technorati Tags: scientology Powered by ScribeFire.

May 23, 2007 – 2:31 pm | By ashok | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (4)

Things I Don’t Understand

hockey (the only strategy as far as I can see is to get in front of the goalie and “deke” while your team beats the living hell out of the other team) women (I probably understand them far too well to be involved with them, but until I lose about 100 IQ points, they come …

May 23, 2007 – 11:19 am | By ashok | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

On Epicurus’ Letter to Herodotus: The Foundation of the Universe

I want to apologize to Epicurus and my readers for yesterday’s entry which abandoned my usual method of working through things – i.e. reading a primary source whose construction is not piecemeal, but deliberate. Instead I relied on a second-rate historian and the followers of the individual in question to come to conclusions which I’m …

May 22, 2007 – 10:07 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy | Tagged | Comments (1)

Philosophy One Needs To Know, But Isn’t Worth Teaching: The Principal Doctrines of Epicurus

The Principal Doctrines: they aren’t terribly long, and are most certainly worth a read. Everything below is subject to change, I’m slowly working through one of Epicurus’ letters now.We should note that the “Principal Doctrines” are merely a collection of quotes by Epicurus, and that fanatics and devotees usually have a tendency to reduce what …

May 21, 2007 – 2:40 pm | By ashok | Posted in philosophy | Tagged | Comments (1)

The Right Sort of Audience

This blog has gotten an amazing amount of search engine traffic in the previous month, but I think that’s going to be gone now. The last two days have been horrible, and that’s in line with a greater trend recently where my traffic has hit nil. I say “amazing” because there aren’t that many posts …

May 20, 2007 – 11:49 pm | By ashok | Posted in blogging, personal | Comments (1)

Notes on Dickinson’s "There’s a certain slant of light"

There’s a certain slant of light Emily Dickinson There’s a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons – That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes – Heavenly Hurt, it gives us – We can find no scar, But internal difference, Where the meanings are – None may teach it — Any – ‘Tis the Seal …

May 19, 2007 – 1:03 pm | By ashok | Posted in dickinson, poetry | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

For Those Who Are Interested

I’m still puzzling over what to write this dissertation on. I’m thinking I want to sink my teeth into a public/private distinction and in what way Plato or Aristotle might have had it (all of you are well familiar in what way I think we “have” it).The other issue is that I’m reading Aristotle’s Ethics …

May 18, 2007 – 12:40 pm | By ashok | Posted in personal | Comments (0)

The Relevance of Thucydides: History as Personal

Christopher Bruell’s essay “Thucydides’ view of Athenian Imperialism” is what is quoted repeatedly and responded to below. Bruell begins by saying that a historian could be thought “concerned above all with what belongs to the past.” Is Thucydides, who wrote about the past, to be considered an historian? Thucydides is not properly classified as an …

May 18, 2007 – 10:41 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, politics | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)