Subject: Another Damn Reintroduction
From: L. Manning Vines (lmanningvines@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Oct 03 2001 - 01:24:21 GMT
Hello all,
I am Robbie. I am nineteen years old, which I suppose is young enough to
give it some degree of priority in introductions. I am from the East Bay of
the San Francisco Bay area. (People in the American West and listeners of
punk music usually recognize "East Bay" but I found last year that
respectably-dressed people in Maryland thought that maybe I meant the
Eastern shore.)
I attend Saint John's College and am currently a sophomore. I was on the
Annapolis campus last year and transferred for this year to the other
campus, here in Santa Fe. I am still undecided whether I will stay or
return (the all-mandatory non-elective program is the same on both
campuses). We study the Great Books of Western civilization, in mostly
chronological order -- which means I study a lot of philosophy (including,
but by no means exclusive to, the theological and political sorts), a lot of
literature, a good deal of histories, and much science and mathematics. I
study the language of the ancient Greeks. Last year I translated much of
Plato's Meno and am currently engaged in translating Sophocles' Oedipus the
Tyrant (or Oedipus the King or Oedipus Rex as it is often called -- the
Greek transliterated is Oidipous Turannos). Much of my time is dedicated to
this. I studied the math of Euclid last year, and am currently studying
Ptolemy's Almagest. I will soon move to a heliocentric system of astronomy,
when I finish Ptolemy and begin studying Copernicus and Kepler. At the
moment, though, I am an unabashed geocentrist (I understand that the
physical objects in our solar system which we call planets orbit the sun,
but I have a developing suspicion that this is irrelevant to Ptolemy's
geocentric astronomy in some important way). The sophomore year suspends
Lab for the study of music: I just finished an extended study of chant, and
am just now getting into polyphony. In seminar, last year was almost
exclusive to the Greeks; and this year I've gone through a good bit of the
Old Testament, am currently spending time with some Romans, and will get to
the New Testament and the "A" saints soon. I will have to write my first
semester sophomore paper soon, and I think I will write it either on the
significance of wandering in the Old Testament, or the development of
society in the Old Testament and Livy (perhaps using Aristotle's Politics
for support).
I have a hard time saying Who I Am without talking about school. When I was
in high school I wanted to eventually teach at my high school; now, in
college, I want to eventually teach at my college. I think I might avoid
repaying my student loans by remaining a student for the rest of my life.
I've been hanging around the bananafish list for several years with several
email addresses, but my contributions have tended to come in rather
infrequent bursts. A long while ago, shortly before he left, I had an
extended (and I think controversial on-list) discussion regarding religion
and atheism with Jim. I believe this was the same Jim who just returned.
Are you indeed the same Jim, Jim? If so, it's good to have you back. I'm
sorry to hear that you have divorced and I hope all is well with you. It
might interest you to know that some of my thoughts which were expressed all
that time ago have changed and developed since then. I am still skeptical
about personal gods and surviving physical death, but Aristotle (in this
regard, particularly his Metaphysics) blew my mind and helped me develop my
ideas. He doesn't seem to accept personal gods or surviving physical death
either, but his Prime Mover is fascinating -- or really the path he followed
to get to it is fascinating, and I still spend time with it and probably
will for a long while.
I am happy, too, to have Cecilia back. Welcome back, Cecilia.
I am not inclined to continue writing. I've said a fair bit, it is getting
late, and I trust there will be opportunities to write later. Let this be
my reintroduction.
-robbie
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Nov 12 2001 - 17:22:38 GMT