Well, I created a blog. For now I'm not exactly sure what to write in it. Hopefully it will come to me so I don't just ramble on without actually typing something coherent. I haven't really decided whether this course is something that I will do well.
First, my goals or what I hope to attain in this course and/or in college is probably very different than most of my classmates. I'm not putting myself through all the challenges in hope of attaining a great job one day or to become someone of great success etc. At 50 I'm pretty much who I am and will continue to be. And I'm good with it. I can't say I am idealistic like I was at 20, life has made me so practical and realistic. And that is my dilemma. Am I still able to be philosophical?
I originally signed up for another course but since my pre-registration I have lost my Dad. He really was my best friend, and I have to say, I am still reeling from experiencing the death of someone that I loved. So for whatever reason this course seemed like something I needed. For that is what education is about to me and why at 50 I am pursuing and struggling part of the time to go to class and learn. I think it is time for me to reflect on these philosophers and what it really means to be given life.
Must the "philosophical life" start young, because when we are older we are too set in our ways to really change, or must the philosophical life start at any age, and be renewed at every age? The ancient schools tended toward the latter view... It is tragic that you have had to confront such a terrible loss just as the class begins. For the Stoics, as for the Epicureans, it throws down the challenge of "consciousness of death" as critical to an "intentional life" ... In my view, it also raises the question of what we can lose in life, and still remain joyful. The Socratic dictum "the good man can't be harmed" applies much more readily to things than loved ones ... how do we reclaim, as continuing to be a part of our lives, the loved ones we have lost in whole or part?
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