Philosophy and leisure.

Aristotle claims that a certain amount of leisure is necessary for philosophical contemplation — key to the good life.  Some amount of leisure is necessary for real human happiness.

In Walden, Thoreau says that a philosopher should be able to clothe and feed his-or herself better than ordinary people.  And we know how big he was on leisure time for walking and writing, though perhaps he might not call it “leisure” like those “really” industious folks among us might.  (What?)

I would contend that, if you are mentally…robust (and bored) enough for philosophizing, you are smart enough to do the things you have to do (like poop, eat, cook, travel, etc.) better than other people.  Whether you do is another matter, and I never knew a whole lot of philosophers who were also very competent people. I pride myself on my own expediency in personal matters and efficiency in practical ones.  This is, of course, because I am very lazy and value my leisure, no?

If you get good grades but can’t do anything practical better than anybody else, you might just be mis-using your own intelligence.  Pretend that the laundry or cooking breakfast is school.  You’ll learn to apply your brain to things that don’t get you grades but that get you something better, like a tasty egg sandwich and enough time to read spy novels to boot.

Or, you might just not be very smart at all.  I resent people who claim, “I am booksmart,” when it turns out that they are fucking idiots and/or morons and/or dumbasses.  If all you can do is school, despite really and actually and honestly trying to do other things well and intelligently, you are probably not as smart as you think you are.  I have known a good number of scholarly folks of this kind who turned out not to be any kind of smart.  They excelled academically only through excessive studying and concerted effort.

Not that I am down on academic excellence in itself and certainly not down on effort.  Anyone who knows me knows how weak-willed I can be when it comes to work I don’t see a point in doing.  But I want to start throwing bitches off of buildings when such over-glorified memorization and regurgitation masquerades itself as actual intelligence.  I had a metaphysics professor at BC who I admired very much.  And he contended in his book that intelligence begins with reflection.  I joked with him that, under his definition, the whole fucking world is stupid.

He just laughed.

The basic truth about SHIT.

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The basic truth: that shit is shit and is prone to being imperfect to start with (my bike was scratched when it was new, and it bugged me for an hour because I am stupid and forget these things) and that it only gets worse. And when you view things/shit/stuff as ends in themselves, you drive yourself crazy because you forget this. I forget all the time. Or I don’t know it in the correct part of my brain.

Nietzsche notes.


Nietzsche was semi-quoted on “Law and Order: SVU” this year, and I was like, “Nietzsche? Oh, yeah, I remember him. Wrote a dissertation that was largely about him, or, at least, dealing with him.” I mean, Nietzsche is hugely quotable and all.  And I did spend months doing nothing but studying him, hate, and power.

I keep forgetting that I have a dissertation to edit and send to my committee and have since the end of last summer. Honestly, I’ve been putting it off because, once I send it, I’m unemployed. Now, I tell myself, I am a student. Even though, of course, in practice and in my own mind, my student days are effectively over. Still, it will be nice to get this out of my life and over-with. And for everyone to have the “option” of calling me Doctor.  It might have been nice if I had realized that I implied I was still a full-time student on every job application I have sent minus one.  Damn it.

I have a stack of Moleskine Cahiers with Nietzsche notes in them from last year.  Most of them have some of my favorite quotations on them, like these do.  Those notebooks worked well, especially since I spent last fall in a semi-nomadic fashion, much like Herr Nietzsche himself.  Not that I had any great thoughts long the way.

Please do keep any “Nietzsche hated women” and “Nietzsche was an anti-Semite” comments to yourself, lest you reveal that you do not, in fact, understand Nietzsche at all. Or, at least, have not bothered to read any of his books.  And if you feel the need to do it, don’t troll.  Come back and answer for yourself.  Nietzsche would.