Post by Purple Cat on Sept 4, 2010 17:05:14 GMT
RE: The Knights page: And by their very nature do you not see the hand of committee design, of compromise? With its myriad statements, sub-statements, clarifications and caveats, it is obviously (to my eyes, at least) a group effort.
You see, to me, it looks more like a socratic dialogue (I've always considered most of the participants there to be essentially fictitious characters whose purpose is to advance straw men* for the sage to knock down), obviously the form is different but there is no questioning of the assumption that corporal punishment is an effective pedagogic practice, let alone any discussion of its comparative effectiveness with other approaches (I suppose there is the bald statement that words are often ineffective but that is entirely unsubstantiated). There is also no consideration of the effect of environment on learning and the ways that environment in Malton could be improved, nor any examination of the way that the Philosophe Knights identified, as they are, as a PKing group, might in fact bring the name of learning into disrepute.
On a personal note (the player, not the character – since you started it… 
) – my own background is also in the "hard" sciences, which I suspect is why I find this type of subject fascinating. After all, everything is ultimately applied philosophy; to paraphrase, "Biology is applied chemistry, which is applied physics, which is applied mathematics, which is applied philosophy." (Let us not discuss English majors. )
) – my own background is also in the "hard" sciences, which I suspect is why I find this type of subject fascinating. After all, everything is ultimately applied philosophy; to paraphrase, "Biology is applied chemistry, which is applied physics, which is applied mathematics, which is applied philosophy." (Let us not discuss English majors. )You know, I'm not sure I'd characterise what happens when a discipline moves out of philosophy as it becoming "applied", nor am I sure that I'd accept the statement that physics is applied mathematics, its basic mode of enquiry owes far more to scientific method than much of mathematics does. However it is certainly the case that philosophy is essentially the discipline of asking questions and examining assumptions and sub-disciplines tend to move out of it as they acquire concrete systems of inquiry and investigation that yield the prospect of answers. I say this as someone who's tangled with epistemology and the philosophy of mathematics, it must be said I know nothing about political philosophy (although Gabby keeps urging me to read Voltaire, Marx and Che Guevara) or the study of ethics.
I have some vague recollection of assisting in a kill on you. Rest assured that it was because as then-leader of DHPD you were a valuable trophy.
(Also, a target of opportunity, if I recall aright.)To be honest my memory is equally vague. I know you were around in the DMZ at one point but I don't recall whether you killed me or not. Unsurprisingly, I got PK'd a lot when I was chief (though I think Delta squad still manage to get killed more often than that), it's dropped down noticeably since, almost enough to make a girl feel unloved
*for the purposes of exaggeration anyway. But it's not a real conversation but a carefully structured teaching opportunity to make specific points.