PH1101E: Reason and Persuation

Well, this is one module that I will not soon forget. Here's the deal, the lectures are on Thursday mornings, and they are webcast and that is the only lecture I have for the day. So what do you think I did? Well, I attended the first lecture at the venue, watched the next 3 from home. And after that, never attended another lecture.

My CA scores are pretty okay, scored 24/25 for my first essay and 21/25 for my second. Both are subject to moderation. Then 7/10 for my blog posts. I assume that I will get anywhere between 0 to 5 for tutorial participation and I attended all 5 tutorials. That puts me in pretty good shape to get a C+. I took this module S/U so as not to be tied down towards the end (ie, now) when my math modules would need more attention. So, it all boils down to how I fare at the final 35%.

21 MCQ questions for the final exam paper. That makes each question pretty loaded. MCQ papers are not fun; not especially this MCQ paper. I will have to read through up to 21 passages (most likely much less) on just as many pages. Each passage will contibut about 1 or 2 questions. That's not funny. I have to read AND analyze almost 21 pages of text in 2 hours.

Did some practice papers today, the results were less than encouraging. First practice run: 15/20. Not too bad, but it was a very past past-year paper, and was slaughtered on the questions asked on the philosophy of mathematics, apparently my own bias crept into the whole mix. Next practice run, 11/21. Not good at all, and this was last semester's paper, so if I score that way tomorrow, I am in trouble. Then I did the Euthypro practice questions, 7/12, slaughtered again. Finally, some light at the end of the tunnel: 12/12 for the Meno practice paper. Well, going to sleep early, sure going to need my mental faculties tomorrow.

This is my 3rd philosophy module. The previous 2 were both level 2000 ones, hence this module was obviously easier. The first, Logic was very technical, basically mathematics. The second, Philosophical Logic was just plain illogical (ironic huh?). It was on paradoxes, and it screwed my mind up big time!

I guess the difference between a level 2000 and a level 1000 philosophy course is this: In level 1000 course, they give you passages with flaws to read. You can possibly draw the arrow diagram and attack premises easily; you can come up with elegant counter-examples to knock the argument down. But it's just tedious work. In level 2000, you can argument chains can be drawn out a lot easier; but they simply cannot be knocked down! Even when they are obviously unsound! ggrrr...

Anyway, many mathematicians are also philosophers. Many problems in math became problems in philosophy and vice versa. In fact, the branch of mathematics known as analysis (APGP to those of you who have no clue what i'm talking about) has it's roots in a very interesting philosphical problem.

And I guess for me, the word "philosophy" has double meaning. Those who know your Greek (literally) would know what I mean. But seriously the persuit of wisdom is advocated by the Bible; so why not? (Double meaning here again.) Well, I really wonder where the next seven months will take me; and I wonder why the Lord has made me feel the complete opposite to what I prayed.

After the paper tomorrow, going to study the proofs of all the theorems in my topology course. That would be pretty fun actually, back to mathematical precision, no more questionable statements. The only questionable proof involves Zorn's Lemma (aka Axiom of Choice), and since I am not an algebraist, I just choose to assume it with no guilty conscience.