With the first meeting of my UNC course on Marx only thirteen
days away, I can tell that the new semester is upon us because last night I
had, yet again, a version of the nightmare that has troubled my sleep many
times as semesters begin. The details
vary but the theme is always the same:
It is two weeks into a new semester, I have been meeting my two courses regularly,
and suddenly I realize I am supposed to be teaching a third course as well that
I have completely forgotten about. Guilt
stricken, I rush to the room, where [this is the part that shows it is a dream]
the students have been waiting patiently for two weeks for me to show up.
Last night, since I intend sometime in February to begin a
series of recorded lectures on David Hume in addition to the Marx course, the
dream was that it was 9:15 a.m., my forgotten Hume lectures were scheduled to start at 9:30, and
I was in the basement of a campus building trying to find the staircase
out. I had also, it seems, forgotten
where I had parked my car [another recurring nightmare – this dream seems to
have been a twofer.]
Oddly enough, something akin to this actually happened to me
the first year I started teaching. It
was the Fall of 1955 and I was a twenty-one year old Harvard Teaching Fellow, just
back from my European wanderjahr. [A Teaching Fellow is Harvard’s notion of a
TA. Harvard also graded students A, B,
C, D, and E. It was not until I left
Harvard and went to teach at Chicago that I discovered the rest of the world
considered F the failing grade.]
I was assigned three discussions sections of Raphael Demos’
famous Philosophy 1 intro course. One
week that semester [not the first, thank God] I simply forgot to meet one of
the sections! I slunk around Harvard Square
for a week, convinced the students were outraged. In fact, of course, they probably waited
three minutes past the mandatory seven and then split, delighted the section
had been cancelled. As I recall, the
next week, nobody asked where I had been.
My old friend and current co-instructor at Columbia, Todd Gitlin, sent along this comment: "Bob, I too have had the oh-my-God-I-missed-the-first-class dream more than once. As best I can recall, it always entails my suddenly realizing I have a second job at a different university & have neglected to show up. In self-punitive shame I start out to drive toward the second class. I don't get there, but it strikes me that there are two oddities. First, no one ever punishes me. (I suppose I don't need anyone else to punish me when I can accomplish the task myself.) Second, it's always at a second university. Is there a subtext? I have so much to bring the world, I need two distinct jobs to disburden myself?
ReplyDeleteI tried to post this on your comments but am somehow blocked, but if you feel like taking cognizance of my footnote, feel free.
T.
David Hume was an atheist & did not believe that there existed a 'medium' between every cause and its effect. So he discounted belief in the cause & effect of things. This way he got rid of his belief in the cosmological argument for his philosophy.
ReplyDeleteJesus, Einstein, & Bill O'Reilly all believe in God. They also believe that cause and effect works in the universe.
In Matthew 5:25, Jesus said something to this effect: Settle with your adversary on the way to court. Or he will hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to the officer, who will hand you over to the jailer, and you will be thrown into prison.
That was clearly a belief in cause and effect.
Einstein preferred Spinoza's philosophy to that of others like Hume. Spinoza was a great believer in Cause & Effect. Therefore, Einstein believed in cause and effect. Walter Isaacson makes a case for this in his biography on Einstein.
Bill O'Reilly, when he still had his show, would sometimes say: 'A' leads to 'B' which leads to 'C' which leads to 'D'...
Obviously, he has this belief from Matthew 5:25. Or, at least I assume it.
To conclude, to take Hume's side on destroying Cause & Effect, it is almost impossible to be a monotheist. For the cosmological argument is void. And if you're a monotheist, how can you agree with Hume in good conscience?
When I mean 'medium' between every cause & its effect, Hume believed that one could not 'sense' a medium.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't have "I missed the class" dreams, I have a lot of "I missed x" dreams, where I realize that I'm supposed to take an airplane flight or show up for a very important appointment or meet someone whom I dearly want to see somewhere and then I begin to search franticly for my passport or my keys or my cellphone or my debit card or my shoes or whatever I need, but never find. Actually, it seems like my most recurring dream theme or at least the most recurring dream theme that I remember when I wake up.
ReplyDeleteWhat would your psychoanalyst have made of such dreams?
It's a wonder you didn't dream yourself naked as well. Iv'e had many such dreams--- but they've always seemed to be in the course of a Philosophy Final.
ReplyDeleteYour nightmare story has gone viral...literally. It's contagious, and I caught it. My dream last night had me back in college, madly preparing for two courses I'd somehow neglected. One was a drama class. I had a part in an upcoming play, but I hadn't bothered to memorize lines or even attend rehearsals. The second was an introduction to Kant. The textbook was odd, an assortment of excerpts, questions, and problems to solve, much like a legal casebook. The professor was decidedly uninterested in Kant. It occurred to me (in the dream) that I would do better to prepare for an exam by watching YT videos presented by RPW!
ReplyDeleteDean, having a part in a play and not having memorized any lines definitely qualifies! By the way, I often have dreams in which I am naked, but they are not upsetting and for some reason no one notices. Sorry to have infected you!! :)
ReplyDeleteHope you're OK.
ReplyDelete