OXFORD

After a lengthy time of dormancy and intellectual growth, I have decided it is time to revisit this old thing for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that I am finally, officially studying that wonderful Dane in a tutorial at the oldest university in the English-speaking world: Oxford.

Specifically, I am studying at New College (most people are not aware that Oxford is in fact a collection of smaller more or less autonomous colleges set up similar to American government in which colleges act like states and the university like the federal government), though the name is misleading considering it was established in 1379 to train members of the clergy after the Black Death emptied the priesthood. A lot more fascinating information can be found on its Wikipedia page.

As I mentioned, I will be studying Kierkegaard. My tutor is Dr. Edward Kanterian. He is trained in both the analytic and continental traditions of philosophy (something probably best explained at a later time), which is incredibly intimidating and encouraging considering I am almost exclusively aquainted with the continental tradition.

The Oxford tutorial system is quite different from the American classroom. They work like this: you meet with your tutor once a week to discuss your subject, particularly focusing on the "Oxford essays" that you are required to write. An Oxford essay is a paper around 1500-2000 words (in my case) that adheres to a strict argumentative and formal pattern on a prompt given in the beginning of the week. For example, my first prompt is focused on Fear and Trembling and deals with the question "Should we believe in what is paradoxical?" Needless to say, I am quite excited to explore the idea, particularly with one established in the analytic tradition.

My tutorial will last four weeks. I figured this experience is probably a good one to kick off the spring emergence of my hibernating blog. I may or may not have time to update this often, considering I still have to keep up with people back home and my rigorous course work, but I am looking forward to posting papers and thoughts on here as the time goes on.

In regards to my blog more specifically, I have taken down a few things that seemed like distracting loose ends and have left some things up that I find a bit embarrassing but feel should be preserved for posterity. I hope to explain some of these changes as time goes on, specifically with reference to Marx.

Until then, here is a great quote from Kierkegaard that is spurring my essay on:

Now faith is just this paradox, that the single individual, though under the demands of the universal, is higher than the universal. If that is not faith, then Abraham is done for and faith has never existed in the world. If the ethical life is the highest and nothing incommensurable is left over, except in the sense of what is evil, then one needs no other categories than those of the philosophers. Goodbye to Abraham! But faith is just this paradox, that the single individual, though bound by the universal, is higher than the universal. As a single individual, as the particular, he stands in an absolute relation to the Absolute. The ethical is thus suspended. Faith is this paradox.