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I'm taking:
"Descartes and His World", "Topics in the History of Alchemy" and
Now, most grad students earn their keep by teaching undergrads, as I did last semester. But this time around I have a Research Assistantship instead, helping Bill Newman with The Newton Project. Hopefully there'll be some overlap with the alchemy class.
Update - 12th January
I've decided at the last minute (Friday of the first week of classes) to drop the philosophy class that had a very high workload and only moderately interesting readings in favour of a philosophy of biology class taught by Lisa Lloyd, the professor whose undergrads I taught last semester (so I know she's excellent paedogogically). The material looks like something the whole class will engage with quite well and overall I think the class will be far more manageable.
Also, at the first meeting of the Descartes class, when discussing the readings, the professor asked, "Who reads French?" I had to admit that I did. (It's much easier to read than it is to speak.) So now I'm going to attempt to read a few of Descartes' shorter works in French. It could be a very slow process but I'm sure I'll learn a lot of vocab and it is good to have a definite practical goal.
2 comments:
Who is teaching the Descartes subject? I'll be interested to hear how you go with this one, particularly reading Descartes in French! Maybe you could also try to read his Principia in the original Latin!!
I thought mention of Descartes might make your ears prick up, Lara. The professor's name is Domenico Bertoloni Meli. I haven't taken any of his classes before but he has a good reputation.
As a matter of fact, he did suggest that I read Picot's French translation, Principes de philosophie, just because Descartes personally oversaw that translation. But I think the English translation will be hard enough for me.
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