There are moments in seminar when you feel like Archimedes and you’ve finally “Got it!”
You never know when the moment might strike:
“Reading Aristotle’s Ethics, I was appreciating the balance and symmetry he was describing between virtues and vices, but was worried that often referring to “how a virtuous man would do it” was either tautological, or at least left the reader at sea. But at some point I considered that this wasn’t (only) a philosophical treatise to be understood or judged on its logical coherence, but as Aristotle said, something to aid us in actually becoming more virtuous. When I considered his model as a guide to iterative consideration of my actions and desires, I realized that I have always had the experience of having a chance of being a ‘good man.’ And now I had a way to consider and refine, over time, what the content of a ‘virtuous person’ was. I also realized that it’s being dependent on, and also something greater than the sum of individual virtues, meshed with a sense I’ve always had, but had never put into words” (Alexander Bram, MALA @ Both Campuses).
And sometimes that feeling of “Aha!” comes when you submit to uncertainty, “losing fear of being lost and uncertain when a Tutor confessed equal perplexity” (William Strange, MALA @ Low Residency – Santa Fe).
