Back in Bloomington
It is March again, and time for my annual post, or at least so my remorseless readers inform me. I'm not quite sure what to say to my adoring public. March 2011 finds me contentedly studying in Bloomington. The daffodils are out and the tulips are on their way. My term paper topics are likewise springing forth; here's my research plan for my class on the Greek Historians Herodotus and Thucydides:


I'm interested in the way Herodotus shows the use of oracles in decision-making. For instance, do people appeal to oracles as definitive reasons for action? How much freedom to people have in the way they choose to respond to oracles? How often is the appropriate interpretation of the oracle clear? I am also interested in the way Herodotus uses oracles to reflect the character of those making the decisions. For instance, does oracle misinterpretation always reveal some moral fault in the interpreter--blindness,  haste, unwarranted optimism, lack of piety--or can people make a genuine, morally flawless attempt to interpret the oracle and still misunderstand it in a disastrous way? 


I would like to find that Herodotus ties a good interpretation of an oracle to moral uprightness and a  misinterpretation to some moral flaw. However, I'm not sure this can be done--we'll have to see. If it cannot be done, I would like to show that there is some equally interesting, if less strict, rule that explains why some people misinterpret the oracles.


I don't have as well defined a project for my Theories of Meaning class, but I am hoping to do something with Grice on metaphor.

Well, much as I would love to stay and chat, I have some Kierkegaard and Sartre prep for my lecture tomorrow (I'm TA-ing for Intro to Existentialism). As a final sign that I do care about my readers, I add these two pictures from my new apartment. It is a much nicer place than where I was before, and today was nice enough I actually went out on the balcony (not pictured) to enjoy a Chaim Potak novel.