I suck at sleep cycle maintenance, and my body's unpredictable circadian rhythm is of no help. I drank some coffee at around 7 PM and trusted my metabolism to take care of the caffeine by the time I hit the bed.
Nope. In violation of good culture and prudence, the stupid molecules occupy my sleep receptors still.
This led me (if for no other reason than to induce some measure of drowsiness) to start reading William Wainwright's Religion and Morality, an impressive little volume on aspects of ethics, meta-ethics, and different ways in which theistic religious belief interacts with it. The book starts off with a discussion of Kant's moral theology. I'm a biologist by training, and modern biology curricula see it fit to skimp on Kant courses for some reason. As a result, I really had difficulty understanding some of the key premises of his arguments.
This exercise in futility continued on until 3:50, at which point I thought it would be a good idea to snack on some chips (that project didn't go so well- despite my best efforts, I caught a glimpse of the calorie information on the packaging and the ensuing late night snacking became even more of a guilt trip than it usually is), and maybe look up some free Kant material online. I downloaded several important books on Kantian ethical system and rational theology, stuffed them in my Kindle device, and headed for bed.
That's when the sheer wondrousness of this whole episode struck me.
It took the entire intellectual career of Kant to produce what he did. Interpretations and analyses of his work, in turn, probably took generations of scholars decades of study and focused contemplation to synthesize.
And yet, in the dead of the night, when half the world is asleep, when a mediocre biology student without any academic specialization in philosophy has a minor craving for this material on one of the greatest thinkers that ever lived, all he has to do is reach for a glowy device in his room. That and a few clicks are what keeps him and the repository of all of the world's knowledge apart. Few minutes on a good online library and he would have the digitized version of this material free of charge or effort or hassle, no ID needs to be shown, no résumé needs to be flashed, no letter needs to be written to a library half the country over.
Oh and that's not the end of it either. To read the aforementioned digitized copy, there's an incredibly light and handy device with natural brightness which looks exactly like pages of a book.
I mean how would any of this sound to students living in medieval times? That they don't need to study at the feet of their masters for his reserved (even classified) manuscripts, or steal the hours from sleep to study at a candlelit library? That a time will come when they can access whatever they want to read and learn at the touch of a button? That a device in their room connects to (and in a way stores) 'virtual' libraries? That they can literally walk around with entire 'virtual' libraries at their disposal, in a flat, smooth, light book-like device which only weighs much less and is infinitely more convenient?
Still no sleep. I'll go back to Kant now.
Nope. In violation of good culture and prudence, the stupid molecules occupy my sleep receptors still.
This led me (if for no other reason than to induce some measure of drowsiness) to start reading William Wainwright's Religion and Morality, an impressive little volume on aspects of ethics, meta-ethics, and different ways in which theistic religious belief interacts with it. The book starts off with a discussion of Kant's moral theology. I'm a biologist by training, and modern biology curricula see it fit to skimp on Kant courses for some reason. As a result, I really had difficulty understanding some of the key premises of his arguments.
This exercise in futility continued on until 3:50, at which point I thought it would be a good idea to snack on some chips (that project didn't go so well- despite my best efforts, I caught a glimpse of the calorie information on the packaging and the ensuing late night snacking became even more of a guilt trip than it usually is), and maybe look up some free Kant material online. I downloaded several important books on Kantian ethical system and rational theology, stuffed them in my Kindle device, and headed for bed.
That's when the sheer wondrousness of this whole episode struck me.
It took the entire intellectual career of Kant to produce what he did. Interpretations and analyses of his work, in turn, probably took generations of scholars decades of study and focused contemplation to synthesize.
And yet, in the dead of the night, when half the world is asleep, when a mediocre biology student without any academic specialization in philosophy has a minor craving for this material on one of the greatest thinkers that ever lived, all he has to do is reach for a glowy device in his room. That and a few clicks are what keeps him and the repository of all of the world's knowledge apart. Few minutes on a good online library and he would have the digitized version of this material free of charge or effort or hassle, no ID needs to be shown, no résumé needs to be flashed, no letter needs to be written to a library half the country over.
Oh and that's not the end of it either. To read the aforementioned digitized copy, there's an incredibly light and handy device with natural brightness which looks exactly like pages of a book.
I mean how would any of this sound to students living in medieval times? That they don't need to study at the feet of their masters for his reserved (even classified) manuscripts, or steal the hours from sleep to study at a candlelit library? That a time will come when they can access whatever they want to read and learn at the touch of a button? That a device in their room connects to (and in a way stores) 'virtual' libraries? That they can literally walk around with entire 'virtual' libraries at their disposal, in a flat, smooth, light book-like device which only weighs much less and is infinitely more convenient?
Still no sleep. I'll go back to Kant now.