I've spent most of this night and, indeed, this day trying to learn enough about Descartes and Locke to be able to not only understand them well enough to relate them in an educated way, but also to understand them on a personal level; to find out what I think about their philosophical theories. Inevitably, "trying to learn" degenerated into tasting new tea and eating cheese while reading up on Silvio Berlusconi trying to out-maneuver the legal system (or what passes for the legal system) in Italy. And by the way, parmesan goes with almost no tea whatsoever.

Instead of buckling down and trying to garner the best grade I can from that jumped up 500 dollar waste of an hour and fifteen minutes, I decided that whether I can understand and relate two long dead philosophers' views or not, who gives a shit? I know I can understand them given enough willpower on my part, but I shouldn't need to, even if I want to understand myself or whatever trumped up meaning they're trying shove across. I've come to the conclusion that all philosophers are berks with more time on their hands than me. Who gives two shakes of a rat's tail if Descartes was a substance dualist or if Locke couldn't counter the Division argument for memory as the mechanism for personal identity?

Naturally, this little rant o' mine could be construed as the ramblings of a lazy student who doesn't want to actually try on his homework to get a good grade from the institution. While I am lazy, I've almost never not tried to get a good grade. I can usually be counted on to prioritize my life correctly. I'm making a half conscious decision to go into this test sand blind. But, in the end, I won't care what Descartes or Locke thought. I care what I think. And I think that, when I'm dead, I'll have found out whether there's a mind and body, whether it's memory or an immaterial soul that makes me who I am. I can philosophize all I want when I'm dead. And if I can't, then I think I beat the system.

On a more upbeat note: I found a lovely collection of mythological/fantasy picture books in the Browsing Library at the MU. Pretty exciting. I'm also way into sci-fi. Nerd Alert!