That's Tiger Ears MA (Phil), bitches
9th December 2012 – 5.31 pmAlong with playing EVE Online, writing about EVE Online, learning to play jazz drums, playing and writing about RPGs, and something about working a full-time engineering job, I have been studying. I like to keep my mind active.
Many years of interesting but hard work came to its conclusion this year. I took a few paragraphs of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice and wrote an 18,000 word dissertation on them, arguing that Rawls is guilty of circular reasoning. Naturally, the university recognised my brilliance and passed my dissertation with merit.
There is much to enjoy about my dissertation. Personally, I quite like its subtitle, How to Give Reality a Liberal Bias. And I was pleased to be able to sneak in the sentence 'Either we get it or we don’t, and if we don’t then we just aren’t trying hard enough, which is committing the yet-to-be-recognised fallacy of proof by peer pressure', although that isn't in reference to Rawls's writing.
The dissertation result also means that I have been awarded my target qualification, the Masters degree in philosophy. I knew it was coming, but I am still ridiculously happy with my achievement. Now to work out what to do with it.
17 Responses to “That's Tiger Ears MA (Phil), bitches”
So... there's the proof,
EvE geeks are to geeks, as geeks are to std humans... =]
Long-time reader, first-time typer.
Congratulations on the extra letters at the end of your name! Rawls is a ton of fun; which paragraphs did you pivot off - was it veil of ignorance stuff? Is your dissertation available somewhere?
Thanks for a great blog, and good luck with all your future philosophicationing.
Wow. Seriously impressive. Very well done.
*\o/*
Congratulations Penny!
Congratulations!
Thanks, all!
The main argument concerned the original position specifically, Rorty, which naturally entailed a section on the veil of ignorance. The dissertation isn't on-line yet, but I could probably make it available, if there's interest. And I realise that one good aspect of my philosophy studies is finally understanding what qua means.
Heh. All my philosophy degree got me was a sense of bitter irony as I delivered the pizzas.
I knew I was in for a good time with Rawls when I read him say, "We want to define the
original position so that we get the desired solution." I was, like... we can DO that? Wow! Awesome! ;)
Count this as an expression of interest in seeing your dissertation.
Wait, you're (practicing to be) a jazz drummer? I knew you were awesome.
Drummer here. :-)
I'm also an eve player + philosophy grad student =D I also second posting it somewhere. I thought everything that could possibly be said about Rawls has been said! If you're as good at philosophy as you are at writing eve fiction then it should be smashing.
Grats Penny
Congrats!
I am impressed. And there I thought I was someone doing a lot of things. I don't think I could study on the side and actually finish. (I still dream of studying astronomy one day ... when I'm old and retired probably)
Thanks again, everyone.
Follow your dream, Mme. Thalys. Astronomy is pretty cool.
Us drummers should stick together, Dersen, although doing so in time may be tricky. I have some posts tagged with drumming that contain sporadic updates on my progress.
I'm looking in to the possibility of posting my dissertation. I dunno if there are rules about it or not.
Congratulations! M Phil! And Rawls of all people. That is dense stuff.
Busy life studying hard time. Now that it is done, you can hunt your prey with the emphasis on the primary social good?
Thanks, Splatus. If my targets start whining about how blowing them up, whilst providing me with entertainment and some loot, doesn't benefit the worst off and actually results in a drop in overall satisfaction, I'll just pod them.
I'm a bit behind in my reading of your blog, so only got to this one now - big congrats on the Masters.
Thank you, Hermit.
I've also found out from my institution that I am free to distribute my dissertation. I am tentatively looking at publication options, so do not want to just throw it on the web, but if anyone would like a copy so they can bask in my genius then please send me an e-mail. I'll reply with a PDF of my dissertation attached.