In my philosophy class, the professor is kind enough to review the draft of our final essay, give us some useful feedbacks and allow us fix up the problem before hand it in.? I just got the feedback today.? He crossed out almost 1/3 of my essay that are irrevalent and unnecessary to my argument.? I spent almost a day reading an article form Marx so that I can criticize his original argument, instead of second hand argument from the textbook.? The professor say I am too ambitious.? It is like trying to squeeze another full length essay into the final 1000 words of my essay.? He said I should focus in develop my existing arguments, which is good enough for a 2nd year course.? He also said I have a tendency to trash talk and disrespect Marx in my paper.? In a philosophical paper, both side of the argument should evaluated fairly.? Although I may think Marxist is rubbish, I should still attack it with respect.? First of all, if it is truely rubbish, then it doesn’t worth your time to even attack it.? If it is not complete rubbish, then you should at least be fair, try your best salvage some useful points from his argument and pay due respect to the author shedding some lights on the problems.? Most important, if you just trash talk your opponent, he will simply ignore you.? Philosophy search for the truth, dialog is a way to reach the truth.? If there is no dialog between the two side of the argument, the thesis and anti-thesis will not yeilds a better synthesis.
I feel so happy for you that the liberal arts education is teaching you some useful handy skills here!!
Respect is very important because we all are valuable human beings, even our ideas. That’s why I always have to keep this close in mind, especially at work which is community-based and people-oriented. At the end, we all want to be treated in the same respectful way too!
Good for you… yes, stop working with just computers!! (kaka)
pat :o)