Class deliberation, part 1
I'm indecisive.
Philosophy of Science
I went into this term really wanting to take this class, but now I see it has a new professor who's pretty mediocre and who has what seemed like on the first day a much more specific view of what science is than I'd like. Meaning, I'd like to take a class, I think, that turns philosophy of science into the foundation of an epistemic system. But I don't think that's a really reasonable thing to request now. PROS: The material still looks interesting and important. I would really like to feel like I know what I'm talking about when I bring up philosophy of science, since currently virtually all my knowledge of the subject is from Wikipedia. Also, there are many smart people in the class that asked interesting questions today. And there was this hot blond philosophy major who spent most of the class sucking distractedly on her pen. CONS: Aforementioned mediocre prof. Meets at the same time as this Computational Cognitive Science I really ought to be shopping/taking this semester, according to a faculty member in the know according to my sister.
Information Theory
I went to this yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised by the professor. The class is an applied math course about the measurement, communication, and storage of information--about, as he said "God's limits" on these acts on information. Information is looking to me these days like the very currency of our subjective experience, and between Inferential Statistics, Models of Computation, and this, I could basically get the all the quantitative angles on the natural limits to its production, manipulation, storage, communication. I would be, strictly speaking, meta-informed, which I really like the idea of. Bonus points for taking Philosophy of Science along with this--cover the fibrous quantitative foundation of all of that quantitative meta-theory with a qualitative coating. It's tempting, tempting--but wouldn't this be overdoing it?
Politics of the Post-Soviet States
I mean, if I took either of the classes above, I'd be throwing myself farther into theory world. Piotr accused me this summer, I think, of "lacking historical perspective," and it burned and stung. So taking this course would face up to some political realities in the form a history-rich comparative politics course that I may or may not be cut out for, as far as background goes. This may be a candidate for vagabonding, although it's 10:30 am, and vagabonding the first class of the day is far less likely to be productive than a vagabonding later in the afternoon. It is well taught and fascinating!
Yaargh!
Philosophy of Science
I went into this term really wanting to take this class, but now I see it has a new professor who's pretty mediocre and who has what seemed like on the first day a much more specific view of what science is than I'd like. Meaning, I'd like to take a class, I think, that turns philosophy of science into the foundation of an epistemic system. But I don't think that's a really reasonable thing to request now. PROS: The material still looks interesting and important. I would really like to feel like I know what I'm talking about when I bring up philosophy of science, since currently virtually all my knowledge of the subject is from Wikipedia. Also, there are many smart people in the class that asked interesting questions today. And there was this hot blond philosophy major who spent most of the class sucking distractedly on her pen. CONS: Aforementioned mediocre prof. Meets at the same time as this Computational Cognitive Science I really ought to be shopping/taking this semester, according to a faculty member in the know according to my sister.
Information Theory
I went to this yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised by the professor. The class is an applied math course about the measurement, communication, and storage of information--about, as he said "God's limits" on these acts on information. Information is looking to me these days like the very currency of our subjective experience, and between Inferential Statistics, Models of Computation, and this, I could basically get the all the quantitative angles on the natural limits to its production, manipulation, storage, communication. I would be, strictly speaking, meta-informed, which I really like the idea of. Bonus points for taking Philosophy of Science along with this--cover the fibrous quantitative foundation of all of that quantitative meta-theory with a qualitative coating. It's tempting, tempting--but wouldn't this be overdoing it?
Politics of the Post-Soviet States
I mean, if I took either of the classes above, I'd be throwing myself farther into theory world. Piotr accused me this summer, I think, of "lacking historical perspective," and it burned and stung. So taking this course would face up to some political realities in the form a history-rich comparative politics course that I may or may not be cut out for, as far as background goes. This may be a candidate for vagabonding, although it's 10:30 am, and vagabonding the first class of the day is far less likely to be productive than a vagabonding later in the afternoon. It is well taught and fascinating!
Yaargh!