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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Phew! Dissertation finished.... Can I go play now?

10 comments:

Thomas Fummo said...

Woooooohooooo!!!
Well done kitty!

Go play!
Or, better yet, watch my movies and pictures, now that my interwebs has returned!

Wooooooo!!!

P.S. what was the dissertation on?

CyberKitten said...

TF said: Well done kitty!

There's still a few things to finish off - like an Index & a synopsis and such like, but that'll only take me an hour or so.

TF said: P.S. what was the dissertation on?

It's called "The Death of God and the Challenge of Nihilism" - so nothing *too* heavy [laughs].

VV said...

Congratulations! I know how difficult and time consuming the dissertation process can be. So glad you persevered. Is this for a degree in Philosophy, or what? Will we be calling you doctor soon or Professor? I don't know how this works in England.

CyberKitten said...

It's for a Masters Degree in the History of Philosophy. So, no Dr Cyberkitten just yet [grin]

I am *thinking* about a PhD but I need a break first - and I'm not sure if I can sustain an interest in any *one* thing for long enough [laughs]

I am already thinking about another MA though... but I won't have to make that decision for at least another 8-9 months yet.

I am getting quite a collection of qualifications though. Presently I'm the highest qualified person in our organisation - there's only about 70 of us but it's not bad considering.

VV said...

Hey, wasn't that a picture of a dog initially and now it's a cat? Please tell me I'm not losing my mind.

Laughing Boy said...

Congratulations, CK! Could you make your paper available in some form to one who might be interested in the subject?

Stephen said...

Congratulations!

CyberKitten said...

V V said: Hey, wasn't that a picture of a dog initially and now it's a cat? Please tell me I'm not losing my mind.

Nope. It's always been a cat (naturally). You might not be going mad but I might recommend a visit to your opticians [grin]

LB said: Could you make your paper available in some form to one who might be interested in the subject?

I might post some excepts at some point or Blog about some of my ideas about it. The one thing I didn't do is discuss the existence of God at any point (if that's the bit you were particularly interested in). You might find some of the quotes I used interesting. I'll see about posting some of them.

The essay was basically an attempted answer to this question:

If God does not exist and there is no intrinsic meaning to life then how do we live our lives in that knowledge?

Once you accept that life is basically absurd you are presented with various options:

Recoil in horror and run back into the arms of a comforting religion.

Adopt another ideological meaning to embed yourself into.

Commit suicide.

Fall into nihilistic despair

Or

Face up to reality and, of necessity, become a hero in your own life.

The idea basically came from a melding of Nagel & Camus on The Absurd & Nietzsche on heroic individualism.

Oh, thanks for the congratulations guys but I haven't even handed the thing in yet [laughs]. You can congratualte me (hopefully) when I get the results back!

Stephen said...

What field is this? Philosophy, theology?

CyberKitten said...

Philosophy.