Osler's Razor

I like things pretty plain and simple. Like Big Boy here-- you know exactly what he is about (which is low-quality food that makes you fat).

Unfortunately, as an academic I sometimes find myself in a world where people seem to be just making up new words for ideas that have been around for thousands of years. I have almost no patience for it. Yes, there ARE sometimes new ideas and new ways of thinking about things, but that's not what I am talking about-- rather, what rattles my chain is the repackaging of what people have been doing for centuries and acting like it is a discovery.

And within the academic world, this happens way too often, and words start to lose their meaning. Those close to me know that I even have a shorthand catchphrase for this kind of thing: "Human People and Thinking." That's the title of a college class that won't get out of my head. It would be listed in the catalogue this way:

Interdiscip. 264: Human People & Thinking

This one-semester seminar explores the clashing concepts of humans and people, and maps their respective dialectics of thinking. Drawing on Diderot, Collingwood, Joyce, and Holland, students will develop their own theories of humanity/people/thinking rooted in the broad cultural context of the modern language vortex while mindful of the licit  semantics of time. The fulcrum of the semester will be an exploration of Hegelian trangermative unger and the theory of radical disentanglement.  Prerequisite: Interdiscip. 105: Thinking, Feeling, Talking.