YOU MADE IT!!!

YOU MADE IT!!!

17.3.08

The situation

Hi! Let me tell you the actual situation of my dissertation. I finished Chapter II in January and then I had to prepare for my exposition in the seminar with the professors and the other students. I had been re-reading the "DRP", the book that I work on, and after the exposition I decided to stop and write what I had up to that point, before I went on reading. What has happened in the last month is that this "quick writing" of what I had has been getting confusing and is taking a long time. I'm stuck! Partly because I was trying to explain too much, so I then re-wrote the index of Chapter III to simplify it. But I also realize that, since I stopped reading the DRP, I do not have the whole picture in mind, only the first third of that book, so I am probably being too detailed and too focused on the part what I re-read lately. Therefore I am thinking of finishing reading the book before I go on with anything else. I did not want to do that in fear that it would mean leaving what I have of Chapter III unfinished and then having to come back. But to be honest, I am not even sure of what I need to have in this Chapter III, how much is necessary and how much would be superfluous. So today I started re-reading the version of Chapter IV that I have, and then I will realize how much I need in Chapter III as a preparation for Chapter IV! At one point I also considered eliminating Chapter III altogether, because the most important Chapter is the fourth one. But someone advised me to keep it.
This is the thing: Chapter IV is the main one because I explain each of the concepts that Schelling is taking from Aristotle. But Chapter II deals with the concept of God in a general way, so I need a transition from II to IV in which it becomes clear what Schelling is attempting to do and how he understands his rational science, so that it will be clearer why he needs Aristotle. Then in Chapter IV I go into detail into the particular way he uses Aristotle. But the need for Aristotle and not, say, Plato or Kant, still has to be addressed. So I do need Chapter III, even if some of the points will have to be repeated in Chapter IV. Maybe it's ok because it will be under a different perspective: III says "Schelling wants x, y, z" and Chapter IV says "notice how a, b, c from Aristotle are perfect when you need x, y, z". Right?
I remembered today that Buchheim once suggested writing Chapter IV first because then I would know what I need to have in the third one... I will consider it after I re-read the DRP.
So the plan for tonight is going to mass and then to the gym. I need that! Will I make it? Tune in tomorrow to find out...
The plan for tomorrow is to re-read Chapter IV and decide on the points that I would need in Chapter III and write the schema for it, leaving aside all that is not necessary! And, since the library will be closed over Easter, I also have to decide what to take home and what work to do, if at all. I'll tell you about that later...
Ok, see you tomorrow.

3 comments:

DANNY BOY said...

Marce,

your plan for tomorrow sounds good. I have a question on the DRP, how long will it take to reread it? Good luck tomorrow!

Marce said...

Thank you my dear nephew-godson!! I didn't realize that you could already speak English. Isn't it amazing that one day it will be your regular language?? I can't imagine that yet... will you say "eh?" and "about" with "o" and "u"??
Thanks for asking: the rest of the DRP will probably take me... 10 days. One question is how detailed a reading I should make. Because on the one hand you want to make good use of the time and, if you're already reading it, then take notes and write the quotes that you will need in the computer. On the other hand, that makes it slower, and you might end up writing a lot of quotes that you don't need in the end, or have to go back to the text anyway once you are actually writing those parts. So I probably will mark quotes in a certain color according to the topic for which they would be useful, but not yet type them in. What do you think?

maria said...

Hi Marce. It's centuries that I don't write in English, and I would really love to write to you in that language, but I suspect that it would take to me too much time, and probably most of the times you wouldn't understand anything, because now a days my English is a bit horrible, so if you don't mind te voy a escribir en ESPAÑOLAZO.
Vaya me alegra comprobar que vas a tope... Creo que un experto en tesis te aconsejará mejor sobre como organizar tu tiempo, pero yo estaré por aquí echando un vistazo a cómo te organizas cada día para darte todo mi apoyo.

Por cierto, lo de escribir el cuarto antes del tercero no suena mal... Feliz y productiva Pascua.