Sleeplessness and Philosophy class reconvenes

On Wednesday night I was involved in voluntary duties, I'm not great at overnighters but having done a 'shift' I'm reminded of how many people are required to work night shifts to ensure modern society functions as well as it does - to me after a night I'm more short tempered and prone to make mistakes, I feel liker I'm having a bad does of jet-lag.

Cue (Kew) spring, earlier today 

Disruptive night work has been shown to shorten the lives of those required to do it and I'm not sure they all get the recompense for this they deserve.

Which brings me back to the political classes who deem making their choice of career (generally day work) which involves privilege more than denial and then choose to label it as dedicating their lives to public service, compare this with hard working public servants or volunteers who do make sacrifices - come on please.

 Philosophy class reconvenes  (Hume under the spotlight)

After half term it was back to the coal face of Philosophy for everyone as Ealing's Philosophy class reconvened last night.
I was reminded of several things, first what an engaging subject Philosophy can be second how many ways there are into it, the class kicked off with a couple of film excerpts-
The first from Hitchcock's Vertigo - an extremely hight rated film (by cinema aficionados) - is now serving philosophy, it seems there's a connection between director Hitchcock's Vertigo  (believed to be a strongly Christian Catholic) and Hume's (considered by many as an atheist enlightenment thinker) philosophy.

The link is around the ideas of sense perception- Vertigo is all about the sight of James Stewart's character in pursuit of the Kim Novak character, Stewart gains knowledge from his following of her.

The link might be tenuous (take a look if you need to )  but that did not inhibit discussion.


The second film clip was from Chaplin's City Lights, strong on sentimentality - the clip showed Chaplin's 'little Tramp'  meeting a blind flower seller again a link with sense perceptions  is shown





Next week we'll be venturing to the East to have a taste of Buddhism and other alternatives to the Western tradition.