This week has been really hectic because I'm starting the research for my research paper for my comparative law and courts class. I'm still not sure exactly which Constitutional court I want to do my research on yet, but I know I want to research on a court that runs on the civil law system. I've been looking into Italy and Greece. Italy because I really want to study abroad there next year with the law program, and Greece because then I can splurge in some Plato and Aristotle into my paper (refer to Politics or even Republic), isn't that where law basically originated? From the philosophical works of these famous philosophers? Anyway, this class is actually pretty informative, so there's a lot of information to process and a lot of research and such which is why this week I wasn't able to post as normally. I had a test today on what we learned so far. I'm not too behind on the reading we're suppose to do in our textbooks. But trust me, it's really easy to fall behind in the readings because it is SO dry and boring. Sometimes I do not even understand HOW I have come to be able to read so much dry text. Other than that, the material we cover in class is not too bad.
My philosophical issues in the law class, is philosophy orientated. This requires a lot of syllogism, deductive and inductive reasoning, natural law vs legal positivists, modus tollens, sound and valid arguments, fallacies and tons of court cases to remember. A lot of the philosophy TA's at the philosophy office hours shivered at how applied these philosophical concepts were for this class (I suppose they enjoy working and teaching in the abstract like the intro to logic course). I do not mind it too much because I actually enjoy the reasoning applied in law and seeing how all that works out. A lot of it is just case study and being able to identify the legal reasoning as to why judges make certain decisions using the concepts listed above. This class isn't too hard per se, but it's still one of the trickier classes because of the philosophical aspect. Don't get me wrong, I've taken an intro to logic class and it is logical when you think about it really hard, at first glance, everything is just a blur of information that does not seem to resonate. I suppose that is how I felt about this class for a while, but now that it's week 3, and we're getting deeper into the concepts and such, I'm so excited for the rest of the 7 weeks to come!
Lastly, my global warming class. A lot of information, the homework and quizzes and such are REALLY tricky and require you to stretch your thinking so far outside of the box that it's ridiculous. I have never thought so critically in any science-like class before… I mean besides chemistry. This class shouldn't even be like that, but I suppose the professor just wants to make it a big harder for us. I don't mind. It's college… I have my first test next thursday, fingers cross that I'll do fine. But that most likely means that I won't be posting as much or as frequently the next couple weeks since it's starting to get into that midterm/papers time period.
Overall, I am enjoying my classes so far, I'm not super drowning in school work yet, I'm treading in the water still. But this work is starting to pile up and get to the point where if I don't start cranking super hard and putting in my 110% then I might as well not even try at all because how else am I suppose to make the Dean's List again? Anyway, I promise a thought provoking or philosophical or even controversial post tomorrow. I don't think I mind philosophical posts… we'll see what enlightening ideas flow through this wreck of a mind tomorrow.
Ps, the picture was taken by my dearest cousin outside of my work place. I just love the whole look and feel of brick walls.
