October 2020 – Davood Gozli

The title of this post is a slightly altered version of an essay title by Sigmund Freud, “Remembering, Repeating, and Working Through,” in which he briefly describes the development and the task of analysis. With regard to development, he writes about replacing the method of hypnosis with more appropriate methods, including free association and dream interpretation. With regard to the task, Freud describes the process of working through transference. Working through transference is essentially working…

Discourse Memory

Learning with Grief, Learning with Joan Didion

By Davood Gozli | 20/10/202020/10/2020 by Davood Gozli

Sometimes after recording a video I end up feeling I completely failed to say the most important parts of what I had planned. How could the very parts that motivated the video in the first place slip through my fingers? And how could I let that happen? Why didn’t I re-take the video? What I have in mind isn’t just about forgetting to say something, although that can also happen. But sometimes I say something…

Culture Education

Absence of Purpose

By Davood Gozli | 17/10/202017/10/2020 by Davood Gozli

Andrew Taggart just wrote this post about the (non)purpose of religion, which is closely connected to a discussion about the (non)purpose of art, education, philosophy, and ultimately the (non)purpose of being human. When we question the purpose of something, we often don’t realize how much prejudice is conveyed in our question. Questioning the purpose of X, the utility of X, is a question about whether and how X fits within our existing purposes. “What is…

Writing

The Cheerful Response

By Davood Gozli | 16/10/202016/10/2020 by Davood Gozli

It is 7:30 in the morning. I couldn’t fall asleep and now the next day is officially here. The “next” day is now today. Despite not having slept, I feel excited and alive. It’s a new autumn day, there is coffee, and there are books. I’ve been feeling unwell for the past couple days. Nothing serious, it’s probably just a mild flu. But why wasn’t I able to fall asleep? I felt tired before bed.…

Academia Discourse

Being Stuck

By Davood Gozli | 14/10/202014/10/2020 by Davood Gozli

In the winter semester of 2009, I took Philosophy of Mind, an undergraduate course, with the late Prof. Bernard Hodgson (1946-2009) at Trent University. Prof. Hodgson sadly passed away very soon after delivering the final lecture for the course. He was a very pleasant and engaging speaker and after his general outline of the course, which he gave during the first lecture, I was sure I was going to stay in the class until the…

Month: October 2020

Repeating, Remembering, & Working Through

Learning with Grief, Learning with Joan Didion

Absence of Purpose

The Cheerful Response

Being Stuck