Lecturing on Locke

I had a very fruitful weekend in London. This time I spent a great deal of my waking hours on Sunday, preparing a lecture on John Locke. Ahreum was so supportive, and made me some great Korean food. She served bibimbop and dengjang chiggae for lunch. It sure was delicious, and the flavour of the dengjang chiggae was perfectly balanced. Thus, I had the time and energy to get the lecture polished off. She also let me read the whole thing to her twice! That’s an awfully great amount of crazy philosophy to listen to. But it let me actually deliver a lecture and not just a recitation from paper. I couldn't have done that without her.

So Monday morning came, and there was a hard frost on the ground, but I was not discouraged, I practiced once more, got ready, and walked to campus. I had to be careful to breathe through my nose, or risk damaging my vocal chords. So all precautions taken, I went to the exam hall. My professor, Iain Hampsher-Monk, introduced me, and then I got underway. The important thing is be actually interacting with the class. Although I'm just talking to them, I should not be just talking at them. Everything I do and all the walking and posturing I enact must convey meaning and bring a response from the students. This is pretty hard because I'm not an experienced public orator. Luckily, I do have a loud voice, so that helps a good deal. I just tried to push through any nerves and give the lecture without any other thoughts.

It worked out too. At the end I even had a small bit of applause, perhaps out of charity. Anyway, I got Iain thinking about how much of a defender of people's actual decisions Locke really was. Perhaps, he was closer to Rousseau in sanctioning what people ought to want (rather than what they do want) than is often imagined. Well, the point is, if it got my professor thinking, it must have stimulated the class as well. That's really all I can ask for, and I think it was a real privilege to be able to participate in their education at this level.

Now I must step out of the spotlight and back to research and grading.

Once more into the breach,

Ben