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259 to go

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So the exam is tomorrow, i am all revised out, and am ready to go, i downloaded the last 6 years of exam papers, i am doing questions/revision for Book 1 -The self, book 4- Knowledge and book 6 - political philosophy. Checking the questions from the previous six years, i can answer all the potential questions- apart from 2016 when then threw a cheeky- what does novak's public address thought experiment show- question.... That's is the only curve ball question i found. Just in case they do wish to drop a curve ball in this year, i have revised Thomas reid's major/general objection to Locke's position of personal identity.

So this is it, i have really despised this module, and tomorrow i will be finished with it and philosophy for good. I am happy about that and i hope i do myself justice in the exam.

GOOD LUCK to everyone tomorrow.... may the revision and remembering gods be with you... and may your work books fill with retained knowledge that is both relevant and answering of the questions asked of you.

As for the 20,000 views by tomorrow target, i am 259 short, and i cannot reasonably imagine many of you will be surfing blog posts tonight, when we still have revision to do.. so i think i will miss by a couple of hundred, not that 19,800 views is anything to sniff at.

So lets do the exam thing tomorrow, stay focused everyone and stay on target... and may your arguments be incisively inductive, unless you are doing Maths, Physics, Chemistry or Law, then let them be deductive... Piori and postpiori and all that......bloody Rene Descartes....

#bloodyA222

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018, 21:43)
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335 to go...

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The revision is going well...and

Only 335 views to go to hit the magic 20,000 views, with 2 days left to the exam.

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Nearly there...

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I had the ambition to reach 20,000 views by the time i sit my exam on Tuesday.

Only 494 views to go..

How fantastic.

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Finally TMA of A222

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Got my final TMA06 back.

The last essay of #bloodyA222...

I got 60%, so i end up with an OCAS of 60% for the module, so a grade 3 pass in O.U speak, or a 2:2 pass in normal undergraduate speak.

Just happy to be shot of this module in all honesty, it has been awful.

So just the exam to knock out and i can move onto the first economics module.

Lets hope the A222 exam goes okay.

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New blog post

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Edited by Michael Gumbrell, Tuesday, 29 May 2018, 20:28

I went to Cornwall for the bank holiday weekend.

Visited two amazing places.. the eden project and the minack theatre.

Two examples of what individual spirit can achieve, both very inspirational places to visit

Rowena Cade spent 35 years building the Minack Theatre, by her own hand, assisted by her gardener, Billy.

And Tim Smit founded the incredible Eden project...

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One week to go.

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So by this time next week, i will have done the exam.

Hopefully everyone's revision is going well.

I have one week left to pick up 600 blog views to hit my 20,000 target by the time i have finished the A222 exam.... here's hoping!!!!

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Tuesday, 29 May 2018, 20:33)
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Hits

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The views counter is chugging along nicely, about to pass 19,000.

Will it hit 20,000 before my philosophy exam on Tuesday 5th of June?

Do the Open University give extra credit for 20,000 blog visits? In case the exam does not go well?

So place your bets; will the counter hit 20,000 before i sit my exam at 10:00 am on Tuesday 5th of June 2018?????

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Exam tutorial

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Well the exam tutorial this year was the opposite of the last 2 years.

For the last 2 years only 4 or 5 of us turned up to the tma tutorials, with suddenly 16 people turning up for the exam tutorial.

This year we have averaged 10 for the tma tutorials and only 4 of us turned up to the exam tutorial.

Hopefully everyone who did not come to the exam tutorial is well advanced with revision and confident for the exam.

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Getting published

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There used to be a joke in our house... there are 5 of us in here.

Only published authors were allowed certain Privileges... the wife ( published social work articles) and our youngest- Ella-13 ( published poems in anthologies) held the privileges..

Until the local micro news site i volunteer for decided to publish an anthology of work. I am in the anthology and so  now have access to the same privileges Ros and Ella do..

That made me happy... i now have access to the same secret stash of choccy diggies that the girls do... don't tell James and William.. unless they can get published too.

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Views

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And thank you for visiting my blog.

18,500 views.

So i might get to 20,000 by the time i get to halfway through my degree ( June 6th 2018)... yes i am counting.

Half way through and potentially 20,000 views.

I will be proud of that.

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No more philosophy tma's

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Well, my struggle is almost over... i wrote my tma6 this week and got it submitted... so only the exam in three weeks and thats philosophy done.

Philosophy done and never to be returned to.

I will have 2 economics and one more politics module to due.

So my philosophy exam is on Tuesday 5th of June 2018...and that will be my exact half way point... it will be 2 economics and one politics to the finish line.

So quote an emotional time... it is just a shame that at the moment the strongest emotion is contempt. I have little but contempt for this philosophy module... i can't say i have hated every moment of it... the first two weeks were okay ( probably because i had not worked out what was going on in those first two weeks) but after that initial period of grace, the contempt started to build.

I have the exam revision lecture tomorrow, so just stomach that and did the exam done and i will be free.

FREE... in the John Locke essence of ''natural freedom' or Berlins essence of ' negative freedom'?

Either way, to quote Bob Dylan....

" i shall be released "

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Final tma

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Time to write my final tma of this module. Then just the revision and i am out of it.

Happy days.

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views

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17,500 views, thank you everyone.

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New low score!!!!!

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#bloody A222.

Just got the mark back for tma 5. Which was about Descartes Dualism.

I set my own personal record for a low score.

I got 40%. So i passed, by the lowest possible mark.

One more tma to go and the exam and then i am done with bloody A222.

I cannot wait.

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Worthy procrastination.

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Well we are at the business end of the module...

And HBO start showing the new season of Westworld at the same time.  

I have recorded it and will carve out one hour tonight to watch it, considering the subject matter of Westworld, i might be able to justify it as philosophy revision....

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Views

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Well my view counter is about to hit 17,000.

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to visit this blog.

So it grows by around 300 views a week. So by the time this term ends in June 2018, it will have got to 18500. So unless it continues at that pace across the summer then i will start the new term with more than 20,000 views, which i find exciting.

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Finishing line....

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So close...stay in attack formation....eyes on the prize..

Just political philosophy to go, the tma is on consent to political obligation as John Locke saw it. 2000 words will be hard, it is a quite thin topic to be writing the essay about. All idea's of consent, both actual and implied struggle if choice is not part of the process.. 

Then just the exam....and boom, #bloodyA222 will be behind me and i will never really have to return to Philosophical study again, which suits me, i have hated this module with contempt and will never return to the study of Philosophy again.  

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Views

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I missed the 16,500 views milestone and my counter is now growing towards 17,000. 

Thank you all for taking the time to visit my blog.

I wonder if i will get to 20,000 views before the end of this module?

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Tma 5

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Tma 5 was done and sent.

One more block 'political philosophy' and the exam to do and thats #bloodya222 done and dusted.

By that point i will be exactly half way through my degree, by moving into the economics module and waiting to see how the new vice-vice-chancallor deals with the challenges facing the OU.

But most important of all..  i will not have to go near another philosophy module..happy days. 

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Next...

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I am reminded of the lyrics by the Who..

'Meet the new boss...same as the old boss'.

I must admit of being friends with a couple of people who worked for Peter Horricks when he was in charge of the BBC world service, they had said he displayed poor leadership skills there and they expected him to do the same with the OU.

So Mr Horricks jumped the day before he was getting sacked.... so a new vice-vice-chancellor needs to be found...

And now the Daily Mail is running a 'Save the open university' campaign.

Perhaps we have dark days ahead... 

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Sunday, 15 Apr 2018, 22:01)
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views

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Despite my slowing down with this blog, my view counter is reaching 16,000 views.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog.

It is much appreciated, i must show that appreciation by increasing my blog entry pace...

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Dualism

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So lurching onto tMA 5 we go, Rene Descartes and the idea of dualism.

Is our mind a 'different' thing to our body.

Dualism, are they two distinctly separate things?

My response to the idea that we are two separate things, our bodies and mind is NO.

But that is too simple an answer for the TMA, so we need to have a deeper explanation of the NO.

So here we go, TMA 5 , so near the end and i will be so happy to be shot of this module...

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philosophy is hell

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following on form my previous blog post about studying philosophy being akin to Dante's seven circles of Hell,

i did start to make a few, what i thought were funny flash cards about that concept.

Here are the first three, i am not sure how funny they are, or relevant, but i made them anyway,


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slowing down with blogs

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i have really slowed down with my blogs lately.

Partly because A222 is nearing it's completion, and i have to just knuckle down and get it finished (never to be seen again)

Plus i don't feel like i have much to say at the moment, i think it is better not to just post rubbish for the sake of it.

My view counter passed 15,000 some time in the last three weeks, so thank you to everyone who has taken the time to view my blog.

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Exam revision plan

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So six blocks, 2 exam questions per block.

So i can revise 3 books for the exam. I fancy block one, five and six.

The philosophy of the self, 

The philosophy of the mind

And

Political philosophy

And if pushed the philosophy of religion if i have time to revise it.

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