M. R. Eyestone

Welcome to my corner of the Web.  There's no particularly interesting reason why this site exists: it tells you a bit about me, but it certainly isn't intended to be self-glorifying; I guess it mostly exists because I like having something to tinker with on occasion.  (Some people like tinkering with cars; I, an unrepentant geek—and sometime freelance Web designer and consultant—enjoy tinkering with code.)

This site makes heavy use of Cascading Style Sheets.  If things display strangely, about all that I can suggest is that you try using a different Web browser; I use Firefox, and it displays everything as I intend, but your mileage may vary.

If you have suggestions for this site or questions for me, feel free to e-mail me.

Of Interest to My Students

This fall semester, I'm teaching two sections of Introduction to Philosophy (PHIL 1000, sections 205 and 206) and one section of Historical Introduction to Philosophy: Ancient (PHIL 1010/CLAS 1030, section 200) at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Here are some things that my students might find useful or interesting:

• PHIL 1000:
  • Syllabus [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 31 August [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 04 September [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Exam 1 review sheet [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 05 October [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Exam 2 review sheet [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 20 November [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
• PHIL 1010/CLAS 1030:
  • Syllabus [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 02 September [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 09 September [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Exam 1 review sheet [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 05 October [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 09 October [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 19 October [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 21 October [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 30 October [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Exam 2 review sheet [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 09 November [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
  • Handout from 11 November [Microsoft Word (.doc)] [Adobe PDF]
• Raphael's The School of Athens:
  • JPG image (3820 by 2964 pixels, 2411 KB)
  • Wikipedia's entry on the painting (which explains it and tells who's who in it)
• Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Socrates:
  • JPG image (1280 by 832 pixels, 747 KB)
  • Wikipedia's entry on the painting
• YouTube clip from the movie Waking Life: David Sosa discusses determinism and free will
• Sinfest comic strip: Pooch and Percy discuss what happens to us after we die
• Course Reserves (Chinook Library Catalog)

As always, if you have questions or would like to chat, feel free to e-mail me or (for a face-to-face meeting) to schedule some office hours with me.

About Me

Here is my curriculum vitae.

I have no idea whether or not I have an especially interesting life, so I'll just give you the facts and let you be the judge.  I grew up in rural Minnesota.  I did my undergraduate work at Minnesota State University Moorhead, graduating in the spring of 2003 with a BA in philosophy and a BS in management information systems and computer information systems (MIS and CIS both being hybrid computer and business majors).  In the fall of 2004, I got married.  In the spring of 2005, I taught a Web design course at South High School in Fargo, North Dakota.  That fall, I started working towards a PhD in philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder; I'm still working on that, and I earned an MA in the process in August of 2008.

That's basically my history up to now.  When not doing research or teaching—and, really, even then—I'm still a geeky kid in most ways.  What free time I have is mainly spent surfing the Web, listening to music, reading comics, collecting toys, and playing video games and Dungeons & Dragons.  (For the concerned: no, I don't worship demonic powers, nor, to my knowledge, am I otherwise affiliated with any such entities.)  My other pastimes include watching TV and movies that don't irritate me (which are fairly uncommon), reading mythology and decently written fiction (especially by Neil Gaiman), and, occasionally, toying around with one of my own writing projects.

Pictures/Videos

I despise vanity, but, just for fun, here are some picturess of me (in varying degrees of unshavenness; at the moment, I have a full beard), mostly courtesy of my wife:

• Me looking uncharacteristically jolly [JPG]
• A testament to my wife's photography skills [JPG]
• Me outside in the snow [JPG] [JPG]
• Me, the animal-lover, being assailed by my in-laws' cat [JPG]
• Me about to leave for a Halloween party dressed as some sort of Viking-lumberjack [JPG]
• This one seems like it'd benefit from a caption [JPG]

Here is a video, courtesy of my limited skills as a videographer:

• Something adorable [YouTube]

Academic Information

Here, again, is my CV.

As I mentioned above, I have a master's degree in philosophy, and I'm working towards a doctorate, but those two facts alone don't tell you much about what I really know (or seem to know) about my chosen discipline.  At this point, I consider philosophy of religion, history of philosophy (especially ancient), and logic to be my main areas, though I've tried to learn a little about everything.  Here's a listing of the philosophy courses with which I've been associated.

I also work as a philosophy tutor, especially for symbolic logic.  If you'd like to hire me as a tutor, please e-mail me.

Besides philosophy, I have a strong general interest in religion, mythology, and the classics.  I doubt that I'll ever have the necessary time and energy to pursue all of my interests, but I'm not sure that that's a bad thing.

Some Things I Like

Not that you should particularly care, but in case you're curious.

Some Things I Dislike

These are in no particular order, and they're not to be taken personally.  Note that even if some of this list applies to you, it doesn't necessarily follow that I'll dislike you; as grouchy and cynical as I can be at times, I try to be fair, and I'll usually give someone a chance.

• Anti-smoking ads (I've never smoked, but I don't have a problem if anyone else does; if I don't like it, I can just walk away)
• "Energy" (though not so much "energy" itself—whatever it's supposed to be—as people's tendency to confuse it with comparatively well-understood physical concepts)
• Grammar, spelling and punchuashun; which, we're badly
• Confusion and malfunction in general (I'm often neither quick nor patient, so I appreciate it when things make sense and work properly)
• Excuses (I'll recognize legitimate ones—which, as far as I'm concerned, aren't common—but I still dislike them, and I loathe using them myself)
• Whining (cry or don't cry, but don't whine)
• Poseurs
• Inability to back up one's claims with anything more than "Well, I feel/believe that..." or "It's just obvious that..." (give me reasons, though—good ones—and I'll listen)
• Being told what to do/what not to do (just ask, and, again, be prepared to give me some good reasons)
• Narrowness in almost anything, from parking spaces to minds
• Arrogance (pride and self-respect are fine things, but not when taken to excess)
• Immaturity (which, from what I've seen, has little to do with age)
• Dogmatism (and I definitely don't just mean religious dogmatism)
• Dishonesty and deception (including self-deception, especially when it's unrecognized)
• Ignorance (especially when it's voluntary, as it usually seems to be)
• Overvaluation of or excessive attachment to almost anything
• Unreflective acceptance of anything
• Weakness in all its forms

Words to Live By

When some one inquired, "Have you no concern in your native land?" "Gently," [Anaxagoras] replied, "I am greatly concerned with my fatherland," and pointed to the sky. —Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Book II, Chapter 3, 7

I prefer nothing, unless it is true. —Socrates (according to Plato, Euthyphro 14e)

Neither Meletus nor Anytus can harm me in any way; [...] certainly he might kill me, or perhaps banish or disfranchise me, which he and maybe others think to be great harm, but I do not think so. —Socrates (according to Plato, Apology 30c–d)

There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse. —Socrates (according to Plato, Phaedo 89d)

[F]requently, owing to [Socrates's] vehemence in argument, men set upon him with their fists or tore his hair out; [...] for the most part he was despised and laughed at, yet bore all this ill-usage patiently.  So much so that, when he had been kicked, and some one expressed surprise at his taking it so quietly, Socrates rejoined, "Should I have taken the law of a donkey, supposing that he had kicked me?" —Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Book II, Chapter 5, 21

Often when [Socrates] looked at the multitude of wares exposed for sale, he would say to himself, "How many things I can do without!" —Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Book II, Chapter 5, 25

[Socrates] used to say it was strange that, if you asked a man how many sheep he had, he could easily tell you the precise number; whereas he could not name his friends or say how many he had, so slight was the value he set upon them. —Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Book II, Chapter 5, 30

There is, [Socrates] said, only one good, that is, knowledge, and only one evil, that is, ignorance; wealth and good birth bring their possessor no dignity, but on the contrary evil. —Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Book II, Chapter 5, 31

[Socrates] used to express his astonishment that the sculptors of marble statues should take pains to make the block of marble into a perfect likeness of a man, and should take no pains about themselves lest they should turn out mere blocks, not men. —Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Book II, Chapter 5, 33

To one who said, "You are condemned by the Athenians to die," [Socrates] made answer, "So are they, by nature." —Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Book II, Chapter 5, 35

[I]t is the mark of excellence both to be pleased and to be pained at the right objects and in the right way. —Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Book IV, Chapter 1, 1121a3–4

[T]he good man obeys his intellect. —Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Book IX, Chapter 8, 1169a17

[I]t is not noble to be keen to receive benefits. —Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Book IX, Chapter 11, 1171b25–26

[T]he activity of wisdom is [...] the pleasantest of excellent activities; at all events philosophy is thought to offer pleasures marvellous for their purity and their enduringness [...]. —Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Book X, Chapter 7, 1177a23–26

[T]he activity of God, which surpasses all others in blessedness, must be contemplative; and of human activities, therefore, that which is most akin to this must be most of the nature of happiness. —Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Book X, Chapter 8, 1178b22–23

[T]he activity of thought is life, and God is that activity [...]. —Aristotle, Metaphysics Book XII (Λ), Chapter 7, 1072b26–27

Don't fear god, Don't worry about death; What is good is easy to get, and What is terrible is easy to endure. —Philodemus's statement of the Epicurean "four-part cure"

Let death and exile and everything that is terrible appear before your eyes every day, especially death; and you will never have anything contemptible in your thoughts or crave anything excessively. —Epictetus, Handbook 21

Another person will not do you harm unless you wish it; you will be harmed at just that time at which you take yourself to be harmed. —Epictetus, Handbook 30 (Keep this in mind especially when someone has offended you.)

When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others.  [...]  When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. —Jesus of Nazareth (according to Matthew 6: 2, 5 (NAB))

[T]he human condition would indeed be far happier if it were equally in the power of men to keep silent as to talk.  But experience teaches us with abundant examples that nothing is less within men's power than to hold their tongues or control their appetites. —Baruch Spinoza, Ethics Part III, Proposition 2, Scholium

A wise man [...] proportions his belief to the evidence. —David Hume, An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (Section X, "Of Miracles")

If this disturbs you then walk away[.] —David Draiman of Disturbed, "Ten Thousand Fists" (A good response to those who advocate censorship.)

I have no parents: I make the heavens and earth my parents. I have no home: I make awareness my home. I have no life or death: I make the tides of breathing my life and death. I have no divine power: I make honesty my divine power. I have no means: I make understanding my means. I have no magic secrets: I make character my magic secret. I have no body: I make endurance my body. I have no eyes: I make the flash of lightning my eyes. I have no ears: I make sensibility my ears. I have no limbs: I make promptness my limbs. I have no strategy: I make "unshadowed by thought" my strategy. I have no designs: I make "seizing opportunity by the forelock" my design. I have no miracles: I make "right action" my miracles. I have no principles: I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles. I have no tactics: I make emptiness and fullness my tactics. I have no talents: I make ready wit my talent. I have no friends: I make my mind my friend. I have no enemy: I make carelessness my enemy. I have no armor: I make benevolence and righteousness my armor. I have no castle: I make immovable-mind my castle. I have no sword: I make absence of self my sword. —attributed to an anonymous fourteenth-century samurai