And away we go. . .
May 19, 2008
Hello and welcome to my brand spankin new blog! I’m super excited to now have a place where I can write about and share absolutely anything and everything.
To give you a little direction — each post will be marked under certain categories that are then searchable. So for instance, this post will fall under the "Welcome" and "Video" categories. This means that later on when you’re all alone in the middle of the night and the urge for some Heather musings strikes you (and, oh, it so will), you’ll be able to come on my blog and search for specific topics/themes of interest. You want to read about the latest conference or forum I’ve attended on ethics and technology? You want to hear about the latest kick ass Speculative Fiction/ Science Fiction book I’ve read? Want to see pictures and read tales of my travels through Europe? Thoughts about articles I’ve read or movies I’ve seen? Reviews of the best places to eat and get a caffeine fix? You’ll be able to click on the tags and get posts specifically related to the topic of your choice! Pretty neat, hey?
As a side note, I know a lot of people in technology and philosophy have strictly professional blogs where they limit what they show the world to the purely intellectual. And I know that there’s a fear that showing and sharing the more personal aspects of oneself will inevitably undercut one’s academic and intellectual clout … that people (especially, perhaps, women) who are smart and worth taking seriously don’t have doodles of themselves all over their website, don’t see the light of day on a regular basis, and probably don’t have hippie hair either. But I’m hoping to help change that view … if just a little teeny bit.
This website is titled "In Pursuit of a Little Eudaimonia with Heather Whitney" - so what does that mean and what the heck does that have to do with my above comments?
Well, Eudaimonia is a Greek word that roughly translates to "flourishing" {("eu" = good) and ("daimon" = spirit)}. In Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics (of which I am quite a fan), Eudaimonia is the goal of living. We aim to flourish. And, for Aristotle, it turns out that the only way to truly flourish as a human is to live a virtuous ethically outstanding life.
But what does that mean?
Well again, ethics is a very broad thing. It extends beyond strictly moral considerations (where moral discussions tend to leave us with an understanding of what we are obligated to do (and what’s right and wrong) given some predetermined duties) and encompasses all of the things constitutive of the good life generally. So to be ethically virtuous I can’t just follow some code or rule book of morally good behavior. Instead, I’ve got to figure out what a good life has in it and work on all the aspects therein. That means (and now we’re getting back to why I’ve decided to have a website with so many different faucets) we have to be cognizant of and sensitive to our minds, bodies, and hearts. And we’ve got to think not just about ourselves but others, too. And why? Because all of those are components of a flourishing and beautiful life. And that’s what we want!
So here I’m trying to share and work on lots of the dimensions I think included in a eudaimon life … and that means I’ll have a lot of my philosophy-related research, thoughts on what’s happening in the world (thanks Google Reader!), and "intellectual" stuff generally, while also posting my artsy stuff, pictures and information about cycling and running, tales of adventures near and far, and fun stuff about all the people I care about!
And to start us off I’ve included a funny little video. The background is this: this was taken in North Las Vegas (where my dad, stepmom (Melissa), grandma (Nancy) and her husband (Dick) all live). This past weekend I visited to celebrate my birthday. At this point I have just opened my present from my dad and Melissa - and it was a Flip video camcorder!! So literally a few minutes after I opened it I took this, my very first Flip video. As you’ll be able to clearly see, my family is a lot of fun (and by "a lot of fun" I mean we are quite capable of giving each other a hard time!).
So enjoy and here’s to the start of something pretty cool!