Acephalous: How to Open an Academic Essay, Part I: Hostile Habilis If there are any readers still left around from my writing intensive class last semester, you may want to consider these sage reflections on how to write on academic topics: Acephalous: How to Open an Academic Essay, Part I: Hostile Habilis.  ¶ #

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  Boing Boing: One puppy, six legs, For those who weren't there, today in class we were discussing Aristotle's physics, in particular his four causes and the notion of teleology, the study of natural ends. In that discussion, Aristotle hopes to explain freaks of nature as missing their natural end, much as the phillips head screw drivers in my house still have their purpose, the manipulation of cross-headed screws, even though they're all stripped and not capable of fulfilling that purpose. Aristotle's example of a natural thing that fails to meet its end is a man headed calf. Which immediately suggests the question, when did Aristotle ever see a man-headed calf?

At least for the purposes of illustration, that's no longer necessary to consider since I can now direct your attention to the six legged puppy.  ¶ #

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