After about sixteen months, abandoned in boxes in a storage facility in Houston, most of my belongings were recently retrieved--the majority of which are books. I had paired down my possessions to a minimum a few years ago, having moved into a furnished house, so I had virtually nothing in the way of furniture--the life … Continue reading The Value of a Library
Category: Academia
As brought to my attention in a post yesterday at the Daily Nous, the "party philosopher" of the German nationalist party Alternative für Deutschland, Marc Jongen, was invited to speak at "Crises of Democracy: Thinking in Dark Times", a conference hosted by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. Jongen seems like not only a curious … Continue reading Activity and Merit
As part of my morning reading, I came across this article by David Benatar, "Kids? Just say no" on Aeon Magazine. I must be something of a masochist, because I read the entire piece. In short, the article is a utilitarian argument against procreation because life is more bad than good--an argument that Benatar has evidently … Continue reading The Burden of Being
For all the countless hours I have spent writing posts online, very seldom have I done so in a highly public fashion. My disposition is a very private one, and for recognition I have always trusted in the merit of my work. What I have come to realize over the past two years on the academic job market, however, is that--given how overcrowded academia is, relative to the number of open jobs--I will need actively to show the merit of my work, and not just anticipate it being discovered on its own.