This, for those who are unfamilar with it, is what musicians in a band call playing a few chords or figures over and over again while waiting for the lead singer to start his or her number. Now that I have brought my Marx tutorial to a close, I am trying to catch up on a few things while waiting for the Muse to inspire me with my next blog riff.
I have spent the past few days teaching my two courses and doing my taxes. The latter effort is tedious, time-consuming, and depressing, needless to say, but I like not to leave it to the last moment. Now that I am retired, I seem not to be able to get my withholding right, so I fear I shall owe the federal government some money. I freely confess that I pay my taxes not because I believe the State has the de jure authority to require it, but simply because I fear the punishment it will inflict if I do not. It seems that being an anarchist does not save me any money, in the end. [It does make me a bit of money, though, since IN DEFENSE OF ANARCHISM continues to sell some copies each year.]
Meanwhile, I have started reading the copyedited chapters of the eleventh edition of ABOUT PHILOSOPHY, a college textbook I wrote thirty-six years ago. Happily for me, Philosophy, unlike Biology or Physics, changes at glacial speed, so a textbook a third of a century old can still be used in college classrooms with relatively minor revisions. Over the years, the book has changed a good deal, although its core passages remain unaltered. I wrote it in eight weeks to fulfill a contract, and because I did not actually expect anyone to read it, I felt free to say what I really think about the various branches or fields of philosophy.
Several people have indicated an interest in some posts on Kant's ethical theories. That would be a daunting undertaking indeed, and I am still turning it over in my mind. Each time I bring one of my multi-part blog series to a close, I think I shall never have anything to say again, but somehow after a few days, the words start pouring out again. We shall see.
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3 comments:
Muse here. I was wondering if you could write a post on unions given the recent events in Madison, WI.
And if you're still taking requests,
I wouldn't mind hearing your thoughts on Plato's Republic, or the other thinkers your working on in your courses...
"Happily for me, Philosophy, unlike Biology or Physics, changes at glacial speed, so a textbook a third of a century old can still be used in college classrooms with relatively minor revisions."
I'm curious about what the relatively minor revisions over the last third of a century have been. In particular, is there a discussion of the necessary a posteriori? Of the contingent a priori?
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