Well, Rob and I have sent off the Locke article again. This time to a new journal. Hopefully with a new set of readers we have a new chance at acceptance, or at least revision and resubmission. The paper is again updated, having tried to get as much out of the previous rejection as possible. May my fortune be improved.
In the meantime, exam crunch is coming up, and I'm also preparing another paper to give at the Exeter postgrad conference, and possibly a political theory postgraduate conference in Manchester. The subject will be the ethical and political ramifications of Locke's philosophy of agency. The main thesis I will be exploring is the importance of Locke's distinction between active and passive powers. Will has normally be taken to be an active power, but the evidence for this reading is inconclusive. Rather, it appears as if Lockean will can be either active or passive. This is also an ethical distinction, and properly moral behavior should be seen as originating in an active process of volition.
I'll finish by providing a little amusement. By way of introduction, if you have ever felt bad about procrastination, have you ever pondered what procrastination entails? Have you ever plumbed the depths of this category of behavior? Why do we condemn procrastination uncritically? Surely there is some subtler dialectic to be pursued. For the philosophy of procrastination look here http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/
Once more into the breach,
Ben
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