On Facebook

Yes. I've finally gotten on Facebook. Now my ability to socially network with people I already know is complete. Actually, I like blogging a bit more. Blogging is web 2.0 but it is also very web 1.0. Especially on my site, where the visitor commentary is potential rather than actual.

But if you want to see my facebook site, or add me to your "friend" list, my user ID is the same as ever, elrohil@hotmail.com. My profile page is: http://exeter.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500627919

Now back to work on the PhD. One section to write, and this chapter draft is complete!

Once more into the breach,

Ben

PhD Progress, Locke on Language

I'm feeling quite pleased with my progress on Locke at the moment.  I'm currently writing up material on Locke's theory of language and its normative ramifications.  So far I have about 13 pages of manuscript prepared for this section, and another 15 for the previous section on Locke's polemic against innate ideas.

 

John Locke  - the man himself

 

 

At the moment I really feel the work has an edge to it.  Scholars of Locke's philosophy have not been unpacking this material in the kinds of terms that I have been.  At the same time my engagement with their work helps me take a more philosophically rigorous approach than some intellectual historians and political theorists who have been more sympathetic to drawing out the moral and ethical aims in Locke's philosophy.

 

The next section will be on Locke's theory of knowledge, rational belief, and intellectual assent (that is the minds acceptance of a stated proposition as grounding knowledge, probable opinion, or mere fancy).  I take it that intellectual assent is an example of willing, and the entire structure is in many ways the completion of the psychological grounding of responsibility Locke commenced in his theory of volition.

 

So there's a brief PhD update.   As much as I might enjoy it, and as much as the web always has more room for ponderousness, I had better stop myself now before a summary of my recent work becomes a full blown philosophical monologue. 

 

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Back from Germany

I was in Germany for two weeks over July for an academic conference and summer school in the town of Wolfenbuettel, a small suburb of Braunschweig and Hanover.  It was idyllic in its way, and the library really rather excellent.

 

Upon the Oker, Wolfenbuettel

 

The conference was a great success, and I got some good feedback on my work on Locke and volition.  The big lesson is that it is worth paying a little closer attention to both possible Jesuit and Armenian sources of Locke's voluntarism.

 

Of course I've posted more pictures at my flickr album.  This also includes a short trip I took to the nearby city of Goslar.  Whilst Goslar is also rather small, it has a venerable history.  Several medieval Holy Roman Emperors lived in the city.  Its largely been untouched since the '60s.  The 1560s that is.  It was a stunning place to amble around in, and one could really see how early on the urbanisation of Germany was taking place.

 

These pictures probably give some indication of the age of Goslar.

 

 

All in all a very good day trip for a Saturday afternoon.

 

The best part of Wolfenbuettel, from a social standpoint. where the conference dinners.  Unlike most conferences, the library was actually equipped with a large kitchen and plenty of dining space in their administrative building.  Luckily, there were several people who were very good chefs among the student participants.  You can imagine that yours truly was hip deep in the cooking as well (I did much of it, and the organisation of the cooking).  By the end I was labeled "official cook" and had prepared meals for some senior academic figures.  But my point is not self-congratulation.  Because of the informality of self-catering in this sense, we were able to eat on a very nice budget (most meals came to between 3 and 5 Euros per person).  More importantly, the atmosphere created by the dinners was really helpful for getting to know each other.  Had we eaten at restaurants, with fixed seating, the scope for mingling, discussion, and relaxation would have been greatly reduced.  Wolfenbuettel's self-catering tradition is one that deserves emulation elsewhere.

 

For now back to work, I've a new Locke chapter to write.

 

Once more into the breach,

Ben