Song of the Spheres

Wisconsin Union Law in the court system

2011-03-19T14:56:00.002Z

In news that will not surprise anyone, a Dane County, WI judge, Maryann Sumi, has placed a restraining order on the publication of the recently passed bill budget repair bill (which was passed only because it wasn’t a budget bill, the irony). This bill is set to revoke most collective bargaining rights of Wisconsin public workers. The claimant argues that the Senate violated Wisconsin State Open Meeting law.

Until published, this bill cannot become law.

At issue would seem to be the separation of powers in Wisconsin. That is to say, just how much power should the court system have to temporarily, or perhaps permanently, ‘veto’ legislation. Some will support a robustly democratic mode of law making, and will believe the restraining order of the Dane County Circuit court undermines this. They will want courts to have very little authority to trump the law making powers of legislatures. But others will want a check on democratic enthusiasm and (or) will want due legislative process to be secured by more than the voluntary comportment of legislators. They may support the courts being able to limit or strike law. This is an important constitutional debate, of importance to citizens, politicians, constitutional lawyers, legal theorists, and political theorists, among others.

Any discussion of the issues in this case would need to look at some particulars first. I think a good list of these would include:

1. In what way is open meeting law legally binding on the Senate’s deliberative procedures.

2. Were the debating and voting procedures used in the Senate and Assembly in fact in violation of Wisconsin open meeting requirements?

3. What, if any, role does (and should) a Wisconsin circuit court judge have in adjudicating this case.

4. What, if any, standing does the claimant have to bring this action.

re. 1.

(From NY Times, March 18, 2011, article by Monica Davey)

“The lawsuit says that Republican legislative leaders not only failed to provide 24 hours’ notice for the conference committee meeting, they even failed to give two hours’ notice — which is permissible under state law if more notice is “impossible or impractical.” “ It would seem then that the Senate’s internal procedures are under the ambit of open meeting requirement law.

re. 2.

It seems likely to me that open meeting law was violated, but open meeting law may be irrelevant.

This may be because internal legislative rules might trump open meeting law. If so, then it is the internal rules which are the only relevant standard, and the current lawsuit would be meritless. But I am not sure on what grounds the Legislature’s internal rules are prioritized over state law. If the Legislature’s rules do have priority, this would seem to respect the idea that the WI Legislature is bound procedurally only by constitutional law and its own accord. Those who support robustly democratic law making would probably approve of the priority of the legislature’s internal rules. This way both law making and law making procedures are democratic. But even those who support some democratic oversight might also support the internal rules if a court can rule on disputes about whether these rules have or have not been followed. If the internal rules are binding, then it may still be possible for a more appropriate law suit to be filed if there is a case to be made that the rules were violated.

re. 3

My view is that if Wisconsin law may have been violated, then it is within the authority of the Wisconsin court system to determine the facts of this. And if they determine that a violation has occurred, then it might be acceptable for the judicature to prevent this law from taking effect altogether. Accordingly, I think a restraining order legitimate at this phase.

If, however, there is only ground for complaint on account of the violation of the Legislature’s rules, then I am not sure if the Wisconsin court system has the legal authority to adjudicate.

(Update, March 21, 2011. Much turns on whether it is appropriate for the court system to prevent law from coming into effect, or from ruling law unconstitutional after law has come into effect. The process by which a bill becomes law is constitutionally defined in Wisconsin, so this may be a significant, and extra-constitutional, coup for court authority. In an article entitled ‘Judge orders temporary halt to collective bargaining law; state will appeal’, the Wisconsin State Journal quotes General J.B. Van Hollen, who notes that there are Supreme Court decisions which indicate that courts cannot stop laws from taking effect if proper procedures are not followed, even if these procedures are law. It’s possible that Van Hollen is stretching his interpretation of precednet, as many procedural rules are not laws. Given this, I’m not certain if the Supreme Court has ruled in truly parallel case. But if he’s right, the move by Judge Sumi will probably be overturned.)

I am also unsure, however, if the Dane County Circuit Court should rule on this. While the alleged act took place within it’s jurisdiction, the matter concerns a fundamental institution of Wisconsin’s government, the legislature, and so it may make more sense for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear this case. Especially if this boils down to a question of whether state law or internal rules have priority in legislative decisions – a weighty constitutional question indeed – it is the Supreme Court which should rule. And if internal rules apply, then, as above, I am not sure if the Supreme Court has authority. Certainly if it takes on this authority, this is an interesting constitutional move indeed.

re. 4.

I believe the Dane County district attorney has filed this suit. I can’t imagine that he has standing in a normal sense, as he was not injured. It would seem that Democrat Senators would have a better cause of action. However, since the district attorney will be part of the enforcement of the budget repair law, if it is passed, this may give him some standing to object to a law he believes illegitimate. But I feel very uncertain about this. If we expect courts to oversee legislatures, it seems strange the this can only be undertaken on account of law suits. This has the advantage of limiting when and to what extent courts can effectively trump legislatures – surely important for supporters of democratic law making. But it also causes problems when no one, or no group, is injured in a normal sense. Simply put, many misdeeds are not causes of action under tort law, but many may be alarming if committed by institutions of government.

Changing Status of Korean Public Universities

2011-03-13T06:24:00.002Z

Korea’s flagship public university, Seoul National University (SNU), has recently obtained what their managers saw as an important victory. Legal incorporation, and independence from the Korean civil service. This will come into effect in 2012, following the passage of a bill legalizing the incorporation on 9 December 2010,

Some English language sources:

http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/12/117_77738.html

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/yhedit/2010/12/09/31/5100000000AEN20101209008700315F.HTML

The change is expected, according to some commentators, to fuel the academic competitiveness of SNU. The goal being to make it a ‘world-class’ university (SNU had reached as high as 49 on the Times Higher Educational global ranking, but it seems to have slipped out of the top 100 again). The university will be able to pay ‘World renowned’ professors more (what the value of this is in terms of academic competitiveness is uncertain). And to engage in for profit activities. In brief, SNU shall be free to treat parts of academia as business pursuits.

Note that this is not the utter privatization of the university. It will continue to be financed by the Korean taxpayers just as it is now.

Not everyone shares in the triumph. The bill has been passed over the objections of opposition law makers, the majority of SNU students, and the majority of national university academics in Korea (I was not polled).

Students object that tuition may rise. Professors also object, perhaps because of discomfort over a much more competitive academic world – and one where their pay is closely calibrated to their performance.

(It’s unclear on what grounds performance will be evaluated, but I’m guessing that publications in the Thompson-Reuters index journals will be crucial. Korean universities take this to be the gold standard for academic research. This is a very limited standard of academic excellence, and often a misleading one; however, Thompson-Reuters has been remarkably successful at lobbying for it. I’m unsure how important other publications, say books, or teaching excellence will turn out to be.)

But the objections are not limited to self-interest. The idea that the university can pursue profitable enterprises makes students and professors worried, I think legitimately, that arts and humanities subjects will be neglected. Even scientists will have to watch out, as colleagues in the UK can attest, since much science (theoretical physics for instance) has few short-term business pay offs. Some professors, students and administration officials have gone so far as to claim the research at SNU will be ‘poisoned’. While this language may be strong, I think it perfectly reasonable to imagine that some research will be distorted, and that teaching may cease to be a primary concern for many professors. Again, the course of events in the United Kingdom informs my speculation. To say the least, I am uncomfortable with the idea of universities as ‘for-profit’ enterprises.

I’m also concerned that Korean taxpayers will still be asked to foot the bill for SNU. This isn’t a problem if the university remains a largely public enterprise and continues to provide education as a public good. Now I support public universities, and think university education should be a public good. Access to high quality education for students who cannot afford private universities is a social goal to which I’m committed. This access may not be threatened by the incorporation of SNU, but students think it is (see below).

The situation changes if the university becomes an effectively private enterprise. The ramifications of this may be troublesome. Were tuition at SNU to rise anywhere near private university fees, and were the university pursuing private profits concurrently, then tax payers will be funding effectively private institutions. The logic of funding public goods will no longer apply, and, further, the tax payers will be providing SNU with a serious competitive advantage against Korea’s private universities. I don’t think Korean tax payers would remain oblivious to this situation. If these changes occur, I’d anticipate the kind of pressure seen in America and England for the reduction in public university funding. Why should I pay taxes for SNU when my kids are at a private school, or why should I pay taxes + expensive tuition for SNU?

Where SNU leads, other Korean public universities follow. Already, Kyungpook National University (KNU), my university, intends to pursue incorporation.

Naturally, I’m a little concerned about what this may entail for me. It will change considerably the nature of my position. There terms and conditions of my current job were quite important for me when I decided to take the leap and start working in Korea. One of the things that worries me is that private universities (and other public universities) tend to avoid giving foreign professors permanent posts. My current job is tenure track, so while it isn’t permanent yet, it is supposed to become so. I'm not sure if this will soon be up in the air.

At the same time, I see a lot of opportunity here. I’ve been trained up in an academic system where regular research is stressed. While I have serious reservations about some ways in which incentivizing research might be implemented, I see this as a good thing. And depending how the pay system works out, I could end up much better financially than I currently am.

Beyond these personal concerns, I’m also interested in what this will entail for teaching. If the promise of global standard universities is realized, it could mean a more diverse student body. But it could also mean a more hard-done student population. I could have the opportunity to teach innovative research led classes, or I may be constrained in teaching what is believed to sell. Time will tell.

But it is also imperative that I find out more about the specifics of the incorporation, the new form of university administration that will be instituted afterwards, and the scope of their independence from governmental oversight. Right now there is a lack of clear information and communication on these changes, and that needs to change.

Baking in Korea

2010-10-26T05:49:00.001Z

I am immensely fond of Korean food, both traditional and contemporary. Although I find most seafood dishes and a street food called ttoppoekki to be ill-conceived and unappealing, everything else is wonderfully vibrant. Mixtures of astringent flavors, fermented beans, meats, and root vegetables, and a dizzying array of greens and sprouts called namul make up many of my favorites.

So I’ve even been known to make Korean food myself. But when it comes to my own kitchen, my real passions are decidedly Euro-centric: French cuisine especially but Italian dishes more regularly. Baking is important to me (and pastries to my wife). The process is therapeutic, and my results usually outstrip what local bakeries are capable of.

Whatever I’m cooking, it’s important that I can carefully control the ingredients I use, choosing local, organic, fair trade, and whole foods when possible. Thus, I can make both restrained and indulgent meals or deserts with full awareness of what I’m doing. Having the opportunity to craft a balanced and tasty diet matters to me and is important for my wife. It will be even more significant I have children and am cooking for them. I want them to appreciate healthy western food, rather than the calorie laden offerings of American chain restaurants and pseudo-European bistros more readily available in Korea. Of course, when they eat Korean food, they’ll benefit from one of the most healthy cuisines available.

So carrying on with my cooking, using and refining the skills I developed in England, is something of an imperative. So far I’ve had good success procuring most of the basic ingredients I want, and adapting some Korean vegetables into the mix. The different cuts of meat here can be a little frustrating, but I’ll eventually be able to navigate this. The general lack of western herbs applies only to fresh ones; I’ve secured the dry herbs I use most. I’ll grow fresh ones in time.

The differences that are most striking to me involve heating techniques. Roasting and baking are not traditional parts of Korean cuisine. However, these are dispensable from western gastronomy only with great frustration. Fortunately for would-be home chefs, many Korean homes now come equipped with ovens. Still, they aren’t yet standard, in my limited experience, and the staff apartments for foreign professors at Kyungpook National University are lacking in this regard.

I must admit I was rather perturbed when I discovered that my flat was missing an oven, and that, worse, there was no obvious place to install one. I have a good gas burner, and a really excellent hood, with a magnificent set of large drawers directly underneath. So no built in or free standing range could be positioned in the most obvious place.

While pondering my predicament with my wife, we decided the best thing to do would be to buy a built in oven (not a range) and have a separate, and free standing, cabinet built to house it. This would function like an island, eventually provide a location for an espresso machine and grinder, and provide some separation between the kitchen and the living space of my apartment. Problem solved, in concept. All that was left was choosing a model and finding out where to procure it.

After a little internet searching I narrowed down my options to a couple of Italian models from Zanussi and Nardi, and a couple of Korean models from LG Dios.

Shopping online in Korea is something like shopping face to face in Korea. There are many, many markets (real and virtual) packed with small sellers. There are also a few bigger chains. We weren’t able to find a local seller for Zanussi or Nardi (though there may well be one) so we went to a local LG “Best Shop” on Saturday and bought a Korean oven. (The LG DIOS, E-M770SMX: http://www.lge.co.kr/brand/builtin/product/BuiltinProductDetailCmd.laf)

Price was a little higher than the Italian makes, but I’m happy to have local after-service.

Since it is Korea, delivery was swift, and we had our oven by Sunday morning. We had also arranged for a cabinet maker to drop by to get measurements for our removable island. He will deliver it next Saturday.

Although not yet built in, the oven is already perfectly usable. Since my mother in law came to visit over the weekend as well it was a perfect opportunity to make a Sunday roast. She liked it so much, she didn’t ask for rice or kimchi.

That was a real pleasure.

New Job

2010-10-25T05:52:00.001Z

Just a quick update. I've left Oxford after two great years. I'll miss St Edmund Hall and my wonderful colleagues there.

The good news is that I now have a semi-permanent, tenure track job at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea.

In memoriam: G. A. Cohen (1941-2009)

2009-08-05T16:01:00.001Z

For those who work in political philosophy, G.A. Cohen was a figure of intelligence, incite, and wit. Of course his work in political theory was superb, and his attempts to rescue Marxism from the ‘bullshit’ have helped me and many of my students.

Alas, I did not have the opportunity to meet Jerry. I cannot eulogize him, but I can join others and respectfully mark his passing.

Lucas Cranach 'Close of the Silver Age'

2009-08-02T22:54:00.001Z

I posted an image of this painting (simulacra of simulacra of simulacra if any Platonists are keeping track) back in February. I found it striking when I saw it in the National Gallery and I find it perhaps more striking now.

(To view the painting in exceptional detail, go to: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/lucas-cranach-the-elder-the-close-of-the-silver-age)

There are several motifs which pique my interest. First, is the apparent innocence (at least in terms of dress) of men, women and children in the scene. Second is the interspersion of brutal violence amongst familial leisure, and conversation. Third is the background: a perfectly developed, possibly urban (Cranach's Holy Roman Empire was the most urbanized area of Europe at the dawn of the 16th century), and sophisticated castle.

Cranach, then, tells us a story which is both subtle and subversive. Peaceful innocence, both moral and physical, are supposed to reign in Eden. In post Edenic life, according to the traditional Biblical story, Men have lost the tree of life but inherited the knowledge of good and evil and a sense of shame. These men are clearly not morally innocent, yet at the same time they have are not garbed, they feel no embarrassment about their bodies. Cranach's paradigm is not a straightforwardly Christian one. This is probably not surprising given Cranach's reference to the classical, probably Hesiod’s, 'Silver Age' in his title.

So what else does the picture convey to us. It might be that man is naturally a social animal, familial, discursive, but at the same time aggressive, prone to violence and strife. Violence is not overcome by sociability. Sociability is not the source of violence. This would seem to fit the model of the classical silver age. The human creations of Zeus were less noble than the humans of the Golden Age. They were prone to infighting, and were less physically hardy. They could not live without sinning against each other, Hesiod tells us. This seems to be a compelling mythos into which Cranach's piece might be situated. But this may still be too easy.

If the painting depicted the silver age, why call it the 'close' of that epoch? Where is Zeus, who in Hesiod’s myth annihilates the impious men of the sliver age? And if the silver age is largely agricultural and socially primitive, why include the castle in the background. Perhaps Cranach is up to something different.

The answer to this quandary is invariably speculative and no more than a supplement to the emotive impression of the work. Yet it is well worth exploring. If one thinks of the close of one age as the beginning of another, there is no reason to imagine that event in purely synchronic terms. It is perfectly possible for a close to be drawn out, diachronic. Moreover, in art, unlike life, time need not be linear or unidirectional.

Thus I take the symbolism of the painting to invoke both the causes and the consequences of the 'close' of the silver age. The violence of man is not systematic in the painting. In fact only one person is obviously aggressive. Another holds a stick, but is not clearly brandishing it in attack. The scene in the front is not clearly a descent into social anarchy.

But the violent, laconic tendencies of these relative primitives are sure to have limits. The peace of some seems innocent. While the violence of others animalistic (Martin Luther, who Cranach famously painted, would argue that some men devour others as part of their bestial nature). For a time, the peacefulness of most will outweigh the violence of some. The infrequency of a casus belli will prevent others from entertaining their more violent tendencies, but this will not prevail. In a sense, Cranach has produced an image of the state of nature, in which human's are sociable but also in which internecine strife is already germinating. The Bronze age, unlike the silver, was defined by militant, armed conflict.

Given this, the absence of Zeus from the scene continues to nag me. Why is he absent, if Cranach is portraying Hesiod’s myth? Perhaps Cranach is on the cusp of something quite interesting. Zeus, was said to have caused the destruction of Silver Age men, but Cranach is at liberty to interpret this cause. Perhaps, the aggression these men sometimes showed each other was the modus operandi of their downfall. And if this is the case, Zeus becomes something of a hands off deity.

Given my interest in Enlightenment philosophy, Zeus’ flight from the scene is remarkable. The absence of divine causes in the explanation of epochal changes in many Enlightenment narratives resembles the sense of Cranach’s painting I have alighted upon here. Is Cranach engaging in an embryonic form of speculative history? Probably not. But this painting may be indicative of changing discourse about human nature and history, which might have been meaningful for the development of Enlightenment historiography.

Honeymoon

2009-08-02T22:09:00.001Z

I’m rapidly catching up with my back log of photographs. I have now finished editing pictures from the honeymoon trip Ahreum and I took in Jeju Island. Jeju in spring felt like an entirely different island from that we traversed in summer 2007. The first shoots of green and early floral blossoms contrasted with the black basalt bedrock of the island. The skies were brooding and contemplative at times yet radiantly sunny at others. Ahreum and I had a remarkable, if short, honeymoon there. We were saving up traveling time for our summer trip to America.

Here are a few photos (there are more on my Flickr account at : http://www.flickr.com/photos/elrohil/page1/)

Hey all, I got married

2009-08-01T22:01:00.002Z

The news is a little late now, but I thought I’d let you know – I got married. I have been too preoccupied with defending my PhD, getting married, and teaching over the last 5 months to attend to the blog. But, I’m back online again now.

Here are a few pictures:

The Quantified Self

2009-02-09T00:12:00.002Z

Note: What follows is speculative musing rather than reflective, considered judgment.

What does it mean to be self-reflective? What is the epistemological status of data? What do data have to do with our self-knowledge? Can there be quantifiable facts about self-hood? These questions make us think about what our self is and whether it has different aspects. They also make us think about what knowledge is like and what kinds or types of knowledge we might have.

Now one might wonder why these sorts of questions might be important. Philosophers, who are easily distraught by categorical confusions, false dichotomies and uncritical first principles, probably get a kind of perverse pleasure from finding these questions unanswered – I know I do. But, in the great ancient tradition of philosophy, why does this matter for living. These questions might not matter at all, but when people propose to be self-reflective about their lives, and when they want to find deeper meaning to life, these questions, perhaps, ought to be far more pressing. I found them both relevant and unaddressed in a recent post on the Good/Blog, “The Quantified Self: You Are Your Data” (http://www.good.is/?p=15247).

In the post, David Pescovitz tells us about a recent phenomena of self-improvement and self-knowledge – the quantified self. As Pescovitz puts, it a quantified self (Q.S. for short) is:

a person who embraces the technology at hand … for deep self surveillance and analysis. A growing number of individuals are using new sensors, social networks, online data repositories, open-access science journals, and sheer discipline to view their bodies, minds, and spirits through the lens of data.

Thus, the Q.S. seems to be about more than recording data about oneself for instrumental means. However nuanced or fine grained, I might record things like my daily eating habits (today, a salad, three espressos, duck a la orange, a second salad, pheasant stew, I lie about the desert and cheese) for dieting purposes. Exponents of the Q.S. want to record this kind of data, but they also seem to embrace a way of living or self-reflection through, in or by way of raw data. Some may even identify their lives with self-quantification. This means they must think about themselves in a certain way. Do they think themselves bundles of data, or do they think data reveal something fundamental about themselves. Why would the self be measurable, is there an intuitive mind/world or mind/body dualism that needs rejecting to support these views?

Now curious, I pressed on through Pescovitz review of the movement. Its vanguard seems to be two companion websites, the Quantified Self Wiki and The Quantified Self blog. From these sources Pescovitz draws out a veritable font of wisdom:

“Unless something can be measured, it cannot be improved,” [Kevin] Kelly wrote on the Quantified Self blog. “So we are on a quest to collect as many personal tools that will assist us in quantifiable measurement of ourselves. We welcome tools that help us see and understand bodies and minds so that we can figure out what humans are here for.”

Further:

Now, as [Gary] Wolf [contributor at the wiki] has pointed out, the level of self-knowledge he and his Quantified Self kinfolk seek isn’t for everyone. The Quantified Self is a spectrum, and it’s up to you to find your own place within its potential.

The notion of a self as a spectrum is interesting, what makes a self-like a spectrum? If a self is a spectrum, how can I find my place within it? What kind of potential might this entail? Is this a spectrum of potentialities, rather than actualities, that have been quantified or does the spectrum entail some further potential – deeper self knowledge or self improvement, or perhaps knowledge of the purpose of humans. Perhaps because I do moral philosophy, I find these questions pivotal. Why should I dedicate my life to self-measurement if I haven’t really thought about whether this is meaningful. But, at least on Pescovitz’s retelling, the Q.S. advocates seem to elide these deeper questions.

To be fair, Pescovitz may make the Quantified Self (Q.S. for short) movement seem more absurd than it actually is. Although I think Pescovitz gets them about right, it is both interesting and fair to quote more fully from Kelly’s Quantified Self blog:

The central question of the coming century is Who Are We? What is a human? What does it mean to be a person? Is human nature fixed? Sacred? Infinitely expandable? And in the meantime, how do I get through all my email? Or live to be 100.

We believe that the answers to these cosmic questions will be found in the personal. Real change will happen in individuals as they work through self-knowledge. Self-knowledge of one's body, mind and spirit. Many seek this self-knowledge and we embrace all paths to it. However the particular untrodden path we have chosen to explore here is a rational one: Unless something can be measured, it cannot be improved. So we are on a quest to collect as many personal tools that will assist us in quantifiable measurement of ourselves. We welcome tools that help us see and understand bodies and minds so that we can figure out what humans are here for. Suggested categories include:

Chemical Body Load Counts

Personal Genome Sequencing

Lifelogging

Self Experimentation

Risks/Legal Rights/Duties

Behavior monitoring

Location tracking

Non-invasive Probes

Digitizing Body Info

Sharing Health Records

Psychological Self-Assesments

Medical Self-Diagnostics

These people really are into self-measurement. So much so that while Kelly ostensibly embraces all means of self-discovery, he actually excludes all but his favoured approach – the only things that can be improved must be those which are quantifiable. This is why, I think, Pescovitz does not misrepresent Kelly’s position. But if this is his position, there are several problems. I fail to see the exclusive connection between the measurable and the improvable. I could, for example become obsessed with my own DNA. Thanks to modern science I probably arrange to have this measured, in a strange sense. More precisely I can have my DNA code recorded, though it is not really a quantity. But to what effect? I cannot change my genome, it cannot be improved. In so far as it represents a deeper me or is a deeper me, it seems a static me. In this case the measurable cannot be improved.

Similarly, I can measure my happiness and my anger. Again, this is a peculiar use of the term measure, but it does make sense. I can record how many times I was happy and I can record how many times I was angry. I can add all other kinds of emotions to my log. Through experience, I can probably qualitatively say that I was more angry when an article of mine was rejected than when a colleague gets the last piece of duck a la orange at lunch. I put this in the log too. But if I fly into a fit of rage over the lost duck, I may subsequently think I have an anger management problem. Did I come to this conclusion because of my self measurement, perhaps, but I think this, at best, is trivial. Here’s why. To think my anger management insufficient, I would have to think I get angry too often or disproportionately. How is it that measurements or recordings about myself can tell me this? I may use the data to confirm or to identify that I get angry inopportunely, but my criteria of inopportune anger are not derived from the data about my behaviour. Indeed, were I not meticulously recording each occurrence of anger – some perfectly justified – I could come to the same conclusion. I could feel guilt for berating my colleague about the duck I hungered for, my colleagues could put me on notice, or even have me fired for such an outburst. Many other possibilities are imaginable. But these phenomena aren’t like data and they aren’t like quantities.

Thus, Kelly’s notion that improvement and measurement are inextricable seems illogical. Obvious blind leaps of logic and explanation aside, the Q.C movement is inattentive to or naive toward those longstanding philosophical issues I mentioned above. Boiling down the epistemological and ontological position of the Q.S. movement, it seems to be the case that raw data is inherently meaningful, that human life can be reduced to a number of sets of data or can be made most meaningful if it is taken to consist of or be revealed by raw data, and that raw data provides meaningful solutions to questions about the real nature of human life and the actualisation of human potential. Whew.

I am oblivious to how the Q.S. method is supposed to tell us what we are here for, or what our particular purpose, or good might be. Should not Kelly discuss, at least, the possibility of a categorical distinction between facts and purposes? Should he not tell us, at least, how facts reveal purposes or how facts constitute purposes in the way he asserts?

This position also misses the sense in which data must be collected, organised and prioritised upon principles that are independent, or at least not entirely dependent, of those data. It is a tautological point, but meaning must must be given to this data if it is to matter for us. But from whence does this meaning arises? If I am right, the very answers which the Q.S. position hopes to obtain by way of deep or refined self-observation, must already be implicit or presupposed in their methodological position. In order to find truth in data, so to speak, they must already take their lives to be, essentially, data like.

Why these philosophical issues remain implicit, it is impossible to know. Perhaps this reflects a poverty of self-reflectivity amongst, a certain set of, apparently, well educated people. To take mere data to constitute or shed light on a dynamic, creative, rational and end pursuing being like man is, I think rather peculiar. The way in which they pursue increasingly variegated and fine grained data about themselves should be dissatisfying because it simply cannot really apprehend the deep and meaningful questions they want to answer. It looks almost like they are trapped in a false consciousness.

Hegel always believed the dialectical contradictions of most intellectual or moral outlooks also reveal further truths. This seems to be the case for the Q.S. movement. For the very fact that the observation of data is made central to the Q.S. movement – almost to the point of obsession – is predicated upon there being an observer/interpreter. Their practice belies their own epistemological and ontological commitments. As a matter of fact, data do not interpret themselves. Here is where the Q.S pheonomena gets interesting again. Although they aim to gain personal and particular knowledge of themselves, the interpretation of their personal data is referred to wider, inter-subjective judgments. Indeed, Q.S. devotees use social networking services on the internet to publicise their own personal data sets and invite collaborative commentary from others. This practice contradicts their data-centred epistemology – interpretation is actually more weighty than data. But it also demonstrates something else they seem to have overlooked about the self: man is a social being, and reaches out to find and discover himself in his social settings. Man’s individuality is not subsumed in this process, but confirmed and determined. Thus, philosophical contradictions sometimes reveal the most interesting anthropological truths.

Ben

PhD Submitted

2009-02-08T14:42:00.001Z

On Friday the 30th of January my long PhD journey reached its ultimate phase. I submitted my thesis. All that remains now is my viva voce examination and any subsequent corrections. At the time, I felt a sweet lightness of being. My PhD colleagues in Exeter were superbly supportive, from those I’ve only met this year to long-suffering fellow pilgrims.

Reflecting on this is emotional and bittersweet. The years of my PhD have been most precious to me. I fell in love with Ahreum, and never could a better companion be found for the vicissitudes of life. I found a path in the world and found an object of my intellectual and creative capacities that has been truly meaningful. I met many dear friends. In brief, I’ve been extremely fortunate to lead an intellectually, emotionally and spiritually engaging life.

However, my PhD also marks the end of nearly 23 strait years of education. I have been a student at one institution or another for nearly my entire life. Sometimes this has been mind numbing and sometimes exhilarating. But, being a student has been a constitutive part of my identity for much of this time. And at university and graduate school it is a part of me that I have self-consciously taken up as my own mantel. This part of my life is rapidly coming to a close.

Of course, I will remain a student in the sense of the word that matters most. My studiousness and curiosity are not effaced because I am no longer a student in the normal sense; rather, they will become marks of my academic profession. I eagerly await embarking on a new research project and teaching new subjects. As part of this, I anticipate the changing responsibilities, relationships, frustrations and rewards that come with a professional career.

Consoling as this is, I cannot take the end of my PhD to be anything else than the close of several chapters of my life. The period of limbo between now and my viva is one for reflection on these changes.

Finally, for all of you, my friends and relatives, who have supported me along the way, I offer my most humble thanks.

Ben

BBC NEWS | Business | US takes over key mortgage firms

2008-09-07T17:19:00.001Z

BBC NEWS Business US takes over key mortgage firms:

"US financial officials have outlined plans for the government
to take over the failing mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The two companies account for nearly half of the outstanding mortgages in the US, and have lost billions of dollars during the US housing crash. The most recent figures show about 9% of US homeowners were behind on their payments or faced repossession. The federal takeover is one of the largest bail-outs in US history. It is intended to keep the two companies afloat, amid fears that either could go bankrupt as borrowers default on their home loans. Together, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae own or guarantee about $5.3 trillion (£3 trillion) of mortgages. Banks around the world are
highly exposed to the two companies and therefore, given the febrile state of markets across the world, it had become dangerous for doubts to persist about whether they were viable and would be able to keep up the payments on their massive liabilities, says the BBC's business editor Robert Peston. A rescue plan passed by Congress in July gave the US government the authority to offer unlimited liquidity to the two companies, and to buy their shares, in order to keep them afloat."

I suppose this was coming for a while. Greed without order eventually collapses on itself. But the problem with the greedy is that self-ordering is particularly hard. I've felt for quite some time that Plato's analysis of oligarchy hits the nail on the head. It might have been an analysis of an abstract situation derived from contemporary Athenian political problems, but there is something about it which captures current social and economic problems quite well. Setting aside Plato's definition of justice, he was quite right to elucidate the psychological dissonance between the oligarchic mentality and the extra-monetary necessities of stable political order. Most pertinent for the current crisis is his analysis of usury. Blinded by their desire for more money, oligarchs will lend with great interest even to those that cannot pay. The exceptional defaulting debtor can be dealt with, but what happens when these debts become systematic? In Plato's judgment an underclass of good-for-nothing 'drones' arise as a result of the oligarchs’ collective blindness. Filled with resentment and, eventually, realizing the relative physical impotence of the oligarchs, these ‘drones’ revolt. The result is considerably worse political order - enter democracy.

Between our commitment to political values, and the negative revolution unwittingly induced by Plato's oligarchs, his story and our contemporary financial situation probably part company at this point. After all, the US government is stepping in to prevent financial collapse, rather than ignoring an impending doom. And anyway, revolutions are complex events that depend on a convergence of different historical factors. Plato's account is too simplified after all.

Perhaps this guarded confidence is right, but it would be wise to bear in mind a few salient conditions of an actual, historical, complex revolution - 1789. Like the US today, France was powerful but had accumulated enormous, unsustainable debts thanks to a bellicose foreign wars with an upstart, modernizing neighbor. French subjects were suffering from inflating food prices. The French poor were resentful of extravagant displays of wealth, taxes were injurious, and monetary finance was at the breaking point. Particularly in regard to the social egregiousness of inequality and luxurious display, Rousseau had pointed toward the fate of political and social collapse 34 years earlier in his Discourse on the Origins of Inequality.

Of course the US situation is markedly different. The US differs in that it has a nominal democracy which allows all citizens a periodic say in who shall rule them, inflation is not currently causing starvation, and there is currently no sign of famine. Nevertheless, homelessness is rapidly increasing, bankruptcy amongst private individuals and financial institutions is interconnected and worrisomely prevalent, and commodity prices – oil, natural gas, food - are interrelated, relatively high and likely to increase. The necessities of our day to day life are threatened. Nonetheless, I don't think these problems will pan out in terms of revolution, though significant social upheaval is likely more probable. My point: not only is the story above indicative of spectacular financial failure in America, the government bail out might offer no silver lining.

This is where Plato comes in again. The cause of the problems America faces (and a number of those France faced in the 18th century) is artificial and frequently lies in the blindness of greed. In Plato’s constitutional cycle the oligarchs are so blinded, but the democrats had a very different impediment. What happens though if the oligarchic mentality becomes paradigmatic? Although not exclusively so, our political judgments regularly boil down to estimations of cost and profit. There are important exceptions. Some judge political actions according to various rights frameworks, others according just distributions, others according to religious commitments. Some of these modes of political judgment are more common than others. Still, I think it likely that many and perhaps most Americans construe many and perhaps most political questions in terms of their economic impact.

Although this mode of decision making seems narrow, in some sense it also seems quite rational. Judging policies in terms of their capacity to make or save money, or to distribute funds to the most profitable aims might be far too common, failing to value other important goods like justice, fairness, equality or freedom, but this is not necessarily a sign of unmitigated greed. I need not have an inordinate desire for wealth just because I think economic value is the most important aspect of politics. In fact, money provides a flexible social good that we can employ for various, more particular goods, which we really want. If we are like the wise household manager of Aristotle's Politics then that is precisely how we would think about money, a means to an end. Money would not, consequently, be our ultimate concern. But I do not think the situation is so simple.

Plato and Aristotle both clearly identify the human tendency to conflate the instrumental value of money with final or real value. We easily take money to be not only the measure but the substance of our good. So long as I take wealth to be an instrumental good, I can make judgments about money that are quite rational (even if profit maximization is an intermediary goal). But if I take wealth to be my primary aim, or I begin to conceive of all political questions in terms of their profitability, then it is not difficult to imagine wealth becoming an object of ardor and desire. This is particularly likely in a society in which wealth and its trappings deliver prestige. But then disentangling means from end becomes particularly tricky. Upon this categorical change in my desires, controlled, rational judgments about costs and risks will be invariably foiled by the fleeting promise of profit. The problem is not that judgments of profitability are irrational but that the mentality behind the predominance of such judgments might very well be. This makes those very judgments only superficially rational. Thus, the oligarchical paradigm of political judgment I have in mind is not at all like rational choice.

For the Platonic Oligarch, this desire becomes his sole psychological feature. He is nothing but greed personified. This is unlikely to represent any actual human being, even one particularly devoted to profit, but it doesn't have too. As a way of interpreting the problems of a particular sociological characteristic, it is the preponderance of greed that matters. Even if I am greedy, but not all of the time, the majority of my behaviors will be like a Platonic oligarch. Even when I grasp the risks, my desires will get the better of me. Now if this preponderance is systematic in society (or in a particular social class) the injurious results of that individual preponderance stand to be compounded. Just as a frictionless surface is unlike an actual surface and the kinematic calculations true for frictionless objects are useful only for approximating the movements of real objects, Plato's oligarch and his oligarchic constitution provide useful heuristic devices.

Now my worry is that it is precisely because economic and utilitarian measurements are paradigmatic in this approximate way (not amongst political theorists) that the reflectivity needed to address current financial crises may be effectively unavailable.

This returns me to the news story. If I am right in accepting Plato's line that oligarchs tend to be single-minded in their love of wealth, I rightly identify our (the US) government as oligarchic (I don't mean the Bush administration, I am thinking more fundamentally) irregardless of the increasingly fictitious appropriation of the term democracy (the US may once have been a republic but the national government has never been constituted in a democratic manner, representative election being a classical means of aristocratic selection), and I correctly take this preponderant mentality to be shared by both governors and governed, then it makes sense to be less than sanguine about the US takeover of Fanny and Freddie. Perhaps, I am wrong, and the government will step in, spontaneously develop ingenuity, and rectify a precipitous situation; but I think it more likely that the blind are following the blind.

And even if this proves to be an astute financial decision, I remain unhappy about the centrality of economic goals in contemporary politics. It would be useful to have a broader perspective about just what politics is valued for (or whether, with the Greeks, political practice is a humanizing value itself). But if I'm right about about the predominance of an oligarchic mentality, then that broader perspective promises to be elusive. I do hope, however, my despondence is proved wrong.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Fénelon

2008-08-22T21:22:00.007Z

I'm looking at Fénelon again for my first chapter on Rousseau. This is mainly just getting previous work I had done on Rousseau's intellectual context into neater shape, and pitching this in terms of the Fénelonian currents of intellectual discourse in Rousseau's formative and active years. With Rousseau's reading of Fénelon and other neo-Platonic, and Cartesian philosophers in place probably before he read Plato, the intellectual framework of his particular apprehensions of Platonic views becomes considerably more interesting than has been suggested in current scholarship. And because Rousseau read Locke at about the same time as he read these neo-Platonistsand and because his instincts toward these varied doctrines were immediately syncretic, the fusion I suggest between Lockean ideationalism, Rousseau's account of passions, and neo-Platonic sublimated Eros is made quite plausable indeed.

In the meantime, I thought I might include a picture of the pious Archbishop of Cambrai.

(Image taken from Web Gallery of Art [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/vivien/fenelon.html] for editorial purposes only.)

Also on paintings, I was quite struck by Lucas Cranach's 'Close of the Silver Age' when I visited the National Gallery with Ahreum earlier this week.

(Edit: The link is dead. It is actually far better to look at the painting on the National Gallery's website: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/lucas-cranach-the-elder-the-close-of-the-silver-age. They have a programme which allows very precise viewing. Facial details in the painting are expectional. While one misses the texture of the paints and brush strokes, this web viewer may be than seeing the picture at the gallery, particularly because the lighting there tends to produce a good deal of glare on the painting. August 1, 2009)

If I were writing a book on Rousseau's Second Discourse...

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Riding a bicycle backwards and then forwards

2008-08-21T22:52:00.001Z

Everyone's had that dream where they are on a bicycle, heading to some important event, fleeing some tragic fate, or otherwise riding for some gripping cause. In the phantasmagoric world one's forward journey becomes increasingly sluggish. Then, quite suddenly, frantic peddling is met only with retrograde motion.

I also have a similar dream which is draws on my time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison lakeshore dorms. Particularly the Bradley Learning Community (BLC, also known as the Bradley Liquor Cabinet) and to a lesser extent Tripp Hall. In the waking world of my first year I had a rather uncomfortable pair of dodgy leather shoes which quickly blistered my feet. When those blisters got ones of their own, I upgraded my footwear. Most of the time I walked from the BLC to the Humanities building via the Lakeshore path, which is unpaved gravel. At the time, the route took me about twenty minutes, and before and for sometime after I replaced the shoes, caused my feet considerable anguish.

In slumber-land, I also walk from the lakeshore dorms to lectures and tutorials via the lakeshore path. I'm rushing to make it on time. The pain of the blisters remains, perhaps amplified but also disembodied, memory like. But the cause is different - this time I'm barefoot.

Now these dreams might suggest that I am about to engage in some inane, pseudo-Freudian, quasi-psychological analysis of my subconscious. I am not.

Instead, today I feel a particular kinship with this disembodied sleeping self. The cause of my consternation is a chapter on Rousseau's neo-Platonic debts. I had finished this chapter, save for a few loose ends, or so I thought.

Upon further review several substantive sections need serious reworking, and I've changed part of the analytical framework for a third. I also have to incorporate or point toward the fusion between Lockean ideational thought, and Platonic sublimated Eros. I had not argued for this synthesis when I drafted the chapter in my second year. All this adds up to more revision than I expected. The good news is the chapter will have a more interesting thesis than in its previous incarnation and will fit cheek and jowl with the next.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Pictures from Oxford

2008-08-01T22:36:00.002Z

Just sharing a few pictures from Teddy Hall, and other places in Oxford that will be occupying my view in the upcoming months.

Radcliffe Camera (undergraduate reading rooms in the Bodleian) and the University Church of St. Mary

The most important part of the Bodleian

Entrance to the Bodleian

Radcliffe Camera

Teddy Hall, I had my interview in this building

More Teddy Hall

St Edmund Hall has converted a disused parish church into the college library, and the grounds into a series of gardens. You can even walk on the grass in some of them.

So this is where I'll be working over the next year. I'm really quite impressed by the physical space.

Of course I'm most excited about having an extended period of time to work with Locke's manuscripts. Many of these have now been published, so the exclusivity of access to his drafts is less pronounced than it was twenty or thirty years ago. Still, there is something quite striking about holding papers which record the exertions of a great mind. The hesitancy, immediacy, and intimacy of such experiences are profoundly moving.

Patrick Riley, my undergraduate lecturer, reflected on his use of manuscripts in, recalling from memory, his The General Will Before Rousseau. His experience with manuscripts left him convinced that authors lived on in them; dead philosophers were only deceased in the most trivial of senses. There is something profoundly Socratic in that sentiment, and one which I frequently share.

This however is a photo post, so I will hold off on more extended musings on drafts, journals, and other manuscripts. Perhaps, that will make a good future entry.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

AHRC Research Leave Scheme. In Peril?

2008-07-31T20:35:00.003Z

Via the The Brooks Blog (and via Brian Leiter):

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=403020&c=1

http://the-brooks-blog.blogspot.com/2008/07/uk-research-leave-scheme-for.html

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2008/07/more-trouble-fo.html

By the sound of things the Arts and Humanities Research Council scheme for research leave may be changing. Although both Thom Brooks and Brian Leiter include headlines that sound like research leave funding might be axed altogether (this seems like a possible, but worst case, scenario), it seems fairly evident that the AHRC wants to address several problems with the current schemes. These would probably require the current scheme to be reworked or replaced, but not dropped without a successor. The issues are whether the scheme lead to completed research projects, whether it aids junior academic sufficiently, and whether it promotes collaborative research adequately? Of the three, that collaborative research is being presented as the biggest priority.

If collaborative funding is the driving force behind changes which eventually emerge from the AHRC, some dire portents might be justified. Presumably, the money currently lined up for individual scholars would have to be obtained from joint research proposals. This entails significant procedural changes, and may also entail significantly different probabilities of success, depending on how funding is eventually earmarked. I am not at all sure that this is healthy.

Collaborative research may be a desirable norm in some fields, but I wonder if it is appropriate to all kinds of research. As a matter of fact, I have enjoyed and continue to look forward to collaborative work in the history of political thought. That said, the joint papers I have given were both received in conferences as stimulating novelties. More importantly, I cannot conceive of having achieved my work on Lockean will and on Lockean language collaboratively.

Of course, one can always try to sell one's work as collaborative, even if that is true only in a thin kind of way. One might imagine a loose research group dedicated to a common theme, perhaps agonism in republican thought. By presenting work, in a series of seminars and hosting several conferences, some edited book or special issue of a journal might be pursued at the close of the research group. There is no reason not to think of this project as collaborative. The question would be whether this kind of thin collaboration satisfies, or whether the AHRC will be looking for something more like joint research. If thick collaboration is the goal, the accommodating research programme like that imagined here would probably not have the cohesiveness to command success.

At the moment, its probably to early to jump to conclusions, but the ramifications of potential changes, if currently indeterminate, could be staggering for how research is carried out and where.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Flat Hunting

2008-07-26T00:26:00.001Z

I've just been to Oxford to search for housing for the upcoming academic year. Teddy Hall put me up and gave me breakfast while I was there, which made the process much more comfortable.

I visited a few closets purported to be studio flats. One of them was owned by a real eccentric, blue blooded Briton of the upper class. Upon learning that I was from Wisconsin, she promptly mentioned that her brother owned a farm in Spring Green (the location of a Shakespeare company of regional fame, and a very nice part of the state). It soon turned out that this one farm was actually a portfolio of agricultural properties in Wisconsin, Illinois, Canada, and most recently in China. She then asked if I lived in a log cabin, (as all woodland Wisconsinites do) or whether I had every participating in building one. In the process she noted that the technique of cabin building required the use of a 'ghastly' substance to block the draft between the logs. Charming though this encounter was, I was not convinced by the dollhouse like proportions of the flat and pressed on.

This was a fortuitous decision because the next place I looked at, while not a self-contained flat, was a room large to accommodate the previous flat altogether. It had nice high ceilings, was airy, and included the use of a fairly well proportioned kitchen and washing/utility room. The other flatmates were said to be professionals and a graduate student. Plus the place was downtown, close to the railway station, and about a seven minute walk to my college. Not having to spend money on public transport, and having access to my office whenever I want is certainly worth the opportunity cost. So I made the move to secure the flat.

At the moment the estate agent (real estate agent for American readers or Maakelaar for the Dutch) is checking my references. When that is complete I will pay my deposit and the first months rent. Hopefully, this goes smoothly. My contract will start on 1 September, and matches my employment term date for date. This gives me to the chance to use Oxford's Bodleian library sooner rather than later, and that is an opportunity which cannot be missed.

A few photos of Teddy hall will be forthcoming in my next post.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Cafe Espresso

2008-07-16T20:08:00.001Z

I just want to give some credit to a lovely little cafe in Exeter, situated on the way up to the Rougemont Castle. I'll add some pictures when I remember to take a camera there, but it is has been the home of serious studying, writing, revising, and marking since I have been in Exeter. I was working there today, and thought about the many qualities of the operation. The barista’s are friendly and make a very fine espresso, and the chef concocts some fantastic cakes. And that is a compliment coming from someone who is rather obsessed with cake and pastry baking. The physical space incorporates two different idioms, with the upper floor clad in rich yellowy creams and overlooking the Rougemont Castle's surviving Norman tower, providing an atmosphere entirely unlike that in any chain cafe.

One barista trained in Australia, which might seem like a rather unusual place to learn the ropes of espresso. But with all seriousness, his work really surpasses much of what I have had in Italy (Florence, Bologna, Pisa, and Milan). I mentioned this to him, and he explained the cafe scene in Australia. Apparently the Aussies are quite particular when it comes to coffee. If they don't like a drink they will send it back. This is a regular, frustrating, and I can imagine a little bit humiliating experience. So he said he learned how to make coffee in short order. He used to work at Costa when they were an up and coming chain, and 'serious about coffee', but gave up on them when they started to really accomplish their sales goals and care less about the quality of their product. He's been at Cafe Espresso since then, and in my judgment is a real asset.

Interestingly, Exeter has recently been ranked as the number one clone town in the United Kingdom. That is to say, that its high street and central city retail districts are more dominated by chain operations than any other city in the land. In fact, the only store on the high street which is not a chain is the surviving tobacconist. Everything else is a hodgepodge of Cafe Rouge, Tesco, Carphone Warehouse, and Marks and Spencers. This has the advantage of predictability. I know exactly what is available, where, and when. But if I'm looking for something outside the margins, like some traditionally made welted 'veldtschoen'*, which I'd like to replace my current foam-made rubbish hiking boots, then Exeter has no known solutions.

Worse than the lack of certain eccentric opportunities is the dearth of care and class. Every city faces the homogenization that has blighted Exeter. Some may hold out more than Exeter has. But even here places like Cafe Espresso are little gems. They are personable where Starbucks is faceless, they are meticulous where Costa is ordinary and their pistachio and citrus cake must include a dash of the transcendent sublime.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

* The veldtschoen, or field shoe: shoe in which upper is turned outward when stitched into the welt of the shoe to form a flange. When combined with durable, dense leathers, and a solid rubber sole, this results in remarkable water proofing and field resilience.

(Picture from http://www.herringshoes.co.uk/index.php. Reproduced here for editorial purposes only.)

British Museum

2008-07-15T21:26:00.001Z

I always enjoy a trip through the British Museum. The Near-east and Western civilization wing is remarkably phenomenological in its approach (in the Hegelian sense). The progression of Athenian ethical life from the more physically pre-occupied earlier Greeks and the cultures of the fertile crescent is part of the wing's physical layout. But one must be careful not to draw abstractions too indiscriminately from a handful of artifacts, which may be none too representative. Indeed phallic jokes in Aristophanes, sometimes pertaining to the Athenian politician/aristocrat Alcibiades, may tell us more about Athenian ethical life than Hegel or the Elgin Marbles.

Meanwhile, here are some photos.

Stephen Stills - Go Back Home - Eric Clapton

2008-07-15T15:09:00.001Z

No comment.

Job Update

2008-07-09T19:32:00.002Z

Long have I yearned for gainful employment. Quite seriously, the anxiety of job searching had gripped me. My hope was not exhausted, but there was a dearth of expectation.

Fortuna, however, smiles in her own time. In early June I was contacted by St. Edmund (or Teddy) Hall, University of Oxford, and was asked if I could be interviewed on Friday, June 13. I managed to say, 'that would be superb' or something to that effect, though I'm not sure how, as my throat had clenched into a swallow of elation fused with terror.

My colleagues at Exeter arranged to give me a practice interview on Thursday, which went more or less well. Though I felt I handled several questions disastrously and certainly needed more preparation. But the payoff was great, as they anticipated the questions asked in the real interview with remarkable precognition.

Friday came and I decided that Friday the 13 would be a day of bad luck - for the competition. Indeed, I arrived at Oxford by trains 5 minutes a head of schedule (likely the first early train in England for decades) and roughly 2 hours prior to the interview itself. I bided my time by locating Teddy Hall, wandering briefly around town, and taking time to practice my presentation over espresso at Starbucks. I went to the Blackwell's bookshop by the Bodleian, went to the politics shelves, and prayed.

The interview went as well as I could hope, and I had rectified the dilapidated performance of the day before. I even managed to borrow a joke from my supervisor. Even ignorant of the final result, it was a relief that I had shown them quite properly what I'm made of. I left having been told that I would probably be informed of the results about halfway through the next week.

My first move after saying fair well to my interviewers was back to Blackwell's. I decided I the first thing I would do would be to buy a new book on Locke for my collection. I have no illusions about being anything other than a eccentric academic. Much to my astonishment, when I left the bookstore I found that a message had been deposited on my phone. I called voicemail to discover that the interviewers had several questions which they forgot to ask. Being close, I marched strait down the Queen's lane and toward Teddy hall, my mobile phone in hand a prepared to dial back.

So not twenty-five minutes after the interview, I was on the phone with Dr. Karma Nabulsi (the lead Politics lecturer at Teddy Hall). The first thing she told me,

'We want to give you the job'.

I immediately said yes.

Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger

2008-02-07T13:29:00.001Z

Now this is some pretty impressive folk music.

Christmas photographs coming online

2008-01-12T17:35:00.001Z

Hey all,

I'm just starting to put my Christmas pictures online. I didn't really take anything on Christmas day, I was too busy cooking in the end, but I got some good pictures from the gathering for my father's side, and from my trip to Chicago with Ahreum, Mom, and Dad. As always some pictures of my family are not available for general public consumption, so get a flickr id, and add me to your friends list. My id is elrohil_2, and the link is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63822924@N00/

Ahreum in Chicago

Family in Chicago

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Wonderful Christmas

2008-01-01T14:08:00.001Z

I had a very good Christmas this year. I was home in the States for about one month. I made some progress on my PhD, went to a conference at Harvard (not presenting) where I met many young scholars as well as my first political philosophy professor Patrick Riley, and researched in Madison.

The real event though was having Ahreum home for Christmas. We had a brilliant time together, and finally got to see Chicago on the 29th along with Mom and Dad.

We had a big Christmas meal on the 24th, a low key Christmas day, and another family event on the 29th. I was very happy that in our family Christmas was really much less commercialized than it might be. It was better just to spend plenty of time with my relatives and let Ahreum get to know some of them better.

Saying goodbye to both Ahreum and my parents at O'Hare airport was pretty hard. I've gotten used to saying goodbye, but there is a lot of loneliness served up in one dose on a day like that. I feel so fortunate to have them all in my life, grateful for the time together, but still a little home sick (where home is located for me is another question).

At the moment I'm writing from Heathrow Airport. I shouldn't have, but I finally bought a day pass for WiFi Internet access. It certainly makes waiting for the coach to Exeter a good deal more entertaining. One can only play solitaire and pinball so long, after all.

I can't conclude without wishing a Happy New Year to all my readers, family, and friends!

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Jeju Day 3

2007-10-16T14:42:00.001Z

On the third day of my trip to Jeju Island with Ahreum, we went to church with Ahreum's friend from Kyunghi University, Seoggi.

He is a Jeju native, and we we spent the day traveling with him. Then in the evening, his family invited us to a very wonderful dinner. I remain touched and very grateful for the generous and welcoming treatment.

After church we went to Songbansan. It was a nice walk up to a local Buddhist temple. The views from the pathway were dramatic

Afterwards, we walked down to the seashore, where a Dutch ship once landed in the 1600s.

Strangely, there were some other relics at the site of the Dutch landing. There must have been the genesis of something else at this sight.

Land of Confusion

After exploring Songbansan, we drove to the exiled home of the important scholar and artist Chuasa. There was a museum with replicas of his ink drawings and calligraphy. He was one of the most important philosophers and artists of his generation, and he developed a style of calligraphy that was unique and expressive. I greatly enjoyed the visit.

Afterwards we headed south again, and further along the coast to some volcanic highlands, called Songaksan.

The scenery remained engaging, and we had a good time walking up to the ridge of the volcanic crater. The views from Songaksan were stunning.

Seoggi got a picture of Ahreum and me that I am very happy with.

After our exploration of Songaksan, we departed and drove along the coast on the way back to his home. We stopped along a rocky beach in between Songaksan and Songbansan. The gray did not let up for a moment, but the Island's mist and stony resolve continued to affect me.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Back From Florence

2007-10-16T12:02:00.001Z

I'm now back from an Academic conference at the EUI in Florence. It was a very stimulating event, and I think my paper went successfully. Unfortunately I expected to present on Saturday but was in fact the second presenter on the first day (Thursday). So my preparation was a bit rushed, but fine in the end. This is a good experience for getting over nervous jitters.

The conference proceedings took up most of the time, so I wasn't really able to do any photography this time around. A shame, but there is always next time.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Trip to Jeju Island, first 2 days

2007-10-06T17:11:00.001Z

Probably the highlight of my visit to Korea was the vacation Ahreum and I took to Jeju Island off the South West Coast of Korea from Firda 21 September to Tuesday the 25th. The island was formed volcanically, though now all such seismic activity has ceased. This makes for some truly interesting scenery, with some rolling hills, but many abrupt bluffs and mountains formed by volcanic eruption. The center of the Island is dominated by Hallasan, the main volcanic mountain of Jeju.

We took a plain from Gimpo airport in Seoul. Check in was fast, as was boarding. The flight was about an hour in length. Similar to the journey from London to Amsterdam. Korean Air provided friendly service, but the drinks were small and there was no food or snack at all. A comparable length journey on a European flight for a national carrier would certainly provide a sandwich or something.

Unfortunately, the rental car company, while affordable, was pretty dubious. Hansung is definitely not a reliable company to rent from. They were unprepared when we arrived, and the car we got had very bald tires and was worn in general. We bought an extra insurance plan. Over one night one of the tires blew, which should have been unsurprising. We got some help changing the spare, and arranged to have a new car delivered. As before, this car was about seven years old, and a gas guzzler to boot. Worst of all the company tried to invalidate our insurance because the car had changed.

But complaining aside, it was very useful to have a rental car in Jeju. The locals drive like madmen, which caused endless frustration whilst driving, but having the flexibility of a car was really perfect.

So on the first day we relaxed a little in the hotel, and did some grocery shopping. I hadn't cooked for Ahreum for almost a year, which makes me very sad. Luckily, I had the chance to remedy that situation with some home made Samgeopsael (Korean grilled pork).

On day we did some serious traveling. I drove East to Seongsan, or sunrise point. It is a relatively small volcanic peak, but the climb was steep.

Looking down

The crater ridge

Ahreum on the way down, she makes hiking easy!

Afterwards we went to a small beach next to the volcano. There are some very rare special oysters that live off the Jeju Island here, and renowned local women divers are able to hold their breath for 15 minutes when they dive for these oceanic treasures. They were not, however, particularly photogenic. There were also a plethora of giant silverfish or centipede looking bugs (they weren't insects though, too many legs) living on amidst the rocks, but they were very afraid of big human vibrations. Though I didn't take any pictures of the creepy crawlies, the biggest were probably about 4 inches in length.

The base of the volcano was as impressive as the summit:

Evidence of ages

Sympathetic contrasts

Ahreum Explores the coast

Radiance and a baseball cap

We finished off a good morning of climbing with lunch at a local and overpriced seafood restaurant. Luckily the food was satisfying.

We almost felt jet lagged in the afternoon, but felt refreshed after a quick nap. We went to explore the hotel, had a coffee at the hotel's cafe, and explored the rocky beaches on the resort. It was twilight, providing some interesting and brooding light.

Automated vigilance

So ended the first day.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Pictures on Flickr

2007-10-05T00:35:00.001Z

I've posted some pictures from my trip on Flickr. But it is worth noting that the privacy setting for some of them is set to private. You'll probably notice an absence of picture of Ahreum if you go to my Flickr page. So if you don't have a Flickr account, you'll need to create one and add me as a contact to see some of the pictures. I'll make you a friend or family contact as is appropriate. My Flickr ID is elrohil_2.

If you are having some difficulty adding me as a contact, email me at elrohil@hotmail.com and give e your Flickr ID and I'll add you.

I'll also post some pictures and tell some stories about the trip over the next few days.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Article accepted

2007-09-14T00:48:00.001Z

After months of hard labor, revision, rewriting, and editing, two conference presentations, and two previous submissions, the article I have written with Rob Lamb on Lockean Charity is accepted.

This is pretty thrilling news for me, as having a publication is one of the key requirements for any realistic job application in England or America (and also Canada and Australia, I would presume). But the the real pleasure is knowing that my work is being appreciated. It's very important as an academic to know that your work can cut the mustard.

I received the news just a little while after I arrived in Korea, so I was able to celebrate with Ahreum. She took me out to a very nice little Italian restaurant cafe. We had some salad with wonderful aged balsamic vinegar and fresh mozzarella, proper pizza with parma ham and rockette, and a little ice cream to finish it off. We then walked through Apgujeong (a rather ritzy part of Seoul) to find a wine cafe and had a bottle of bubbly.

The jovial attitude continued as we spent Saturday out on the town, doing a little window shopping (rather exhausting), and walking in the Olympic park (brilliant).

On Sunday we went to Dongdaemun and had some Korean galbi barbeque and soju with Ahreum's mom. Afterwards we walked in the Soedaemun area, close to where Ahreum's high school was founded. She looked quite lovely in the shade of Doeksu palace.

After the celebratory weekend, I got back to work on Monday, and prepared corrections to the article in response to the feedback we received from our reviewers. There was some very helpful material there, and I hope that our final corrections will greatly improve the conceptual force of the piece.

Now I'm returning to my Locke chapter on his opposition to innate ideas and his theory of language. I've rethought the structure of my Locke chapters, and am moving this chapter to pole position. This means I have to pretty much rewrite the introduction. But I think this should make for a stronger and more relevant thesis as a whole. It should also have the unintended result of less work - always a good result.
But that does not mean no work. In fact, I have rather a lot of work to get through. Duty calls.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Harvard Political Theory Graduate Conference

2007-09-01T10:09:00.001Z

Yesterday I sent out a version of my paper on Lockean will to the organizers of a postgraduate conference at Harvard. They have a very competitive application procedure. They want a full draft of the paper, which will be peer reviewed by the PhD students at Harvard. They are only going to accept seven presenters, which means, I surmise, that there will only ever be one panel of presentations at a time.

One of the aims of the conference is to bring together a thorough representation of the different sub-fields in political theory. This is especially valuable, they claim, because of the limited institutional support political theory receives. I think this is more representative of the American academy than the British, but it is certainly true that other fields have more research money available to them and are often more compelling to appoint. But at the same time, just about every politics department in the UK will imagine that political theory is necessary and at least one or two specialists must be on staff. I don't know if the same modicum is normal across most American political science and government departments.

All that said, it seems strange that they will only take seven papers, if there ambitions are such. The quality of the papers though, will be very high. I hope that I am able to present; I'll know in a month. But irregardless I will be there for the conference, my ticket is already booked. One of my old Elementary through High school friends is now living in Boston, as is a good friend of Aherum and me. I have another good friend from University who is currently there, but might not be by the time I leave. But hopefully I'll be able to catch up with Professor Patrick Riley, who started me off on political thought.

Afterwards, I'm going home to Janesville for just about one month. And the best thing: Ahreum is coming home for Christmas again this year. It will be exactly four years since we first met. I'm quite excited.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

On Facebook

2007-08-23T12:34:00.001Z

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

2007-08-20T14:57:00.001Z

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

2007-08-07T09:17:00.001Z

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

Damn you Rumford

2007-06-10T02:18:00.001Z

When will I have the pleasure of Google searching my name without having the dastardly Count of Rumford come up. What could he have done that was so important. Surely discovering that heat is a form of energy pales in comparison with my blogging virtuosity. Surely this long dead scientist hadn't nearly the command over hyperbole that I do. Alas, he commands multiple pages of Google hits. Now if you type in Ahreum Han you might get my blog, but not when you type in Benjamin Thompson or even Song of the Spheres.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Bloody Carnage

2007-06-06T23:52:00.001Z

Lennox, one of the two cats in my lodging in Exeter is a prodigious hunter. Hardly a week goes by when he doesn't manage to nab a mouse, vole, or some other rodent. Recently birds are increasingly on his hit list.

Today he must have raided a nest because he brought in a nice baby bird. He has been toying with it for about 20 minutes now. I've never watched a cat manhandle a bird before, at least not in person. Quite a sight.

So while nature takes its course, I'm going to bed. If I'm first up in the morning, I'll have some feathers to collect.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Locke article off again

2007-05-17T10:06:00.001Z

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

Korea in Bloom

2007-05-10T01:20:00.002Z

I've just gotten back, well 2 weeks ago, from a whirlwind, nearly round the world spring break. I was both to Korea and to the USA. I had a brilliant time in Korea, met some friends, got some good work done on my dissertation, and had a wonderful time traveling with Ahreum. The picture above is from Kyungju, the ancient capital of Shilla Dynasty Korea, which ruled from the time of Julius Caesar and Cicero in the west until, if I remember correctly, the 700s. Quite impressive.

This is also from Kyungju, its one of the burial mounds dotted about the city. This one is very close to a much larger, world heritage status, burial mound.

Ahreum is looking well and feeling healthy, as ever. She joined the Hyundai gym, and goes nearly every night for some kind of work out, usually swimming. I'm not so good at keeping a set exercise schedule, but her dedication is inspiring.

For a quick update on my current activities, the truth is there isn't much that is terribly exciting. I'm marking, and marking some more. But this week I did have the pleasure of preparing a lecture on Martin Luther's political thought. The lecture went well, but I fear it was a little theologically unnerving for the students. I'm not sure they see the political in the spiritual, but I hope that one message they took from the lecture was that prior to very late modernity, it wasn't possible, or it least required considerable conceptual justification, to separate the political from the religious. Martin Luther, surprisingly did this, and I would argue as a result, this peculiar religious endorsement of political non-religiosity paved the way for modern secularism. The anticipation of major strands of liberal tolerationism (even if Luther wasn't really all that tolerant in the end) is remarkable.

On the photography side of things, I really feel like my time in Korea helped out my photographic ability. Still I felt constrained in that my current primes were both effectively short and medium telelphotos, rather than a 50mm normal and 100mm short telephoto. I enjoyed seeying what I could do with these focal lengths, but there were times I could concieve of interestings shots which I just couldn't take. Now, hopefully, much of that is rectified with my new birthday present. Thanks to Ahreum and my Mom and Dad for chipping in together, I am now the proud recipient of the Cannon 24 f2.8 prime. So far so good. I'll post some pictures with it sooner or later.

So that's about all for now. But check out my photo album, there are many more pictures on my Flickr.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Roy Orbison - Crying

2007-01-13T16:35:00.001Z

I remember when I was about 10 or 12 my mother got a Roy Orbison CD. At the time I was far too young to appreciate him. Now that I am a bit older, I am struck by the haunting power of his voice. Youtube, as always has a wealth of clips. Do try to look at "Handle with Care" and "End of the Line". These are two songs that he performed with the Traveling Wilburys (Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and Jeff Lynn). He died before the video for "End of the Line" could be filmed. His is a profound musical legacy.

Last Day in Korea

2007-01-08T09:03:00.002Z

My Christmas holiday in Korea is now coming to a close. It has been an interesting time. It was not a relaxing trip. I've spent none of it traveling and all of it working. But I never expected I would be able to do anything differently. The most important thing is that I've been here for Ahreum as she's started her new job at Hyundai Steel. So far her work in the legal team is challenging, but certainly rewarding. She has about a year and 11 months left. So there is a lot of learning left. I can tell she is warming to the work, and I know this will be an experience that will important for her wherever she goes.

But I've also had a lot of time to think this weekend about what is valuable in life. There have been stressful moments on this trip. In some sense I feel more like I'm living in another country, if briefly, than going on a holiday. There are always unanticipated highs and lows with such an experience. I know that living in England. England is not Wisconsin, and Exeter is not Janesville. Neither is Korea or Seoul. But one can't anticipate all the differences. Some of them are architectural, some of them are cultural, some of them are personal. I can't say much about the way Korean people live, after all I can only observe the bare outward forms of behavior. And I can't stress enough that it is my apprehension of the human interaction around me that pops up on the radar. This is necessarily subjective and distorted.

There are people who move around namelessly everyday as I study here in Gangnam. Nameless, and almost faceless. Other than what I notice about their clothes, all I can tell about them is that they happen to be in Gangnam at a cafe for some reason or other at a certain point in time. In a previous post, I speculated about what they might be up to. But when you get right down to it, that is just speculation.

So from this position of rationality, one would expect a certain amount of detachment from a visitor realizing these things in such a foreign place. Generally speaking, I think I have remained so.

But there are other things which differ in different lands which are more substantial. Some of these bring great joy to my heart while I'm here in Korea. The willingness of friends to journey great lengths to meet me, their warmness and generosity are above and beyond what I would expect at home or in Europe. And when one meets a friend of friend, they are almost always willing to treat the new acquaintance with real interest. Interesting, it is the introduction which is important. Strangers would not be so amicable to someone who introduced themselves sans mutual friend.

Other differences have been painful. I don't want to talk much about it. Though I put a little of my personal life on the blog, I don't take this to be a space for airing these sorts of feelings. I guess I'm getting over it, and the details seem meaningless to me. But I do want to write about how there is a certain sense in which people of different cultures have to be willing to work together to get along. That's what lets Ahreum and I click together. We have disagreements like anyone else, and in our case some of these come down to different cultural expectations. If this turns into a binary situation (my culture trumps yours) or we just become unwilling to try to grasp where the other is coming from, the gig is up. But Ahreum and I don't do this. I think our mutual Christianity helps here. We both believe that Christian love, not romantic love, helps us overcome these differences. Sometimes we realize they don't matter, sometimes we see they are hugely important, but because we both value reconciliation above cultural peculiarity, we always work out a compromise.

As I was saying, all of this falls down to a disposition, a form of love. If we draw lines in the sand, make sides, accuse, nothing will be solved. Understanding doesn't come automatically. It requires work. And consequently a willingness, a desire to be reconciled.

But what happens if someone one is desirous to be reconciled with uses cultural difference as an absolute criterion of exclusion. What if, behind it all, they simply don't want to put in the effort to understand. You are fundamentally different, and that's it. This is a very challenging position to be in. One can take one of at least two positions.

One could say, that when another is unwilling to be open and understanding, that it is pointless to try. In this case the closed mindedness of one results in the same closure in the other. This is a very natural reaction, especially if the closed mindedness is hurtful.

The other reaction might be to say, even if you seem to be unwilling to approach the issue with reconciliation, even if you really are so obstinate, it will not change the way I see it. I still want to figure out what is at the root of the problem, deal with it, change, be flexible. The second option is considerably harder. It requires a broadness of heart which is difficult to maintain.

As a Christian, this is a challenge that matters. In the first case I say, I will be forgiving, generous, loving, but only if those I might behave so towards will be the same. Upon this view, a true Christian need only feel charity toward other true Christians. As for others, stoic indifference is the best they should expect.

But that won't cut it. As it happens a true Christian can't have that attitude and actually be magnanimous, equitable, and judicious in a Christian sense. This first attitude causes one to fall into an insidious form of judgementalism which may even be worse than the unwillingness of the other party to reconcile. This is because this less obvious closed mindedness is disguised by an outward semblance of philanthropy. One tricks oneself into believing one has actually born the disposition one has in fact elided. One has become self-righteous without knowing it.

Now given the situation, it may look like a molehill is being elevated into a mountain. And in a certain sense that is right, but not in the sense that might be expected. The problem with self-righteousness seems to be that it can't easily distinguish between things that really matter, that are substantive, and things which are comparatively minor. It may be true that the pigheaded attitude may be vulnerable to the same flaw. Neither seem to partake in reason just as neither appear to exude charity. But it is the added bamboozling of the self that I judge to be worse than simple obstinacy.

All of this reminds me of St. Paul. He promised to show the Corinthians a better way, that of Charity. It is to easy to withdraw our charity and plead that we have done our best. But when we are actually tempted to do something like that, our charity is needed even more.

I've spent a lot of time studying conceptions of charity, but most of the time, with most people I meet, my outward friendliness doesn't require any serious exploration of the subjective experience of that study. Among other things, this trip to Korea has forced me to think a little more about that. It will be obvious that I have felt a little emotional pain while I have been here, but there are lessons in all of our experiences, so long as we are willing to learn them.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Ed Ames Tomahawk Toss - The Tonight Show - April 29, 1965

2006-12-28T00:55:00.001Z

Now this is some classic late night TV

Friends in Korea

2006-12-27T07:00:00.001Z

Now that Ahreum is working, its a good thing that I have a pretty good number of Korea friends. Last Friday I met up with Heejoo, a former language student in Exeter, for some coffee and sam geop sael (grilled streak pork). We were then able to meet Ahreum when she finished work.

At the cafe

Then it was time for some grilled meat and kimchi!

Some ice cream perhaps?

There was even a good picture of me!

Finally Ahreum finishes work and meets us, much better.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Cafe Culture

2006-12-27T06:44:00.001Z

My research on John Locke provides me with no small interest in the history of cafes. Locke and a number of his contemporaries frequented coffee houses in London long before tea had become popular in Britain. They would most likely have drunk Turkish coffee, and the socializing was not just for amusement. The coffee houses were major centers for literary, scientific, philosophical, political, and artistic discussion and work. There are of course obvious parallels with French cafes a century later.

The coffee house scene in England is now markedly changed. It had died almost utterly, and has now been revivified halfway by Italianesque espresso cafes and halfway by Starbucks and its clones. In fact, chains dominate the market both in London and in the hinterlands (Exeter). London cafes and the Exeter equivalents may be run by the same companies, but there are notable differences in the cultures of their patrons. In London I found that there is a good deal of pure aimless socialization, reveling in discussion, and simple enjoyment of rich espresso. But I have also overheard business meetings. One sees a lot of reading and work on laptop computers. I think particularly of a two floored Starbucks on Tottenham Court Road that has a large table upstairs replete with multiple power outlets. Perfect for portable computer users.

The cafe's in Exeter are not so cultured. They are brash, noisy, and the patrons are mainly taking a break from shopping. This is fine, but if I'm studying in a cafe, I am pretty much alone.

Now the reason why I've written about the past and present of the coffee house in England is purely by way of introduction to my present position - studying in a cafe in Korea. The name, Cafe Pascucci, the place, Gangnam. One of the things that strikes me about this place, is the rather different culture of its denizens. In some sense I am reminded of the multifaceted role of coffee houses in 17th century London. Some of that is preserved in London, but divergent aspects have coalesced here in Gangnam.

By no means is Gangnam typical of Korea or Seoul. From what I understand (and what I see) it is a wealthy area. I do not mean upper middle class, but proper wealth. Parents might be highly trained professionals or businessmen. They have been very successful in Korea's last 50 years of development, and their children are not hard pressed. As such the people here have ample leisure time.

This is reflected at the cafes. Most of the people around me are probably between 20 and 35. They are not here for a brief lunch break, in fact many may be here for hours. Furthermore, almost everyone here is female. There are men, but they tend to be meeting ladies. The wealth of their parents explains their freedom to do this, but doesn't give a reason. Consequently, it is not their wealth, but their sense of leisure that interests me. What do they do to occupy their time? What entertains them? What do they pursue? How does the cafe fit into this. Not monetary gain, they are in a coffee shop and don't seem to be working or meeting clients. Not gluttonous consumption, they rarely have more than 1 or 2 drinks over an afternoon.

From what I see conversation seems to be very important here. I can't understand what people are saying, but they aren't yelling, a la Exeter. The best I can guess is that a variety of topics pass back and forth between them. Socialization and company seem to be the reason to be here for many. A convenient and public place in which to meet friends over an afternoon.

But this is not what I find most engaging about Gangnam cafes. What I find most striking, and unprecedented in my experience, is the art. A lot of people, particularly ladies, bring sketch books, and even paint and brushes here. I've been here about 4 times this trip and about 6 last time, and there have almost always been people painting, drawing, taking photographs. Today I even saw an array of hair extensions being put into a lady's hair by her friends. This was peculiar.

What I'm digging at is that there seems to be a connection between coffee shops, monied leisure, women, and visual art. At least in Gangnam. I can't really speculate about what the reasons underlying this association might be. I might wonder, are most artists in Korea female. Is that the relevant fact, rather than the leisured status of the particular women here? Perhaps these artists are here purposively, seeking inspiration? In which case the social conditions of Gangnam might have relatively little to do with the artists here in this cafe. Or perhaps wealth daughters in Gangnam take up art professionally or for recreation, enjoy doing this socially, and hence come to local cafes?

I haven't seen anything much like this before. That's the benefit of returning to Korea. It is very interesting to get a sense of how people behave in different places. I can't say anything about Korean's from this experience, but that isn't the point. I actually find it quite refreshing that people here take art seriously. My love of photography is partially a channel for my creative imagination (I can't judge of the success of this outlet). Here's to the unexpected and the delightful.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

They need a native speaker

2006-12-21T03:45:00.001Z

I was on my way to a wifi enabled cafe in Seoul today, I'm still plugging away on that secondary source on Locke's theory of will, when something very amusing happened.

I will start by way of background. Some of my Korean readers will know that gaining English proficiency is very important in Korea. Sometimes to a state of inflated ridiculousness. In some sense this is very important because I communicate in English with Ahreum. Luckily she never got caught up in some of the more extreme efforts some Koreans make to learn English.

Anyway. I was getting out of the subway station, and this lady was handing out some professional looking information packets, complete with attached pen. Normally such people don't hand me anything because I'm clearly not Korean. But this time I could tell the situation was different. She gave me the packet without hesitation.

I said thank you in Korean, and began to walk away. Intrigued, I began to leaf through the pages in Hangul. Then something jumped out at me. This was an advertisement for speaKing, a Toefil preparation company (the Toefil is a standardized test Universities use to make sure non-native English speakers are up to University work). I don't think I need to explain the irony in this situation. (Though I do wonder how well I would do?)

I went back and returned the literature to her, saying, "I think you had better give this to someone else." I smiled, "Thank you," this time in English.

I walked off with a great big grin on my face.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Jetting off

2006-12-17T09:23:00.001Z

London

10:12 am.

I'm now sitting at the Pret A Manger at Heathrow terminal 4. This is my first time flying out of terminal 4, and it is largely disappointing. It feels as if I were at Luton or Stansted. Even Gatwick is better than this place. There aren't even any fast food restaurants here. Just ready made sandwiches and an vastly over priced gourmet fish bar. Where is the McDonald's, the Panda Express, or the Emporium of Grease when you need it?

Update: The staff at the duty free shopping centre in Terminal 4 are incompetent. It is crucial that all liquids purchased in the EU be packaged in sealed bags prior to reaching the final destination. I asked them if my purchase needed such treatment, and they said no. They assumed that Amsterdam was my final destination. They should have asked. They should have sealed it anyway, just in case. Their service is irresponsible and pathetic.

At least the ready made sandwich joint I'm at is pretty good. And I can only find the Emporium of Grease at American airports anyway. I'm sure I'm better off without it.

The most annoying thing is that KLM are rather asinine when it comes to their weight policy. They seem to really stick firmly to 20kg for checked luggage. Too bad I don't have a companion coming to the airport. I was at 26 kg, and forced to pay an extra 66 Pounds. I don't even have anything particularly heavy in my suitcase. In fact, if I had everything packed into my smaller suitcase, the total might have been 3 kg less. They might have turned a blind eye to that. Oh well. This is probably still cheaper than shipping the extra weight. And I would have still paid more to fly on Korean Air with their greater weight restrictions.

My next stop is Amsterdam which I feel rather ambivalent about. The airport is quite fine as a structure. It is comfortable, has amenities, places to sit. It even has a Macdonald's, thought it lacks an Emporium of Grease.

But all this aside, the Dutch staff are the problem. I have several Dutch friends and colleagues, and am myself descendent from immigrants from the Netherlands, so I don't have any particular grief with the Holland, The staff are generally fair and generally efficient. However, they are not warmhearted to strangers (and I don't mean foreigners, I just mean anyone they don't know) and they don't respond well to unexpected situations. Since such problematic situations occur or less frequently for international travelers, this can be trying.

Update: In a very stressful situation caused by the duty free shop in Heathrow Terminal 4, the people at Shiphol have been wonderfully helpful. The information desk staff are friendly and willing to be flexible. My prior experience is now confounded. I feel like paradigm shifts may be underway.

Amsterdam

3:54 PM

I'm now sitting in Shiphol airport. As you can see above, World duty free has caused me a bit of a mishap. What will be will be. It tests my resolve, ingenuity, and eye for fine details. Luckily, the people at Shiphol may be a bit colder, but they aren't screw ups (sorry Mom).

Now I'm enjoying a larger table, a more comfortable seat, and a generally far more pleasant airport. Heathrow has improved in the last few years, but it is still antiquated and overfilled. If I have to go by KLM again, I think it would be far better to go via Bristol. BAA doesn't operate Bristol's airport, and that makes a huge difference. Usually the workers there are more flexible and customer oriented. But even when they aren't the place is small, clean, pleasant, and easy to manage. One never finds the massive crowds one would at Heathrow.

The Dialectic of Grey:

Hear in the northern world things are already almost dark. There is still light in the sky, but it is cloudy. The clouds hide a certain dynamism though. They are filled with power. Each one bears subtle gradations of colour from deep grey to misty blue. Highlights of white clouds which seem like they might just possibly bear just a touch of yellow.

This is a starkly different scene, to the one I saw when I was on the coach this morning. I woke from sleep at just a little before 8, and the sun was just groping above the horizon. The structure of the coach prevented me from seeing the whole expanse, but what I could see was glorious. Fuchsias and oranges dancing together in lines of cloud which cut across the sun's rays. The sun itself was largely obscured, I think because it was still too early.

The view here is one that requires more subtlety to appreciate. It is somber. The glory is sedate but present. There is a stunning potentiality about this greyness. But this is not what I want to say about it. One need take only a glance at a thunderhead on the horizon, and its power and magnificence are apparent. These clouds would seem to be far more pedestrian. Most people would look at them, dismissively and come to the conclusion, "it's an awfully dreary day today."

Perhaps such thoughts are conceived purely in terms of sunlight and its effects. They are affected by our star. But what of the cloudy day. The sun is subsumed, although not removed. It is not night. Does this mean less happiness? Some people feel dreary. But why should happiness by tied to sunlight. What is the emotional content of clouds. Is there even a right wrong question here? Surely the feelings on a dreary day simply well up inside many people. They are not the products of forethought.

However, I do not share that feeling today. Today it is grey that is right. Sunlight would be strangely inappropriate for a journey of this length. For me grey is a comforter. It soothes. It calms. What more could I want. And the shades of grey give depth to all things. The colours of the sun would give us no sense of shape and proportion without the shadow of grey shades.

Hegel said that it was at twilight. Between night and day that the owl of Minerva flew. There is wisdom in the mediation of differences. That is the core of his dialectical method. It is the source of my appreciation of grey today.

That doesn't mean I'm forswearing sunlight.

Signing off

The first leg of the journey, and by far the most laborous is now over. I'm in the plane, have pushed and have been pushed by Korean's who don't believe in lines. The funniest thing was a business man who had almost pushed his way into the front of the queue for economy class so he could board right away. Then when they called out business class first, from a new queue, he had to walk all the way back through the line to get out. Not to fun for him, but extremely amusing for me. He still got in before all of us, but had he been less pushy, he wouldn't have had to wait for everyone in business class either.

We are scheduled to depart in about 6 minutes, but that looks to be unlikely. The plane was delayed coming in, but it looks like the hold up now is simply the fact that many people weren't at the gate when they were supposed to be. When my fellow passengers delay my travel, especially when it is to see Ahreum after three months, I am none too happy.

But the point is that I will soon be in the air, and on the way to Seoul. Ahreum will be waiting for me at the airport! Until then, I need to get some rest.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Volition, or the Will in Locke's philosophy

2006-12-10T18:22:00.001Z

Now that term is over, its time to do some serious thinking. I've been working on a chapter on John Locke's theory of will in The Essay Concerning Human Understanding for my PhD Thesis. The chapter is nearly finished now, but I have recently discovered a book which I feared replicated much of what I wanted to say. I'm not going to name it or the author yet because my thoughts about it are far to provisional.

Luckily (and in the end not surprisingly) the book is not nearly the threat I perceived it to be. While philosophically interesting, and often plausible, the argument doesn't seem to interface with the Locke's thought. The interpretation is in terms of contemporary debates on will. Much of these debates are more or less similar to their predecessors in the late 17th century, but not entirely. In fact, when one gets down to the brass tacks, the differences are quite surprising. While some of the issues are the same, their occurrence in 17th century discussions is for different reasons. So while the book I'm reading at the moment, often seems to get a good sense of Locke's meaning, it lacks precession. It fails to accept the specific purposiveness Locke envisioned for different categories human agency. It seems to miss the nuances, the directionality, of Locke's though.

Most importantly it lacks a sense of the historical context of Locke's work. The author's interpretive methodology begins with what we (or at least what he presumes we) expect a free agent to possess. It is not just the freedom to do things without external constraint. It involves something extra, which he describes as the "elusive something." (he says this after saying, in terms not at all elusive, of what this consists). The problem is he never begins with what Locke might envision. Now what Locke expects a free, rational, adult agent to possess may very well be the same thing we do, but that is a historically contingent possibility. Locke may have subtly or radically different views than author as to what freedom entails. But if the author looks for his elusive something in Locke's text, when he finds it it will be, of methodological necessity, read into Locke rather than interpreted out of the book. What the author finds may end up agreeing with what Locke purports, but only through historical chance.

This unwillingness to grapple alongside Locke with the concerns, questions, and ideas that were incorporated into Locke's Essay in the first place is reflected in a disjunction in terminology. The author seems to spend little effort coming to serious grips with Locke's sense of terminology in the account of will. Because of this the author tends to muddle up freedom and will. Certainly they are tangentially connected, but Locke did his best to separate these terms for a reason. The very act of looking for Locke's account of "fully fledged free agency" as the author does, is to ignore the fact that volition, not freedom, is Locke's primary concern. What men call the freedom of the will is revealed in the way the will can work, but it is always wrongly called a freedom. The author sometimes acknowledges this, but it doesn't seem to affect his terms of analysis.

Furthermore, the author misses out the sense in which a good deal of Locke's discussion is terminological. What kind of terms and ideas can the mind form when it first learns about volition? What kind of terms, and discourses add up to nonsense speech? These are crucial for understanding Locke's over all purpose, and the distinctive turn he makes toward analyzing the will in a more metaphysical and psychological sense.

Having finished putting these thoughts to ether (not really paper eh), I feel a good deal more secure. I'm not going to be caught out on Locke's theory of will. I have a unique but grounded interpretation which isn't duplicated elsewhere. This brings great joy to the heart of a PhD student. Huzzah!

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Flickr posting and WindowsLiveWriter Beta

2006-12-09T15:28:00.000Z

Hey this is pretty cool. I can post pictures from Flickr using the new WindowsLiveWriter for blogs. Its quite a bit nicer posting from here than from Blogger's fidgity unreliable system. I may have to get a pro account over at Flickr to keep the photos coming your way. Here's some goodies from Wales.

Tintern Abbey

Ragland Castle

Welsh Coast

Carnarfon Castle

Llandudno Beachfront

Llandudno Beach

Beaumaris Castle

More coming up soon.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

End of Term

2006-12-09T14:07:00.000Z

My bandwidth limits are now refreshed over at Flickr, so I'm planning on uploading some Wales pictures. Today.

My extremely busy term 1 is almost complete. I really feel physically as well as mentally exhausted. That said, its been an immensely rewarding semester. I've succeeded in Bristol, and the students seem to be very fond of the course. Knock on wood, I have evaluations next Tuesday. Tutorials in Exeter have been going well too. I'm not sure this years class will bubble forth with as much exuberance as my first class two years ago, but I have good feelings about them nonetheless.

What makes me most happy is that I've been talking with Ahreum, usually twice a day for the entire term. I can't think of a better way to spend my first waking moments and the last hour of the day. Of course this means my time to keep in contact with everyone else is reduced rather drastically. So a big apology to everyone out there who is wondering where I am and what I've been doing. I've got break coming up next week, and I'm planning to rectify this.

My biggest news is that I'm about to head over to Korea. I'm leaving before the crack of dawn next Wednesday from Exeter's coach station, and I'll arrive in Korea at 1:00 PM next Thursday. Its a long trip, but well worth it. If Ahreum and I are lucky, she will get a new job while I'm in Korea. If were extra lucky, she'll start work a little while after I arrive. But she might start work, just when I arrive. This is a little sad for me, but I can manage. I'm so proud of her, and really hoping that everything comes together.

Now I should get to work on Locke's theory of will. I'm reading secondary sources at the moment to make sure that I disagree with everyone else on the subject. But not so much as to appear peculiar or ungrounded.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Picture Posting

2006-11-19T14:48:00.000Z

It looks to be increasingly frustrating to post pictures directly to blogger, so I am going to be leveraging my flickr account more consistently. I've been posting pictures there, so please do click the link on the sidebar and have a look. Or here is the direct link http://www.flickr.com/photos/63822924@N00/

I've put some of the photo's up in a way where only friends and family can view them. I guess that means you'll have to sign up to flickr for an account. If you do that, just drop me a comment or email me at elrohil@hotmail.com and I'll set things up so you can view the pictures.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Korea Photos 2

2006-11-08T10:05:00.000Z

Here are more pictures from my Korean travels. I would upload more at a time, but blogger.com's photo features are slightly annoying. I could use Flickr, but I would have to pay to have a higher uploading bandwidth. Since I'm a miser, I'll just do it this way.

On our first Sunday in Korea we went to the English Lutheran church. Afterwards we met our friend Soyon in Itaewan, and then went to Insadong, a traditional arts district in Korea. We went to a very nice tea house, had rice cakes, tea, and a nice long chat. While we were there, there was also a marching procession of traditionally dressed Koreans. Lamentably my photographs of that event suffer from my lack of action photography experience. But never mind. As always, click on the pictures for the full size images.

Vendor in Thought

Ahreum and Soyon

Soyon and I

On Monday we went to the Gwanghamun area in the central city of Seoul. We met one of Ahreum's friends who works for Citibank's law department. Afterwards we walked down the newly finished Cheongecheon urban stream. I am really quite impressed with this stream, and it adds a real special something to a city which is otherwise grey, uniform, and architecturally uninspired.

Later that week we met Ahreum's close friend Jinhee. We met her last year in a large group, so I was happy to get to know her better this year. She's actually quite shy at first, but really very friendly.

Jinhee tried on Ahreum's sunglasses. She says this picture doesn't represent her, which is true. But she does look very cool and slightly intimidating.

The next week on Monday, we went to the National arboretum north of Seoul. It was quite a trip by subway and bus to get there, but well worth while. The grounds were expansive and beautiful. We thought we had seen just about everything, and then realized we missed very expansive trails on the northern side of the arboretum. Still, we got about 4 hours of good walking in.

More to come.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Korea Photos 1

2006-11-08T01:15:00.000Z

Now is the time for some photo blogging. I'll be sparse with the commentary and generally let the pictures speak for themselves.

Ahreum and I went to visit Jungmo shrine and Changgyeong Palace

Ahreum and I met our old Exeter friend Jaeoh. We drove to the sea, and had dinner at a French style restaurant. The food was very good, but I'm not sure if it was French. A wonderful day.

JaeOh and Ahreum

Ben, crassly posing

That same evening we went to Gangnam and met Ahreum's graduate school coursemate Seoggi. I met him last year as well. A very friendly fellow.

Seoggi

More to come.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

I have returned from Abaddon's depths

2006-11-08T01:03:00.000Z

Sure has been awhile since I’ve posted. Some blogers start saying that if they haven’t posted in a few days. Since my posting is already so sporadic, a little break like that is entirely meaningless. However, two months is another matter. The truth is I was rushing around frantically while I was in Korea, and now that I’m back in Exeter life has been manically busy.

Korea was charming. I met many of Ahreum’s friends again and old Korean aquaintances. Most importantly I was introduced to her Grandmother and uncles. I've never felt so ashamed of being a monoglot, yet at the same time her whole family treats me with real warmth. I think of so many friends of mine who are Korean and seeing westerners, or westerners seeing Koreans, and they constantly worry that the Korean family will a) find out and reject the western partner or b) wonder how they will keep going now that their family has already discovered and condemned said partner. I can imagine that Ahreum's family first imagined me with some trepidation, but they have never shown any of that. They are still potential inlaws, and there are things that will invariably bug me, but at least I don't have to deal with this. Fortunate indeed.

While I was in Korea I also mangaged to write a rough draft of a PhD chapter. It was wonderful being able to spend so much time with Ahreum largely away from the other concerns I normally have. Some of the side advantages included regular and generous portions of Korean food, which I have quite a hankering for.

Unlike last time, I had a bit of leisure time on my own. For one week Ahreum worked in a translating job, and I had to make my own way about Seoul. Not a problem. My sense of direction is quite good, so I never worried about getting lost. And this year I finally developed a sense of geography in Seoul, so it will be hard for me to get lost. So while I was on my own, I got sat down in cafes around Seoul, brought out my Locke notes and my text of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and got cracking on an extended analysis of Chapter 21, on Power. The manuscript (in the true sense of the word) is about 40 pages of paper slashed with blue ink. It is now being electronically transcribed. Of course I’m not nearly done with the chapter. It needs better connection with secondary debates on the subject of Lockean will, but I am quite sure I have a solid, original, and instrumental interpretation which will stand on its own and prove essential for the rest of my Locke chapters.

But this is not the only work related news to deliver. I have now, happily, delivered four lectures at the University of Bristol in their politics department (top flight, ranked 5 in the UK). I have 6 more to go. I am helping them in their hour of need since one of their political theorists is on research leave and the other is overworked having become head of department. Indeed, I was headhunted for this post on the recommendation of a former lecturer in our department, Nathan Widder. The reason is pretty clear. The course is on Locke and Rousseau, social contract thinking, and themes of democracy and authority. As it happens, my PhD is also on Locke and Rousseau. What a perfect fit.

And because I am freshly researching this material concurrently to my lecturing on it, I have an unparalleled opportunity to connect my research with my teaching. That sounds quite fine to me.

This does not mean that I have time to sit back and gloat. On the contrary, I have been busier than ever before keeping up with the Bristol lectures, working on my PhD, and teaching in Exeter. I have given a lecture on Book I of Plato's republic, and given a short paper on Plotinus and the ontology of virtue and evil. What fun.

At the beginning of October, my parents came to visit me. We had a wonderful 1 ½ weeks, a good chunk of that spent travelling in Wales. We also saw the alleged birthplace of King Arthur in Cornwall. Unfortunately I still had to bear down on work while they were here but that gave them the chance to explore the Westcountry quite a bit more than they had before. Mom and Dad are now safe and sound back in the USA, and it sounds like Dad is ready to come back right away. I think they like England far too much; they are prejudiced against the rest of Europe by the sole fact that I am here. They should go to Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, or Switzerland before coming to England again. I might be able to go there for a little while and then they would be able to see more of Europe than this single island. This is the only sensible course.

What has really kept me grounded, enlivened, and encouraged in all of this hectic running about is being with Ahreum. Unfortunately she is not right here, but I do have the blessing of being able to talk with her every day. This really brings my days and my nights together and helps me stay focused on my work. She is such a sweet lady to say good morning to and good night. Even with the distance, I count this a charmed life.

I do have Korea pictures nearly finished and ready for posting. The editing takes more time when I can’t devote several afternoons to nothing else. There are also Wales pictures coming up.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Handluggage sizes and civility

2006-08-27T19:58:00.000Z

I have now arrived in Korea after a fairly exhaustive journey. The airport wait was long and tiresome, but security at Heathrow moved more smoothly than I had anticipated. They have had several weeks to sort things out, so it isn't surprising that the hobgoblins following the 10th August were not haunting the airport yesterday. Given that Saturday seemed to be a very busy traveling day, the lines were actually quite normal for Heathrow security several years ago. Hopefully in due course, they will be on track to improve security screening further.

That is not to say there are not some frustrations. Most notably, it looks as if the imposition of the new hand luggage size is not as universal as we are told. There appears to be a work around, which some travelers took advantage of. The flaw comes in the manner in which baggage dimensions are checked. The BAA has set up boxes interspersed in the check in zone and before security. The idea is that travelers can take their carry on luggage aboard if and only if it fits into these boxes. The problem lies in the self-check nature of this test. At least as of Saturday, staff are not necessarily verifying if the luggage precisely fits the box prior to security screening, nor are security screeners verifying the luggage dimensions. Now it is unlikely that someone with a bag obviously larger than requisite size will be noticed, butI don't see the current security regime able to control more modest exceptions.

Aren't the new hand luggage sizes a little restrictive anyway? Why not stick it to the man, if he's not enforcing his own rules? To be honest, I think the size of the bag is perfectly arbitrary. I assume British government chose this size because it makes manual searches swifter, but what is really important is what the bag contains. So I do not think there is anything inherently wrong with a few larger bags snuck on board. What bothers me is not the failure of the security, but the unfairness imposed on people like me who are willing to stick the rules. I understand the new sizes are inconvenient, but I want to do my part to make traveling a little safer. I bear the inconvenience within reason. When other travelers flaunt these regulations, it makes me feel like the purpose of my own long suffering over packing is stripped. But I suppose at bottom, I just don't like people who believe they don't have to follow the rules. Its exactly the same with those drivers who won't merge when a lane ends, but instead move to the front of the line and try to force their way in. This seems to represent an indemic me first attitude. Self interest is obviously natural, and at many times it is beneficial, but in these cases it isn't. For a little extra space or for an incrimentally better position in the trafic cue, these kinds of behaviour, when widespread, add up to serious frustrations for everyone else. Even the rule breaker has to contend with others playing the same game. Using a little Kantian reasoning, imbibed with a sense of enlightened self interest, universalised rule breaking simply doesn't pay, and even small scale infractions in these cases suffer rapidly diminishing returns.

On the other hand, a little civility in the full sense of the term, not just manners, but a level of respect accorded to others, instead of the latent egotism implicit in the rule breaking above, would go a long way to ease the tensions of my life. Not neglecting the solipsism in my own reasoning, I'm sure it would help everyone else as well, the reamaining rule breakers included.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Life's ups and downs

2006-08-01T15:47:00.000Z

The past week has been an interesting one. I've suffered a rather tremendous loss, as my computer suffered a complete and totally unexpected system failure. To make matters even better my recovery cd was corrupted. Luckily I backed up key documents some time ago, and had some other documents on my email account. Otherwise, this would be a major major disaster. But I have lost most of the photographs I took in June which I didn't post onto this website. There are some important pictures from a close friends PhD graduation that are now gone forever. The moral of the story is constant back ups. One copy on hard drive and one on CD at all times. Best to have some things on internet storage as well. If you fall behind, it's a matter of when, not if, you will lose your data.

My life has been further complicated by nagging sciatica pain in my right leg. I'm a little young to be feeling this. I think the cause was a coach trip to London last week. Unfortunately I've got another trip to London on Thursday. My intention is to study at the British library and then meet Ahreum that evening. But with my leg the way it is, I'm not sure how feasible that will be. I'm just hoping for a recovery.

Ahreum has taken up swimming again these days. She swims for an hour or two when she goes, and is really improving quickly. She was a little rusty, but is now doing fine. We are both working really hard to improve our health, and the results seem to be paying off. I'm trying to get down to size 34 waste by the time we go to Korea in one month. At the beginning of the summer I was just barely wearing size 36 trousers, but those have gotten significantly more comfortable over the last month. Another reason for the sciatica pain to go away - renewed exercise.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Socializing, Exeter meets Korea

2006-07-13T16:50:00.000Z

This past week has been a pretty nice one for work and relaxation. I've finished reading a number of sources on the Cambridge Platonists and other liberal 17th century English theologians. I'm now in the final stages of my half of revision for the article I'm working on with my colleague for the Journal of the History of Philosophy. I've been able to do very substantive restructuring, and am adding new material on the discourse on charity in the 17th century.

At the same time I've been able to do some nice socializing with friends from Korea. One of Ahreum's friends from London, Sunyoung has come to study English in Exeter and stayed with us for a week while she found a new room. Last Tuesday we had a hamburger lunch with potato salad for the 4th of July with her Heejoo and Yunhan. For our Korean friends, it was the first time to have a real home made cheeseburger, and they really liked it.

Then, in order to treat Ahreum, Sunyoung and I, Heejoo arranged a Ramyun noodle party on Thursday at my place. It was nice and spicy and also light for a balmy Exeter afternoon.

Ramyun Wrappings

Sunyoung laughing

The girls had lots of talking to do, and also watched a couple of movies. I decided that we needed a tea time treat, so I decided to try my hand an English Triffle didn't require any cooking, just beating of whipping cream and washing and slicing strawberries. Put cake first, then jam, then custard, then strawberries, then cake again, jam, custard, strawberries, and whipped cream on the top. Arrange a few more strawberry slices decoratively over the top. The results are below:

Triffle

Topping off the week we had a lovely party at Will's place. He is about to start an MA in Philosophy at Essex. We know him because he goes out with another Korean friend of ours, Sunyoung. I brought fresh salsa, and had a great time getting to know some new people better:

Ahreum's Almost Ready

Sunyoung and Ahreum

Will

Drinking Buddies

Sunyoung, Sunyoung, and Ahreum

My newest culinary project is artisan bread baking. I'll have a new post on that soon.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Flickr

2006-07-08T16:09:00.000Z

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

The Birds

2006-06-28T14:28:00.000Z

Yesterday evening the sky was grey. Twilight was rapidly coming upon me as I walked between two buildings of red brick and mortar. Above me I could here the caw of seagulls and the fluttering of wings. I thought nothing of it and continued walking.

Within a few steps though, my evening changed quicker than I could imagine. The seagull cries were suddenly closer. I looked up, and two seagulls were jousting with each other not 9 feet above me. One seagull admitted inferiority and flew to distant shelter. The other, seemingly standing guard over its nest returned to the concrete eve of one of the red brick buildings.

I glanced in its direction, intrigued. Its eyes were as sharp as mine. Somewhere in its feeble, frightened bird brain it perceived me as a threat. The joust was on again, and it swooped down upon me with all its speed. Whether it meant to simply drive me off, or to really attack I cannot say, but It came in very close indeed. I took off like a bolt around the grounds of one of the brick buildings. I hoped that it would see I was no threat and return to its nest.

However, I was wrong. Drunk on power and victory the gull pursued me. Sweeping in low for pass after pass against my head, it chased me around the entire building. I ran with all me strength steeply downhill, only losing the maddened harpy when I dashed into a dense line of trees. There the gull gave up, and I regained my freedom.

I have never feared birds before, but my head was exposed and I had no tools with which to silence the enraged flyer. With a speeding bird coming at me, my eyes and ears suddenly felt more precious than they had before.

But I will have my revenge. Poisoned bread or sardines should do nicely!

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Bulgar wheat salad and Tiramisu Torte

2006-06-25T18:12:00.000Z

You may wonder, reading the title above, what Tiramisu and Bulgar wheat have to do with each other. The answer is completely tangential to the essence of either dish. While it is true that they are both dishes, and both contain wheat, what really brings them together is that I served both yesterday when Ahreum and I had some friends over for lunch.

Will, Sunyoung, Eunhan, Heejoo, and Ahreum

On the menu was grilled pork chops with fresh rosemary, cracked black pepper, and sea salt with the bulgar wheat salad.

I received several requests for the preparation of the salad, so here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Bulgar wheat 400 grams
Tomatoes (maybe twenty to 25 cherry or plum tomatoes)
1 124 gram (I think) package Tesco finest or Sainsbury's Taste the Difference feta cheese (or any other good Greek feta)
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic finely minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Bunch coriander (cilantro for my fellow Americans) roughly chopped. If you don't like coriander add less or alternatively use basil or flat leaf parsley instead.
Olive oil
Honey
Salt and Pepper

Begin by cooking the bulgar wheat. If you buy a 500 gram package, you won't need the full amount. Maybe cook 4/5 of the package and save the rest for later. Put the bulgar wheat in a pot, cover with plenty of water, bring to the boil and then cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain the water from the bulgar wheat, rinse the wheat with cold water, drain again, and put the bulgar wheat into a large mixing bowl. Set aside to cool.

Now start chopping. Chop each tomato in half, dice the onion, crumble or chop up the feta cheese, mince the garlic, and chop the coriander. By now the bulgar wheat should be getting cool. But if it is still letting out steam, then let it sit longer.

When the bulgar wheat is cool, add all of your chopped ingredients and stir them together. Add the juice of the two lemons some salt and pepper, some olive oil, and a drizzle of honey. Don't add too much salt pepper or oil at once because once its in you can't take it out. Taste and add more seasoning, oil and(or) honey as required. You don't want it to be too salty or too olive oily in flavor. Let the honey balance the lemon, but don't make the dish too sweet. It should stay a bit piquant and sour.

When you like the taste, its done.

For desert we had Tiramisu. I'm not giving away the recipe for this one because I have to keep a few secrets, but two basic sponge cakes cut in half, enhanced with expresso, frangelico liquor, and sugar. Each layer of cake is topped with sweetened mascarpone cheese, and chocolate mousse, until the top layer, which only has the mascarpone cheese mixture. Tap some cocoa powder through a sieve and arrange expresso beans decoratively on its top.

Mascarpone Torte

After a some tea, Heejoo and Eunhan left, but Will and Sunyoung stayed for the evening. The girls went to watch DaeJangGeum, a beautifully produced drama about a cook in the Korean Royal palace. They were quickly addicted. Will and I had a long chat, read about 6 hours. He did an MA in Literature a few years ago in Exeter, but he is preparing to do and MA in philosophy at Essex. We spent much of the evening discussing philosophy, the mechanisms of social cohesion, post modernism, escape from post-modernism, religion, and neo-Platonism. I had a great time. Its been a while since I just had a good extra-academic, free conversation about such a wide range of topics.

The tiramisu was good, but intellectual discourse is better, especially with a little bulgar wheat thrown in on the side.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Korean World Cup Match

2006-06-25T16:46:00.000Z

On Friday I finally finished off all of my marking. I did about thirty exams between 6:00 and 11:00 am. I felt like I hungover by the time I was done with it. Its rather amazing what the human mind and body are capable of when immense pressure is plied upon them. The most important thing was the feeling of total relief and calm that came over me when I turned in the exam stack to the office.

I must say that on the whole, I did not find the exam performances to be too stellar. There was some solid work, but, as with the essays, it seemed like they were only aiming for a pass rather than seeing what they were capable of.

But, this year, I have taken up the practice of writing down funny lines from the exams. It helps me stay focused and allows me to get a little enjoyment out of the grinding tedium. Here are the best gut busters:

"Firstly, as already mentioned natural law is consumed by all rational humans."
-I hope it has enough salt.

"As the name suggests eternal law goes on forever and extends well beyond our planet."
-That's totally cosmic, dude!

"The Utopians have a store of gold ... which they obtain by selling their excess gold."
-Something just doesn't add up here.

In the evening, I went with Ahreum and watched Korea take on Switzerland in the World Cup. Unfortunately for the Hanguk cheering section, Switzerland was playing on form and Korea wasn't. Still the Swiss obviously benefited from some highly dubious calls. Perhaps this might be called historical irony.

Irregardless of the defeat, I had a great time cheering for the Korean side. I also got some shots of some Korean friends and other Korean supporters.

Will and Sunyoung

Heejoo and Eunhan

Heejoo

Praying for Victory

Go Red Devils

Booster Club

Ahreum's come down with patriotic fever

Defeat sinking in

Sunyoung and Will

Sooyeon

Defeat hasn't dulled their spirits

When the game was over, and the post game drowning of sorrow had wrapped up, Ahreum and I joined our friend Sunyoung with her boyfriend Will and with Sooyeon and her partner Toby. We had just met the latter two, but they invited us over to their flat. We enjoyed some wine, some Hoegarten beer, and some funny videos on YouTube. Ahreum and I had a really good time meeting them and are looking forward to inviting them over to dinner sometime this summer.

What a great day!

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Guinea Fowl

2006-06-17T15:40:00.000Z

Yesterday, I was able to take a little rest from marking exam scripts to have over company. Ahreum and I invited one of friends, Heejo, over.

Heejoo

Heejo and Ahreum

She had just returned from Korea the night before and had kindly brought over some things for us, including some traditional Korean snacks. She really enjoys western food and Sainsbury's had a sale on guinea fowl (a kind of relative of the chicken with vastly superior flavour and succulence), so I decided to do a summer style pot roast.

Guinea fowl browned and ready to roast
The process for such a dish is simple but the results are excellent. To begin get a celery bunch, cut off the top, trim the bottom and cut off the outer stalks. Cut these in half. Cut off the top half of the heart, but leave the bottom of the heart intact. Cut an onion into quarters. Peel one bulb worth of garlic cloves. Cut half a lemon into six pieces. In the meantime, heat a casserole or small oven safe stock pot. Turn the oven up to about 200 degrees centigrade. Cover the bottom with olive oil or butter. Rub salt and pepper over the top and bottom of the bird. When the pan is good and hot (medium to just barely high kind of temperature), put the bird in and brown it on all sides. When that is done put it breast side up and add the onions and the garlic with some salt and pepper. When they have been in for a little bit add the celery the lemons and then poor in a glass of dry white wine. After this has simmered for a minute or two add enough hot water to come up about half way on the bird and cover most of the vegetables. Add some time sprigs, four bay leaves, the celery leaves, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and put in the oven for 1 to 1 1/4 hours. If you can't find guinea fowl, pheasant would be a nice alternative, a good fairly small free range chicken would also do the trick.

I served the meat spooned over with some of the cooking liquid together with a mixed green salad with raspberry lemon honey mustard dressing. The vegetables this was cooked with are also nice to eat, but you may want to cook the celery a bit longer. If this is necessary, remove the lemons and add a touch of sugar.

Ahreum and Heejo liked this a lot. Give it a try. This is fire and forget cooking that shouldn't disappoint.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Meandering thoughts (From Essays to America and Back)

2006-06-06T19:17:00.000Z

What a busy month and a half. I have left the blog idle, primarily because I have been preoccupied, but also because I of my chronic lackadaisical attitude and because I haven’t found anything to really write about.

Part of the problem revolves around marking essays. Unlike my previous students, the students I have this semester smack of mediocrity. That is not to say that they are poor students, or that they could not excel. In fact a small handful are excellent and studious. My point is more that the vast bulk of the students are unrepentantly average. There is nothing outstanding nor is there anything deploring in their performance. It is simply lukewarm. Essay after essay scored in the mid fifties. If I were grading papers in America, this would be like spread of B and B minus scores. This is not the kind of performance I can be excited about; in fact, it has drained me. I am now marking their second set of essays, and the performance is better on average, but still not where they should be.

This means I am nearly finished marking papers for the year. When I am done it will be a much needed relief, and I can turn to my own research in a far more concerted way.

At the moment, I am back in England I wrote most of this post at Heathrow airport. They are slowly improving the place, but there are still a number of things they could do better. Free wifi would be a great place to start.

I caught a bus at 1:20 in the afternoon. Ahreum was supposed to meet me on the bus, but it didn’t work out. Instead I met her in Exeter. But I was very worried on the bus ride home because I did not know what had happened. She is now completely finished with her work in London, and will be spending the summer with me in Exeter. I’ve been missing her over the last week. Traveling to and from the US was particularly hard without her. I’m so happy that I won’t have to go all the way to Exeter on my own.

In other news, I’ve now acquired a Canon 350d thank to their US rebate offer. It’s essentially a Christmas present from my Mom and Dad, since I will not be coming back to the USA this winter. I guess I’m the spoiled kid with the DSLR now. I can say that I am very grateful of my parents support. One of things I have promised in return is to post plenty of picture so they know what is happening in my life.

So far the operating of the camera has been remarkably transparent. I have experience with the canon system of film slr cameras, and I was able to jump right into the digital experience. These are two of the first shots I had taken before reading the manual properly:

I couldn’t resist that little opportunity to show off. Seriously though, the camera is easy to use. Now a lot of people complain that some major functions are “buried” in menus. While I can’t deny that they are in menus, they hardly require excavation. I imagine changing flash compensation, or iso could be slightly easier, but I don’t use the former and the latter can be accessed with one button press. This doesn’t strike me as being problematic.

Exposure is fairly good out of the box, but not perfect. I suppose it’s about the same as on my last camera, but because I shot film I had wider exposure latitude to work with. The camera is small, but I find it perfectly comfortable. It is made of plastic, but this means it is lighter and won’t get too cold to handle in the wintertime. I’m sure build quality is a step up from the Rebel 2000 I use for film, but it is not a leap forward. At any rate, I am very satisfied and can now focus on collecting lenses until a truly affordable full frame body is introduced.

Meanwhile, over the last week, I have been in the United States. My oldest friend, Chad Lothary, was getting married in St. Louis, and I was one of his groomsmen. I was very happy to be there for him as he begins his new life with Kristina. The ceremony was held in a greenhouse built for the World’s Fair, called the Jewel Box. It was fine wedding, replete with a string quartet playing JS Bach. Chad and Kristina should have fond memories of that day for many years. Here is a picture:

On the photography side of my interests, I was very impressed with the photographer that they hired. He was using a Canon 5d and an assortment of nice Canon L lenses. But many pros would use this kind of gear or better. What impressed me wasn’t his equipment but his disposition. He was friendly, i.e. willing to talk shop with me, clearly knew light exceptionally well, and had a relaxing effect on the wedding party. One of the little touches he did was to show some of the pictures he had been taking to the guests. Of course on a small viewfinder one can’t tell that much about a picture, but he had infused dramatic appeal and depth into his photographs. I have seen other wedding photographs before, and they are often mundane. I’m sure some of his are the same, but most were not. I’m very happy that Chad and Kristina hired this fellow.

Now I have to return to marking

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Kid with a DSLR

2006-04-16T08:42:00.000Z

Yesterday I was walking in Regent's park with Ahreum. It was a beautiful day. Spring flowers were in full bloom. The scene was simply invigorating.

Then something came which blackened my whole experience. We turned a corner in the garden and saw a middle aged man with his son. Both were using cameras to take in the scene. I think its perfectly good for children to enjoy photography. But this kid was about 8 and he had a canon 350D. What the hell. I liked to take pictures when I was 8, but I used a blue Fisher Price small format film camera. Why is kid decked out in advanced photography gear. Am I envious? Yes. I'm almost 25 and using a Rebel 2000. It does the job but it certainly isn't something I would pine after.

Anyway, I think the child is too young to be able to use this kind of equipment completely. Maybe I'm wrong, ,and he is technically talented. However, I suspect its just a well off father treating his son to gear that wont really matter in the long run. Other devices would better actualise artistic expression for that child's age.

If I ever find my Fisher Price camera, I'm going to start using it again.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Florence 3

2006-03-30T19:51:00.000Z

This is the last set of Florence pictures I am posting for the time being. Its kind of a shame I didn't have a decent wide angle lens with me, so I wasn't able to take any shots of Florence's architecture. These details will have to suffice.

Pastoral Saint

Santa Maria del Fiore Duomo

Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus With the Head of Medusa

European University Institute Gardens

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Tuscany 2

2006-03-30T16:23:00.000Z

Here is the next batch of pictures from my travels in Tuscany. The first again is from Pisa, and the rest from Florence. I have long been fond of statue photography, and the opportunities for this sort of work are ample in Florence. It fills me with wonder that so these places are so replete with works of true human genius. I wonder how much even decoration has become a mere commodity in the contemporary age. Careful art is far more satisfying.

Gazing Face (Pisa)

Scholarly Contemplation

Hellenic Grace

This last photograph is actually of the site of our conference. The Villa Schifanoia

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Tuscany

2006-03-30T13:21:00.000Z

This is a selection of photographs from my academic trip to Tuscany. I'll have more coming. All photographs' copyright mine.

Lion of Pisa

Receding Light

Lion Prowls the Piazza della Signoria

The Rape of Polyxena

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Retrospective in film 3, Korea

2006-03-30T13:02:00.000Z

This is the last in the retrospective series. These are three shots I took at a folk village in Korea. There is something of a timeless quality to them all, and the ethereal tones of Kodak Tmax 100 speed b&w film. As before click on them to get full sized images. All photographs' copyright mine.

Hanging Gourds

Spirit Frightener

Dengjang Pots

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Retrospective in pictures 2

2006-03-30T00:47:00.000Z

I took these photographs on my visits to the Netherlands last school year, when Ahreum was working in the Hague at the International Criminal Court. Do click on the pictures, as those in the post are reduced size. All photographs' copyright mine.
Ahreum was one of the few smiling faces in the Hague. There was something of a grimness to the city, and I was happy I wasn't visiting there on my own.

This is a strange flower I saw growing in Wassanaar. To this day I don't know the name, but my parents recognized it and said they had even planted one. Maybe I'll stop being lazy and ask them the name.
This picture and the next are from the Dutch tulip festival Kuekenhof. It was a little campy, but on the whole a brilliant display of vibrant tulips. One can get a feel for the madness which the unpredictable beauty of these flowers can bring to tulip aficionados.

This is second best flower shot I have ever taken. Regrettably the best is back at home with my pre-England photo albums.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Photographic memories

2006-03-30T00:24:00.000Z

I've just uploaded some older scans onto my new computer, and I thought it would be nice to offer a sort of best selection of my pictures up until now. They are representative of my travels since I have been in Europe, from my first days in Exeter, into the Devon countryside, Netherlands, and Korea. This is the first set from my early rambles in Exeter and its countryside.

This is an angel carved on the side of Exeter Cathedral. There is something solemn and representative of heavenly serenity in the angel's countenance.

This is the burial monument for Lady Dodderidge in the Exeter Cathedral. She was the wife of an important Exeter lawyer. She is garbed, almost expressionless, in perfect Elizabethan dress, yet she grasps skull. I have always been struck by the morbidity of this picture. This picture and the one above were taken on my second day in Exeter.
An old stone gateway on Dartmoor. This photograph was taken after I had been in Exeter nearly a year.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

2006-03-27T08:57:00.000Z

I just discovered that my department actually has a little blurb about me online with a picture. I recall that they asked me to write this and provide the photograph last year, but I thought they had never actually published it. Well, here it is: http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/politics/research/students.htm

My path to web infamy (read being completely unkown) is almost complete.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Ethics of food

2006-03-22T15:47:00.001Z

It's been awhile since my fair trade post, and recently in England Fairtrade has made the news again. I saw something of a pulp documentary considering whether Fairtrade is living up to its promise. The first Nestle Fairtrade products are storming up controversy. How can a Nestle product possibly be Fairtrade?

The problem, in my mind, is that many of the Fairtrade activists interviewed for this television programme have conflated the goals of Fairtrade with anti-corporatism in general. They see that big companies are using (read abusing) Fairtrade products in order to make money. They place large premiums on a Fairtrade product because people are interested in buying ethically. Now this certainly happens. Here at Exeter campus depending on where one goes one can pick up a Divine Fairtrade chocolate bar from anywhere from 50 to 90 pence. Its all the same, it is just different vendors setting different prices. So is Fairtrade being hijacked by corporations?

I should think not and the reason is simple. Fairtrade is not a socialist or communist ideal. Its whole point is to improve the standards of living and the pay received by third world produces by appealing to the market. Rather than with normal commodities, the basic prices for ingredients are set to a minimum. This protects the producer. Now for the producer's situation to be actually improved, the products need to move off the shelves. For the products to be popular, public awareness and marketing needs to be in place. Fairtrade knows this and must hope to leverage companies and supermarkets to sell Fairtrade products. Business is business and the profit has to be there. Capitalism is thoroughly wrapped up in this venture. But if companies can make a profit, and the products are popular, and huge producers like Nestle join in, this means that more chocolate, sugar, or bananas are needed. This means more orders for the farmers. And that means a better life for them. The whole point should be for supermarket chains and large food companies to "abuse" Fairtrade for their own profit because in the end this has a demonstrable benefit for the suppliers. As long as we are aware of this reality, I can think of nothing better for farmers than for Nestle to produce Fairtrade goods.

But after having thought about this I thought about other ethical food movements. What about fairtrade, free range, organic food, local food, small farmer food, and seasonal food? It seems to me that the ethics of food has become increasingly problematic and possibly chimerical. Say I want a tomato. Say I live in, Devon. It is the height of summer, and tomatoes are in season. Will the tomatoes at Tesco's be from Devon? Probably not. They will likely have organic and un-organic varieties. Where will these come from? Possibly England, but maybe the Netherlands, maybe Spain, or even Israel. If they are from far afield, it means that a good deal of diesel on a semi-truck or ship or jet fuel on a plane has been burnt getting the tomato to me. Enter the specter of global warming.

Now say I go to a farmers market. There I might buy a locally grown tomato, but it might or might not be organic. In any event, I haven't paid for huge waste in shipping, but I have given my money to a farmer who is likely to be highly subsidized by his government. And doesn't this mean I have worked against fair trade? Does this mean by going local I have gone against fair trade? But if I go for fair trade, because of the the products involved, by default, I have failed to go local and that I am contributing to global pollution. What a mess.

And then there is organic. At first it looks great. No fertilizers to imbalance the local ecosystem, no pesticides to damage the ecosystem. Great. But hold on a second. Isn't there a reason all those hideous chemicals are used. Surely it is to improve yield within a given area of land. Now if we ditch these chemicals, then something has to give. If I am a farmer and want to have a yield of X cabbages to sell and I go organic, then it is likely I will need to increase the land I farm in order to get the same number. This means, if we all went organic, either many more square miles of farmland would be required or a much lower quantity of food would result. Since much organic farming is corporate anyway, and buying organic doesn't necessarily mean supporting local farms, these issues can be set aside. Doubtless having a cleaner farm is a good thing, and I am sure that many farmers overuse chemicals and fail to rely on other alternative solutions. But at the same time, if I could chose between fewer farms (especially hydroponics) and more nature, actual unused land, I would be tempted to opt for more nature.

What I am trying to get at here, is that a good deal of the different ethical food movements offer overly simplistic views of the intertwined technical and moral concerns which actually crop up (pun intended) in the production of food. This is not to say that these ethical concerns are unimportant, but, as things stand now, they lead the ethically minded consumer into a number of unresolved ethical conflicts. More importantly they can be used, in the case of the Divine chocolate above, to empty the ethically minded consumer's pockets of a good deal more money then he should have actually had to spend, were he savvy, for the same principles. Most importantly, I don't think that it is right for me to have to engage in an internal debate every time I try to buy something. By and large, it is probably better to be lead by what tastes well crafted, than what some faddish ethical movement sees as singularly important. It is true that my actions and my decisions have consequences, but I suspect the after effects of each decision I make at a store and over multiple visits to different stores over my life are far to complex to be mapped. There are two many unknown variables for me to even begin to have the presumption that my shopping list has been ethically coherent. Therefore and henceforth, I refuse to play this game. If appears to be of good quality, nutritious and at a price that is sustainable for me, then I will buy the foodstuff of my choice. Otherwise I delude myself, possibly make things worse, and likely spend more of my resources than I should have.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Hiking

2006-03-22T15:02:00.000Z

Spring break begins this week after a long and busy winter term. I gave another paper last week on methodology (just baby steps here). Yesterday I had an annual progress interview at the department. It sounds like I'm on track, and I feel confident that this is the case. So now I am taking a little time to relax.

Not that I can rest for all of break, but I am balancing my work with recreation. So today I went on a moderate hike in the nature reserve trails North of campus. Part of the trail is an abandoned country road. It goes uphill for quite a ways and eventually turns wet. In fact the road bed has become something of a small stream fed from a spring bubbling up somewhere on this hill. The pathway begins being shaded by trees on both sides, but as one makes the climb, there is eventually a break in the trees on the right and a beautiful view of the valleys North of the city is revealed. In fact there is a side trail into one of the valleys upon which I hiked for a short while. There are some other good green places in Exeter, but this is one of the few areas that is really wooded, natural and open for hiking.

As spring comes into its own, I encourage you all to get out from urban life and the manic streets, and go walking in the countryside. You don't have to be a camper or a long term hiker. Just have a ramble in the rolling hills. For those of you living in really big cities, this might be more of a production, but I know that you can go hiking on several mountains in Seoul and many cities have substantial open parks.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Back from Florence

2006-03-07T02:20:00.000Z

I just returned from a brilliant set of conferences in Florence. The joint paper with Rob Lamb on Fenelon went without a hitch. We had some pointed questions, but I think we handled our selves amicably and astutely. In general the conference on the Passions and Virtues was academically very rewarding. The papers were tightly composed. The crowning event, in my estimation, was a newly retired professor, Nick Phillipson from Edinburgh, presenting on Adam Smith. It was a flowering of a lifetime's work and scholarship. His erudition on all manner of subjects was astounding, and he brought all of this together in a honed performance.

The other conference I attended in Florence was evaluating Early English Books Online. This was fabulous . Academically rewarding as well as technically stimulating. I am something of a geek, so I'm excited about how this sort of internet service really leverages much of what the internet can do for academics. I learned quite a bit about using EEBO, and I think I helped other people explore its possibilities through my report on how I use it in my research.

I got back into England last week, and Ahreum and I celebrated our two year dating anniversary. I was inspired by all the wonderful food I was fed in Florence, and I pulled out all the cooking stops to recreate something of a Tuscan feast. Of course I can't help but improvise, so whether what I made was in any real sense Tuscan is open to doubt, but it borrows the spirit and the feel of Tuscan cuisine.

My prized creation, in Ahreum's opinion, was a newly invented pasta dish, at least for me. One uses spaghetti (enough for two large or three medium sized portions. 4 or 5 cloves of garlic. A package of ricotta cheese (UK sainsbury's or Tesco's standard size, I think a US package is likely to be two large), a little milk, about 4 good handfuls of young spinach, and a dash of nutmeg. Begin by bringing some olive oil to a low/medium temperature in a saucepan. In another saucepan or stock pot, bring some water to the boil and put in plenty of salt. Dice the garlic, season with salt and pepper and lightly fry for about two minutes. Don't let it brown up, or this will damage the flavour. Then start adding the spinach a handful at a time with salt and pepper to season. At this point the spaghetti should go into stockpot. When the spinach has wilted and been nicely cooked add in the ricotta cheese and stir so it melts and breaks down. Grate a bit of nutmeg in. Not too much or it will be overpowering. Then use an immersion blender to blitz the sauce into a finer consistency. A splash of olive oil and a splash of milk (or potentially cream) finish the sauce. When the pasta is finished drain and put it into the spinach sauce. Return to the whole dish to the heat and stir together for about a minute or two. Done.

Tomorrow, I am back to the teaching grind at Exeter. But at least Ahreum is here to visit this weekend. And today is her birthday, too. Happy birthday to Ahreum. I am told her age is sensitive information, so I can't really say how old she is. But it is somewhere between 1 and 100, I assure you all.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Off to Florence

2006-02-20T23:24:00.000Z

I'm off to Florence and the European University Institute for a conference on the virtues and the passions. I'll be giving a paper with my colleague on Disinterestedness as virtue in the thought of the quietist Archbishop Francois Fenelon, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and the British radical William Godwin. All of the papers look very interesting, and I think this is going to be a very important conference for my work. There are some well known names there, and some rising stars. This should be a very interesting experience.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Green tea cake

2006-02-17T00:42:00.000Z

Ahreum is here for the weekend, and we are celebrating Valentines day a bit late this year. We're doing things low key as well. But for the menu, we are having green tea cake. I've never made a green tea dessert before, so this will be a new experience. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

But while I'm at it, I thought I'd post a link to the website where I found the recipe. It seems to be a pretty powerful recipe site for cakes, and it has a scaling function which allows you to increase or decrease the recipe by serving portions. So if its normally 12 servings, you could scale it to say, 6 or 20, and the website will do the calculation for you. That's cool. Of course what it doesn't do is scale based on pan size. So if you have a recipe for a 9 inch cake pan, and you want one that will fit an 8 inch pan, you'll have to do some calculations. If 9 inches is 12 portions how many portions will be in an 8 inch pan. We'll you can't set up a simple proportion, because we are dealing with units of volume, not length. So you'll have to calculate the volume of the pie tin. Its a cylinder, so it shouldn't be too hard. But I won't give you the full equation because I'm too lazy . But the area of a circle is Pi * (radius)^2, and the volume of a circle is height times Pi * (radius)^2. So now with that bit, it should be easy to make the calculation of how many serving sizes you need. Then let the website do the recipe modification for you.

So with no further ado, here is the web page: http://cake.allrecipes.com/

If anyone tries any recipes and likes them, let me know.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Water contamination

2006-02-09T00:14:00.000Z

Exeter is a great place. Peaceful, clean, green. Although it is a small city, at its edges it just melts into the rolling green Devon moors. It is this clean air and life that is so appealing about Exeter.

The problem is, this clean and green town is neither clean nor green. Though I can't make a proper reference, I have heard tell, that the air here, at least in the center of town, is some of the most badly polluted in England. This is because there is little industry left in the UK, and it is the cars that do the dirty work. Exeter certainly has traffic stagnation aplenty.

So at least the water is clean, right? Normally it is clean enough for me although not for Ahreum, but this week a new and splendid richness has been added to the pristine font of Exeter's North side. Have they decided to put fluoride into the water to strengthen our teeth or enervate our life energy ala Doctor Strangelove's General Jack Riper? No and no.

Without further elusive and wandering prose, the real problem this week is that Exeter's North side water supply has been contaminated by diesel fuel. I guess they were supposed to put a little chlorine in, but somehow they got mixed up. Campus was squarely hit, and after some concern and confusion, I determined that my house was just outside of the redzone. But had I been one block over...

I suppose they would have contacted me right away, but, then again and knowing the spirit of organizations like South West Water, I suspect I would have had to find out in a more pro-active manner.

The resolution from this whole incident, is that I have to start drinking like a medieval man. From now on, my fluid of choice is a well brewed beer.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

P.S. I am sure that South West Water will not take responsibility for this and will try to pass on the costs of the lost water to their customers. I can imagine that to make it less noticeable, the price hike will be done over their entire range of operations.

Two takes on pasta

2006-02-05T20:12:00.001Z

Today I've got a recipe post for the loyal readers. I like pasta, most people like pasta, so this is a no brainer. These are two directions I took a basic tomato sauce this weekend. One is a classic and the other is a bit more hip.

First the classic, Chicken Parmesan. I doubt its actually from Parma. Its probably Italian American, but I wouldn't want to say for sure. What is important is that its been overdone but still can be great. You'll need to start with some kind of tomato sauce. Something store bought can be ok, but making it yourself is best. This isn't too hard, and canned Italian plum tomatoes tend to yield the best results. I don't really use a recipe, but for guidance google "tomato sauce recipe" or go to www.foodtv.com. Warm the sauce up so it is ready for use.

Anyway, once you've got your sauce down, you'll need to get some chicken breasts or turkey breast steaks (for those of you in the UK, turkey is cheaper and every bit as good. I never buy chicken breasts here because of the ridiculous price). You'll need to pound them a bit so that they are about 1 cm thick. You can use a meat hammer to do this, or your fist. I use a fist. If you hit too hard you can separate the meat. A nice trick is to put the meat between two layer of plastic wrap.

Set the meat aside and put some flour with a good seasoning of salt and black pepper in a plate. In another bowl break in an egg and mix it up. Then in another plate put a couple of cups of bread crumbs (buy them or make them yourself) and add two handfuls of finely chopped pecans.

Now it time to get things rolling. Start by warming up a frying pan to a medium temperature with a mix of olive oil and vegetable oil. Bring a stock pot of water to the boil and get ready to cook some pasta, I like linguine or some substantial noodle. To prepare the meat, coat each piece in flour, then egg, and then the bread crumb mixture. When that's done start frying them. Start cooking the pasta after you start frying the meat. When the meat browns on each side, put it on a wire wrack and put mozzarella cheese on each piece. Put it in a hot oven to finish. When the pasta is al dente drain and put in the warm sauce. Finish the pasta in the sauce. Serve up the pasta on warm plates and take the now finished breaded turkey pieces and serve one with each plate.

Second pasta, with shrimp, mozzarella and rocket (arugala).

Ok, basically you are doing the same thing with the pasta and sauce as above. Get the water boiling, and the sauce just simmering. Only this time toss in some frozen (or fresh) shrimp into the sauce and let them cook (or warm up) depending on what is necessary. When the pasta is finished, toss it into the sauce and stir together over the heat for about one minute. Just as this is finishing off, toss in a few handful of fresh rocket and some small chunks of fresh mozzarella cheese, leaving some rocket for garnishing at the end. Plate up the pasta, put a handful of rocket on each plate, and grate over some Parmesan cheese. I thought these both worked out great.

Here's to cooking inspiration.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Blogging hiatus and a return to Fenelon

2006-02-02T23:40:00.000Z

Just a quick word of apology for the lack of blogging of late. I had to hit the ground running on my return from Christmas break. I think I mentioned it, but I need to submit 20,000 words by the end of March. I've probably got half of that done, but there is always editing and revision to think of. Luckily I'm pegging away at it nicely.

In other academic related news, I am really quite thrilled that I am going to Florence to give a paper at the end of the month. There will be some senior academics there and plenty of graduate students as well. And unlike some other conferences, it will just be about the history of political thought. How's that for focus.

I'll be giving a paper with Rob Lamb again, this time on a new subject. Disinterestedness (or the lack of personal interest) and virtue in the thought of Fenelon (my favorite ecclesiastic for the moment), Rousseau, and Godwin. The aim is to show that the kind of disinterestedness in the now much neglected Fenelon is historically important and in different ways makes crucial appearances in the thought of Rousseau and Fenelon.

The notion is that true virtue and virtuous activity must never proceed from any motivation of self interest. The motivation must be totally disconnected with the self in almost every regard. Instead a disinterested love of order, beauty, and God, a kind of rational benevolence, should inform and motivate virtuous action.

But things get better. Not only do I get to go to Florence, I get to stay a whole week, and the whole trip is paid for. How did I become so lucky. We'll I am going to be giving a talk for Early English Books Online. Its a pretty powerful resource, and in it one can read and download pretty much every extant book published in English between 1473 and 1700. This resource has done a great deal of work to evaporate many of the limitations that smaller universities have. I no longer have to go to the Bodleian or to the British Library to access these published texts.

Of course there are shortcomings. Sometimes I can download the full text, it is going to be in a modern lame html format. PDF files are available, but only as individual pages. This is clearly an aesthetic concern more than anything else, but in a real sense, I think, contemporary internet based documents of this kind lack much of the character of the original presentation. In some sense this makes it more difficult to develop a rapport with the original text.

But there is also a less aesthetic reason for highlighting this as a limitation. This is, in understanding the history of ideas, it might be important to have an idea what someone actually read. Knowing what the pages actually looked like, could, conceivably (if not always) be important.

Other times the full text is not available in one document. That means I have to stay at the computer and read at the computer, or download one PDF file after other and print 30, 50, 100 etc. Individual files. Clearly not a workable option. I personally prefer to work with paper copies because I can annotate them. This is something I clearly just can't do with some works.

Anyway, it is exactly this kind of critical exposition that they are expecting. Hopefully it is mainly praise, but a good look at the limitations and shortcomings can help scholars use EEBO more effectively and hopeful convince the people at EEBO to make a few improvements when they are able.

Until then, I'll try to keep the blog updated.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Back in the saddle

2006-01-20T16:25:00.000Z

I am finally feeling right as rain after a long battle with congestion. The cold never really developed into a hacking cough, but the congestion has given me headaches. Anyway, its nice to be healthy.

Last night this lovely lady made kimchichigae for me, it's a traditional Korean kimchi soup. The taste is spicy and sour at the same time. There is ham and dried fish inside the soup, and a good deal of hot pepper powder. We ate it with a few big spoonfuls of rice. This is a warming and delicious meal. As they say in Korean, Jonun kimchichigaerul johamnida, or I love kimchi soup.

Of course, I am also back into the full swing of working. I have to submit 20,000 words for my PhD thesis by the end of March. This is a tall order. I've probably got 15,000 decent words on paper, but a good deal more research and polish is needed to get this work into shape. My current chapter is on the Legislator in Rousseau's political thought. I am trying to deliver a more fulsome explanation of his psychology and his role in Rousseau's thought. Taking Rousseau as a political thinker of the self, I think that only by examining and cognating the Legislator as a self, can his relationship with a political community, his aims, and his modus operandi be adequately understood.

So that's my work for the moment. But as for now, I am cooking. Making chocolate cake and then stir fry. Ahreum's visiting me in Exeter right now, and we are having company over for dinner.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

A silver lining

2006-01-06T12:57:00.000Z

I've just come down with a head cold. Ahreum's flat mate had it earlier, and now I am infected. Anyway, I won't go into details, but I haven't felt this sick in quite awhile.

But the good news is that Ahreum cooked a really wonderful chicken soup for me for lunch today. Flavouring was perfect, she used a mix of carrots, garlic, spring onion, zucchini, rice, and chili peppers. The bit of spiciness just added to the congestion fighting properties of the chicken soup. It's so good to know when I'm out of commission, Ahreum is there looking after me.

The downside is that I'm not getting as much work done as I should have. I have to go on a blitz when I am well again. But that is a story for another day.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Many Meetings

2006-01-04T19:17:00.000Z

The last week and a half has given Ahreum and me the chance to meet some friends of mine I haven't seen in two years or more. These opportunities were truly fortunate, and I am thrilled that they worked out.

First, last week Ahreum and I drove up to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to meet my friends Jason Godin and his wife Meg. I have been friends with them since my freshmen year at university, when they were already dating. I hadn't seen them since August 2003 just before I left for England. Well, luckily Meg's family lives in Minnesota, so we meet halfway in between.

We didn't do anything fancy, but we had a meal all together, and they had a chance to meet Ahreum. Jason and I talked about our research, and we all filled each other in on what we are doing and what are plans are for life. All I can say is that seeing them again means an awful lot. I don't know when we will meet again, but more than likely it will be because of wedding bells.

Second, two days ago, I received an email from my friend Kuan Ju. He was visiting his girlfriend Caroline and they would be travelling through London on the way to his flight back to the USA. They were free yesterday afternoon, and luckily, so was Ahreum. So we all met at Pizza express and had lunch together. Really a great time. Caroline is doing a law conversion degree at Nottingham, so she and Ahreum had quite a bit in common between them. This meeting was really unexpected, and it has really made my week. I'm still feeling elated. I had better hold off before I get misty eyed (insert youthful and jocular sense of irony).

Ahreum had to leave after a little more than an hour to head to class, but I ended up talking with them for just about two more hours. The time really flew buy, and it was good to here how well things seemed to be going for them. However, Kuan Ju and I, appropriately, didn't have a chance to go into in depth conversation on photography. He's probably the person most responsible for me taking photography seriously as a hobby, but it would have been out of place to have too much techie talk.

Anyway, I would never have imagined four weeks ago, that I would be able to meet these friends over break. It kind of shows how the world can quickly shift from a vast expanse of time and distance, to moments of close interconnection.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Big News

2005-12-30T15:49:00.000Z

This has been a really important Christmas break for Ahreum and I. We've been going out in a serious way for almost two years now. I have felt very certain that she was the right woman for me. There has always been an element of companionship in our relationship that I treasure. I love Ahreum, and I have known I wanted to cherish her for all my years.

Now I've finally been able to get up the courage and have the necessary finances to do something about it. On the day after Christmas, Ahreum and I went to Madison. I am not the most melodramatic person, so I won't tell any stories of how things happened. The important thing is that I asked her to marry me, and she said yes.

We aren't in a rush to marry, but we are quite firm that we will marry just as I finish my PhD. Until then, I am overjoyed to be betrothed.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Merry Christmas

2005-12-25T21:32:00.000Z

I am writing to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. Its been wonderful being home, and I have now had 9 days of very good rest and relaxation. I suppose it will be time to start working again soon, but not quite yet.

The holiday has been good for me. I've gotten two new dress shirts, the Cambridge Companion to Immanual Kant, and best of all, a new laptop. I am very happy my parents were able to get this. I certainly don't deserve such a present, but it will be useful for my work . My old computer is holding up ok, but it is limiting in many ways.

As always, though, the most important part of my Christmas is spending time with my family. The gifts used to be more important, when I was a boy, but that kind of materialism, the kind that gets more crass every year, doesn't do much for me. I might sound a bit hypocritical, after receiving a new computer, but what matters just isn't stuff. Gifts, even the best of them, are just things. They have no heart, no mind. You get no recognition from gifts. They are transitory too. But a person's family is a constant part of life. The emotional support and love of my family is what really matters to me.

So I hope everyone has a merry Christmas, spending times with those that love them. That's what I'll be doing the rest of today.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Rest is at hand

2005-12-16T20:09:00.001Z

I've now packed up and left Exeter for Christmas break. Its been a rough two days as I had to take a 4:45 coach from Exeter to London on Thursday morning. Then this morning we flew at 6:00 from London Luton to Amsterdam. We left Ahreum's flat at 11:45 and got to the airport around 2:00 am. Needless to say I haven't had much sleep in the last two days.

Now Ahreum and I are spending a little time in the Netherlands meeting her friends from her time interning here at the International Criminal Court. We are staying with her former landlord, who really is a charming gentleman. He is a Korean business man and very kind. I stayed here last year over spring break for three weeks, and it is wonderful to have the chance to meet again.

Sunday we are off to the USA for Christmas.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Student Essays and Quince

2005-12-09T22:51:00.000Z

Its been a long week. I had to finish marking the first round of essays my students produced. The topics were on Thomas Hobbes. On the whole, it was a rewarding set of essays. The students seemed to really understand what was afoot regarding human nature and the properties of Sovereignty.

Last year at this time, I was very disappointed with the work of the students, then in their first year. The same group one year later has really transformed. Yes, there are still some stragglers and some new students who haven't really been forced into good essay writing habits, but the average marks were quite fine. I am proud of these students and I hope their improvements continue.

All that being said, marking eighty essays all roughly on the same subject is fatiguing. I needed escape from Exeter, and have traveled to London for the weekend.

I've also got a lot of cooking done today. On the stove has been oatmeal, lemon ginger tea, quince butter, and home made pizza sauce. I used the pizza sauce with some fresh dough I made to bake supreme pizza with sausage, peppers, chillies, mushrooms, anchovies, and thin sliced onions, and fresh mozerella cheese.

The most fascinating item in this list has to be the quince butter. Before today, I had no idea what a quince was. I was at the Camden Town Market (which is really good for anyone in that area of London). In the fruit stand two several crates of golden yellow fruit called me. They looked in form a lot like apples. The blossom and stem end were clearly just like those of the apple or pear. But the shape was a little wobbly and the smell was different than either pear or apple. I would describe it as something fragrant and tropical - hints of pear and apple mixed with a little mango, peach, and apricot, with something unique and unencountered in any of this litany of fruit. They were only 2 for 1 Pound, so I couldn't resist the lure of the unknown.

I was lucky, really. The fruit seller was happy someone knew what the fruit were. I said I didn't really, but I guessed they were relatives of the apple. That was about right, but the proper name of this fruit was the quince. The man told me they needed to be cooked to be eaten. They could be baked or candied, and many people made jam out of them. Vaguely remembering what apple butter was all about, I resolved to make some quince butter.

There is plenty of information about the quince and its history here. Ahreum recognized the fruit as well, but in Korea the aren't eaten at all but used for air freshening. I can understand this, as their fragrance is quite pungent.

On to the recipe.

Quince Butter

So in the midst of waiting for my pizza dough to rise and cooking down my pizza sauce, I skinned, cored and chopped two quince. I put them into a sauce pan with probably 1 cup (I didn't measure, I just pored in from the bag) of golden granulated sugar about 1 tablespoon of chopped ginger, a squeeze or two of lemon juice, and maybe two tablespoons or so of unsalted butter. I got the whole thing cooking and kept it at a low boil until the quince were nicely broken down and the juice was reduced. It should look like a jam basically. This took about 20 - 30 minutes.

The taste of the quince in this conserve is really fantastic. It has a flavor which is reminiscent of pears and apples but it is really quite unique. If you happen to run into this unique fruit, give it a try. I think it would also make a very cool kind of pie, made just as with apple pie.

Ahreum

2005-12-03T23:11:00.000Z

I've been editing pictures from a trip I took to Korea last summer. Its been too long since I've even thought of getting these things on the web. I've been busy with teaching and researching. Anyway, this is my girlfriend, Ahreum. I think she looks awfully cute in this picture from Gyeongbok palace. I just wanted to put her picture online. I think almost everyone reading my site has met her, but who knows for sure. She makes all my scholarly life possible, and I'm really blessed to have her support. Our trip to Korea was really the most wonderful kind of time two people could share.

Ben

Thanksgiving Recipe 2: Twice baked potatoes

2005-12-03T20:48:00.000Z

Here is the next in my series of dishes for a classic American family holiday. This is a real classic, and most people love it. Here is my take.

Twice baked potatoes.

Ingredients:

new potatoes, maybe 1 kg or 2.2 pounds worth
6 cloves garlic
200 g cream cheese
142 ml sour cream
4 spring onions
Cheddar cheese, or red leicester or double gloucester.

Begin by washing the new potatoes. I use the Charlotte variety myself. Get them good and clean and cut in half if they are pretty big. Put them into a pot with cold water. Peal the garlic and add each clove to the pot. Now bring the water to the boil. Add plenty of salt when the water starts boiling. Let the potatoes boil until they are soft and you can press the edge of a spoon through them without difficulty.

Drain the water from the pot. Now use a potato masher and start breaking up the potatoes. When they have crumbled a bit add the cream cheese and sour cream. Also slice the spring onions (or you could use chives instead) and add to the potatoes. Keep mashing until you have a nice mashed potatoes consistency.

Now put the whole mixture into a casserole dish and make it level with a spoon or spatula Put in the oven for about 40 minutes and maybe 350 or 370 degrees. Since everything is cooked already, precision is not essential. If the potatoes begin to brown on top before the 40 minutes is up, cover the casserole with foil.

Once the first baking is finished, take the potatoes out of the oven. Grate the cheese over the top until they are completely covered. Put the potatoes back into the oven and bake them a second time. Let the cheese melt entirely then just almost become crisp. This will take about 10 to 15 minutes.

Take the potatoes out of the oven and let the casserole sit on the serving table until your guests are ready. This one will keep heat for a long time, but if it gets too cool while something else is cooking, just pop it back in the oven.

This is another of my favorites, and I hope you'll all give it a try someday.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Article is off to the journal

2005-11-30T09:40:00.000Z

Today Rob Lamb and I will finally send off the article we have been writing together on John Locke and charity. We are sending it for consideration at the Journal of the History of Philosophy. Looks like the journal has a good editorial board, so whatever happens at the very least we should get some good feedback on the piece. But Iain Hampsher-Monk, our supervisor, has given it a good reading, and he thinks it is a good journal piece. He should know since he is co-editor of the Journal of the History of Political Thought. So now that my name dropping is finished, I do think we have a good chance, but who can say what will happen. We shall wait and see.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Thanksgiving Recipes: Candied Yams

2005-11-29T16:53:00.000Z

Here is the first in a series of traditional American foods, often served at Thanksgiving, Christmas, or other fall roast dinners.

Candied Yams or candied sweet potatoes:

This is a pretty sweet dish, but it is not a dessert. It is probably best served with a mix of other more savory and less sweet side dishes and a good course of roast meat, like turkey, chicken, turkey, goose, or pork.

Ingredients:

Three big yams,
brown sugar
butter
mixed spice (a mix of ground cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg)
salt and pepper to taste

Begin by washing the yams, but do not peel them. Cut each yam in half, or in thirds, whichever is required to fit them into a pot of cold water. Bring the water to boil. Let the yams boil until they have softened, and a metal spoon can be pushed into the yams without difficulty. Now drain the pot, and put in cold water. Let the yams cool before working with them further. Drain the pot again and replace with cold water a second time to speed the cooling process if necessary.

Now take the yams out of the cold water and take off their skins. They should come off pretty easily just using your fingers. Now take the skinned yams and cut them into slices about 1/2 centimeter thick. To make it look pretty, arrange them in an medium sized baking dish as follows. Put one row of slices down, then overlap the next row of slices over the first. Keep overlapping like this until the whole baking dish is filled. Now put a little salt and pepper over the yams. Next put just a light dusting of the mixed spice. Then put on plenty of brown sugar over all the yams. Some people like it more or less sweet, so use your judgment, but generally Americans like this pretty sweet. Then put bits of butter over the brown sugar. You need enough butter on the yams so that when it melts, it will coat all of them and mix with the brown sugar.

Now put the whole thing in the oven for about half an hour or so at about 180 Degrees Celsius. The temperature and time don't need to be too precise because the yams are already cooked.

Well I hope some of you get the chance to try this. It really is one of my favorites.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Two Turkey days?

2005-11-29T16:36:00.000Z

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving. I had two brilliant days celebrating. On day one I had friends from my department over. I cooked intermittently over the whole day, and then served the meal around 7:45, if my recollection is at all on target. We had chicken (major bummer, but turkey isn't available yet in England and chicken tastes exactly the same), candied yams, twice baked potatoes, and stuffing. Over the course of the meal wine was consumed in abundance. After a good deal of conversation (focusing on French social problems, Opus Dei, and the Scientologists) my guests left at about 3:00 in the morning. I had one of the most fun coach rides to London not three and a half hours later. I got to London, and then I went grocery shopping. Guess what? It was time to make another Thanksgiving meal. This time some of Ahreum's coursemates came. They were all very charming, and I'm glad she is able to have some good colleagues to go through this year with. The menu was the same, accept we did not have stuffing. After over 24 hours of giving thanks, I finally went to bed just after company left.

So, a lot of comments were given about the stuffing and the twice baked potatoes, the candied yams, and the meat. A lot of Americans will already know how to make all of this, but if anyone is interested in making some real traditional American food, I think its time for a few recipes. See the next post for a series on Thanksgiving dishes.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Lecturing on Locke

2005-11-21T14:03:00.000Z

I had a very fruitful weekend in London. This time I spent a great deal of my waking hours on Sunday, preparing a lecture on John Locke. Ahreum was so supportive, and made me some great Korean food. She served bibimbop and dengjang chiggae for lunch. It sure was delicious, and the flavour of the dengjang chiggae was perfectly balanced. Thus, I had the time and energy to get the lecture polished off. She also let me read the whole thing to her twice! That’s an awfully great amount of crazy philosophy to listen to. But it let me actually deliver a lecture and not just a recitation from paper. I couldn't have done that without her.

So Monday morning came, and there was a hard frost on the ground, but I was not discouraged, I practiced once more, got ready, and walked to campus. I had to be careful to breathe through my nose, or risk damaging my vocal chords. So all precautions taken, I went to the exam hall. My professor, Iain Hampsher-Monk, introduced me, and then I got underway. The important thing is be actually interacting with the class. Although I'm just talking to them, I should not be just talking at them. Everything I do and all the walking and posturing I enact must convey meaning and bring a response from the students. This is pretty hard because I'm not an experienced public orator. Luckily, I do have a loud voice, so that helps a good deal. I just tried to push through any nerves and give the lecture without any other thoughts.

It worked out too. At the end I even had a small bit of applause, perhaps out of charity. Anyway, I got Iain thinking about how much of a defender of people's actual decisions Locke really was. Perhaps, he was closer to Rousseau in sanctioning what people ought to want (rather than what they do want) than is often imagined. Well, the point is, if it got my professor thinking, it must have stimulated the class as well. That's really all I can ask for, and I think it was a real privilege to be able to participate in their education at this level.

Now I must step out of the spotlight and back to research and grading.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Cold in Exeter

2005-11-14T13:39:00.000Z

I've now returned to Exeter after a brilliant trip to London. I had a wonderful time with Ahreum and enjoyed a bit of time out in addition to my studies at the British Library.

I went to a Korean restaurant, which was alright, but overpriced. The problem is not that the dishes are too expensive, but that all the side dishes, which would simply be included in Korea, have to all be purchased separately. I guess this way of ordering has been tried and failed in Korea, but in England the locals will have no idea things are done differently. As for the Korean clientele, who seem to be a big chunk of the business, I suspect getting a good meal like at home makes up for the inconveniences. That is completely reasonable. Still having had so many wonderful meals in Korea, I can definitely say that Korean restaurants in England are only a pale doppelganger of the original.

I also went to a cool Dutch pancake house with Ahreum and another friend of ours, Tara, who is now working at a top notch conservatoire in London after finishing her PhD in Exeter. To top it all off she is from Wisconsin and studies Korean traditional opera-Ponsori (I'm sure I have not managed to transliterate this correctly). We all decided to go for desert pancakes, and it was a real treat. They were absolutely gigantic, maybe 12 inches or a bit more in diameter. Mine had sliced pears in the pancake and ice-cream and advocaat sauce on top. What decadence. Now far be it for me to be dominated by my sweet tooth, but this was very worth while, and I heartily recommend the place for all visitors to London. It's on High Holborn Street, and is called My Old Dutch Pancake House.

Research went well, but there really is a tremendous wealth of material available just on Locke's ethics of toleration, not to mention his ethics and politics more generally. I made my way through some of the monograph books, but there is still more to do. One particularly good source, by a theology professor at Yale, Nicholas Wolterstorff, works through the ethics of Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding. It is clear from this that Essay’s very project has political ramifications, for Locke’s looming fear Locke is the problem of sectarian strife, which he hopes to circumvent through his account of human knowing. Using Wolterstorff's work, one can subsequently see that Locke's theory of knowledge justifies the old Christian recommendation (though not all Christians make or hold to this recommendation) that contention and intolerance are divisive and sinful and that brotherly love and toleration are commanded by God and conducive to peaceful relations between men. My priorities are different from Wolterstorff's, but it is clear his rich account is penetrating in addition to being useful for my own research.

Now, I am away from Ahreum, from the bastion of learning in the British Library, and from the culinary dynamic of London. I am greeted by the chill frost of a November morning in Exeter. The sun shines, but it produces no warmth.

However, I am not writing figuratively. It really is cold today. I should have worn gloves to the office. Other than that, Exeter remains the same.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Dining at Gray's Inn

2005-11-05T17:20:00.000Z

Last night, I spent the evening being wined and dined at the Gray's Inn hall in the company of some prestigious barristers and many trainees. The group I sat with consisted of Ahreum, myself, and two other barrister students, one from Kenya and the other English and Iranian descent. I found the conversation pleasant, and the food except for a somewhat misconceived pudding where all very palatable. All in all, a good evening.

What was especially nice was a wonderful musical performance after the dinner – about an hour of Mozart and Dvorak. The players were all talented, and if not the most brilliant, there was nothing to be faulted about the performance. What I found particularly interesting was the rapport the performers seemed to have with each other. Almost like a group of rock and roll musicians, they really knew each other's styles and played together. The glances between the performers were telling, and you could tell they really enjoyed making music together. It was really a fabulous end to a superb evening.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

London

2005-11-04T14:12:00.000Z

I've just finished the coach journey from Exeter to London. Its about 4 1/2 hours, which is quite long for an Englishman, but since I'm from the States and am used to long driving, it isn't so bad. But it still awfully hard to sit in a dry crowded coach the whole way. National Express has an excellent deal called "fun fair", and I don't think my trip cost more than a fiver. But "fun fair" or not, a coach ride is never fun.

I really feel blessed with my opportunities to travel to London this school year. My girlfriend Ahreum is studying to become a barrister at the Inns of Court, school of law. She's living in Camden town, just minutes North of Central London, and I can visit whenever I am free. This means lots of opportunity to experience culture I couldn't get in Exeter, much less back home in Janesville Wisconsin. Living in the big city has a lot of charm, and though I wouldn't want to settle in a place like London, extended visits allow me to observe life here without becoming caught up in it.

The resources for the scholar in London are exceptional. In my case the British Library tops my list. Now that I have a reading card there, I am going to be doing a good deal of archival research and reading of sources Exeter just doesn't have. It’s a real boon for my PhD. Better yet, its only twenty minutes away from where Ahreum lives.

Luckily, the library isn't really open at night, or I might bury myself there. Instead I've got freedom to explore London in the evenings. In deed, this evening I will be going to a concert with Ahreum put on by her law society. I hope they're in tune.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

When an overhead light becomes a shower faucet

2005-11-02T21:18:00.000Z

Nothing in life is perfect, and that certainly goes for flats and apartments. Every apartment has its quirks, and so does mine. Until last night I thought the most annoying thing about my flat was that the doors are kind of sticky and difficult to open and close. No big problem, life goes on.

But I was very wrong. Last night around 9:00 I heard a dripping sound. I went to investigate in the bathroom, but there wasn't really any leaking going on in there. But I still heard the dripping coming quite quickly, seemingly in the direction of my bedroom. So I went one door down and I was nearly scared to death.

There is an old saying that water and electricity don't mix. Well, apparently they sometimes do (perhaps with bad repercussions). To my shock I saw water dripping rapidly from the bottom of the lightbulb in my overhead lamp. Worse the lamp was still on. Well I swore, and quickly turned the light off. I think it was just in time because there seemed to be a sort of funky electrical smoking odor in the room. It dripped all night long, and it made life real unpleasant. Luckily I have a futon, so Ahreum, was able to get a comfortable place to sleep. I wasn't so lucky and had to hit the floor.

So today I've felt a bit like the living dead. Fortunately, we know the problem is occurring because of a leaky roof line and builders should be here to sort out the problem early next week.

Other than that, my Fenelon presentation went pretty well. I wasn't fully confident that I had prepared adequately because of my new shower head in the bathroom. Also, Fenelon is a bit antiquarian and obscure. I knew this would be the case, but luckily discussion broadened into the concepts at work in his Dissertation on Pure Love and their conection to Plato, Augustine, and Plotinus. I feel a little rescued by my supervisor because he guided the conversation away from a narrow focus on Fenelon alone, which would have definately impoverished our meeting.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Saturday Morning and Fenelon

2005-10-29T11:56:00.001Z

Ah, what a lovely time. No classes and no teaching. My girlfriend, Ahreum, arrived late last night, and we've slept in a little. Probably should have woken up earlier, but a little laziness every now and again never hurt anywone.

This morning I made nice fancy oatmeal with a little mixed spice, vanilla, and honey added in by yours personally. Plain oatmeal isn't normally that nice, but with a little tweaking it sure is a satisfying breakfast. This is a bit different than the kind of breakfast Ahreum is used to from home. It's quite interesting, but when I traveled to Korea I found that they have a very hearty breakfast. Spicy soup, rice, meat, and side dishes can all be served for a breakfast there. Luckily, Ahreum isn't a breakfast dogmatist, so she likes oatmeal too.

What makes me most grateful about this morning is that Ahreum is here. Sometimes I get a bit lonely over the weeks. PhD work leaves less time for socializing than in the past, and it makes a student somewhat isolated. It is just a bit harder to meet new people. When Ahreum is here any loneliness is instantly vanquished and I feel completely at ease. Its this kind of companionship that is so important to a relationship, and I'm glad I've found that in my life. Whatever else happens Ahreum is always there to listen. Sometimes I go on and on about crazy philosophy (or worse any kind of technological subject), but she never dismisses my geeky soliliquies. Three cheers for that.

Anyway, I don't get to take life too easy this weekend. I'm teaching on the social covenant and political obligation in Hobbes next week. But that's not all. At my department we now have a political theory seminar occurring bi-weekly, and next Wednesday is the next meeting.. The group has pulled out the stoppers across the university, and we have people coming in from several places apart from the usual suspects like politics and philosophy. Hopefully, we can net some classics and theology people interested in ethics and ancient political philosophy.

Now this Wednesday is particular important because I am giving a short presentation and inviting the other members to read an interesting piece by the Archbishop Francois Fenelon de Salignac de la Mothe. Now this name is not likely to ring any bells out there, but he is a hugely important figure in the history of ideas. Despite being the tutor of Louis XIV's heir, the Duke of Burgundy, leading to the enlightened and progressive mean of the Duke's circle, Fenelon was a firm opponent of the absolutist pretensions of the King and his ecclesiastical supporters. More importantly for the history of ideas, his novel The Adventures of Telemachus Son of Ulysses was probably the single most popular book in 18th century France. Not to mention that Fenelon almost certainly exercised a profound influence on Rousseau. The short piece I am looking at is his "Dissertation on Pure Love."

Now before any of you think I've become a total softy, this is not the kind of "true love" one might expect from a romantic relationship. Oh no. In fact it is a self-deprecating love that expects man to transcend the bounds of himself and develop general love or cherite (close to the original meaning of charity as higher Christian love, which has now been lost). This general love prefers the whole of rational creation or, in the case of the ancients, whose love Fenelon always accounts superior to the moderns, at least the whole body of the state over the interestedness of the individual. The individual should be lost in this stepping out of the self. For Fenelon this love can have no interested motivation, i.e. desire of reward or fear of punishment, but must occur for its own sake. This, even by neo-Augustinian standards, is a radical view, and quite unlike much of anything currently in circulation.

Hence, I hope that it will give our group a different way of conceiving of social love and the bounds that can unite an ethical (as opposed to purely practical) society. It will also offer an historically interesting exercise whereby we can muse over how these ideas swelled in popularity and then declined.

So now I'm off to work on Hobbes and Fenelon. Oh, and I've still got a piece on Locke that needs more revision. No rest for the wicked, as they say.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Dance with a shadow virus

2005-10-28T12:16:00.000Z

Well today I had the unfortunate experience of having a seriously wacked out computer. It looked like one heck of a viral infection. Internet explorer, windows explorer, add/remove progam, and even my virus scan were on the fritz. The scanner wouldn't let me update, create a recover disc, or scan the computer. None of that sounds very good, does it?

I restarted, and guess what. All of the same problems were still there. So I was in despair, was preparing to back up what I could, and drop the hammer and fdisc my system into oblivion. Of course I have all my system cds, so its not the end of the world, but my reinstallation cd for windows is a bit crippled and it can't properly reformat the operating system after the hard drive is de-partitioned and repartitioned. It will work, but it needs a little help along the way. Problem is, I can't quite remember what the assistance is (I think booting from cd first did the trick but I am not that certain). So I powered down and powered up again to make my backups. I figured I'd with it one more time, just in case....

Dramatic pause

Anyway, much to my surprise, everything started working properly. So I updated my virus software and tested - nothing. Updated the anti-adware software and also nothing. Nothing seemed to be wrong. It was like a phantom. Of course there is no such thing as phantom's when it comes to computers. So I am very dubious about the seeming recovery. I suspect I will encounter a relapse, but I hope against it.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to a lovely and extended weekend with my girlfriend. She is coming her tonight and will be staying until Wednesday morning. Once she's here I get less lazy and do a little more cooking, so I'll bloc up some commentary on the recipes.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Jason

2005-10-27T19:02:00.000Z

Jason Godin just gave a big shout out to me at his web site the Arrows' Quiver. We've been friends since I was a freshman (fresher for those of the English persuasion) back at the University of Wisconsin Madison. It's always been a pleasure and an honor to be his friend.

Now we are starting web logs almost concurrently. This gives us a chance to boost each other's egos by mentioning each other's blog. Seriously though, his site promises to be very intriguing, reflecting on history as a subject and a discipline. Its well worth a visit. If you missed the link on my sidebar the address is http://arrowsquiver.blogspot.com/.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

2005-10-27T13:41:00.000Z

This is the craziest real news story I have probably ever seen. Just unbelievable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3611666.stm

How can zoo handlers let a chimp do that? Well you'll just have to read and find out to find out what's so funny/disturbing.

Fairtrade Day

2005-10-27T09:36:00.000Z

Today I am hosting a small "house group" from the Church I go to in Exeter. It's an interesting club which consists of young adults in their twenties and some in their thirties. A lot of us are postgraduate students. We have a good time talking about a wide variety of issues from theology of grace and salvation to crime and destitution. This week we are discussing Fairtrade and what it means for us as Christians. We'll also be having lots of fair trade food for everyone to sample. The food products from Tradecraft, for example, are very good, so the extra price has significant justification.

So, the upshot is that I get to do some baking. I've picked up some fairtrade chocolate and some fairtrade sugar. But what shall I make with them? I'm thinking basic chocolate chip cookies. Nothing to fancy because I'm busy. Otherwise I could also make some kind of chocolate cake, but my oven is a bit dubious in the even heating department. Cookies allow a little more hands on approach if necessary, so I think that will be my course of action.

What has me thinking is whether I could justify buying these products on a regular basis. I don't have a high roller job, and I'm a student. This means, at least temporarily that I'm poor. But I'm poor for a middle class white western guy, which means I've still have next to nothing to worry about. Still, if I am to be responsible in my own situation then what do I choose to eat. Well I try to save money where I can, and much of what I buy is from Europe, so my conscience is significantly eased by that. But what about goods imported from third world countries. I know that there are significant problems with the current trade regime from their point of view. If they were planting the right crops for their needs and for their situation much of the hunger of the third world might be alleviated. So there is a conflict of interests. But the question is, does Fairtrade really make a difference or is it simply a small gesture in the midst of a giant problem. Well I don't know, but that's what I'm pondering.

Of course my other thought is that I can't live every element of my life for other people. I have responsibility to look after my own welfare. Sometimes this will converge with buying things that are fairtrade, but if I can't afford it, I can't afford it. Maybe when I've got a job I'll be able to buy more. But of course then I'll be making money and being part of a system which, allegedly, causes all the problems. This just leads me back to thinking that the world doesn't work out in a fair way for everyone and it is so systematically unfair that for me to help those who are much worse off than me I have to have the cash. And this cash has only been gotten off of an inegalitarian distribution of goods. I don't see that there is much that can be done about this. I just hope that something can be done about starvation, so that at least if there is just going to be poverty it needn't be grinding. Well that's an empirical question, and I don't have the data to know whether an answer is to be had.

2005-10-26T20:47:00.000Z

This is me a few years ago.
I'll be posting a picture of me that's more current soon.
The difference is significant if you haven't seen me in awhile.

Later,

Ben

Thomas Hobbes and teaching

2005-10-26T20:09:00.000Z

This week marks the beginning of tutorials, i.e. discussion sections, for the year in Exeter. They are a bright group of students and are a real pleasure to work with. Of course, English students are somewhat reticent, making tutorials a little quiet from time to time. However, on the whole they are productive.

A particular thrill is that I'm teaching the philosophers I've been researching for my PhD. Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. My research is sometimes too specialized to bring into the classroom, but I'm trying to make sure that my teaching isn't just stock in trade. I want my students to be able to see that what we are studying is vital. Part of that must be to bring my own research interests into the classroom. Its a balancing act to which I'm looking forward.

Apart from this, I just want to show plenty of enthusiasm when teaching. This isn't hard since it’s the subject I love and its Thomas Hobbes. He really is a fantastic figure to teach. For one thing his thought, while subtle and penetrating, is fairly straightforward. I think, and some of my students quickly noticed, that Hobbes wants his reader to understand him. As one of my students said, "he is a transparent thinker." So, Hobbes is the kind of thinker that the students can work through in class one step at a time. That kind of analytical process viva voce is a rewarding experience.

But the thrills of the philosopher from Malmesbury don't stop there. Hobbes happens to be an extremely powerful prose writer. His writing explores the dark side of humanity in a way that few before him did as masterfully. I'll get around to putting some quotations up to show what I mean, but these lines from memory should get the point across. Concerning the problems of the state of nature or war, "and worst of all continual feare and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.” (Leviathan, Chapter 13). And concerning justice, law and morality, "in the state of warre force and fraud are cardinall virtues.” (Leviathan, Chapter 13).

For Hobbes it is always fear that is the passion to be reckoned upon. Even though man left to his own devices through egoism, competing desires, worries over self-preservation, and love of glory will construct himself an inferno no less cruel than Dante's, fear gives man a chance for order and stability. And that is the subject for my students next week.

All in all a rewarding exercises, even if Hobbes is often disturbing. I have always agreed with my undergraduate political philosophy professor that even if Hobbes is not quite right, the dark power of his thought must be taken seriously. Even if not all people are appetitive and maniacal without political order, Leviathan has truth to it. The dark side of human nature is there, and a host of recent events testify to man's capacity for horror when order is removed by chaos. Hobbes is probably wrong to universalize this aspect of humanity, but it would be equally foolish to ignore it. Hobbes reminds us that humans have a capacity for radical self-preference, and for this he is pre-eminently valuable.

Is there a beginning?

2005-10-26T06:28:00.000Z

In the case of blogs the answer is a definitive yes, and in this case quite a late beginning. The blogging phenomenon has really taken off, and I am quite happy to be an also ran. The point is I get a chance to post my musings and let my friends and family know how my life is unfolding. Even if I'm a little late, I'm still convinced this is useful.

The difference between a blog and a normal journal for myself or an emailed update for my friends and family is obvious. If I'm going to submit my thoughts to a public forum (well if any one drops by), I ought to have something worth saying. If this is a place for me to display mental drivel, then there's no point in writing a blog.

So what is the rai·son d'être of the Song of the Spheres? Well, primarily elucidation. I hope that by formulating my thoughts on a regular basis and sharing them with those that know me or visit the blog, I will learn more about my own life. From my Platonic philosophical sympathies to my delight in cooking and photography, to my PhD studies, I always am keen to learn more. If Plato is right in his Symposium, we go through a variety of loves and interests in our lives leading from the basic to the sublime, but love of any kind whether romantic or philosophic is active. Mere passive cognition and contemplation were never wisdom for Plato nor are they for me.

So I intend to ruminate over whatever interests me and the experiences I have in life, hoping, behind it all, to learn something. Of course my intentions are not purely solipsistic, and what I'm posting will at least appertain to interest and utility. Hopefully, some friends and family and who knows who else will drop by from time to time and join the chorus of the spheres for a moment.