honestly i rarely find anything by a uk 'continental' type, esp. the pop variety, to be very substantial. their weird mix of matter-of-factness and across-the-board, nonspecific endorsement of french/german ideas, terminology, etc. makes them come across as unserious. posturing.
― j., Wednesday, 16 April 2014 15:22 (ten years ago) link
there's definitely a thing with philosophers getting some kind of non-academic popularity and then having the pressure / feeling the desire to just churn out new book after new book at the expense of actually doing serious work and having any new thoughts, the zizeks and rancières of the world just repeating themselves into eternity. tbh i don't think there are too many people who have a good level of popularity and aren't doing that. critchley's a slightly different model in that every couple of years he decides to write about something completely different and never really gets beyond his shallow beginnings before finding a new fancy.
― Merdeyeux, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 15:23 (ten years ago) link
good post
― markers, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 15:24 (ten years ago) link
imagine of zizek had a handful of books instead? each of which was focused, etc.
j. otm. i think that's exactly it. anything substantial in the book came from those other sources i mentioned. maybe i've missed that aspect of SC or been taken in by it previously.
― ryan, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 15:24 (ten years ago) link
i don't know that he's different from a lot of more academic uk academics in that regard, he's just more popular/less proximate to their (style of) debates
― j., Wednesday, 16 April 2014 15:33 (ten years ago) link
critchley is the worst for that. his book of dead philosophers is a similarly good/interesting idea that he doesnt really pull off
― max, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 16:31 (ten years ago) link
oh yeah I also forgot about that weird ny times piece he wrote about his pink shirt.
― ryan, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 16:43 (ten years ago) link
I did learn from the book that apparently Joyce gave something like a 12 part lecture series on Hamlet but it's been lost. that was something, I bet.
― ryan, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 16:47 (ten years ago) link
that's a lot of algebra
― waterflow ductile laser beam (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 16 April 2014 16:56 (ten years ago) link
oh yeah I also forgot about that weird ny times piece he wrote about his pink shirt.― ryan, Wednesday, April 16, 2014 12:43 PM
― ryan, Wednesday, April 16, 2014 12:43 PM
he's in charge of their "the stone" blog or blog section, i think
― markers, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 17:07 (ten years ago) link
i've only read infinitely demanding
i am re-reading after finitude and it's p good so far
― markers, Thursday, 17 April 2014 01:11 (ten years ago) link
now thar's a guy who certainly hasn't gotten onto the overproduction bandwagon.
― Merdeyeux, Thursday, 17 April 2014 01:39 (ten years ago) link
there's the divine inexistence, most of which is unpublished, then after finitude, and a book on mallarme in addition to some articles.
― markers, Thursday, 17 April 2014 01:42 (ten years ago) link
unless i'm wrong and there's something else
that being said, yes, this book does not fall into the category of books described upthread
― markers, Thursday, 17 April 2014 01:43 (ten years ago) link
xp that's right i think. i kinda wonder if he's having trouble finishing things - as i understand it he's been turning down various invitations for conferences, visiting professorships etc for about five years now, on the basis of having dedicated himself to getting the ongoing project done.
― Merdeyeux, Thursday, 17 April 2014 01:44 (ten years ago) link
New book on Plato for a general audience from Rebecca Goldstein with rave reviews from Hilary Putnam among others.
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 April 2014 14:04 (ten years ago) link
wary
― j., Saturday, 19 April 2014 14:21 (ten years ago) link
yeah, the title does not inspire confidence.
― ryan, Saturday, 19 April 2014 14:38 (ten years ago) link
Never read anything from her after The Mind-Body Problem. But take Hilary Putnam endorsement seriously.
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 April 2014 14:50 (ten years ago) link
Just because it's Putnam? Or because he does not give out endorsements lightly?
― Eggs and the marketing board behind them, Saturday, 19 April 2014 14:55 (ten years ago) link
Both
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 April 2014 14:57 (ten years ago) link
Just read the synopsis -- sounds interesting. The style in some ways echos Sandel's "What Money Can't Buy", where Sandel toured the book and introduced the subject matter to a lay audience at town hall like meetings across America.
― Eggs and the marketing board behind them, Saturday, 19 April 2014 15:00 (ten years ago) link
academic luminaries blurb books for the same vain and self-serving reasons that everyone else does, i don't see why putnam should be any different
― j., Saturday, 19 April 2014 15:08 (ten years ago) link
sometimes you go back to those after finishing the book and get suspicious that the blurber may not have read it!
― ryan, Saturday, 19 April 2014 15:24 (ten years ago) link
i am reviewing a book of that sort right now : /
― j., Saturday, 19 April 2014 15:25 (ten years ago) link
I'll take that into account, thanks. But having taking that into account, I am still left with: who am I more likely to believe, an academic luminary whose work I have enjoyed and appreciated who has navigated gracefully through various thorny labyrinths over decades, or the reflex scepticism of ilxor j., who seems like he might be on to something now and then although I haven't been able to put the effort in yet to find out exactly what.
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 April 2014 15:28 (ten years ago) link
the fact that you think the question facing you is one of choosing between me and academic luminary hilary putnam does suggest that you could stand to read some plato. i suggest the protagoras.
― j., Saturday, 19 April 2014 15:35 (ten years ago) link
it shouldn't be too hard to figure out if it's shit or not. pick it up and leaf through it a bit.
― markers, Saturday, 19 April 2014 16:23 (ten years ago) link
markers razor
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 April 2014 16:25 (ten years ago) link
i feel like i have this weird subconscious system for filtering through books.
― markers, Saturday, 19 April 2014 16:51 (ten years ago) link
probably some mixture of looking at the writer, publisher, excerpts. not sure.
Everyone can do with reading more Plato.
― Try Leuchars More! (dowd), Saturday, 19 April 2014 19:33 (ten years ago) link
Took a humanities survey course during long ago freshman year nicknamed "From Plato to NATO," isn't that enough?
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 April 2014 19:41 (ten years ago) link
I have reviewed books that later ended up as blurbs on publisher websites & amazon publisher provided text for books. not sure what I think about that since the publishers don't ask my permission to use my review in ad copy
― Euler, Saturday, 19 April 2014 20:12 (ten years ago) link
I am not HP although we've met a couple of times
― Euler, Saturday, 19 April 2014 20:13 (ten years ago) link
Were you able to pierce the veil, see through the facade?
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 April 2014 20:23 (ten years ago) link
Blurbs here: http://www.rebeccagoldstein.com/publications/plato-googleplex-why-philosophy-won%E2%80%99t-go-away
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 April 2014 20:35 (ten years ago) link
plato was responsible for buzz
― markers, Saturday, 19 April 2014 20:43 (ten years ago) link
Aldrin? Dr. Rendezvous?
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 April 2014 20:49 (ten years ago) link
google
― markers, Saturday, 19 April 2014 21:00 (ten years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_buzz
Euler: I guess we're proud of you?
― Eggs and the marketing board behind them, Saturday, 19 April 2014 23:28 (ten years ago) link
*bows*
― Euler, Saturday, 19 April 2014 23:59 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, yeah
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 20 April 2014 00:07 (ten years ago) link
I call Harry Frankfurt
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 20 April 2014 00:12 (ten years ago) link
j/k
― Kid Creole Meets Señor Coconut at a fIREHOSE Show (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 20 April 2014 00:40 (ten years ago) link
would it be appropriate to discuss on this thread more broadly "theoretical" stuff that doesn't necessarily fall within "philosophy"? I recently, kind of serendipitously, came across Janet Roitman's "Anti-Crisis." It's a short little thing, and I'm only past the introduction, but it's pretty interesting so far, and she engages with some theorists I am also into (kosselleck, luhmann) in a pretty novel way (so far).
― ryan, Tuesday, 22 April 2014 19:19 (ten years ago) link