Blogging Philosophy

Often when reading philosophy papers, I get the sense that they contain one or two main insights that could be expressed in a paragraph or two. Most of the paper is devoted to context-setting, clarification, and dealing with objections. What's more, the contents of these other parts typically follow quite naturally from the spirit of the main insights. One can often anticipate how the author will deal with certain objections.

Of course, academic publishing is a very conservative institution which is unlikely to change in the near future. And I do think that finished papers are a useful way of presenting a kind of "canonical" formulation of particular insights.

But I also think that philosophy can usefully be done in short blog posts. The format allows one to test out new ideas in a way that is much less time-consuming. The intended audience is typically already familiar with the background, which can therefore be kept to a minimum without much loss of understanding. (And if they aren't, one can always provide links.)

So, among other things, this blog will be a way of collecting small, philosophical (quasi-)insights.