So, what texts ought I to purchase from the history of Philosophy? That is, all the history of philosophy?
I had better get a list going now.
Aristotle: Princeton edition. Should I get Hackett titles too?
Plato: Hackett edition?
Pre-Socratics:?
Hellenists:?
Plotinus:?
Augustine:?
This is going to take some work.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Like a candy store...except
For a professional geek, such as myself, this is like being in a candy store. I get to pick whatever I want, and no one questions me.
The problem is that I have to eat the candy in the store and put it back before I leave. Come to think of it, this isn't like a candy store at all.
The problem is that I have to eat the candy in the store and put it back before I leave. Come to think of it, this isn't like a candy store at all.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Some Library Searches
So, what does the current Library have in Philosophy? Lets do a number of searches and see. This is all purely random.
"Saul Kripke" nope.
"Quine" zip
"Russell, Bertrand" strike
"Lewis, David K." Are you kidding?
"Williamson, Timothy" sorry. Who is TW? I'd bet he's thin, whoever he is.
"Putnam" Ha!
"Kant. I mean really, there has to be something in this library by Kant." none of the Norman Kemp Smith translations, to be sure.
"So what am I up against? There are, after all, books in this library. Let's try this..."
"Derrida, Jacques" Three full pages of hits.
Crap.
"Saul Kripke" nope.
"Quine" zip
"Russell, Bertrand" strike
"Lewis, David K." Are you kidding?
"Williamson, Timothy" sorry. Who is TW? I'd bet he's thin, whoever he is.
"Putnam" Ha!
"Kant. I mean really, there has to be something in this library by Kant." none of the Norman Kemp Smith translations, to be sure.
"So what am I up against? There are, after all, books in this library. Let's try this..."
"Derrida, Jacques" Three full pages of hits.
Crap.
The Problem. The Promise
I am in the enviable (unenviable?) position of creating an undergraduate philosophy program where, for all intents and purposes, there was not one in the past. This task is both welcome and very daunting.
It is welcome in that unlike work at major state institutions, I have been given the autonomy and authority to get things done. To propose a new class requires a process that takes about two weeks of time (once the syllabus is created, that is). To change major/minor requirements takes about four weeks (once the proposal is done). Back in my adjunct days in the state system, both of those tasks would have taken months, and could only be completed upon the donation of a major organ.
While there are no promises, there's talk of adding new lines to the department, and I'd get to choose who to hire. I've seen those promises before in the state behometh, and except one time, all of those promises were merely promsies. State systems figured out a long time ago that it is better to replace one full-time line with two adjuncts. However, there's pretty good reason to suspect that this promise is true. The new lines are in the 5-year plan, and my position was in the previous 5-year plan. If the past is the best predictor of the future, we could see something heretofore unheard of - the creastion of new jobs in Philosophy. But I'll only believe it when the job hits JFP.
But the task is daunting. I'm the only person on-campus who has even studied philosophy at the graduate level. No one around here could tell you who, say, Quine or Kripke or Lewis are. There's a lot of beliefs about what Philosophy ought to be on this campus, but very few justified beliefs.
And the library is a testament to this. It has nothing in philosophy, except for a few garage-sale finds of Plato and Aristotle.
So, imagine the following: Imagine being given a large budget, the stack-space, and the mandate to create a library in Philosophy that would help to support a competative major. But, imagine that you are the only person around who knows what to put in it. With a carte blanche, what would you put in it? This is my enormous task.
It is welcome in that unlike work at major state institutions, I have been given the autonomy and authority to get things done. To propose a new class requires a process that takes about two weeks of time (once the syllabus is created, that is). To change major/minor requirements takes about four weeks (once the proposal is done). Back in my adjunct days in the state system, both of those tasks would have taken months, and could only be completed upon the donation of a major organ.
While there are no promises, there's talk of adding new lines to the department, and I'd get to choose who to hire. I've seen those promises before in the state behometh, and except one time, all of those promises were merely promsies. State systems figured out a long time ago that it is better to replace one full-time line with two adjuncts. However, there's pretty good reason to suspect that this promise is true. The new lines are in the 5-year plan, and my position was in the previous 5-year plan. If the past is the best predictor of the future, we could see something heretofore unheard of - the creastion of new jobs in Philosophy. But I'll only believe it when the job hits JFP.
But the task is daunting. I'm the only person on-campus who has even studied philosophy at the graduate level. No one around here could tell you who, say, Quine or Kripke or Lewis are. There's a lot of beliefs about what Philosophy ought to be on this campus, but very few justified beliefs.
And the library is a testament to this. It has nothing in philosophy, except for a few garage-sale finds of Plato and Aristotle.
So, imagine the following: Imagine being given a large budget, the stack-space, and the mandate to create a library in Philosophy that would help to support a competative major. But, imagine that you are the only person around who knows what to put in it. With a carte blanche, what would you put in it? This is my enormous task.
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