The west coast is totally where it's at, yo. Says this former East Coast buffista.

Not that I don't love and give props to the East Coast.

I'm just lovin' on the PNW right now.

And we're totally going to have to lure Dana to Seattle for some fun once she moves!!! Whoot!

Timelies all!

Congrats to Dana and her DH and bon bon and bob bob!

I reset his password, bon.

Man, today, is the busy dizzymaking. This weekend is a big deadline, but stuff isn't expected to quiet down much after it, if that makes useful sense. So I'm going to be working straight through the weekend when I normally don't leave home weekends.

My lack of ambition is laughing at me right now. Though people both up and downstream of me are in similar places--it's the stream that's the problem, not my position in it. One of my co-workers was here through 1:30am this morning catching up on email and says he got up to Friday night. To get his attention with an email you have to both call and walk over. Sometimes with a handwritten note.

Thanks, ita!

WOO!

Dana, that RULES!

If you want to email me, I am perfectly willing to bug my friend from there for more details (his parents still live there, as do his in-laws), so I can get you started with Where Things That Rule Live. Other than DANA, who will of course live in the AWESOME HOUSE that she will NO DOUBT GET, PEOPLE.

Ahem.

Pardon my caps.

Congratulations bon bon and bob bob! Congratulations Dana and DH!

And I love that meara is pimping the Pacific Northwest ... from Indianapolis (it IS Indianapolis, isn't it? or are you still in Texas?)

bon bon! Ask Bob Bob's opinon on Simon Critchley.

I don't know much about Critchley, as he's in the "Continental" tradition (people like Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida) and I'm in the "analytic" one (people like Frege, Bertrand Russell, Popper, Quine, and Kripke). So take everything I'm about to say with a grain of salt.

I think he's best at popularizing, rather than producing independent research. He apparently likes to make grand pronouncements about both Continental and analytic philosophy, saying of the former:

The goal of philosophy in the continental tradition is emancipation, whether individual or societal[.]

The problem with this statement is that only some continental philosophy is about this. Husserl, for example, does not concern himself with liberation. I'm guessing that Heidegger doesn't as well. (And this two are two of the four most important continental philosophers, so that's a rather big gap.)

He says of analytic philosophy:

What I dislike most about [analytic] philosophers is the idea that they think because they are smart as philosophers they have nothing to learn from anybody else. You find this repeatedly. I'd argue that they've got lots to learn, not just from cognitive scientists, but from lawyers, historians, anthropologists and sundry others.

The problem with this is that analytic philosophy, especially over the last thirty years, has done lots of interdisciplinary work. In fact, there's a whole burgeoning field of philosophy, "experimental philosophy", which is all about uniting the techniques of psychology with philosophy.

(I get Critchley's quotes from this: [link]

Overall, I'd take what Critichley says with a grain of salt, though I don't think he's a bad philosopher.

I forgot to congratulate Dana and her DH earlier...congrats! Great news!

Overall, I'd take what Critichley says with a grain of salt, though I don't think he's a bad philosopher.

Thanks, bob bob! And congratulations on the job/move/crazylifechanges.

Those do seem to be sweeping generalizations, and more obfuscating than illuminating.

Of course, now I want to know: Who is a bad philosopher?

I'm not so hot at philosophizing.