I've re-written this post 3 times so far today. I've got half a post on knowledge vs belief, half a post on different types of liberty, a rough cut of a #dtube video on possible worlds - and that's just what I was doing when I wasn't staring at the three potential journal articles I have started.
Some days it's hard to finish what I've started.
It's not all bad though.
I went to a seminar with philosophers of biology, Kim Sterelny and Paul Griffiths. Short summary: There probably isn't anything such as human nature - not in any essential sense anyway. And they way that most people talk about the nature vs nurture debate is so pre-theoretic that getting any ideas across is deeply challenging.
I've also managed to make some progress the Philosophical Engagement in Public Life (PEiPL) working group I'm currently team leader of - PEiPL: At the Margins
For those who've missed my previous posts about this, this the aim of this group is to explore ways that philosophy can enrich the lives of people who are marginalised in society - and how this engagement can help us do better philosophy.
Anyway, I've got a meeting next week with the director of a not-for-profit organisation that provides food support in our area where we'll discuss what might be possible to achieve between or organisations. People might be sceptical about this, and wonder what the point is of talking philosophy with the poor, the homeless, people in our criminal justice system, and disadvantaged migrant communities etc. But I suspect that these people are the ones who could benefit the most from a little discussion with us. And I certainly think they deserve the opportunity to have these conversations and think these thoughts.
I'm pretty excited at being able to make some actual progress towards taking some philosophers off-campus and into the places where they are almost never seen. It's something I've wanted to do for a really long time. It doesn't pay anything at this time, but it's worth doing nonetheless.
I'm also, very slowly, making progress on an article about Steemit that I want to write for Independent Australia (their editors are very patient with me, for which I'm very grateful).
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Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash