Theoria

8 Comments

1. jbraun wrote:

   I have a hunch I know at least one of the blogs of which you’re thinking (perhaps a blog that folks read for inter-departmental gossip concerning changes to major philosophy departments?).

   Maybe it’s like the observation about Ethics professors: many folks swear most ethics professors seem to live uncharacteristically unethical lives, but I’m willing to bet such anecdotal experience amongst so many philosophy students is not really statistically significant.

   Then again, you were probably asking a rhetorical question. :)

   Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 4:05 am | Permalink
2. Craig wrote:

   That is one of them. Although it isn’t so much his gossiping that annoys me. It is, in some sense, a service – a very small service, but a service nonetheless. The constant list-making and careerism is more than a little annoying, but mostly because he seems absolutely unaware of (1) proper techniques for quantifying reality and (2) how the status quo is able to reproduce itself. If he were taking reading recommendations, I’d strongly suggest Pierre Bourdieu to him. What is most offensive is his disciplinary policing.

   One of the other pretends to run a philosophy news clearinghouse-blog and its content is little more than press releases. Sometimes he ventures into politics bringing, for instance, the breaking news that Obama won whichever primary – usually about two or three days after it happened. (Apparently philosophers don’t get newspapers.) This is sad and we are all a little sad, so it is forgivable. What isn’t forgivable, however, is his lame disciplinary policing.

   The other seems to suffer from a personality disorder believing himself to be someone who died thousand five hundred years ago.

   Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 12:01 pm | Permalink
3. Mikhail Emelianov wrote:

   First one is Brian Leiter, right? right? But which one is the “clearinghouse” and which one thinks he’s a dead guy?

   Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 12:04 am | Permalink
4. Craig wrote:

   Obviously Leiter is one of the people I consider to be a huge a jackass. The one with “the clearinghouse” fancies himself a Hegel scholar and, more generally, a legal, moral and political philosopher. However, he seems to peddle in little more than liberal common-sense. The one who confuses himself with a long-dead Greek writes for two different group blogs as well as his own personal blog. He fancies himself the one man able to save philosophy and literature from the excesses of those darn “postmodernists” like – especially – Zizek, but also Derrida, Deleuze, Foucault and whoever he just heard about this week. Although the culture wars has given away to “I’m reading this comic book this week” and “Here, let me offer some banal observations on some half-assed editorial.” The two known unknowns have commented here in the past – usually in response to my having called them douches.

   Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 3:03 pm | Permalink
5. Mark wrote:

   The second one (The BB) = most annoying blog I may have ever had the misfortune of reading (and commenting at). So, I agree.

   Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 9:19 am | Permalink
6. Craig wrote:

   Yes, that leaves just one.

   Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 1:21 pm | Permalink
7. Brian wrote:

   I assume by “disciplinary policing” you mean the fact that I have some intellectual and philosophical standards and bring them to bear in evaluating work and authors, and you do not share these standards. (I am putting the point gently: perusing this blog, it doesn’t appear you have any intellectual standards.)

   I see that [excised], aka Mikhail above, is still insulting people under a pseudonym. Mr. [excised], you should own your words, as Mr. McFarlane, whatever his intellectual foibles, at least has the courtesy to do.

   Name attributed to Mikhail Emelianov by Brian Leiter has been excised.

   Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 4:15 pm | Permalink
8. Craig wrote:

   Thanks for reading, Brian, it is appreciated.

   By “disciplinary policing” I have something more sociological in mind – to the effect of the perpetuation of the existing power structure within a discipline such that anything that is not inscribed within that power structure is deemed deficient. Instruments, such as your PGR or various ratings of journals and impact factors, are very much the core of disciplinary policing. And disciplinary policing is no different than any other form of policing; it is social control or, in this particular case, intellectual control. As a reader of Nietzsche and Foucault, I’m sure you are well aware of the dynamic I am talking about, even if you refuse to acknowledge your position in it.

   Being a scholar – as I’m sure you take yourself to be as well – I’d be happy to hear more about my lack of “intellectual standards.” (However, given that you only made it to the third page of the site archives, you only read offhand posts – recent CFPs, pictures of my dogs, a passage from John White’s watercolors, some spells for excommunicating rats. Put another way, nothing substantive such that the credibility of your statement is very much in question based upon a lack of evidence.)

   Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 5:54 pm | Permalink

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