Thursday, July 12, 2007

Remember: Solipsism starts with you!

As a mere philosophical dabbler, I’m gratified as I learn more and more about the nature of narrative in an academic sense, through which is demonstrated that the backbone of Caveman regarding the nature of narrative is as sturdy a construct as there is. Of course, I provide no evidence for my contention that we have some sort of narrative instinct, aside from the fact that we have narrations for everything, but those interested in the subject could no doubt find what I’ve skipped over. The Stanford Philosophy Talk iTunes U episode with Daniel Dennett on Intelligent Design referenced this idea a bit, and in fact was more interesting for its tangents on non-ID areas than that particular chestnut. Dennett has a bunch of interesting books I want to dip into. I hope he can write as well as he talks.

Of course, I’ve got about 80 books on the summer reading table that haven’t done anything yet but acquire new coats of dust, so I wonder who I’m kidding. Right now I’m reading Men of Tomorrow, which is fun, but I’ll have to put it down temporarily when Harry arrives next week. Then there’s this book on the science of morality, and some short takes on various people I don’t have the patience for long takes with, and that book on Tokyo Disneyland that is supposed to be fantastic, and some Old Baudleroo thing on art that Horaceman tricked me into buying ages ago, not to mention some book Smilin’ J recommended if we end up with the killing an innocent person versus killing an even more innocent person (which is how someone somewhere interpreted that particular resolution—oy).

On a more practical note, tomorrow I get some Yale hotel rooms. The joint we stayed at last year has changed its name and its pricing list, so now we’ll be way off the beaten path, but I honestly can’t see paying well over a thousand dollars more if we don’t have to, not in times of straitened budgets (or, for that matter, even in times when the money flows like cheese at a Green Bay Packers game).

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