When I started the blog back in August 2003, the main idea was to make it a supplement to the PGR, both for updates and more general discussion of the philosophy profession, of philosophy, and cognate topics. As longtime readers know, I gradually migrated into more political topics, which seems to have been warmly welcomed by many readers based on earlier "surveys" of readers. The time drain required to keep up with, and write commentary on, political and cultural topics unrelated to philosophy has grown too great, however, and so I've already had to cut back substantially in order to have the time for my main scholarly activities. The fact that the war criminals in Washington, DC are in retreat (happily) has also lessened my enthusiasm for dissecting them. My impression, largely from correspondence, is also that the readership has gravitated somewhat more towards those interested in philosophy and the philosophy profession, rather than those seeking cultural and political commentary. Finally, though this was a more minor consideration, I've not been entirely happy with the fact that many of my students now know what my political views are. While I don't always live up to the Nietzschean ideal of the teacher as the one who "takes all things seriously only in relation to his students--even himself," I do not want preconceptions about my politics to affect teacher-student interactions--especially since my political views are otherwise almost entirely invisible in my teaching and my scholarly work. I must say I rather liked (and was pleasantly amused) that a significant number of students over the years seemed to think that I was a conservative! That is as it should be in the pedagogical context, or so it seems to me.
In any case, for the foreseeable future my own blogging, and that of the others on this site, will be related to philosophy, academia (including academic freedom), and the broader intellectual culture, in one way or another--sometimes professional news, sometimes reflections on the profession, sometimes substantive philosophy, and sometimes intellectual polemics. Perhaps we'll revisit this decision at some point in the future. But there are now enough fine politically-minded blogs (some linked to the left) that I don't think this will be a great loss to humanity.
Thanks, as always, to the many loyal readers, for their interest and good words.
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