It was the winter of 2010. My thesis supervisor and I were walking along Otonobee river on the beautiful Trent University campus. The campus looks more beautiful and more dreamy now in my memories, and I am sure its beauty has increased with our distance in time. I told him about my plan for post-graduate studies. He thought I was joking. “What about philosophy?”, he asked. I don’t remember what I said, and I don’t…
For the past three and a half years, I have been trying ways of teaching my students about argumentative writing. How should we distinguish an argument from a non-argument? Why is it useful to practice writing arguments? Sometimes students challenge me: “What you consider to be an argument isn’t the only possible form of argument.” Usually, this happens after someone submits a very well-done literature review, expecting a good grade. It can also happen when…
Here is a link to Brad Jesness’s review of my book, which I read with interest. The review is posted on ResearchGate as a “comment”, and I decided to respond to it here for the sake of convenience. Brad (and others) could continue the thread either here or on RG. I wasn’t expecting much of a reaction to my book, so I am grateful to have received Brad’s thoughts. He is very generous in his…
In early February, Peter Limberg and I discussed possible ideas for a writing collaboration. Peter is the friend I mentioned at the beginning of the post Margins & Vitality. The idea of writing about the Marginal Figure appealed to both of us. The article is now available on Medium. Peter runs the podcast, Intellectual Explorers’ Club, where he demonstrates his rare style of open-minded and insightful conversation. Unlike professional academics, Peter sees intrinsic value and…
I received the manuscript proofs on June 21st and I sent them back yesterday (July 3rd). I would have been slightly, only slightly, faster without the TRACE workshop in Würzburg. When proofreading, I could not go through more than one chapter per day. I made numerous changes, adding and deleting full sentences here and there, and deleting quite a few unnecessary words and phrases. I am sure I introduced a lot of new errors with…