conference

I am writing from my first ever professional philosophy conference. This one takes as its topic, metaethics. It is a hoot. Very wild seeing people who are top-tier and how they work. It makes me think of children who look at adults as these magical entities, like greek gods, and how, as they get older, adults lose more and more of the deferential attributes that they were perceived to possess. It is surprisingly casual and, I might dare say, unintimidating. We're in Madison, WI at UW (ha) and I've been making a lot of acquaintances fast. Maybe it is due to the fact that the other second years from WMU are kinda loud assholes, so I become someone that is much more pleasurable to converse with. But in any event, the rapport is phenomenal. In particular is a student (first year phd) that I could see myself making more of an ongoing connection with. He's a fellow warrior for continental philosophy in the american analytic realm, and just has a pure heart for philosophic inquiry that I want to be able to participate with and encourage.

There seem to be many students out there who share these critical reservations about how the academic world is turning and its prospects for substantial philosophy, and I can't intimate just how encouraging that is to hear. The fact that we're all in this competitive boat together, at this point, doesn't seem to interfere with our ability to sympathize with one another's plight. I see a community, and the fact that it is there at all means that the worst of my fears (at least) are ungrounded; which I guess was something I already figured.

Next speaker is starting!

see you all later!