Comments on: McGowan on Nussbaum-Butler http://crookedtimber.org/2005/08/24/mcgowan-on-nussbaum-butler/ Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:07:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: vivian http://crookedtimber.org/2005/08/24/mcgowan-on-nussbaum-butler/comment-page-1/#comment-93218 vivian Sat, 27 Aug 2005 00:35:19 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/?p=3705#comment-93218 Thanks for the link - though I think his defense of Butler is not quite persuasive enough. Her self-conscious, self-deconstructing style gets tiresome after a few pages, let alone a few books. Although Butler's content is usually interesting. And frankly, questions of identity don't require the rarefied language of psychoanalysis, for most of the world identity is bound up with material issues and issues of personal safety. I'm a big tent academic type, plenty of room for engineers and pomo theorists to do what they love. But the older I get, the more I agree with Nussbaum about what my priorities should be, even if there is no chance I will go out into the poor communities and make any difference in actual lives. Thanks for the link – though I think his defense of Butler is not quite persuasive enough. Her self-conscious, self-deconstructing style gets tiresome after a few pages, let alone a few books. Although Butler’s content is usually interesting. And frankly, questions of identity don’t require the rarefied language of psychoanalysis, for most of the world identity is bound up with material issues and issues of personal safety. I’m a big tent academic type, plenty of room for engineers and pomo theorists to do what they love. But the older I get, the more I agree with Nussbaum about what my priorities should be, even if there is no chance I will go out into the poor communities and make any difference in actual lives.

]]> By: Russkie http://crookedtimber.org/2005/08/24/mcgowan-on-nussbaum-butler/comment-page-1/#comment-93043 Russkie Thu, 25 Aug 2005 12:13:25 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/?p=3705#comment-93043 >an example of what academic blogging should be like For me it's a reminder of why I left academic philosophy and became an engineer. > Lucid, measured and thought-provoking Or else ephemeral (ie, of no interest to anyone 10 years from now) Also self-referential (cf. "We should fully expect that intellectual work will engage these two realms with different intensity — just as such work will offer different understandings of how they are related to one another.") >an example of what academic blogging should be like

For me it’s a reminder of why I left academic philosophy and became an engineer.

> Lucid, measured and thought-provoking

Or else ephemeral (ie, of no interest to anyone 10 years from now)

Also self-referential (cf. “We should fully expect that intellectual work will engage these two realms with different intensity — just as such work will offer different understandings of how they are related to one another.”)

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