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For years now I’ve been reading, and occasionally commenting, over at Bill Vallicella’s website, The Maverick Philosopher. Bill’s a grumpy old cuss, and an unrepentant dualist, but he’s the real deal, and an excellent writer to boot. A philosophical amateur and autodidact like myself can learn a lot there (which I certainly have). Bill’s blog was recently picked by The Times of London as one of the world’s 100 best.

What I have enjoyed the most at MP has been following, and often participating in, the discussions in the comment threads. The quality of the comments varies, as one would expect (and I have recently been guilty, myself, of leaving some irritatingly trite and unfocused comments there of my own, which I regret) — but at their best the comment threads have been a real glimpse of serious philosophical work being done.

I’m sad to see, therefore, that Bill, obviously weary of keeping up with a rising tide of mediocre interlocutors, has apparently stopped taking comments. It’s understandable, and there are other fine blogs (such as Norman Geras’s) where comments are not allowed, but it is, I think, a disappointment for Bill’s readers — who can no longer find, in one place, daily examples of the argumentative thrust-and-parry by which philosophical positions are refined and defended.

I have a feeling Bill must miss it too, just a little. I hope he changes his mind.

4 Comments

  1. Court says

    Agreed. I suppose some variant of this was why Dr. Vallicella got out of the formal teaching of philosophy. He’s not one to suffer fools gladly, and in his universe, anyone not readily conversant in Thomistic abstractions is probably a fool. Like you, though, I continue to read some of his posts for curmudgeonly insights in matters.

    At the risk of being inane and / or off-topic myself, Malcolm, I think you’d enjoy this “philosophy” video if you haven’t seen it already. Off of Australian TV, apparently.

    Posted July 16, 2009 at 10:24 am | Permalink
  2. Court says

    Oh, and I should add that I got the video link from the blog of Vallicella’s archnemesis, Dr. Leiter. I considered sending him the link mentioning said fact but then didn’t.

    Posted July 16, 2009 at 10:26 am | Permalink
  3. Malcolm says

    Thanks, Court. Just had a look – that’s a pretty funny idea, made even funnier by the fact that it’s hard to imagine a more unfunny person than Noam Chomsky.

    Posted July 16, 2009 at 10:49 am | Permalink
  4. Court says

    See the comments on the link below. The MP has evidently more or less closed up the comment shop for good.

    http://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2009/06/not-a-joiner.html

    Posted July 19, 2009 at 11:28 am | Permalink

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