I’ve been pretty quiet here, lately. I’ve been busy with things, getting stuff done. I hope to be posting more soon, when various up-in-the-air things are more settled. Still, here are some recent highlights which are worth sharing.
- WCP4 was a blast. It was very busy, but lots of fun was had: it was good to catch up with many folks I hadn’t seen for ages including (Diderik Batens, Bryson Brown, Francesco Paoli, Ole Hjortland, Jerry Seligman, Gill Russell and especially JC, who I hadn’t seen in an all-too-long period of time) and to make the acquaintance of new folks (Francesco Berto, David Ripley, Andreas Pietz, Ben Burgis, Patrick Girard and many others).
- It’s been lots of fun to have Andi Pietz, Dave Ripley and Ole Hjortland hang out with us in Melbourne this semester. I think they’re having fun, and I’m having fun talking logic with them.
- Reasoning & Uncertainty is my new level 2/3 undergraduate subject. I’ve got a class of 60, doing philosophy of probability, decision theory, etc., and we’re having a lot of fun. Having students turn up to class, enthusiastic, despite 9am lectures, is something to behold. Conrad Asmus is my tutor, and working with him makes things very easy.
- Conrad Asmus, my former PhD student, has all-but-passed his PhD. He has minor changes to make (which will be done within a few weeks, won’t they, Conrad?), and once they’re OKd by the local examiner, he’ll graduate. Congratulations, Conrad! You’re my first beginning-to-end supervised graduate student, and I’m proud to have supervised your work.
- I’m off to Estonia in a week’s time, for the Logical Pluralism Extravaganza, which looks like it will be smaller, more focussed blast than WCP4.
- After getting back from Estonia, I’m speaking at a ‘Men’s Breakfast’ at my church, under the gradiose title of ‘From Church to the Campus and Back Again: tales from a Christian teaching Philosophy at University.’ I’m under instruction to be funny, serious, profound, accessible and provocative – in under 20 minutes. I’ll see how I go…
It’s been a hard year here, with reduced staffing numbers in Philosophy at Melbourne. Everyone’s working Very Hard and doing Very Good Things, but until we get new positions and More People, things are going to be a struggle. Hopefully we’ll have some better news soon, so we can advertise some jobs in the next few months. Watch this space…
