Now you are going to get a confessional, because all of a sudden everything here is going to change:

After some time working for an interesting little startup company (a story which you should be pleased to be spared), I have been preparing this year to return to my studies in Philosophy, this time to earn my PhD.

One gets rusty after some time, and knowing that this was the case, some months ago I started a project of going back and reading some of the key texts of the Western Philosophical tradition, trying to (and here allow me a little of that good old theraputic Heideggerian argot) re-comport myself to the doxa.

This fact has two material consequences for SN:

  1. First, during this period, I have been making more or less detailed outlines of the argumentation of more than a few significant historical philosophical texts, which I am now planning on sharing with you; probably once a week, maybe up to twice a week.
  2. Second, I haven’t had any time for months to post any of these sort of "bloggy" observations about paintings or comic books or philosophy. This should be expected to continue indefinitely.

This is all to say that, into the foreseeable future, “fragments for the reading life” is to become “outlines for the reading life.” Which, unfortunately, probably means that you’re no longer interested in SN. Alas: This is the announcement of a significant theme change. So to you, my stragglers, apologies! And bon voyage. And now for some bureaucratic notes.

Three bureaucratic notes

  1. First, sometimes the articulations of particularly complex arguments are more or less aped from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. I am trying to read the Encyclopedia articles as I go, and, while almost always their articulation is better than mine, sometimes it is so much better that I flat-out supplant mine with theirs. Caveat lector.
  2. Second, comments are not open. If you want to argue about any particular piece of my rendition of an argument, please just send me an email. You can get my email address at my personal launch page.
  3. Third, these are “straight out of the notebook” so-to-speak, and as such will almost certainly be populated by meandering notes, comments, and questions, misspellings and solecisms, and the occasional irate outburst (see Outline for De Anima, forthcoming).

So with no further ado, and starting very nearly at the beginning, here’s my outline of the argument and plot of Plato’s Meno.