Well that was a month, wasn't it? David Bowie's passing hit me much harder than I would have imagined, and it hasn't totally subsided. I wrote a bit about how I felt about him here. Words cannot explain, but they're all I've got. (Of course, in January we also lost Alan Rickman, Paul Kantner, Glenn Frey, Abe Vigoda, and Dale Griffin, not to mention Lemmy late last December, but Bowie's death made the most impact on me by far.)
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In brighter news, I've two new books out, both of which I've talked about here before, but if you will bear a little more:
First, we have Economics and the Virtues: Building a New Moral Foundation, co-edited with Jennifer A. Baker for Oxford University Press, which is out now in the UK and March 7 in the US. It has its own page on this site and a blog post at Economics and Ethics, and there are some preview pages available at Oxford's site. Adam Gurri was kind enough to provide an early review at Sweet Talk as well, and the book already seems to be generating some buzz.
Then we also have A Philosopher Reads Marvel Comics' Civil War: Exploring the Moral Judgment of Captain America, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, my first self-published ebook, out February 3 almost everywhere in the world, priced at a measly $4.99 in the States and Canada, £2.99 in the UK, €3.99 in most of Europe, and similarly elsewhere.
UPDATE: This will soon be released in print and ebook by Ockham Publishing; more details soon—but for the time being, the new cover is here for your viewing pleasure.
I blogged about it a bit over at The Comics Professor, where I provide a little more background than I had before, and the table of contents and international ordering details are available at the dedicated page at this site.
I'm sure I'll be blathering about both of these here and there over the next month—my apologies in advance.
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The last month since returning from the ASSA meetings has been a busy one, not least with getting the Civil War book ready for upload to Amazon Kindle Direct. Besides that, I revised a paper on Beccaria for a special issue of a law-and-economics journal; reviewed the proofs of the introductory material for the four-volume Social Economics collection I co-edited with some ASE friends and colleagues; wrote a comment on a paper on punishment and disenfranchisement for the APA Central Division meetings in March; wrote an invited paper on nudges and personal finance for a special journal issue on the ethics of debt; and most momentously, finally settled on a structure and approach for the superhero-and-philosophy book I'm to write this spring. (That last one was really weighing on me, but I think I've got a handle on it now.)
Looking ahead, in addition to work on the aforementioned book (and being back in the office for meetings and other chairpersonly duties), I hope to complete my paper for the Mercatus Center on "right to try" and medical paternalism, as well as my edited book, The Insanity Defense: Multidisciplinary Views on Its History, Trends, and Controversies, for Praeger.
This past month I also blogged a bit more than usual (in addition to informational posts):
- Two posts at Psychology Today: My Resolution for 2016: Cut the (Wireless) Internet Cord (on New Year's Day, natch) and Why You Might Want to Reconsider Putting Yourself Down (a reposting of my friend Ilana C. Myer's terrific blog post). (I also reposted my David Bowie remembrance there.)
- Four posts at The Comics Professor: Civil War II: How the comics sausage is made... (about the disturbing public revelations regarding behind-the-scenes decision-making at Marvel); The return of Steve Rogers as Captain America, and pondering the issue of "Marvel multiples"; my first "quick reviews" post (for the comics released on January 27); and a satirical note about DC Comics' teased "Rebirth."
In general, I'm hoping to plan my time better in coming months, inspired by this blog post by Raul Pacheco-Vega and Paul J. Silvia's book How to Write a Lot. I've tried many times and have never succeeded, but it's getting to the point where I have to make it work.
Finally, I was honored to be invited to give three talks, two in March (!) and one in July; more on those when plans firm up. Add jury duty to the mix next week, and my need to schedule my time better starts to make sense!
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