It might as well be spring... (A personal update)

It's been a strange year so far in terms of work (both writing and school), so the true updates in this post will be few, and instead I'll focus on things coming out in the near future.

My main project since the beginning of the year has been my antitrust book, but I did not make as much progress on it as I'd hoped, so after some hiccups (and thanks to the patience of my editor), I will be taking the summer to finish it. (Speaking of antitrust, I had the pleasure recently of attending a talk by Jonathan B. Baker, whose new book, The Antitrust Paradigm, I'm eagerly awaiting.) I did, however, manage to write an invited essay for a new law-and-economics journal (tentatively out this fall) and a short book review for another journal, and I have started working on an invited symposium paper on nudge (specifically, proposed ethical guidelines for their use) for a political science journal.

The academic trade book proposal I mentioned in my last post—which would have collected and elaborated on my thoughts about adultery based on my Psychology Today posts on the topic—didn't get picked up, but I plan to write something longer on the topic nonetheless. As far another book in the works, I'll save that until the end...

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I have a few things coming out this year, one of which (as you can see above) showed up on my doorstep the morning of the day before Easter: Batman and Ethics, which is available now as an ebook and will be released in US in paperback in early May (the 6th or the 13th, depending on what site you're looking at), earlier some other places (26 April in the UK, apparently). There is now a dedicated page for it here, which explains what I'm on about, and includes a quote from an early review by Armond Boudreaux at his great blog A Clash of Heroes.

Although I do not yet have a copy in my hands, this summer will see the release of The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics, involving several dozen brilliant scholars over 27 chapters (including mine, “With All Due Respect: A Kantian Approach to Economics"), all of which I was honored to edit. I also have a dedicated page for this here, and my introduction is available at SSRN.

I also have several chapters coming out this spring in other people's books:

• Available now is Damien Picariello's edited volume, Politics in Gotham: The Batman Universe and Political Thought (Palgrave), including my chapter “Criminal Justice in Gotham: The Role of the Dark Knight."
• Coming at the end of May is Wilfred Dolfsma and Ioana Negru's edited volume, The Ethical Formation of Economists (Routledge), including my chapter “More Harm Than Benefit: The Ramifications of the Neglect of Rights in Economics."
• Also out at the end of May is Holger Strassheim and Silke Beck's Handbook of Behavioural Change and Public Policy (Elgar), including my chapter “Nudging – Ethical and Political Dimensions of Choice Architectures.”

Also out since my last post is “On the Relationship Between Economics and Ethics,” in Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi (available at SSRN), followed in the same issue by a response from John B. Davis, who contributed to the Oxford handbook as well. (Speaking of contributors to the Oxford handbook, Virgil Storr and Ginny Choi have a book coming this summer titled Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals? that I strongly encourage you to check out, and which may or may not carry a blurb from yours truly.)

I also had my customary posts at Psychology Today and my ongoing efforts at my blog The Virtues of Captain America, which is steadily approaching its 100th post. And finally, appropriate given the impending release of Avengers: Endgame, I recently found the Chinese edition of The Avengers and Philosophy, which I didn't think was due until 2020 but seems to have appeared early. (Keeping my eye open for the planned Chinese edition of Iron Man and Philosophy too.)

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Going forward, while I wrap up the antitrust book and the nudge paper, I will be starting the "arduous" task of re-reading and note-taking for my next superhero-and-ethics book, a long-term project with no firm completion date (on agreement with the publisher). This will be a true labor of love, and my dream project since I started doing this sort of thing. I'm keeping the details tight to my vest for the time being, but if I do my job right, it should be fantastic.

Comments

[John W Earl]

Hi Mark, Just got through your thoughts on what to do when a married couple has problems getting their spouse to provide a healthy sexual relationship. A couple of things were not addressed. One is that the couple should be very familiar with their sexual needs before the marriage. If this is so, and one of them sometime in the future changes and puts the brakes on their intimate relationship, then two things could be wrong, depending on their age and/or the length of their marriage. What does a man do when his wife goes into menopause or just gets too old to cut the mustard anymore, while the husband still loves her and wants to continue to be playful and continue their sex life? It would seem to me that the woman who once loved him with a passion should at least understand his needs and provide a modified sexual offering like being playful and doing whatever to bolster his ego along with his prostate. If her lost interest is due to his large beer belly, then he has an obligation to look in a mirror and face reality, much the same as she has to if she has added a 100 pounds to her body. If the wife is looking good and refuses to play, then the problem may be lack of interest or another guy. If a woman or man is not interested because of a medical problem then it seems that the honorable thing to do would be to love and care for your partner and make good use of BOB or HOG (Battery Operated Boyfriend or Hand Operated Girlfriend).

I for one, when first dating my wife when I was 69 years of age and she was 63, took on a very sensual woman who had taken care of a very chronically ill husband before he died at 73. She faithfully took care of him and was, after he passed on, looking to make up for lost time. I was very lucky to be in great shape, but at first I thought she would wear me out. I told her point blank that if I could not satisfy her, she was permitted to seek out an additional sexually safe partner. My wife to be was in really good shape when we met. She believed me when I first met her and told her I was 55. I felt if I posted my real age, I would get no-where. All went well, I provided her what she needed which was beautifully erotic. It has now been 11 years and unfortunately she is the one who became disinterested and removed from our once healthy romance. She claims to have too many aches and pains to put up with my passion for her. She always reminds me that love does not require sex. I remind her that if she truly loved me, we could find a less athletic form of sexual activity. I continue to be lustful because she still looks good to me. She continues to avoid my advances. But treats we well and cares for me. And I, out of frustration will make her feel guilty enough to perform---but I do not like doing this. For now, it is porn and hand that keeps me on an unstable, but even keel. And it is a fact that women tend to lose interest much earlier then men. I need a good horny woman to bump into. Leaving my wife would make me feel terrible.

Thank you for your thought provoking commentary.

John Earl