I'm feeling rather ambivalent about my life these days (see here) — which is not unusual for me the last ten years or so, but still. I have, however, come to some realizations of late that may suggest a corner is about to be turned. We'll get to that in due time... in the meantime, let's see what I managed to do this year nonetheless (in addition to my duties as a mild-mannered professor for a metropolitan university).
In terms of things that were published this year (but finished earlier), I had one new edited book out this year, Doctor Strange and Philosophy, which included one chapter I wrote, and one journal article that was posted online in 2016 (and written much earlier) but was not slotted into an issue until this year (this month, actually). (A chapter on nudge that I wrote even earlier, that I thought would be in a book published this year, will be out next year.)
Much of what I actually did this year (which involved more editing than writing) will appear in 2019:
I did most of my work on The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics, including writing the introduction and my chapter, editing the other 26 chapters, and overseeing the review of copyedits and proofs (the last one still ongoing). This should be out next summer.
Even though it was written in 2017, I wrapped up work on Batman and Ethics this year, including making final revisions, reviewing copyedits and proofs, and compiling the index. This should be out next April.
I did write several shorter pieces that should be out next year as well...
“On the Relationship Between Economics and Ethics,” forthcoming in a symposium on the interdisciplinary potential of economics (with a response by John B. Davis) in Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, 52(2), Winter 2018
“More Harm Than Benefit: The Ramifications of the Neglect of Rights in Economics,” forthcoming in Ioana Negru and Wilfred Dolfsma (eds), The Ethical Formation of Economists (Routledge, 2019)
...as well as several shorter pieces that appeared this year (as well as the normal assortment of blog posts at Psychology Today and several at The Comics Professor):
“How to Live a More Authentic Life in Both Markets and Morals,” a commentary on William Irwin's The Free Market Existentialist (in Reason Papers, 40(1), Summer 2018, pp. 59-63)
“Restoring Social Responsibility to Inner Freedom, with Help from Immanuel Kant” and "Inner Freedom Is Consistent with Family (and Social Ties in General)," as part of the conversation on inner and outer freedom at Cato Unbound (October 2018)
On a different tack, this past summer I launched The Virtues of Captain America blog, which just celebrated its 50th post this month, and will keep me busy for many years to come (seeing that the 50th post brought us into the 1970s, and the 100th, which I will be writing soon, will only find me in 1974).
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Looking forward, I've begun a book on antitrust, which I hope to finish next spring and should be out next fall from Rowman and Littlefield International. I'm also crafting a proposal for a short academic trade on a topic I've discussed a bit at Psychology Today, which, if accepted by the press I've discussed it with, I would write next summer. Besides that, I have a couple other academic projects in mind, but no firm plans beyond some preliminary discussions with presses.
Those projects notwithstanding, in the coming year I hope to devote myself more to writing about superheroes, not just on the Cap blog but new projects as well. Yes, I realize I said much the same thing last year, but I'm even more convinced now that this is the way to go for me, given additional feedback I've gotten from fans and friends over the past year, as well as my experience at San Diego Comic-Con this past summer. I'm hesitant to leave academic writing entirely, because it seems to be a part of my professional identity with which I have a strange push-pull relationship. I've never felt like a "serious academic," and I'm increasingly uncertain I ever could be one, but at the same time I feel I "should" keep trying to be one, even though my particular talents, such as they are, seem to be of more value elsewhere. (Let's not go down that particular rabbit-hole just yet, but my latest Psychology Today post alludes to it.)
I'll leave you with something that's been a balm to my soul lately... let's hope for a brighter year ahead!
This will be a short update because I haven't done much since my last one, given the hectic start to the fall semester. (I know, likely excuse.) I do, however, have a lot to accomplish in the coming months, so I'm posting this as a way to clear the deck, so to speak, in preparation for the busy months to come.
The most time-consuming tasks (outside of college work) dealt with production on two books coming out this year. I reviewed the copyedits for one sole-authored book, and also coordinated the review of copyedits for The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics, liaising with over two dozen contributors as well as the copyeditor. I've been told to expect page proofs for both books in December, a fact I'm trying to use to inspire diligence in writing before then.
Speaking of which... as I mentioned in the last post, I have two conference presentations in early January to prepare for (both of which I've begun), one on a Kantian view of the market and state for an Association for Social Economics session at the ASSA meetings, and the other a commentary on Leo Zaibert's fantastic new book Rethinking Punishment for the Eastern APA meetings.
New to this update are two new commitments. The first is a monograph tentatively titled The Problems with Antitrust, under contract with Rowman & Littlefield International (to be included in my series On Ethics and Economics), in which I will expand on previously published criticisms of the moral foundations and implications of antitrust (such as this article). I promised to have this done by the end of February, after which I turn to the second, a presentation for the PPE Society meetings in late March on the ethics of the economics of the family, on which I touched in this article as well as my chapter for the handbook (generally on Kant and economics), but have never explored at length.
There are a couple more conferences in the spring I'm considering attending and possibly presenting at, which is a big change from recent years when I backed off from conference travel. (Don't ask me why... I haven't figured it out yet.)
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Unfortunately, my plan to devote a certain amount of time each day to writing never got off the ground, partially because I didn't have a significant writing project (with most of the last two months being spent reviewing copyedits and occasionally writing short pieces for various websites or blogs), and also due to campus responsibilities and various personal matters. Now that I do have such projects (especially the book), and administrative duties at school have lessened (being heaviest through September and October), perhaps I can develop a routine... or rather, I need to develop a routine, and stick to it (a problem I addressed in the first Psychology Today post mentioned above).
This update is coming a bit later than I would have liked, but I wanted to get some things done first, and there's something I couldn't talk about publicly until recently. (There's actually something else coming soon that I can't quite talk about yet, but I didn't want to wait for that too! UPDATE: here it is!) So here we are, almost exactly in the middle of summer... and let me tell you what I've been up to since my last update at the end of March.
By the way, the picture at the top of the post is actually not the view out of my window, but it is what I imagine about when I think about retirement. (Sigh.) It's my happy place, wherever it is.
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Just yesterday, I submitted the manuscript of The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics to my editors, all 27 chapters, 995 manuscript pages, or 282,327 words of it. (I immediately tweeted the news with the GIF to the right, which shows what I'm still doing today.) I've done a lot of edited volumes, some with co-editors but most of them by myself, but this was by far the largest and most involved project I've been involved with. I've been told that there will be a page at Oxford's site for the book fairly soon, so I'll hold off on further details until then (which will likely be posted at Economics and Ethics, natch). From what people tell me, we managed to finish it fairly quickly, for which I'm grateful to all of my contributors—including the one who bet me it wouldn't be finished until 2020. (He should have known better: even my co-edited volume on procrastination was delivered on time!)
My scholarly output was fairly limited the last few months to editing the handbook (and writing my chapter and introduction for it), but I did manage to write a short piece on the relationship between economics and ethics for a journal symposium (which was well timed, helping me to think through some issues I was planning to discuss in the handbook introduction anyway), and do the normal amount of journal article refereeing and book proposal reviewing.
And oh yeah, I wrapped up the academic semester too. Here's a photo from commencement day, with my indispensable administrative assistants Florinda and Joan, who actually run my department. (I never gave much thought to my own graduations, but I've come to appreciate them more and more since I became a department chair.)
I am mulling several possible academic projects now that I wrapped the handbook, one of which may have been proposed to a press and may be under review as we speak. (Maybe.)
More recently, I launched my new blog I've been hinting at for a while, The Virtues of Captain America, which serves as an online complement to the book of the same title. As explained in the About the Blog page, my plan is to go through every appearance of Cap from his Silver Age revival in 1964's Avengers #4, exploring his ethical behavior as reflected in every marvelous issue. Some comics will have more ethical content than others, of course, but I have fun with all of them.
As you can see at the right, the first three posts are currently live: Avengers #4 (March 1964), Avengers #5 and Fantastic Four #26 (May 1964), and Avengers #6 (July 1964). Soon, we'll get to his solo adventures in Tales of Suspense, which began in issue #59 (November 1964), but we'll begin with his guest appearance in issue #58 the month before. I have about 50 posts stockpiled, and I hope to keep this rolling for quite a while, posting two or three times a week.
I will be mentioning the new blog—and possibly also my next superhero book, which is almost in production at long last—next week when I speak for the first time at San Diego Comic-Con. (Crazy, right? Definitely crazy.)
I'll be speaking at two panels (because one wouldn't be crazy enough):
The Friday panel, "An Evening with Batman's Brain," will be a reprise of the event held at Victoria University in March 2016 (recounted here) with E. Paul Zehr (Becoming Batman) and Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology), plus Lee Meriwether, Michael Uslan, and Paul Levitz, and moderated by Aaron Sagers. (Note that participation can change up to the last minute.)
I imagine this will be quite an experience; I've only been to one major con (New York Comic-Con in 2011), and I've never spoken at one. (Needless to say, I couldn't have finished the handbook at a better time!) UPDATE: See this post for my SDCC experience.
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As I mentioned above, I should be able to discuss my upcoming book on superheroes and philosophy very soon [here it is!], so watch this space for more on that... assuming I survive San Diego! Until then, enjoy yourselves and please be kind.
It's been a strange three months, both in the world outside my window as well as the one within it. But work continues, as it always does and must, and here I'll fill you in on what kept me busy since I last checked in.
My main project this semester is editing The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics, the work on which is going very well. Most of the chapters are in and revised, and the quality of the chapters from my contributors is outstanding. (I only hope my own chapter will stand up to the rest!)
Alongside that, I wrote a chapter for a edited book on the ethical formation of economists, a book review for a journal, a write-up for another journal of my comments from an author-meets-critics session at last year's APA Central meetings, and a smattering of manuscript and article reviews.
I also wrote three new posts for Psychology Today, all on love and relationships:
I still haven't worked out what I plan to do when the handbook is finished, but one possibility is that writing my chapter on Kant for the handbook will inspire me to work up some recent thoughts for a follow-up to my book Kantian Ethics and Economics. If I have another scholarly book in me, it's most likely this one.
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On the popular writing front, I did begin working on the comics blog project I described in my last update, crafting posts without actually posting them (until I assemble a critical mass to make it worthwhile). So far it's been more of a distraction than anything else, albeit a pleasant one, but I think I'm going to keep it up for a while. I'm going through a character's appearances in order from the beginning, writing on the ethically relevant aspects of each issue, but unfortunately there wasn't always a lot of interest in term of ethics in the early stories, so I'm trying to move through them more quickly so I can get to the "good stuff" in later issues.
In books news, I wrapped up production on Doctor Strange and Philosophy, which is due out in May, and I'm still waiting to hear news about the book that I wrote last summer on another superhero. I'm itching to write another book on a particular character to whom I could give the same treatment as I did for Cap and the hero I wrote about last summer, but that will be a major commitment that I will consider once the handbook is done (and I see how the blog project works out).
And of course, once I find an approach I'm satisfied with, I will definitely write a book on these four fine folks, whose return to the world of comics in August made big news today. That remains my dream book project, but until I find a strong theme to base it on, I'm going to sit on it, and just look forward to August (and the prospect of a Marvel Studios film down the road).
I've been putting off writing this post for a while — not because I'm disappointed with what I did this year, but because I don't yet know what I will do next year (aside from finishing one major project begun this year), and that has me feeling very uneasy. But more on that to come... let's see what I managed to accomplish this past year (aside from my day job).
1. The Decline of the Individual: Reconciling Autonomy with Community, which was written in the spring and then went through a ridiculously rushed production process over the summer, was published by Palgrave in September. (It was scheduled for August publication, if you can believe that. I still can't.) I wrote about this book and the writing process behind it here, and my friend Dante brilliantly described the production process here. (I also constructed the index that there "just wasn't time for": you can find it here.)
3. A sole-authored book on a superhero and ethics (in the vein of The Virtues of Captain America), which I wrote mostly during the summer and completed in the fall, is under review for classroom adoption potential and is planned to be published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2019. (Will this particular superhero still be around by then? I sure hope so!) I wrote about this book, the process behind it, and the reason for being so coy about its subject, here.
Currently, I'm in the midst of production for Doctor Strange and Philosophy and editing The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics, for which I already have a handful of finalized chapters and which I hope to finish by the middle of next year. Other than that, aside from a few things I've discussed casually with editors at various presses, I have no firm plans for the books in the future, and that is a strange feeling. (But more on that later.)
ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS
As I've said for the last several years, I'm shifting my work away from short pieces and toward books, and this year reflects that. Although a decent number of articles and chapters written last year (or earlier) came out this year, I only wrote two book chapters this year (and have just two to write next year).
Published this year but written earlier (although the first two were revised this year) are:
“Preferences All the Way Down: Questioning the Neoclassical Foundations of Behavioral Economics and Libertarian Paternalism,” Oeconomia, 7(3), pp. 353-373.
Accepted this year and forthcoming — the first written last year, the second this year — are:
“Nudging – Ethical and Political Dimensions of Choice Architectures,” forthcoming in Handbook of Behavioural Change and Public Policy, edited by Holger Strassheim and Silke Beck (Edward Elgar).
"The Otherworldly Burden of Being the Sorcerer Supreme," forthcoming in Doctor Strange and Philosophy.
Finally, in progress are chapters for two edited books, one on Spider-Man and his villains and another on ethics and economics, and next spring I will write my chapter and the introduction for the handbook. (After that... who knows?)
ONLINE WORK
I included this category even though there is very little to account for, other than a few posts at Psychology Today and The Comics Professor. I always hope to blog more — and still do — but rarely find I have anything to say. (That may soon be changing, though... see more below.)
PRESENTATIONS/LECTURES
Not much to report here either: I only gave two presentations in 2017, both at the Central Division meetings of the American Philosophical Association in March. I have no travel planned for next year; I think I'm skipping next week's ASSA meetings for the first time since I began going to 1996, and I already turned down one conference invitation for 2018.
LOOKING FORWARD
I really can't improve on what I wrote last year: "Little has changed since I invoked Tolstoy five years ago at The Good Men Project. I'm still not sure what I'm doing, what I 'should' be doing, or what I want to be doing."
When I told one of my best friends recently that I have nothing planned to do after the handbook is finished next year, he told me, "do what you really want to do." But he knows full well that that's my problem: I still haven't figured out what I want to do. (Pacing around my apartment isn't one of them, but here I am!) I keep a list of things I could do — various topics I could write on, as well as book projects I've discussed with editors at different presses — but none of them excites me at the moment. And then there's that novel I've been telling myself I'd write when I get done with other things, but that's such a huge shift in focus... I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. (But maybe soon.)
There may be a light in the distance. however. In my last update, I wrote this (originally from my "comeback" post at The Comics Professor, a comeback that lasted all of two posts so far), partly in response to my declining interest in the current state of superhero comics and also looking towards my future activities:
I've been thinking a lot lately about diving back into the past comics I love, whether Captain America, Batman, the Fantastic Four, or others, and blogging in a more systematic way about them, taking each issue or storyline and writing about what I love about it, whether there's something of philosophical interest there or not. Maybe I'll just geek out about how cool the art is, or how a moment made me laugh or cry. Maybe I'll even do a podcast about them, something like The Fantasticast or the Nerdsync podcast—not that I can do that any better than Stephen and Andrew or Scott do, but I'd do it my own way, whatever they may be. Just an idea I've been knocking around, something to get excited about.
Since the time I wrote that, I received two very gratifying and humbling messages, one from a college professor and the other from an instructor in the United States Army, both of whom have used my Captain America book in their classes. This news affected me deeply — especially the one from the army — and confirmed my thoughts about focusing more on comics in general and Captain America in particular, including developing some online content to reinforce and supplement the book, as well as extending the approach to other heroes (such as I did with the book I wrote this summer). So this is likely what I'll be doing next year (aside from the handbook), though it still feels too amorphous at this point to seem "real."
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In general, I realize I don't need to plan the entire next year and have projects nailed down, and that ideas will come to me eventually, but this is the first time in years that I don't have several projects stacked up going into the new year. And I think that's why I look back on 2017 and worry that my 2018 won't be as productive. (There's also the question of why my productivity matters so much to me, but let's ignore that elephant in the room.) Instead of being pleased with what I accomplished this past year, I'm afraid that it's my last "good" year, that I'm "done." And when work is all there is... well, you can fill in the rest. (This also answers that question above.)
Finally, to address my best-laid plans about keeping a routine as laid out in last year's wrap-up post... well, I didn't, at least not in the sense of keeping to a certain schedule or routine. I did, however, work on my two books most every day while writing each of them, so regularity, more than routine, seems to be key for me. I also kept a book journal for the summer book (but not the spring one, for some reason), and this helped reinforce my progress and keep me on track. (No Steinbeck-style ennui this time, amazingly.) I suspect this may be why I need to be working on a "big project," something I can work on every day — it seems that's how I work best and am most satisfied with what I do.
We'll see what happens... and in the meantime, I wish you a fulfilling 2018, whatever that may mean for you!
Yesterday evening I emailed the manuscript for my latest superhero-and-philosophy book to my editor, who will then send it to instructor-reviewers to assess its potential for course adoption. As with my Captain America and Civil War books, this book was written for general readers, but the publisher wants to test the waters for class use as well, so we'll see what happens with that.
As readers of these updates and my Twitter account know, I've been coy about the subject of the book. The book isn't planned to be released until 2019, and there are other people who do this kind of thing (and do it very well), so I'm wary of inviting them to beat me to the punch. I can tell you, however, that the book has an approach similar to The Virtues of Captain America, exploring the moral code of a popular superhero while making a broader point about our ethical decision-making. While Cap can come off as "too" good, the hero I deal with in this book does not, which lets me delve more into issues of moral conflict and consistency. In that sense, the book serves as a nice companion piece to the Cap book—so much so that the publisher actually suggested we title this one The Vices of..., but I thought that was going a little far!
The last time I gave an update, I had completed my work on the book for the summer, at which point I felt I was almost done and had 92,000 words written. As the fall semester began, I worked here and there throughout September, adding 10,000 words, and did a quick pass-through in early October, adding about 2000 more. At the end of October, I split the two huge files (Part I and Part II) into four chapters each, and the chapters into sections, and then began the fine editing: filling gaps in content that I kindly left for myself, reinforcing the broader point of the book as often as I could, and trying to cite as many comics as possible (433 at latest count). In the end, I had 113,248 words, definitely the longest book I've ever written and nearly twice as long as each of my Palgrave books (including The Decline of the Individual, which I wrote earlier this year and was published since my last update).
Again, I say whew.
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While this book was my main activity the last several months (outside of teaching and chairing), I did also manage to write a few posts for Psychology Today:
I've been thinking a lot lately about diving back into the past comics I love, whether Captain America, Batman, the Fantastic Four, or others, and blogging in a more systematic way about them, taking each issue or storyline and writing about what I love about it, whether there's something of philosophical interest there or not. Maybe I'll just geek out about how cool the art is, or how a moment made me laugh or cry. Maybe I'll even do a podcast about them, something like The Fantasticast or the Nerdsync podcast—not that I can do that any better than Stephen and Andrew or Scott do, but I'd do it my own way, whatever they may be. Just an idea I've been knocking around, something to get excited about.
In other words, my next major comics project will likely not start out as a book, although a book may eventually come out of it. We'll see.
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The near future brings some academic work: writing a chapter for a book on ethics and the "making of an economist," due by the end of the year, and then my major work for the rest of the academic year, continuing to edit and write for The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics, my most ambitious editing project to date. (In the meantime, I'll be overseeing production of Doctor Strange and Philosophy, which is planned to come out in spring 2018.)
I hope to check in again before the new year. I hope you enjoy the upcoming holidays, and stay warm and safe.
Tomorrow is my first day back at school for the fall semester, which makes today the last day of summer for me. It would seem like a fine time for an update, right?
In terms of my three tasks for the summer...
1) Drafting my sole-authored superhero-and-philosophy book was my primary goal, and I had arbitrarily chosen last Wednesday as the "completion" date (in case I needed to go into the office on Friday, and graciously allowing myself a day before that as well). That worked out nicely to 12 weeks, 6 days a week, so 72 days total. As of the end of Wednesday I had about 92,000 words written, exceeding my target of 90K words, and I still have more to write. Given that my usual concern is having enough to say, I'm pleased with meeting my target, and a bit bewildered at being in the strange position of exceeding it. It's not the normal case of writing more than I need and then having to trim it down—if anything, I need to flesh out some material as well as add one more significant section. I hope to get this additional work done in September before confronting other writing responsibilities for the fall. All in all, I'm fine with my work on this book this summer, although it was a bit more up and down than I would have liked, and I wanted to be done done. (While I just started writing this summer, this book has been in the works for years.)
2) Work on Doctor Strange and Philosophy is also nearly finished—doing final editing on the last few chapters. ('Nuff said!) UPDATE: I submitted the manuscript on September 1, four days ahead of deadline, thanks to the timeliness and cooperation of my contributors.
3) Production of The Decline of the Individual is finished as far as I'm concerned. The release date was changed from August 25 (as confirmed by the project manager on August 10) to September 15 (according a change made to the website on August 11). (When I replied to the project manager about this, the email bounced back "address unknown." Same for the production editor.) But wait.... last week the date on the website became October 15, which happens to be close to the date my editor gave me when the whole thing started. As before... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. For my part, I'm constructing a proper index for the book which I will post here; I was hoping to have it done by now, but it still needs a little work. UPDATE: I finished the index on September 4—you can find it here.
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Looking back, I wish I had done the summer differently—it became so intense that I'm looking forward to the semester for relaxation! Part of my problem was not spreading out the work as well as I could have; while I worked on the authored book most every day, I didn't always keep up with other work, which then built up at precisely the wrong time (as it inevitably will). However, besides the Oxford handbook I'm editing, I don't have a commitment for any other books going forward, so things are open for next summer to consider projects I've batted around with different editors, as well as some ideas of my own.
Looking ahead, this semester I need to finish up the summer tasks three, and then begin a few new things. In addition to the chapter and introduction for my handbook, I'll be contributing a chapter to an edited scholarly collection on Spider-Man (focusing on Civil War), and another chapter on ethics and economics to a very intriguing new project. And most important, I will be returning to the classroom for the first time in two years. It's a long story, but it comes down to teaching too many courses for many years before I became department chair, and now having to balance that out by a certain date while being chair, which already carries reduced teaching expectations as it is.
However you're spending it, I wish you a happy and successful fall, and I'll see you next time I have something to say. In the meantime, here's Sam... just pretend it's yesterday, OK?
As I did at the end of June, I'll give a brief update on things happening here...
1) The superhero-and-philosophy book I'm writing is going well. I'm in a better position than I was a month ago: I've experienced fewer down days, and as a result I'm well over two-thirds of the way toward my target word count. (I now imagine the book may be a bit longer than planned, a very strange position for me to be in.) I now expect to have it drafted by the time the fall semester starts, and then I'll do a bit of editing and revising early in the fall.
2) Doctor Strange and Philosophy is also proceeding nicely. Most chapters are finalized and looking great, and we're in the final editing stage, looking good to finish on time.
3) The Decline of the Individual: I approved the third set of page proofs last Monday, so barring any surprises, we're good to go. (The first set of proofs required around 1000 corrections, because I didn't have a chance to review copyedits; the second round, which served as proper proofs, needed only about seventy.) I've been told to expect publication "in the month of September." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The fall semester at CSI officially begins on Friday, August 25, although for me it effectively begins the following Monday, so I have four more weeks to go. As I wrap up the tasks above, I will turn to a book chapter I agreed to write (a return to Civil War from an interesting new angle) and my introduction and chapter for The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics... and thinking about future plans.
I hope your summer ends well... see you on the other side!
It being the last day of June and all, I thought this might be a good time for a brief update...
I'm working on three projects currently, trying to do a bit of work on each one every day, especially the first and main one.
1) The superhero-and-philosophy book I'm writing this summer (hopefully to be finished by the end of August): A third of the summer in and I'm a little short of a third of my target word count, but that's fine; I got off to a slow start and had quite a few bad days in which I did nothing at all, so assuming things go at a reasonable pace for now on, there's a good chance I'll finish on time. I do need my comics, trade paperbacks, and hardcovers nearby, so no writing in coffee shops until the time comes to revise and edit.
2) Doctor Strange and Philosophy, which I'm editing this summer: This is looking very good in terms of both content and timeline (and I can edit chapters in coffee shops, so yay!). I've seen all but one draft chapter and have seen or received second drafts on most (and even third drafts on a couple). There's a nice balance of comics and the movies (live-action and animated) in the source material, and an impressive range of philosophical ideas discussed!
3) The Decline of the Individual: I'm currently reviewing page proofs, not having seen copyedits or a style sheet, so they're rough. I will have plenty to say about this rushed production process when it's over, but for now... hey, check out the spiffy cover to the right! Apparently it will be out on August 16, come high or high water (or my repeated pleas to slow things down).
Like a tired old man rising from his dining room table?
Nailed it.
At 2:32 PM yesterday (four days after my April 30 deadline), I emailed the manuscript for my latest book, The Decline of the Individual: Reconciling Autonomy with Community, to my editor at Palgrave Macmillan. As their marketing wizards somehow gleaned, this is the third book in my "triptych" on the individual and society, following The Manipulation of Choice (on nudge) and The Illusion of Well-Being (on happiness policy), all written for popular readers. When I started the first book, I had no idea that I would generalize the argument in the second, much less broaden it even more in the third... but that's what I did.
In short, this book discusses what I see as the decline in respect for the individual in recent years, based on developments in psychology, neuroscience, economics, sociology, technology, business, politics, and law. All of these fields have, in different ways, contributed to doubts about individuals' cognitive competence and moral competence, which have led to a devaluation of the individual as considered by government, business, and ourselves, and the elevation in its place of the pursuit of collective interests without the traditional safeguards for the rights and dignity of individuals. To counter this, I suggest a conception of the person as "individual in essence, social in orientation," based on Kant's ethics (and introduced in my scholarly book Kantian Ethics and Economics). This way of thinking about individuals reinforces their cognitive and moral competency and replaces the specter of "radical individualism" with a more nuanced combination of individuality and sociality, all intended to restore the appropriate balance between individual and social interests which has been upset in a recent years.
Ha, I said "in short," didn't I?
It is a very difficult book to summarize in just a few words. It has been very hard these past months to explain to family, friends, and colleagues what this book is about, especially compared to its predecessors. With this one, I couldn't just say "it criticizes nudges" or "it questions happiness policy" — "it examines the decline of the individual" is a little more vague.
This book was also much harder to write and took much more out of me, and I've tried to figure out why.
1) In general, it was a harder argument to wrap my head around and organize in a way that is (hopefully) clear to the reader. It took a long time to feel I had a good handle on the flow of the book, especially because I do draw on a wide range of ideas that don't fit naturally with each other. Also, I hadn't written this argument elsewhere before, whereas with the last two books I had the chance to rehearse their general arguments in earlier works (albeit for different audiences). Parts of it existed in various forms in other books, articles, and blog posts of mine, but not together in anything resembling this book.
2) I wrote most of this book during the academic semester, whereas I only wrote, at the most, initial bits of my earlier books then. Granted, I didn't teach this semester, but I still chaired my department, which involves a lot of paperwork, meetings, and email, not to mention the occasional crisis. It was a relatively light semester in terms of meetings, and my extraordinary department staff was tremendously helpful with paperwork and crises, but nonetheless it did seem especially difficult to write most of this book (particularly this book) during the semester.
3) The writing process itself with this book was different. When I write books, especially those for popular audiences, usually I draft the book straight through from beginning to end, to maintain a narrative flow and consistent tone. The writing itself takes longer because I'm inserting quotes and references, and polishing prose as I go, but when it's done it's pretty much done. With this book, however, I wrote the basic argument first, with little attention paid to language and almost no quotes or cites. On the second pass, I smoother out the language and inserted many quotes and references, which added 50% more words to the manuscript, and on the third pass I further massaged the language (and added a few more last-minute quotes and references).
This was a strange way to work, and I'm not sure I would do it again. In general, I'm not a "get the words down and make them pretty later" kind of writer, but with this book I came closer to that method than with previous books. The more I think about it, though, the more I realize that I had to do this one the way I did. Because I didn't have the entire plan of the argument settled from day one, I had to explore that aspect of the book first, constructing the framework and making sure it stood on its own before I could install the plumbing, electricity, and so on. When I got to the second stage, I went deep into the various fields I draw on to flesh out each section and chapter, which may have been too much to do in the first stage when I was trying to focus on the basic structure of the entire argument. Finally, the multiple passes enabled me to tie the material from the different areas together better than I might have been able to if I'd followed my normal linear approach.
4) I also used my time differently with this book. With my previous ones, I would spend most of my free time on the current project, working on it around classes, meetings, or time with the kids. But as I explained in my last update, for the first two and a half months I worked on this book, I devoted about two hours each morning to it, and then would do other things (or sometimes nothing) the rest of the day. It wasn't until April that I devoted all my free time to the book, taking advantage of a week and a half of spring break in the middle and a lighter-than-usual meeting schedule the rest of the month. It did help to be immersed in the book for the final month, as I had been with the earlier books; I never really felt I was writing a book until then, but merely working on a book, if that makes sense. I say that in full realization that many writers are forced to work that way and they manage to produce fantastic work; for that they have my eternal admiration and respect, because I found it very difficult to re-engage with the book each time I returned to it after so long.
5) Finally, I didn't start a book journal until the end of March when I started the second stage (major editing). It definitely would have helped me stayed engaged if I made an effort to reflect on my daily progress, especially when I spent so little time (relatively speaking) on the book each day with so much time in between.
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So what's next? Even though I cleared my plate at the end of March to devote April to finishing the book, I did put off a lot of things that came in the last month (making time only for things that needed to be done right away, such as writing letters of recommendation and editing timely blog posts). That means I have some things to catch up on, such as writing referee reports, working on edited books, and end-of-the-semester work at school, before I start my next book in June, a return to superheroes and philosophy, which I plan to write this summer in my usual fashion. The comics have been read, the notes have been taken and organized, and the outline has been drawn up and fleshed out, so all that remains is to think of the words and put them in the right order.
