Diss end in sight and Hon Fest.

I can see the end of my dissertation draft now. I am working to fill in holes while I stall over writing the more important parts. Boring things like stating what assumptions Nietzsche works under and that my discussion of Nietzsche will work under (no free will, order of rank, etc.) and explaining why there is not a lot of secondary Nietzsche work (because Nietzsche is the means to what the diss is about and because, well, I can’t find much on his philosophy of hate and enmity).

I did get to work William James — what actually brought me to Carbondale, in fact — into my solutions discussion. His ideas on energy and channeling in “The Energies of Men” and “The Moral Equivalent of War” sound like Nietzsche’s sublimation, but with the whole free will thing, etc. And I get to watch Batman Begins and possibly V for Vendetta again to discuss what to do when there is someone you just plain should hate. Of course, since the entire study brackets all moral and ethical concerns and is very much Pragmatic in a Jamesian spirit, it’s difficult to justify why we should hate some people, since it so often appears that such people are morally evil.

I did realize that in my personal life I have not bracketed the moral in favor of the Pragmatic as much as I had thought and possibly tried to do, but I don’t think that’s necessarily bad. I confessed to reading about Buddhism last week, and someone who knows me pretty well said told me that they always think of me as a Transcendentalist who won’t move out of the city. Which I take as a compliment. A walk through the tree-shaded streets of Roland Park on my way to breakfast does get me going as much as the coffee does.

And don’t forget Hon Fest if you are in or near Baltimore this weekend. My parents life 1/2 a block above the The Avenue, and my Mom is having a party at noon, complete with Baltimore-eese invitations I wrote (email me if you wanna read them). We’ll be eating and drinking out of recycled plastic all day. You might see me — maybe I’ll wear my “What Would Nietzsche Do?” shirt. It’s red.