Thursday, May 4, 2017

The History Of An Essay

This is the brief history of an essay which has just been scheduled for publication in the weekly Philosophical Investigations. It was originally submitted to the journal The Philosopher, but The Philosopher has an inimitable style, which not many people succeed in blending with -- even if they wrote a very good article. However if a piece looks interesting, we propose to the author that we publish it in Philosophical Investigations instead. In this case, the task now fell to me of reducing a 3000 word article to a 700 word essay. That was quite a challenge -- but the author was happy with my work, then my co-editor was happy (with a few small changes). OBSERVATION: Based on a series of essays by the famous Dr. Samuel Johnson, it is about "the pleasures of idle thought", which come back to bite you. There is no alternative to "engaging with life's biggest questions".

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