Reading Roundup 2006
- Posted by Andrew Bailey on Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 4:54 PM
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I read a lot in 2005 and compiled a list of my favorite texts; I here do the same for 2006. Despite having begun graduate studies this fall, this list is much shorter than the last. It seems that I read and remembered much less (or I was subject to a rather poor selection of texts!). But here are four good books, or at least, ones I enjoyed reading this year:
• Knowledge and Lotteries, by John Hawthorne. There is little doubt, I think, that Hawthorne is one of the best youngish philosophers alive today. And this is a fine example of his work. The book is well-researched, contains many novel insights, and genuinely moves forward several debates in epistemology. In particular, I liked the chapter on epistemic closure. My review of the book is here.
• Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. Somehow I didn't appreciate the Ender books when I first read them a few years back. But that's changed now. These books are of course great fun to read, but they're also quite interesting. In particular, Card masterfully integrates mystery and the ethical life into his stories. The thought life of his creatures of fiction centers around the moral dilemmas they find themselves in and the effects of the same. I'd guess that Card is something of a virtue theorist, given his emphasis on how decisions shape character and on the relevance of moral exemplars to the psychology of his creatures.
• Objects and Persons, by Trenton Merricks. A delightful study in metaphysics, especially for the refreshing and clear writing. Merricks presses a novel argument for eliminativism about material objects (except for us humans!) and covers many interesting issues in the process. Further comments on the book here.
• Gender Basics, edited by Anne Minas. Desk copies of textbooks tend to randomly show up in the philosophy department lounge at Notre Dame and that's how I ran into this volume. This book contains many interesting essays on identity, gender, sexuality, race, and feminism. Given the variety of contributors, the quality is a little uneven, but the highlights are well worth reading and reflecting on. I was also pleased to see that Robert Nozick's fascinating meditations on love and sexuality (from The Examined Life) made it into this volume.
