What is this ReformedPhilosophy.com?

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February 3, 2010

Why the Header Change?

Posted by Ian M. Church under What is this ReformedPhilosophy.com?
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Some of you may have noticed I have recently changed the text under “ReformedPhilosophy.com” in the header. Where it now reads “The Philosophy Blog of Ian M. Church” it use to read “From Epistemology, to Metaphysics, to Ethics… Searching for Reformed Philosophy.” There are two reasons for such a change:

  1. Predominantly, to signify a change in the general nature of the blog. Given my aforementioned blogging dilemma, I find myself significantly hindered in the amount of constructive philosophical content I am able and willing to post. Where “From Epistemology…” seems to communicated that the reader should look for a certain species of constructive philosophical content, my hope is that by changing the header-text to “The Philosophy Blog of Ian Church” I am more honestly communicating what a reader should expect from this blog – namely, a diverse range of posts all relating to philosophy from some shmuck.
  2. To signify a change in the specific aim of the blog.  Though it is certainly still my personal ambition to explore the philosophical substance of Christianity and, more specifically, of Reformed theology, a reader of ReformedPhilosophy.com shouldn’t look for every post to be an expression of “…Searching for Reformed Philosophy.” I simply don’t have the expertise or time right now to competently (cf. my blogging dilemma) explore Reformed/Christian metaphysics or Reformed/Christian aesthetics, say. Perhaps someday ReformedPhilosophy.com can host a team of philosophers covering an eclectic variety topics, but that’s not the current situation. Right now, ReformedPhilosopy.com is simply my modest philosophy blog where I occasionally post on the various things I am working on or thinking about – occasionally “Searching for Reformed Philosophy” but far more often simply plunking away at the general affairs surrounding a Christian doctoral student in philosophy.

To be sure, other changes have occurred and will be occurring as well; I will be doing some housekeeping and deleting posts that I now feel are sub-par or obsolete (I have, after all, been running this blog since my masters degree) for whatever reason. Nevertheless, that’s what’s going on these days here at ReformedPhilosophy.com. I hope you continue to enjoy the blog even in its humble state.

 

March 1, 2009

A Ph.D. Student’s Blogging Dilemma

Posted by Ian M. Church under What is this ReformedPhilosophy.com?
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Blogging is, as far as I can tell, ‘the thing to do’ in philosophy these days, so I have an interest in both participating in that world and in building a viable and robust blog for my name to be attached to; as you may have noticed, however, I have been doing a less then admirable job of writing for Reformed Philosophy as of late. This is because I have been wrestling with a dilemma – a dilemma concerning what to post. On the one hand, as a Ph.D. student who is pursuing a career in academia, I want to be very protective of my work. Given the current job market, there is tremendous pressure to publish, so anything I’ve spent a suitable amount of time polishing (especially anything directly related to my dissertation) I shouldn’t post since someone might snag it and publish it before I get the chance. On the other hand, I don’t want to post something that I haven’t spent enough time polishing, since, after all, my name will still be attached to it. I certainly have my pocket-hypotheses on a wide array of topics, but I have not invested the time or done the research to write them in a professional fashion.

So as it stands, I don’t want to post work that I’ve spent sufficient time polishing, but, then again, I don’t want to post work that I haven’t spent sufficient time polishing either. What, then, is a blogging Ph.D. student to do? I’m not entirely sure. One answer is to post work that is in the grey area in between publishable and mere opinion; topics that I have done some research on but not enough to where I’ll be able to publish on the matter anytime soon. But can this be right? Is the value and purpose of a philosophy blog really so limited? To be fair, one can post on more than philosophy proper, one can post on relevant news in current affairs, book reviews, etc.; nonetheless, surely philosophy (proper) is or should be a pillar of any philosophy blog.

I don’t have a great answer for this dilemma yet; any feedback, as always, is appreciated.