Minutes Worked	60
Words/paragraphs Written	unclear, though the LLP draft has a new bench mark (8000 words)
Type of Writing	compiling notes
Reflections on this writing	I’ve been promising myself this goal “in the next writing session” for months now
Project	LLP
Goals for next time	to work on something else

Minutes Worked	60
Words/paragraphs Written	681 words, though a few where cut and pasted
Type of Writing	composition
Reflections on this writing	well, 681 is better than 7
Project	LLP
Goals for next time	1000 words, I know its silly to aim for at this point, but I think that I can do it.

Minutes Worked	75
Words/paragraphs Written	1537
Type of Writing	various things, mostly typing notes
Reflections on this writing	I hope todays output maked sense, because it felt like mindless typing, but I finally got near the word count I need.
Project	LLP, of course
Goals for next time	ever forward!!!

Writing journal #15

Minutes Worked	60
Words/paragraphs Written	frankly, I’m not sure, but it sure felt good
Type of Writing	typing notes and composition
Reflections on this writing	This essay is FINALLY beginning to take shape
Project	LLP
Goals for next time	20 minutes. I’m really hoping not to start out too fast and getting caught in a short sprint. This is for the long term.

What I’m Reading 4: Library of Living Philosophers

Jaakko and I

Originally uploaded by pbroderi.

I don’t seriously expect that anyone is reading my writing journal entries. The idea behind the journal is just to record

Nonetheless, I have some responsibilities to my imagined audience. Most entries have included the abbreviation LLP which stands for Library of Living Philosophers.

The most recent volume of this prestigious series is dedicated to Jaakko Hintikka who was my dissertation advisor and mentor. (That’s us in the picture.) At his suggestion, I have been working on a review essay which compares his volume to the first in the series, which was dedicated to John Dewey.

Until today, this has been a frustrating exercise to say the least. I’ve read the entire Dewey volume. I do not recommend this exercise to anyone. If you’ve got an interest in specific issues of Dewey scholarship then selective reading might be interesting. Russell’s essay in particular, deserves to be read, albeit not very often.

According to the founder of this series, the Library of Living Philsophers has been to put interpretative questions to great philosophers before they die in hope of eliminating some of the more obvious debates over what the philosopher meant. This means that truly difficult interpretative debates can begin upon the philosopher’s demise.

Today I started working through Jaakko’s autobiographical essay. For the first time since I started can I claim to enjoy this project. Dewey’s essay was assembled by his daughter and lacks the immediacy that can be found in other volumes in this series. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I’ve known JH for over a decade and I was a witness to some of the episodes that he chronicles.

Both volumes illustrate the connection between the intellectual life of a philosopher and their philosophical projects. I don’t mean just in the simple fashion that Dewey’s rural boyhood influenced his practical theories of education, but by illustrating great minds engaged in serious issues. The LLPs volumes chronicle great philosophers wrestling with their central problems by providing both commentary on that philosopher but unpolished examples of the philosopher actually engaged in that work.
There aren’t many opportunities to really get at the fire that drives analytic philosophy. JH provides a model of what a philosopher is supposed to be or, at least, supposed to do. Sio does John Dewey. I’m working through this project at a moment when it seems very
likely that I’ll be leaving philosophy.
* This picture was an important motivator in my recent return to regular exercise.

writing journal #8

Minutes Worked	20
Words/paragraphs Written	150/1
Type of Writing	narrative paragraph to a cfp
Reflections on this writing	pretty good
Project	Ethics of Science
Goals for next time

One more week to spring break. There are so many things built up on my list of things to do that they could easily swamp my writing, I’m not going to let that happen.

writing journal #7

Yeah, this entry is post dated, but I really tried to write yesterday, and even though I accomplished exactly nothing, it was interesting to see the method of my procrastination. It’s that time of semester when the grading starts to pile up. I promised myself that I would write before I graded anything. Instead, I found myself moving around piles of paper. The cycle seemed to go like this:

1. Ask: What should I work on?
2. Decide that I needed to organize my various projects before I could start working on any of them
3. Move around stacks of paper trying to get some order
4. Instead of working to organize writing projects, I would find myself moving around class materials, especially piles of homework
5. Realize that I’m not writing, return to step 1

Tomorrow, that is today, I am going to just catch up with homework grading and see how that works. It should go quickly since it’s all so well organized at this point.

Minutes Worked	0
Words/paragraphs Written	0
Type of Writing	non-existent
Reflections on this writing	see below
Project	n/a
Goals for next time

It’s week 8, about half way through the semester, and I’m keeping true to form. Any resolutions I made at the beginning of the semester have been defeated, any research I did over the break has composted into so much more office litter.

writing journal #6

Minutes Worked	15 minutes
Words/paragraphs Written	119 worsds/ two paragraphs
Type of Writing	drafting an argument
Reflections on this writing	felt terrible and worthless, it was like pulling teeth to begin with, what I came up with didn’t lead anywhere, it was just an opening, if I could figure out my problem today, I think I’d be on track to becoming more productive
Project	vaguely related to lots of things
Goals for next time	get started in the morning

Wow, I think this journal entry was more interesting than the crap I actually wrote.