Being and Place – Plan of Action!
My Current Research
http://pcritchley2.wixsite.com/beingandplace/being-and-place
My new plans
My plan is to set up my own e-publishing company and publish this big book as a series of short, concise, little books organised around a very clear theme. I already have a lot of texts, which I rather optimistically called "introductions". They are actually book-length philosophical essays containing many good things and interesting materials. I also have some very interesting books on Dante and the musical model of the universe (“Dante: The Sweet Symphony of Paradise”); God, meaning, purpose and physics (“The Search for Meaning in the Universe: Seeing God in the Face of the Other”); something on the feminist criticism of philosophy as a male projection, with good comment on Luce Irigaray (“Sensible Transcendence”); the case for a moral ecology based upon transcendent norms (“The Ecology of the Good”); something on the relation of philosophy to the world (“The Fabric of the Universe”); the need to establish a relation between individuals and society and society and the natural world (“Being Human”); relations between human society and the more-than-human world that enfolds and sustains us (“Earth Spirits: Carnal Knowledge”). These were all the result of reading in preparation for writing “Being and Place”, but they have become substantial pieces of writing in their own right, and they will take too much time and energy to edit down to the size of an Introduction.
So I have decided to break down the “Being in Place” big book into a series of short to-the-point books. I can't manage the one big book. There is too much material to digest and integrate. I can't do it. The work of synthesis, even if it were possible, would generalise and dilute the message, giving neither breadth nor width. So the plan is to put the chapters out separately as self-contained books in themselves. I shall focus on the important bits first - Philosophical Foundations (get first principles right, and the rest will follow); the Eco-Republic next (forms of governance); then the Economics of Well Being (the system of needs and their provision and satisfaction). In other words, theoretic reason and practical reason, the key fields. Then there will be “Being and Place” as an overview of the relation between reason, nature and culture. Then the science (supporting what, philosophically and ethically, I ought to have already established independently of the world of "fact". But facts are necessary. There’s be books on psychology, spirituality, eco-towns and cities, alternate technics. It all sounds good, and I can’t wait to start writing, as opposed to endlessly mithering over the relations of the parts to the whole.
This is my plan of action, and it makes good sense. Instead of trying - and failing miserably - to write the theory of everything, I shall engage in close sharp reasoning, generating analysis and synthesis with a clear theme and writing nicely sized, digestible books that flow effortlessly and do not exhaust the patience of the reader. The "chapters" I have are really self-contained books, and that is how I shall write them. I've been wasting my time in trying to synthesise in the abstract.
I got the idea when I thought of Rousseau, the relation between natural law and rational freedom, and a creative philosophy beyond both. Then I thought ... why write that? That is actually the Phil Foundations of Being and Place - do the parts as separate self-contained books. (And write the Rousseau and then the Natural Law and Rational Freedom book as well!).
It’s a plan of action that moves, rather than meanders and stalls. And I can write very quickly when the thread is clear and alive.