This blog is not fun to read at the moment. I realize that. Hopefully, it will get back to some kind of normality in a few days when things are calming down. Here are a few things I have done the past week instead of blogging.
On Monday, I was interviewed by the Moderate Party’s nominating committee. The interview went well, and I got the impression the two questioners were pleased with my performance. I will probably regret writing this on my blog, but I have the strange feeling that this might actually take me all the way to the Swedish Parliament. In the past few weeks, things have happened that make me think I just might be a popular candidate.
During the week, I have prepared for a big exam on Friday. The topic is Richard M. Hare, the British philosopher most famous for his meta-ethical theory of prescriptivism. When I began to read his three books, I thought he might actually have found a middle road between strict realism and non-cognitive emotivism; but as the reading progressed, the feeling that he is simply naïve and/or mad gained strength. In short, what Hare is saying over a few hundred pages is, simply, that people ought to try to think rationally about ethical dilemmas by considering other people’s preferences before making judgements. Look, I said it one sentence!
My other assignment this week is a short seminar paper on Derek Parfit, a British philosopher who hates ethical egoism so much he writes a 500-page book about it without actually bother with the correct definition. If there were an award for wasting time on refuting straw-man arguments, Parfit would win it. Not even Swedish philosopher Roland Poirier Martinsson’s latest fantasies about liberals would stand a chance.
And finally, my big project for the semester will be my thesis on identity politics, ethics, and how the democratic state should treat its minority groups. I will write more about this later.
My regular political work is taking its fair share of my time as well. All this has left me with only a few minutes a day to answer emails and post blog entries.