Mark D. White

March Madness follows February Foolishness

It hasn't been quite a month since my last update--slowly improving. ;)

At the college, February was dominated by personnel issues (promotion and tenure), while March promises to be all about departmental restructuring and meeting job candidates. Not having to teach this semester makes more time for writing, but it's difficult to get my mind away from school for very long at a time.

Speaking of writing:

• Work continues apace on my two current book projects--I'm tracking my word count on a day-to-day basis and trying not to fall behind. (I said "trying.") I also have a short invited journal article and a book review to complete by May, so I have to try to work those in while maintaining progress on the books (and managing the department). Luckily, one of the book deadlines is "soft," but I have book projects lined up for when these two are done, so I'm wary of starting a domino effect.
• The volume on virtue ethics and economics that I'm editing with Jennifer Baker was approved last week by Oxford University Press; we should see a draft contract this week.
• I wrote two blog posts last week connected with The Manipulation of Choice: one at Economics and Ethics commenting on Cass Sunstein's recent review of another book on paternalism at The New York Review of Books, and a post at Psychology Today on the nudge concept in general.
• Also, Palgrave has kindly made the first chapter of The Manipulation of Choice available for free.
• Finally, I wrote two posts at The Comics Professor: one on Reed Richards' unique valentine to his wife in Fantastic Four, and another (more serious) one on Superman and fascism. (I hope to start a series of posts soon on Superman in preparation for the release of Superman and Philosophy soon.)
• Speaking of which, I just noticed that Wiley has made my chapter in Superman and Philosophy available for free.

I also have a few speaking engagements coming up:

• I'm discussing Kantian ethics and economics in the Colloquium on Market Institutions and Economic Processes at NYU this afternoon.
• I'm giving a talk on libertarian paternalism and nudges in the Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL) Speaker Series at the University of Richmond on March 28
• I'm presenting an evening lecture on Kant and economics at SUNY Fredonia on April 9.
• And I'm participating in one or two conferences in May: the Eastern Economic Association, at which I'll be a panel about teaching but not presenting a paper, and the Law and Society Association, at which I hope to talk about my current book project on law and economics. (I've yet to receive an acceptance for that one.)

Has it been a month already?

This update will be brief, folks--most of the month since I last posted has been spent working on my two books-in-progress and pushing other proposals forward, as well as dealing with the beginning of the spring semester. But I do have some items to mention:

• The Manipulation of Choice: Ethics and Libertarian Paternalism is finally available for purchase (at least on Amazon--I've yet to see a copy in the wild).
• The follow-up, The Illusion of Well-Being, was approved by Palgrave but I'm still working with my editors there on some issues with titling and format.
• Jennifer Baker and I are submitting our response to the reviewers of our edited volume on virtue ethics and economics to Oxford on Monday, and the editor is planning to present it to the delegates near the end of the month.
• I was asked by Praeger to edit a two-volume research volume on the insanity defense--very interested in that, and we're talking more about it now.
• Despite my plans to blog more in the new year, my activity is that area was very light this past month. (Eleven months to go, though!) I had one substantive post at Economics and Ethics, "The Illusion of Mathyness" (January 10) and one new post at Psychology Today, "Are Wives Who Are Supported by Their Husbands 'Prostitutes'?" (January 10), following up on Lynn Beisner's piece at Role/Reboot on the characterization given by Elizabeth Wurtzel in New York.
• I posted the call for papers for the Association for Social Economics sessions at the 2014 ASSA meetings, on the theme of law and social economics.
• Finally, I have several presentations in the next month, one at Baruch College on Wednesday, February 20th, and the other at the Colloquium on Market Institutions and Economic Processes at NYU on Monday, March 4.

Have to run to a meeting--if you're on the east coast, stay safe this weekend!

An update on recent conferences and book plans for the new year...

Happy new year, everyone! Turns out I have a lot to say about the last several weeks, which were taken up largely by two national conferences--and a lot of time in airports and airplanes!

The last weekend of December was the Eastern Division meetings of the American Philosophical Association in Atlanta, my first APA in about ten years and also my first time presenting. Thanks to my good friend and collaborator Jennifer A. Baker and the American Association for the Philosophic Study of Society, I was able to present my work on Kant and economics, chiefly from my book Kantian Ethics and Economics and the planned follow-up on moral judgment. The audience of philosophers responded well and included Jan Narveson and one of my most important influences on Kant, Thomas E. Hill, both of whom I had the chance to talk with at length during and after the session. I had to leave the conference early, but I was able to attend the other AAPSS session as well as a panel focusing on Jerry Gaus' latest book, The Order of Public Reason: A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bounded World.

The first weekend in January, as always, was the Allied Social Science Association (ASSA) meetings, this year in San Diego. These are always very busy meetings, especially the last couple years; as I did last year, let me share some of the highlights. (Many people are much busier at the ASSA meetings, I know, especially the graduate students and recent Ph.D.s interviewing around the clock!)

• I arrived in San Diego Thursday afternoon (January 6), settled in my hotel room for a bit before heading to the opening plenary of the Association for Social Economics (ASE), at which my Economics and Ethics co-blogger Jonathan B. Wight introduced Paul Zak, who spoke on "The Neuroeconomics of Trust," detailing some of his work on oxytocin and behavior. A reception followed, which gave me a chance to reconnect with my friends in the ASE before ducking out early (having been up since 1:30 AM California time!).
• After breakfast Saturday morning I chaired an 8:00 AM session for the ASE on "Dignity, Status, and Social Exchange," including my talk previewing my book-in-progress on law and social economics as well as my plans for next year's ASE/ASSA program (which I am putting together as president-elect for 2013).
• Following that session I went to the book exhibit and touched base with editors at various presses, including Oxford (where I met, for the first time, the UK economics editor with whom I've been discussing a volume on economics and virtue ethics to be co-edited with Jennifer Baker), Routledge (with whom I had a nice chat about future work), and Palgrave and Stanford (on whom more later). The rest of Friday afternoon was light, ending with the ASE membership meeting at which I presented my call for papers for the 2014 meetings (which I'll be posting online soon).
• Saturday started with the ASE's presidential breakfast, at which various officers of the organization announce awards and the previous year's president gives a presentation: this year it was Martha Starr, who gave a masterful overview of recent work on corporate social responsibility.
• At 11:00 AM I returned to the Palgrave booth at the book exhibit for a meet-and-greet focused on my next book, The Manipulation of Choice: Ethics and Libertarian Paternalism, which will be out near the end of the month. I can't say the crowds were overwhelming but a number of old friends did stop by to chat, which is always nice, and the Palgrave folks were extremely supportive.
• After a 12:30 PM meeting of the editorial board of the Forum for Social Economics, I spoke at a session co-sponsored by the Union of Radical Political Economists and the International Association for Feminist Economists titled "Prospects for the Profession: Forecasting the Future of Economics." My presentation tried to link the incorporation of formal philosophical ethics into economics modeling with ethical behavior of economists themselves, urging reflection among economists about whether the means and ends of their professional activities as economists lived up to their own standards and ideals. It was not my best work, and it raised many tough but fair questions that will give me much to think about if I continue work on this theme. Happily, I had a chance myself to reflect as I unwound over a beer and a burger with an old friend (and editor) afterwards!
• Before I left for the airport Sunday morning, I had a wonderful breakfast with my Stanford University Press editor, during which we discussed books, movies, and eventually our work together, including ongoing efforts to promote Kantian Ethics and Economics and plans for the follow-up on moral judgment that I hope to start writing near the end of this year.

All in all, these were two wonderful conference experiences, which is ironic given my recent plans to cut back on conferences. (I did write something on this topic that I planned to post, but it ended up far too depressing.) But thinking back, those plans reflected the anxiety of not being prepared to speak rather than the rest of the conference experience. In short, I've found it very difficult to write something for a conference since most of my writing is oriented towards books these days--and even when I plan to discuss a book-in-progress, it's a matter of luck (or extremely good planning, which, y'know, ha!) whether I'll have part of a book ready for presentation when the conference rolls around. This ties into my talk at the URPE/IAFE session (as I noted at the time): this behavior doesn't just create anxiety and dread for me, but it lets down the people who graciously accepted my proposals or invited me to speak, and reflects a lack of professionalism on my part. Despite the positive experience at these conferences, I am rethinking how I participate in conferences; for instance, I had already decided not to submit a paper to the 2013 Eastern Economic Association meetings for which I organize a number of sessions.

To wrap up the book news after the ASSA conference:

• The Manipulation of Choice comes out later this month.
• I submitted the final proofs for Superman and Philosophy; pre-orders are encouraging if the Amazon sales rank is any indication, which is wonderful.
• I'm working on the law and social economics book as well as the secret project, both of which I hope I can finish by summer; I've begun carefully scheduling the first half of this year, trying to find a system that works. (I read a book on personal productivity recently, David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, and have started implementing his system, which makes a lot of sense to me--I highly recommend it.)
• While in San Diego I received reviewer comments on my follow-up to The Manipulation of Choice which were very positive and helpful, and to which I replied yesterday. (Not sure of the title yet, but people seem to like The Illusion of Well-Being.) Ideally I would start this book late this summer after the other two are finished, with the hope of having it done by the end of the year.
• My outline for the book on moral judgment (the follow-up to Kantian Ethics and Economics) is still a bit sparse, so I suggested to my Stanford editor that I might need to write a bit of it before submitting a proposal, to which she agreed. If everything else goes according to plan, I would start of this near the end of this year--just before the next ASSA meetings.
• The edited volume on economics and virtue ethics continues its progress at Oxford; the UK editor informed me he is very close to presenting our proposal, the reviewers' comments, and Jennifer's and my response, to his board.

Finally, I have no new blog posts to report since my last post, but I do hope to post regularly across my several blogs this year. (If I made resolutions, that would be my main one for this year.) I also want to make more time for reading books and articles other than what I need to write my books, which I'm sure will prompt ideas for blog posts. So I hope to have more blog activity to report here in the near future (including some reflections on writing and academic life at this very blog).

Another year passes—have I figured anything out yet?

I couldn't let a birthday pass without a reflective birthday post—and I worked quite a bit on one yesterday—but I don't know if I can improve on last year's post at The Good Men Project. I don't think I've progressed in terms of any of the issues described in that post, such as lack of direction or purpose. I've gotten things done, and I certainly have many things planned, but as we all know it's one thing to plan and another thing entirely to do. So I just soldier on, hoping to come across the answers on the way.

In terms of updates:

• I'm working on the proofs for Superman and Philosophy and anticipating the release of The Manipulation of Choice next month. (I understand Palgrave is arranging for a meet-and-greet at the ASSA meetings next weekend.)
• My article "A Modest Comment on McMullin: A Kantian Account of Modesty" was accepted by The Journal of Philosophical Research; this article grew out of a series of posts at Psychology Today discussing Irene McMullin's paper on modesty. (See here for more.)
• I wrote a couple pieces on the Iowa Supreme Court case dealing with the dentist who fired his assistant for posing a threat to his marriage, one at The Good Men Project (December 22) and another at Psychology Today (December 23).
• I had another new post at Psychology Today as well, "Relationships Should Not Be About Exchange" (December 21).
• Finally, I commented on the historic Amazing Spider-Man #700 at The Comics Professor.

I'm leaving in a few minutes to talk about my work on Kant and economics at a session at the American Philosophical Association meetings in Atlanta. Wish me luck, and I wish you all a happy new year!

A fresh batch of updates on books, blog, and Blu rays

Wow, an update is less than a month--it's like a Christmas miracle. ;)

The biggest news: the cover for Superman and Philosophy is finally available (as you can see to your right and also in the "book batch" to the left). I also posted the table of contents at The Comics Professor (and to the page for the book at this site as well). As I said before, I really like how the layout and title font match Batman and Philosophy--I hope the Superman book finds the same devoted audience that the Batman book did.

In other superhero-and-philosophy news, my lead chapter from The Avengers and Philosophy, "Superhuman Ethics Class with the Avengers Prime," will be excerpted in issue 60 of The Philosophers' Magazine. (The chapter in its entirety is available for free here, courtesy of Wiley-Blackwell.)

Also, the Blu ray for The Dark Knight Rises is out (or--ahem--so I'm told), and I'm featured on disc 2 in the documentary on the Batmobile. See the YouTube preview below:

Meanwhile, I'm trying finish up the semester and preparing for the American Philosophical Association and Allied Social Science Associations meetings while proofing and indexing The Manipulation of Choice--unlike most of my work, I'm very happy with how this book turned out. For that reason and several others (including thematic similarity and intended audience), I decided to reformat the idea for my Stanford Brief into a follow-up to The Manipulation of Choice. The proposal is currently under review at Palgrave, and I hope to start reworking the journal editorial based on its theme soon. (It was a huge relief to make that decision--you'll remember from my previous post how this was driving me nuts.)

Finally, today's Hot Topic at Psychology Today is "I Love Me!", and it leads off with two of my posts ("Loving Yourself—How Important Is It?" and "Can Self-Compassion Help the Self-Loathing Person?"). (For more of my posts on self-loathing, see here.) I also have a new PT post since my last update: "Knowing the One You Love: Lessons from 'The Vow'" (November 23).

A little bit crazy... (Looking back at the last month.)

Well that was quite a month.

The less said about Sandy, the better. You've seen the pictures, you've heard the stories--the impact on me and those close to me was trivial compared to most.

The less said about my day job the better--maybe I'll talk about this more once the dust settles. (Ooh, cryptic!)

So what is there to relay to you good people?

• I've seen the final cover to Superman and Philosophy, and it's fantastic--once it's online I'll link to it. I just approved the copyedits also--it's great to watch this project approach completion.
• I expect the page proofs for The Manipulation of Choice on Monday, so I'll be checking those and preparing the index for several weeks after that. I recently approved the back cover copy, including terrific blurbs from Walter Olson (Cato Institute, Overlawyered) and Jonathan Wight (University of Richmond, Economics and Ethics).
• I started working up the proposal for my follow-up to Kantian Ethics and Economics with my editor at Stanford University Press, focusing on judgment in ethics and economics. I hope to start working on this after I finish up my two books next spring.

What about my Stanford Brief, you aks? Hmm... how much time ya got?

I've gone back and forth, around and around... I've been all over the place with this. I know what I want to say, the core idea, and I think it's important. Very important. But I can't settle on a way to say it--the forum, the approach, the voice, anything. It could be a blog post and it could be a full-length book; it just depends on how elaborate I get and the amount of background information I give. Over the last month I've discovered some people who have said similar things--which makes me feel foolish and ready to pack it in--until I realize that in other ways they miss the point. Then I wonder if I'm just repackaging existing concepts a different way--a worthy enterprise, to be sure, but perhaps not worthy of a dedicated book (or even a journal article). But the next day I'll wake up and see an entirely different way to present it--maybe an academic trade like The Manipulation of Choice, taking my argument to "the people."

And strangely enough, I've enjoyed this process--and that's not a word I use lightly. I'm charged up about this, reading a tremendous amount of material, and bouncing ideas off my Stanford editor (who is incredibly supportive and helpful but increasingly amused at the same time). I'm experiencing flow, which is truly wonderful. At the same time it's driving me just a little bit crazy, and preventing me from working on much else (including the two books I have under contract). But it's rare that I'm driven this strongly, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let this go. There's something here; I just need to find it.

Oh well. I'm off to New Orleans this afternoon for the Southern Economic Association meetings where I'll talk about libertarian paternalism. Lots of time to ponder plans on the way there and back.

Another month passes: books, blogs, and The Norton Sampler

I've been spending a lot of long days at school the last several weeks, dealing with several major developments at the college, some good and some bad. That hasn't left a lot of time for writing, but I did manage a little, and there is some news to report on other fronts as well.

• My editor at Stanford University Press read my outline and extended synopsis of my proposed Stanford Brief and offered some great advice along with encouragement; I hope to start writing that in earnest later today. (More details as it move along.)
• Black Sabbath and Philosophy: Mastering Reality, edited by William Irwin, was published, featuring a chapter I wrote that asks whether bands (like Sabbath) should change their names as original members leave (related to issues of identity discussed by other contributors). The book also features one of my favorite taglines that we tack onto our short contributor bios.
• I was shown the first cover mock-up for Superman and Philosophy (which is now listed on Amazon) and I think it's great; it evokes Batman and Philosophy in its overall design, which I like. (I'll also share that when it's finalized.)
• My "secret" book project is now under contract, but I'm keeping that under wraps for the time being. It will, however, contribute to a very busy spring (along with writing Law and Social Economics for Palgrave) and more than validates my decision to take a sabbatical in the spring!

In terms of blogging, I contributed one new substantive post to Economics and Ethics, "Have economists ignored clinical depression?" (October 5) and three new posts to Psychology Today: a pair of posts looking at relationships in terms of contract law, "Is Being Dumped Like a Breach of Contract?" (September 26) and "What Can We Learn from Break-Ups—and Can We Sue?" (October 2), as well as a new post on self-loathing, "Hypersensitivity Cuts Both Ways" (October 19). (I also performed a long-overdue update on this site's index of my PT posts.)

Finally—and this still blows my mind, even after knowing about it for several months—my op-ed on Batman and torture, written with my Batman and Philosophy co-editor Rob Arp and originally published in The Boston Globe in 2008 (but more easily accessed from The New York Times), will be included in the eighth edition of The Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition. The table of contents can be found here (I'm in chapter 12). That my writing will be used as a model for English composition students is incredible; that it's an essay about Batman is awesome.

What I'm doing this fall: still whittling down my summer to-do list

As I find myself one month into the fall semester, teaching and chairing are now my top priorities, but I still managed to get some writing done as I continue to check things off of my summer to-do list. Foremost among the items struck are the first draft of my chapter for The Good Wife and Philosophy and a multi-volume book review for the Review of Social Economy. Next on my list: draft an editorial feature for the same Review previewing the short ebook I'm writing, tentatively for publication as a Stanford Brief.

When those things are done (or at least well under way), I can begin thinking about books (on which more below) as well as presentations and/or papers for the trio of conferences in upcoming months: the Southern Economic Association meetings in New Orleans in mid-November, the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division meetings in Atlanta in late December, and the Allied Social Science Association meetings in San Diego a week later in early January. (Can I use to Kickstarter to fund these?)

In book news, Law and Social Economics is now under contract with Palgrave Macmillan for inclusion in my series "Perspectives from Social Economics." My secret book project must remain secret for now, but I am expecting final word on it very soon. Luckily my sabbatical for spring looks to be approved soon, so I will be able to finish the law book--and possibly the other one--by June. Finally, Superman and Philosophy now has a page at the Wiley site, but no cover and details as of yet.

I've been profoundly inactive online lately, but I did manage a post this past Wednesday at The Comics Professor on the recent election of Captain America to the United States presidency to the beleagured Marvel Ultimate Comics Universe, which was reprinted at the The Good Men Project later in the week. And also at GMP, I contributed a post titled "'Why Men Fail'? How about 'How Can We Succeed?'" commenting on David Brooks' recent New York Times column on Hanna Rosin's much-talked-about book The End of Men: And the Rise of Women.

FInally, I've started to update this site a bit, including updating the bio and articles/chapters pages as well as redesigning the books page. Little by little this site will be complete!

Another summer ends, and with it, work on another book

Summer is over, my friends, at least for me. As I write this, it is the second day of fall semester, and I just submitted the manuscript for Superman and Philosophy--missed the end of summer by two days, but that's OK. More news on that book as it works through the production process.

All in all, it was a good summer, finishing both the Superman book and The Manipulation of Choice. There were a few things on my to-do list that I didn't get to, but they weren't urgent (or so I tell myself!). I did get several other things done, including getting two new book projects off the ground, one of which (Law and Social Economics) I should hear news about this week, and the other (still a secret) I hope to hear something next week. Plus, a third, super-secret project, which I started plotting. (Yes, I said plotting. Be very scared.)

I did get two new posts up at Psychology Today since my last update: "Your Dream Lover Come True: Lessons from 'Ruby Sparks'" (August 14) and "Do We 'Grade' Potential Partners Like Teachers Grade Exams?" (August 17). I have ideas for several more, so I hope to return to blogging at PT more regularly (as well as Economics and Ethics and The Comics Professor).

In the meantime, I delve back into work for my department at school--which never stopped but did slow down nicely for the summer, even through August, which was very intense the previous summer--as well as writing a chapter on legal realism for The Good Wife and Philosophy (which involves catching up on episodes not yet seen and reviewing older ones for instances of judges behaving badly). Then I need to finish off a couple projects that I set aside to finish the Superman book before I start on the new things mentioned above. (Good thing I'm taking a sabbatical in the spring!)

Has it been a month already?

Man, I'm horrible at this "regular updates" thing. I still haven't returned to my earlier levels of online activity, so I'm hesitant to update until I have some things to tell you about. But most things are still in the planning stages, although they're further along than last time I "talked" to you. (How rude of me--how are you doing?)

The biggest news is a few weeks old by now: on July 23 I handed in the manuscript of my latest book, The Manipulation of Choice: Ethics and Libertarian Paternalism, which is now in production at Palgrave Macmillan. I have a new book proposal under consideration with them, another one slowly moving along at Oxford University Press, and another one under development for yet another press. Several other smaller writing projects, ranging from multi-book reviews and short ebooks, compete for my attention as I finish up work on Superman and Philosophy and "look forward" to returning to school fulltime in two weeks. (Due to the writing workload and a growing conference schedule, however, I am planning to take my first sabbatical in 15 years this coming spring.)

As Phyllis Diller says in A Bug's Life, "That's our lot in life. It's not a lot, but it's our life."

Here's what I've managed to do online the last month or so (mostly the last week!):

• One post at Psychology Today (this morning, in fact), "Can Love Conquer All?", based on watching 1954's Brigadoon and 2011's Like Crazy one after the other a few weeks ago.
• Several substantive posts at Economics and Ethics: "How Much Inequality Do We Want? This Is the Wrong Question" (August 2), "Chick-fil-A, Corporate Social Responsbility, and Ethical Consumption" (August 8), and "Nutritional labeling, nudges, and a 'cynical view of human nature'" (August 9).
• My friend Matt Finch included me in a conversation with Nick Sousanis and Martyn Pedler, in a piece he wrote about the way superhero comics deal with real-world issues (July 30).

In other news, I noticed (thanks to Google Alerts) that The Avengers and Philosophy and Iron Man and Philosophy are both available as audiobooks from Audible.com. (Unlike Batman and Philosophy, I didn't narrate the new ones--I didn't even know about them!)

Finally, I've received some good feedback on my piece on the ethics of adultery in the latest print issue of Psychology Today--I have a radio interview at the end of the month and I received an inquiry email from an agent with whom I had a great conversation last week.

Now if I could only get an extension on summer (heat and all). I'll look into that...