The Journey of One Thousand States of Affairs Begins with the Moving of One Couch...

Some people wonder just what it is, exactly, that philosophers do. Sometimes I wonder just what it is that philosophers do. Perhaps that is why I feel that I need to spend an indefinite number of years as a graduate student--whatever it is that we do, I am apparently committed to spend sufficient time, at the graduate level, worrying about what we are doing so that I may someday professionally worry about it. Perhaps, after reading this blog, you will come to the conclusion that we apparently don't have enough to do. And, perhaps, you are right.

At any rate, to return to the original concern: mathematians do math, astronomers do astronomy, scientists do science, zoologists do zoology...so, by analogy, philosophers do philosophy. This may not shed much light on the situation. We know (basically) what it is to do math, astronomy, science and zoology. No one, I hope, is genuinely stumped with respect to guessing what is the general subject of study in these fields. Philosophy is a different sort of critter. On the one hand, we aren't entirely sure what the subject(s) of study are in our field (disagreement runs rampant on that one) nor are we entirely sure (no general consensus) what is the nature of that which exists, how well our language fits the world, what we ought to do nor what in the world, precisely, is a mind. And this is not an exhaustive list. On the other hand, "stuff," "Evil Demon" and "rigid designator" are all technical vocabulary terms, so that's definitely a plus...

I am attending a graduate program that focuses primarily on the analytic tradition. Since entering this program, I have encountered several pluralists. Pluralists believe that there are many kinds of facts. Having never been exposed to pluralism, I began to wonder to myself, what other kinds of facts could there be? Though it goes against my long-standing commitment to monism (that there is only one kind of fact, physical facts), I decided that my commitment to being an honest philosopher was stronger still. There are plenty of good people wondering about non-physical and/or moral facts. I wanted to bring something new to the table.

In the process of my inquiry into what kinds of facts there might be, I came across a kind of fact which appeared to be underrepresented in current mainstream philosophical literature--feng shui facts! I wondered, what are the ontological implications of feng shui facts? Are they reducible to physical facts? Should we be realists about feng shui facts? Instrumentalists?

I intend for this blog to track my research into the nature of feng shui facts. More to come soon...