Elliot A. de Vries

Not a Philosophy Consultant

While looking for ideas about how to structure this site, I found —sitting at #4 on some website’s "Best Personal Websites" list—

Joe Schmoe: Philosophy Consultant

Hilarious, pompous and awful. Useless. Nevertheless, I ought to give Schmoe some credit. The instant I saw this "best personal website" I knew something it was critical for my own site to convey (see above, and following). No one needs a philosophy consultant. And if you think you might, consider:

I once heard an intellectual historian explain how we could claim to understand what a historical figure like Machiavelli was “up to” in his published work—what he took himself to be doing or achieving. The historian’s answer was that there’s no substitute for omniscience: one simply has to know enough. And what one needs to know are facts. The more facts you know about Machiavelli, his milieu, his station, and the literary traditions in which he participated, the more distinct and concrete your understanding of just what he was “up to” becomes. I don’t think this is a lesson that’s limited to intellectual history.

There are a few things I’d like to know enough about.