Continental Philosophy

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4 Responses to “Some etexts”

1. Greg Recco Says:
   May 17th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

   The last link provided here points to a page that provides scanned versions of recently published translations of books by Nancy. I know the intense labor that goes into producing such translations, as well as the meager material benefits that accrue to translators from such production. Do you really want to assist in the infringement of the few rights that translators and small academic presses have? Can there be any justification for such action?

2. Farhang Erfani Says:
   May 17th, 2008 at 8:48 pm

   Let me answer to the best of my abilities.

   To begin with, this is a bulletin board and I post links that are sent. Of course I have discretion over what is posted so I ought to justify the reason why I post the material.

   As faculty of a university, I buy these books and ask my university to buy them too. I recognize the hard work; I am in the middle of publishing a collection of essays and I have done my own share of translations. Not every one can afford these books. Those of us who can afford them should and in fact do buy the books. Reading books beat reading pdf documents. By a long shot. People who benefit from such pdfs seem to be graduate students as well as people who live in the developing world. Notice the origin of the site that you are blaming; Nancy is not that available in Turkey from what I understand. While I respect the work put into these materials, I also want them read by those who cannot afford it otherwise.

   I will continue supporting academic presses. I will continue buying the material; I can afford that. But if I get links and it helps those who cannot afford it, I post them.

3. Michael Austin Says:
   May 18th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

   That is a great answer. Thanks for supporting us poor grad students.

4. Benjamin Beebe Says:
   May 21st, 2008 at 4:13 pm

   This is the first time I have written to you though it is many times I
   have used you and your labor. I am a young American exile living in
   central europe, Prague Czech Republic to be specific. I only recently,
   about two months ago, discovered your blog, and your links. In this
   recent argument you have become entagled in I can only offer you a
   remote anecdote of consolation and the assurance that you are making a
   definitive difference. A difference in attitudes, in access, in image
   production, and in my and our lives. I will explain and perhaps you
   may forgive the more reified form of personal explication–the
   arguments of intellectual property are not in the least abstract
   though touch on precisely those issues– I would rather approach you
   personally.

   I, having left an affluent and conservative American University after
   receiving my masters degree some five years ago, have applied myself
   to the production of an organization that is focused not so much on
   the popularization of philosophy as providing a space of engagement
   and contention and equally of access to the formidable problems and
   theory that actuates our mental and physical lives today. Five years
   on, we are at the threshold of launching a Brecht like forum as they
   hold in Berlin with the purpose of integrating art, philosophy,
   politics, performance, sociology, etc. We have had, over the past five
   years, approx. 300 people pass through our cafe and home discussions.
   The postings you make, having been discovered, provide an
   indispensable segway to what is already available on the net in a
   concentrated format. The theorists you provide links, and only links
   to, are at the core of our discussions and the most captivating of our
   time. I, and our members, would regret very much if you took such a
   thoughtful and as we understand it time-consuming project off the web.
   It is immensely difficult to get anyone involved in any sort of
   project whatsoever and for whatever reasons–of time, of economy, of
   money, of purpose, of consent, of vision . . . etc. What you have done
   and we hope you continue doing is provide links with texts and your
   occassional commentary. It is an invaluable resource for links
   presented from a personal perspective and organized according to your
   interests. We appreciate that and are encouraged by the fact, being an
   international group ourself, that you and others in an international
   context are making the effort, actualizing labor, and releasing it to
   the public as a global public at large. For that we appreciate and
   thank you.

   What is more. Living in a foreign country without resources and
   without access to these texts through the availble state library
   system in the English (read–accessible) language puts us
   automatically at a disadvantage. This would lead me to make an
   exhausting critique on the status of academic and intellectual
   material copyright and legal right in general, however I wish to
   refrain only in order to offer you our concerted support. You may also
   rest assured that we support the arguments you offered on your blog
   under the heading of a question that came across, and would further
   extend and supply arguments in your defence. I have seen links to your
   blog posted on a number of sites and I can say that you perform a
   thankless but extremely welcome task.

   I invite you to attend or contact us at any point when you are in
   Prague. Our group can be reached by the facebook group page at:
   http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21910463664 or by email at
   praguephilosophyclub@gmail.com

   We wish you continuing posting and success,

   Sincerely,

   Benjamin E. Beebe

   –
   Prague Philosophy Club

   Benjamin E. Beebe MA General Secretary
   00420 602 660 700

   The will to truth, which is still going to tempt us to many a daring
   exploit, that celebrated truthfulness of which all philosophers up to
   now have spoken with respect, what questions this will to truth has
   already set down before us! What strange, serious, dubious questions!
   There is already a long history of that — and yet it seems that this
   history has scarcely begun. Is it any wonder that at some point we
   become mistrustful, lose patience and, in our impatience, turn
   ourselves around, that we learn from this sphinx to ask questions for
   ourselves? Who is really asking us questions here? What is it in us
   that really wants “the truth”? Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil

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