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

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.