The Philosophers’ Index

When you publish books, reviews, and articles in philosophy, occasionally you will receive a letter from The Philosophers’ Index (I’ve never been able to predict which publications will result in letters). They always ask for an abstract of your book/article/review by a certain deadline, and I always comply. Who, after all, can better summarize your work than you yourself?

It’s the same reason that up till now I have always insisted on doing my own index for a book, even though I can get a grant from my university to have someone else do it. It’s always felt like a final stroll with a friend about to travel to the other side of the world, and I’ve never wanted to deprive myself of that opportunity. But there will come a point, I’m sure, when I simply can’t afford to waste even 3 or 4 days on an index.

But back to The Philosophers’ Index. The article they want me to summarize is one that I would prefer never to read again. Not because it’s bad; I think it’s OK. But it makes me cringe.

The reason it make me cringe is because the journal accidentally published the rough draft instead of the final version! I spent a lot of time smoothing things out, streamlining the argument, and removing a few stylistically awkward points, and then all of that eliminated scrap went into print anyway. I’m slightly afraid to reread this thing, actually.