Kevin M^cShane

Book Club Moderator
The Examined Life On-Line Philosophy Journal

Kevin M^cShane studied for a PhD in English literature at City University of New York, and did his undergraduate work (if you want to call it work) at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He spent several years trying to earn a living as a writer of fiction and poetry, with little financial success, and not much literary success either, so then went into advertising. He is now Creative Director of a medical communications company in New York. He is married and has four children, who range in age from 10 to 18. He lives with all of them and his dog in Freeport, Long Island. For exercise, he runs, sometimes in marathons.

As a lit grad student in the 1970s, he naturally became interested in so-called "continental" philosophy (Heidegger, Derrida, Foucault, et al) because literature departments like his became the centers for the study of this kind of philosophy in the US. He has tried to remain in touch ever since, although his reading time is usually confined to his commute on the Long Island Rail Road. His interest in philosophy has been greatly stimulated over the past several years by the advent of philosophy discussion sites on the web, like this one, which have even forced him to read some of the Anglo-American analytic philosophers whom he previously ignored because he often found their writing styles to be boring. (This judgment turned out to be one made from ignorance more than anything else.)

As for what I'd hope the book discussion forum to be is a place where interested participants can suggest books or articles that others can access on the web. When I've engaged in such discussions before, those which have focussed on articles or papers rather than books have been the most fruitful and interesting. Also, they're free. So I'd encourage people to provide links to whatever article or book they would like to discuss. I don't have any particular restrictions on the kinds of papers people cite, other than they be philosophical or have philosophical implications. I'm particularly interested in papers about the philosophy of mind, but I think papers about ethical issues make for the most lively discussions.