Writings

From Peter Suber
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This bibliography covers nearly all of my public or published pieces on topics other than open access. It covers my work in philosophy and law (my academic fields), as well as some more personal and playful pieces not suitable for academic publishing. It includes formally published work as well as some work I wrote directly for the web. It includes books, journal articles, and preprints, and omits course handouts and minor pieces like blog posts, listserv messages, letters to editors, presentation slides, and small web pages. I plan to keep it up to date, though I'm still trying to catch up by posting unposted pieces from years ago. — Peter Suber.

  • This version of the list consolidates and supersedes two earlier lists (one and two).
  • Suggested short URL for this page = bit.ly/suber-writings.
  • For my work on open access and scholarly communication, see my separate list of writings on open access.
  • For my courses and course handouts, see my separate list of courses.
  • Search these writings. (Unfortunately this Google custom search engine is broken and I haven't been able to get any help from Google. If you have any ideas, please let me know.)




Most recent first.

  • Articles on * Amendment (I.31-32), Civil Disobedience (I.110-113),Paternalism (II.632-635), and Self-Reference in Law (II.790-792), in Christopher Berry Gray (ed.), Philosophy of Law:  An Encyclopedia, Garland Pub. Co., 1999. (I apologize for the condensed prose in these articles. I had very little space in which to work.)
  • Six Exploding Knots.
    • This article has been translated into Dutch by Pieter van de Griend, "Zes Exploderende Knopen," Het Knoopeknauwertje, 9 (December 1997) 8-13.
  • When We Leave Our Desks. My baccalaureate address at Earlham College, June 1992. An essay on metaphilosophy in disguise.
  • The Reflexivity of Change:  The Case of Language Norms, Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 3, 2 (1989) 100-129.
    • This essay has been translated into German by Bertram Kienzle, "Die Reflexivität des Wandels:  Der Fall der Sprachnormen," in Bertram Kienzle and Helmut Pape (eds.), Dimensionen des Selbst:  Selbstbewußtsein, Reflexivität und die Bedingungen von Kommunikation, Suhrkamp Verlag, 1991, pp. 179-219.
    • Second thoughts.
  • Becoming Free. My baccalaureate address at Earlham College, June 1987.
  • "A Bibliography of Works on Reflexivity," in Bartlett and Suber (1987), below, pp. 259-362. I'll put this online after I convert it from the ancient word processor in which it was written.
  • Self-Reference:  Reflections on Reflexivity, Co-edited with Steven J. Bartlett. Martinus Nijhoff, 1987. An interdisciplinary anthology of essays.
    • I only plan to put my contributions to this volume online. See previous two items.
  • GradeSheet:  A Spreadsheet for Teachers, Sorcim/IUS Micro Software Inc., November 1984. I wrote this for CP/M machines. Let it rest in peace.
  • Nomic:  A Game That Explores the Reflexivity of Law, Scientific American, 246, 6 (June 1982) 16-28. A game with commentary embedded in column by Douglas R. Hofstadter. Reprinted, sometimes in revised versions, in many languages and many media.

For some reason I posted the following articles without dates. (Why? I would never do that today, and I would have said that I've always had this scruple. But apparently not.) As I find time to reconstruct their dates, I'll move them to the reverse chronological list above. Meantime, they're in this alphabetical list.

  • Against the Sanctity of Life. An attempt to articulate and criticize the position underlying much of the "right-to-life" movement. Some nuanced "pro-life" positions are compatible with this critique.
  • Classical Skepticism. An exposition of Pyrrhonian skepticism, based on the writings of Sextus Empiricus, with replies to common objections, and a sketch of how this form of skepticism evolved and mutated in western intellectual history.
  • Commonwealth v. Twitchell. My HTML edition of the text of the appellate court opinions, 617 N.E.2d 609 (1993). Lightly edited for non-lawyers.
  • Greece on the Atlantic. An idle explication of the geographic isomorphism of Greece and the Blue Hill Peninsula in Maine.
  • Knot So Fast. A proposal for regulating the world knot tying speed record.
  • Mind and Baud Rate. Questions, speculations, and meditations on the relation between the speed of bit-switching and the emergence of intelligence and selfhood.
  • The Paradox of Liberation. Variations on the theme that one is not free until one freely chooses to become free. I find traces of the theme in Kant, Dennett, and Mill, and show their strategies for preventing the claim from becoming a contradiction.
  • The Problem of Beginning. A survey of the methods philosophers have used to justify their point of departure or avoid the need to justify it.
  • Stages of Argument. A description of four stages of sophistication in argument, for use by teachers and others who would benefit from a framework for the rapid diagnosis and evaluation of argument strategies.