Brian Hamilton-Vise

I know that what I am asking is impossible. But in our time, as in every time, the impossible is the least that one can demand. —James Baldwin

Property

I confess that over the past several months, I have set myself a very determinate research agenda into various theories of property for no good reason whatsoever, except that I was  annoyed at having no determinate research agenda at all. Turns out almost nobody has a research agenda until they force one on themselves third or even fourth year, which makes me feel better. But imposing some kind of focus has been fruitful. By the end of the spring term, I’ll have essays on property in early Marx, Locke/Rousseau, Aquinas, and Bonaventure—the last of which I’ll be presenting for a session on Franciscan political thought at Kalamazoo next May. I just finished up with Marx a couple weeks ago, and even though I’m not terribly happy with the paper, I have the unfamiliar but very pleasant sense that it’s going somewhere. As it happens, this is extremely good for morale.

(Note: I’ve posted a slightly more substantial explanation of why this is coming to interest me over at Memoria Dei, and more posts on this theme can be expected over there as I work through Bonaventure this spring.)

7 January 2010 | Comments (0)
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Brian Hamilton-Vise is a Ph.D. student in moral theology at the University of Notre Dame, where his research is in the history of Christian political and economic thought. His side interests are in the development of negative theology and in recent political theory. Email him at bdhamilton@gmail.com.

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