Welcome to Camels With Hammers! For an overview of the ideas I argue for on this site with links to the vast majority of my original posts, please go read Camels With Hammers Philosophy. For an introduction to me and to my goals with Camels With Hammers keep reading below the picture.
About Camels With Hammers:
The main foci of Camels With Hammers are contemporary ethical paradigms, normative theories, moral psychology, secularism, Nietzsche interpretation, general philosophical education for non-specialists, and commentary on politics and other current affairs from philosophical perspectives. Additionally, the blog contributes to the on-going efforts of the atheist community to create a constructive atheistic philosophy which can be a force philosophically, culturally, and, where appropriate, politically. The blog also occasionally reviews and promotes independent film and music. Occasionally more mainstream music and films are of interest—but usually that’s when Tom Petty, Batman, or Spider-Man are involved in said music or films.
About me:
My name is Daniel Fincke. I was raised a devout Evangelical Christian in a low church denomination (the Church of Christ) and I went to one of the most conservative Christian colleges in the country (Grove City College) for my undergraduate education. There I majored in philosophy, minored in religion, and left the faith in my senior year. That was ten years ago now and in the intervening time I have become a specialist on Friedrich Nietzsche and contemporary moral philosophy. On April 28, 2010 I successfully defended my dissertation in philosophy at Fordham University under the direction of Professor John Davenport. I will graduate May 22, 2010 with a PhD.
Teaching:
Since January of 2003 I have taught philosophy at the college level first as a teaching fellow and then as a teaching associate and an adjunct professor. For 7 years until December 2009 I taught philosophy at Fordham University, along the way spending time at the Rose Hill, Lincoln Center, and Westchester campuses. Since 2003 I have also taught at William Paterson University, since 2008 I have also taught at St. John’s University, and since January 2010 I have also taught at Fairfield University. I have taught Philosophical Ethics, Business Ethics, Philosophy of the Person, Philosophy of Human Nature, and Introduction to Philosophy. In 2005 Fordham University’s Graduate Students Association named me “Teaching Associate of the Year” based on nominations from my students.
Dissertation:
The title of my dissertation is “On Deriving and Defending an Axiology of the Will to Power”. In it I first develop a systematic reading of Nietzsche’s texts which yields a coherent reading of his overall philosophy, in terms of which I am able to reconcile his critical attack on morality with his constructive philosophical views on the nature and possibility for ethics. In the final chapter, I develop my own ethical theory as a version of Nietzsche’s which nonetheless diverges with him in some pivotal places and which incorporates the insights of 20th-21st Century thinkers.
Invitation To Philosophy Non-Specialists:
I encourage non-specialists in philosophy to use this blog as a place to learn serious philosophy, try their hand at serious philosophical debate, and get clarification about obscure philosophical terms or concepts that are stumbling blocks to their participation in philosophical discussions. Please read more of how I view the educational potential of the blog in this post I wrote on the subject.
Invitation To Fellow Philosophers and Other Academics:
I hope philosophers and other academics from all fields and points of view will help me sharpen my ideas through their criticisms and suggestions in replies to my posts and to those of their fellow commentators. I believe that blogs can be a strong medium for members of the academic community to improve each other’s thought through providing unusual opportunities for cross-disciplinary interaction and a convenient forum for testing and correcting ideas which are not yet ready for publication. I look forward to both sharpening my best arguments and abandoning my worst ones as a result of fellow philosophers’, academics’ and laypeople’s contributions.
Invitation To Dissenters And Questioners:
I welcome philosophical questions, challenges, and topic suggestions from all manner of readers and am excited to base my blog entries on these whenever it will serve my readership best.
Invitation To Philosophers, Scientists, And Social Scientists Who Would Like To Contribute:
I invite you to become a camel with a hammer yourself. Apply to be a guest contributor to the blog, especially if you have complementary specialties to my own and/or general philosophical affinities to this blog’s. If you have an idea for either a single post or a recurring contribution to the blog, please write me with your ideas and your CV.
I also welcome thinkers who disagree with the general views expressed on the blog to suggest planned debates with me to be featured on the blog on either one occasion or in a semi-regularly recurring feature.
Follow Camels With Hammers:
I can be found on twitter under the name camelshammers, sign up to follow us so you don’t miss any news about the site, and so that you can peer deeper into my mind. You may also invite me to be your friend on Facebook and receive updates there every time the blog updates.
Contact Me:
Dave (our webmaster) and I want your feedback on what we do well and what we can improve to meet your blog reading needs better. Contact us at camelswithhammers@gmail.com if you have something to say to us privately!
