Category: Daily updates

Generally musings of the day, usually accompanied by a photograph

Words, words, words

Another collection of thesis reading arrived today. From Amazon, I got Steven Bernstein’s The Compromise of Liberal Environmentalism and Karen Litfin’s Ozone Discourses: Science and Politics in Global Environmental Cooperation. Each has been recommended by at least five people or other important thesis sources, and neither is available to me through the Oxford library system.

From Tristan, I received a stack of philosophy of science essays.

  • Bloor, David. “Essay Review: Popper’s Mystification of Objective Knowledge.”
  • van Fraassen, Bas C. “The Empirical Stance.” (2 copies, in case someone else in Oxford is looking for some light reading)
  • Guerlac, Henry. “Science During the French Revolution.”
  • Holton, Gerald ed. “Science and the Modern Mind: A Symposium.”
  • Miller, David ed. “Popper Selections.” (better than the two brick-like Popper books sitting on my shelf)
  • Neurath, Otto. “The Scientific Conception of the World: The Vienna Circle.”
  • Weber, Max. “Social Sciences, Law, and Culture.”

His taking the time to mail these to me is much appreciated. On the basis of this, I am willing to declare myself more or less set, in terms of thesis materials on the philosophy of science. Indeed, all signs point to the necessity of doing much more reading on the two case studies; both my supervisor and the examiners seem much more interested in the specific than the general.

The weeklong reading retreat to the original home of Dorothy and Nicholas Wadham that is happening during the last week of March is looking somewhat appealing. Unfortunately, that will also be the last week during which my supervisor is available to look anything over.

My international law presentation is due in two days, along with the final version of the fish paper. An international law paper is due in six weeks, with another due in about 14 weeks – at the same time as the thesis. As time goes on, I am seeing the progression from being jittery primarily as the result of caffeine consumption to being jittery because of stress and finally to being jittery due to a potent combination of the two.

The home stretch

Passageway beside the Ashmolean

Right now, I feel both as though I am on the final stretch of the M.Phil and that I am still less than halfway through the single most important item: the thesis that stalks me down Oxford’s cobbled streets. Now that I have a schedule set, the first order of business is prioritizing the reading that I should do in the remaining time. The second is to get the thing written. I will feel a lot better about the whole process once I have submitted and discussed one draft chapter: at present, I don’t particularly feel as though I know what I am doing. Once I have intuitively accepted that this project is not enormously more difficult than others that I would now brush off, it will come together quickly. Thinking about it as five or six long papers on related themes is one way to make the whole assembly seem less daunting, though it is important for them to be tightly integrated.

Aside from the thesis, all I have left are two papers for international law (both of which can probably be made highly thesis related) and four three-hour exams. Two of those are on the core seminars from last year: history and IR theory. The other two are on the optional papers from this year: the developing world and international law. There is good reason to be concerned about all of them – the two core seminars from first year aren’t exactly sharp in my mind, and the two optional papers cover a lot of material. That said, there is only so much information you can transfer from mind to paper in three hours. Likewise, while you do need to know a good amount of stuff to do well on Oxford exams, the way in which you approach and answer the questions seems to make all the difference between a tolerable grade and a really good one.

Parallel to all of this is the lingering and difficult project of finding something worthwhile to do after this. I have three basic objectives: finding a job that will (a) increase my knowledge and experience, (b) make me at least financially neutral, no longer going deeper into debt, and (c) not make people say: “So you did an M.Phil at Oxford and then you did… that.” This is the sort of project that you would be expect to be easier than finishing the degree itself, but it’s a matter of comparative advantages. With five months until I leave Oxford, the clock is ticking.

PS. New difficulties have arisen, with regards to the submission of the fish paper to the MIT International Review. If three specific things can be dealt with, it should be published within the next few months. If not, I may need to start hunting for yet another journal in which to try and get it printed.

Critical mass

Critical Mass ride in Gloucester Green

On the way back from my meeting with Dr. Hurrell, I found myself in the middle of a Critical Mass bike ride: a social gathering where a group of cyclists assemble and ride together through an urban area. A recent dinosaur comic discussed it. There is much about the movement to recommend it: it fosters a sense of community and it raises the visibility of a healthy and sustainable form of transport. It also allowed me the opportunity to try bicycle polo, a somewhat precarious game that was played in Gloucester Green, following the conclusion of the ride.

As an advocacy act, critical mass rides involve some of the same questions as other attempts at altering the behaviour of others. Examples would also include those who tout the merits of a religion or lifestyle choice. While nobody appreciates an overzealous approach to acquiring converts, you can hardly feel strongly about the moral superiority of something and not at least gently prod others towards thinking as you do. Excessive deference to pre-existing beliefs – whether political, ethical, or religious – risks fostering a bland and unthinking society.

Agency assistance in the job search

One option I am considering for my ongoing job search is employment agencies. They are appealing because they have expertise in matching people to jobs, and because they will be able to do some of the searching ‘in the background’ while I am working on other things. With the need to finish a thesis, the papers for the international law course, and exams, that has considerable appeal. Given that the fees tend to be assigned to the employers doing the searching, there seems to be very little to lose in submitting my information to a few agencies and seeing what kind of options they turn up.

Does anyone have experience with such agencies in the United States or Canada? I’ve found one in the UK that is somehow connected to Oxford’s Career Services, but remaining here would not be my top choice, barring the availability of a much more desirable place of employment in the UK than is on offer in North America or elsewhere.

Leaving time for the possibility of a viva exam, I should be free to work starting at the beginning of July.

Cyril Foster lecture

Brick wall

Speaking of elitism, tonight I attended the annual Cyril Foster Lecture, delivered by Jack Straw, Leader of the House of Commons, Former British Home and Foreign Secretary. His talk was a reasonably generic discussion about the importance of identity in international politics. The most interesting point was when he was heckled by five young men in pinstriped suits, singing in barbershop quartet style. This was when he was trying to answer a question about how democratic it was to launch the war in Iraq. The tune was that of Rockabye Baby, the sole lyric “nonsense.” All told, it was so gracefully and effectively done that both the speaker and the Chancellor of Oxford (former Chairman of the Conservative Party and Governor of Hong Kong) thanked ‘the choir’ in their closing remarks.

People joke about how civil public discourse in the United Kingdom is, but this was a demonstration of exactly that humour, good taste, and effectiveness. To be fair, Mr. Straw also demonstrated the extent to which senior British public officials seem to be invariably excellent public speakers.

At the reception afterwards, I spoke with Mr. Straw about identity politics in profoundly divided states such as Iraq and the Former Yugoslavia. I also met Avi Shlaim, a man whose books on the middle east I have been reading since first year, and which I assigned to virtually all of my students over the summer. Anyone wishing to comment intelligently on the middle east should at least read his concise and informative War and Peace in the Middle East. I told my students to buy it, for reference and lending purposes.

Executive pay

This week’s Economist features a survey on executive pay that basically argues that, while there have been excesses, executive pay is generally awarded in a fair and legal way. The crux of the matter, as presented, is that executives earn less in pay than they add to the value of the company. More specifically, they add more than the most qualified person willing to work for less could.

At one point, the article holds up Robert Nardelli from Home Depot as an example. When he left the company, he got a severance package of $200 million. Even if his performance did earn more than that from the company, I think a case can be made that it is fundamentally unjust for one human being to have that much money. It enormously outstrips the needs a person could possibly have, and it is awarded in a world where millions domestically and billions around the world live in poverty. While emotionally satisfying, that argument may be fallacious: poverty alleviation is not the alternative usage for this money, and there isn’t a fixed amount of the money in the world to be distributed to one thing or another. It is at least logically possible that the economic contributions of chief executives do generate societal benefits.

Is the marginal value versus marginal cost perspective really the right way to evaluate executive pay? The degree to which the public tends to view such people as little better than venomous snakes suggests that the idea clashes with general moral intuitions. (Personally, I don’t think that venomous snakes belong in the category of things to which moral judgments can be applied; they are like large falling stones.) Of course, that doesn’t advance argument very far on the matter of what could or should be done about it. As discussed before, the problem is not that inequality is inherently morally problematic, but rather that it seems impossible that the differences between one human being and another could justify such excessive differences in payment. Furthermore, the reasons for which any such differences might exist are largely the product of chance.

International law and the environment

Morning walkers, South Parks Road

Next Wednesday, I have volunteered to give a presentation to my international law seminar on the following questions:

  1. Why has the regulation of CFCs been a success while the Kyoto Protocol has failed?
  2. Should the USA join the Kyoto Protocol, and if so, why?
  3. What roles have been played by Governments, NGOs and international organizations in the development of international environmental law? What is the basis of their authority in this field?

Substitute persistent organic pollutants (POPs) for Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and it is a very good match for my thesis.

To give very short answers:

  1. Because there were substitutes readily available, the science was strong, and the cost of dealing with the problem reasonable, in the case of CFCs. Climate change is more difficult on all counts. (See the paper I wrote on the Stockholm Convention for my First Nations politics class in 4th year.)
  2. Yes, because it is a first step on the way to an agreement or collection of agreements that will stabilize GHG emissions, in the medium term. Ultimately, doing so will be much cheaper than suffering climate change, and will not carry the same terrible social and ecological costs.
  3. Their authority is based on expertise and legitimacy. See my thesis, in 88 days’ time for a more comprehensive answer.

Reading some more of the international law involved should be both interesting and useful. This is probably the first time the environment has been specifically addressed in any course that I have taken at Oxford.

PS. Much as I hate to reveal a fact that I might later win bets with friends about, I feel compelled to tell one that I learned earlier today from Kate. The polar bear (Ursus maritimus), has black skin: a feature that helps it to absorb energy from the sun, and thus keep the bear warm.

Progressive day

Moon on a chilly night

Today was almost as productive as tonight is chilly: I finished quite a bit of thesis reading, some thesis writing, and a funding application.While that’s not enough to reverse the tide of ever more emails in need of response, and ever fewer days in which to finish so many things, I did better than break even.

During the rest of the evening, I will read one more thesis: this one on the use of science in drafting the EC Biomass Action Plan. Amazing how these things only take a couple of hours to read carefully, but require hundreds of hours of work and thousands of hours of angst to produce.

Sometimes, I really wish there was at least one other person studying environmental politics with whom I could speak on a regular basis.

Fewer than 100 days left for the thesis

House in Jericho

Week two of Hilary begins tomorrow. That means thirteen more weeks until the thesis is due. There will also be two more significant research papers that need to be written, in the next seven weeks. Collectively, that will be about 36,000 researched, written, and edited words.

This week, I should probably concentrate on secondary sources directly related to the scientific basis for Stockholm and Kyoto.