My Essay Style

I'm one of those whose primary motivation for writing is the attempt to deal with questions that puzzle me, in order to abate the anxieties which thinking produces.

I don't make any claims to originality, although some of this writing was original. It was both encouraging and saddening to later find that many had written the same things before and since.

It's always seemed to me that in order to be taken seriously you have to write so vaguely and obscurely that many alternative meanings can be read into one's text. And I feel I have little talent for such writing (though some insist this modesty is misplaced).

When writing for myself I have a preference for detail and exactness. This always involves specifying qualifications, exceptions, explanations, justifications and uncertainties. But such writing is so boring to read that I've removed this material from the versions presented here. And I've tried to keep these essays as brief as I can make them without having to feel uncomfortable about the results. I hope all this doesn't result in blatant oversimplifications and overgeneralisations, or an irritatingly arrogant tone.