Are You a Fan of More Bands Than You Think?

What’s the minimum percentage of a musician’s recordings you must really like to identify as a fan of that musician? (Let’s say you “really like” a piece of music if you ever desire to hear it because you like it—not just that you’d be okay with hearing it if it happened to be playing.)

When I first asked myself this question, I knew my answer was not 100%. I suspected it would be much lower, but I wasn’t sure by how much. So I looked at the recordings of a few of the rock/pop artists I consider myself a fan of and counted up how many of all their songs I really liked. This was an interesting exercise. I suggest you try it.

The Moral Dimensions of Academic Philosophy

“Courting controversy is instrumentally valuable towards the production of knowledge and other goods philosophy might bring about, but other things are valuable, too… So while I want to say, ‘yes, go for controversy,’ and ‘yes, have institutions protect the academic freedom and ability of philosophers to discuss controversial matters,’… there are ways to do this responsibly and ways to do it better…”