Jeff’s Reviews > On What Matters: Volumes 1 & 2 > Status Update

A little light reading? = what the waitress asked me. Nah, just the usual survey of non-analytical non-naturalist non-cognitive normativity and stuff like that = i wish i'd replied.

Finally got back to reading Parfit's responses to Scanlon. The upcoming Normativity chapters are undeniably the most daunting and i doubt the essays in Kirchin's collected essays will act as sherpas for this otherwise solo mountaineer.

Finished Parfit's first response (of 3?) to Scanlon's essay. I'm pretty sure they're pals, which i might've intuited from the writing but it also might be that i soaked up this impression somewhere else. I keep thinking how much i think i would've liked to have dinner with Parfit. Y'know like that parlor conversation starter "Name 5 famous/historical people you'd like to meet for dinner."

*Finally* finished reading Parfit's reply to Herman and almost immediately went to+thru Scanlon's piece. I have a feeling i'll like *What We Owe to Each Other* and not just because it was one of the more explicit philosophical works on *The Good Place*.

I had trouble following Barbara Herman's essay, especially the beginning and end. There was a middle portion during which i didn't feel mostly lost. Might've been influenced by how much personal stuff was on my mind. Haven't yet read Parfit's response to her and i fear it's gonna be just as difficult to grasp.

Allen Wood doesn't have time to project an air of objectivity or impartiality. The dude has strong beliefs and he's not holding them back (mostly?). I really like having responsorial essays in the same volume, but i'd prefer them to be one right after the other (minus 0.1 stars).

My response to Wolf's critique: She asserts something akin to "In the real world *everyone* will not understand, agree upon, or act according to a single unifying principle of morality" but that observation is irrelevant to the goal of trying to devise and state such a principle. (Parfit's response to Wolf includes nothing in that vein, so maybe i've misrepresented her idea.)

If only i could read *half* of the sources that sound good and glean *half* of what they're talking about before i die.

Next stop, The Conclusion. And i probably won't read all the appendices; certainly won't read *all* of the notes and references; and absolutely will not *read* the index. So i'll be on to vol 2 pretty quickly.

Next stop, Consequentialism. Then the biggie, the vaunted Triple Ascent.