Gratitude and humility

I sent this out this morning to a slew of folk:

Dear all

I am sending this to you as a mass mailing because I have been overwhelmed by the sheer number and generosity of donors since my pathetic begging letter. God, by the way, has told me that he has no plans to take me to heaven at this time. I am sure you are all relieved.

Donors have included friends, colleagues, students and readers, but also people, courtesy of PZ’s note, who do not usually read me. I am particularly taken by the fact that students, who as everyone knows live lives of penury by definition, have contributed. Donors have come from Europe (including Finland!), the United States, Canada, and Australia and New Zealand. The American donors come from either coast and the midwest, the north and the south.

Many donations merely say something like “donation to a philosopher”. I don’t think there has been a philosopher yet who has had such broad and international support. I am very humbled.

The reason for my lack of recent blogging, apart from my financial situation, has been that I have had a number of papers and chapters to revise and resubmit, and also that it is Jobs Time in philosophy, so just working out who to apply to has taken a lot of time (they include four American universities, and one Canadian). But I have been working very hard on the Rise of the Planet of the Moralists series (itself to become a chapter in a book), so fear not, there will be more coming soon.

In the meantime, take consolation is knowing that the world is full of good people who are not exploitative and who value thought. I have long propounded the 95:95 Rule: “95% of people are decent 95% of the time”. I may have to adjust those figures upwards.

Many thanks, my friends