Dan Taylor

Essex

I was on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking programme last night discussing the joys of Essex. Here is a link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lpky It was a great panel – Tim Burrows, Simon Heffer and Elsa James, with Matthew Sweet. We had a glass of wine – chardonnay, naturally – and a fun chat. Tim has just published…
Some good news

I’ve been chosen as one of the BBC / AHRC New Generation Thinkers for 2023. There’s more info here: https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2023/new-generation-thinkers It’s a fierce competition with hundreds of brilliant early career academics entering every year. I was lucky to be chosen. My thanks to the judges and to some good friends, family and colleagues who have…
Paperback out now +more shenanigans

My third book Spinoza and the Politics of Freedom has now come out in paperback. It was actually released nearly two years ago at the usual heavy academic book price, so I was reluctant to publicise it at the time. But now I can! So get your instant Enlightenment, guaranteed. Everything you wanted to know…
Soupful of stuff

Let the quietness of the blog not give the impression that little is happening. Rapid updates, interleafed with some curious images found in Gateshead Archive for your delectation: * I bumped into someone the other day who I hadn’t seen in some years. The last they’d read of me was Island Story, which had come…
The Sheep Look Up etc.

I’ve written a few short pieces for a public audience recently. The Conversation: The Sheep Look Up: Cult 1970s sci-fi novel predicted today’s climate crisis Philosophy Now: Spinoza and the troubles of the heart The Conversation: How 17th century Britain’s ‘cancel culture’ can help us understand the importance of free speech The first one I…
On chess

My essay on chess is now up online on The Philosopher webpage: https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/essay-taylor It’s written like a game of chess, involving two sides. It weighs up different styles and approaches to playing the game, as well as its place in literature and philosophy. I’d been interested in Spinoza’s connection to chess for a while, and…
Plausible

Hello. Here’s what I’ve been doing the last few months. 1. On Damaged and Regenerating Life – an essay on Spinoza, climate change and the Capitalocene. For the special issue of Crisis and Critique on Spinoza, featuring the great and the good. 2. Some short essays for the Open University’s OpenLearn platform, on various things:…
Recent deeds

I have singularly failed to keep this blog updated with recent work. This might give the impression that I’ve been dwelling in a bunker, riding out the pandemic surrounded by tins of chopped tomatoes and piles of the London Review of Books. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing. But instead it’s been a whirlwind…
October update

May this find you well… Just briefly: My next book, Spinoza and the Politics of Freedom, will be out with Edinburgh University Press from December this year. Hopefully a cheaper paperback will follow. I am now a Lecturer in Social and Political Thought at the Open University, which I joined in July. My new colleagues…
Six years since Searching

It is six years this week since I first set out on the journey that would become Island Story. I captured those long sunny days from a bike-seat on a blog, Searching for Albion. I’d update it each day while out on the road. Experiences, stories, observations, odd banter. Usually in the pub, while charging…