If you ever wondered why writing a dissertation/thesis takes so damn long, this has been my day so far.
Me: Okay, I should probably add a paragraph about the contextual late-18th-century understanding of republicanism. Let me read over a key text to make sure I'm being accurate. [downloads a 42-page book chapter] Me: Hmm, okay, on page one of this chapter they're expecting me to know some nuanced things about civic humanism. Better just brush up real quick. [downloads 9-page primer from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy] Me: Okay, cool, but there's some stuff in here about Machiavelli that I really should read in its annotated source context, because that's what my history guys were working from. [downloads 283-page book on Machiavellian political philosophy with source texts] Me: Oh, for fuck's sake-- [downloads Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics]
how it feels like doing research:






















