Dapple is as dapple does
Sat 26 Nov 2005 11:36 PM
I just posted a draft of a brief paper discussing Paul Teller's article 'How we dapple the world.' His title riffs off of Larry Sklar's `Dappled theories in a uniform world' which itself riffs off of Nancy Cartwright's The dappled world.
Following the flurry of `dappled' titles, I originally thought to title this paper `Worldish dappled worldly dappling world dapples.' I quickly shortened this monstrosity, and the draft that I circulated to a few grad students bore the title `WorldBob DapplePants.' I really wish I could publish a paper with that title, just because it would look sweet on my CV.* However, the word `dapple' suggests that we are talking about Nancy's metaphysical picture. Sklar only deals with Nancy's views en passant, Teller only deals with Sklar, and I am only dealing with Teller. WorldBob DapplePants, although a cool title, would be a bit dishonest.**
* For the similar reasons, I would like to publish a paper in Noûs. It is a good journal, of course, but it also has a circumflex in its name and that would look cool on my CV.
** And any serious editor would ask me change it anyway.