Aporia & loathing

It's very difficult for me to write my Religion 301 paper.

I am attempting to draw a method out of the theory of pragmatism, following (of course) the argument Rorty makes: theory should not be a bed on which to lie, it should be a tool with which to shape your own and others' view of the world.

I am then going to envision how it would apply to a real-life study of religion, specifically the study I have been considering for Religion 399 -- a study of online religious communities.

Plenty of problems are going to come up, of course. At least, they're problems as far as I can see: the problem of what to do with the subject of the study (is it ethically right for me to try and convince them of my own point of view about them? But as far as pragmatism goes, radically privileging each person's understanding of right, isn't that what
I'd have to do?) and the problem of "keepin' it P.I. (public intellectual)" as Cornel West would say (mustn't I write my work so that those outside of academia can understand it?).

The paper is, at the very least, going to be an interesting intellectual exercise for me, since I typically consider myself a pragmatist. It will allow me to explore some of the philosophical underpinnings of doing academic work before I have to actually write my thesis, which is going to be very helpful. And even if that wasn't what Mike envisioned when he assigned the paper, I have a hard time bringing myself to feel too bad. I feel like Religion 301 is intended to problematize one's thinking about academic writing just before one embarks on the thesis process -- it's only right that I attempt to apply those lessons as my final paper.

But I am so very tired of writing!