Jacob's Break

Jacob T. Levy, whom I only just a week and a half ago finally met, is taking a sabbatical from blogging. And he's doing it for the very best of reasons: he has some year-long, pre-tenure review projects that he wants to focus on, and keeping up with the rest of Volokhs isn't, in his judgment, the best way to do it. He's probably right. Heaven knows I still haven't figured out how best to meld my desire to have an internet presence with all my other interests and responsibilities; my break this past summer was supposed to give me a chance to work it out, but I'm far from sure that all (or any) of the changes I've made are going to take. In any case, I'm going to miss Jacob's perspective and comments. I'm sure I'm not the only blogger and reader of blogs that will probably find less and less reason to keep up with The Volokh Conspiracy if Jacob's not going to be there; not that I don't respect the hell out of Eugene and Co., but their interests and opinions generally don't engage me the way Jacob's take on things always did. Indeed, his (one hopes truly temporary, but you never know) departure from the blogosphere is a real loss; there aren't a whole of lot of truly serious political theorists and philosophers currently blogging*, and it was Jacob's example of mixing the scholarly and the topical in the context of his--and my--particular discipline (a mixing that he thoughtfully and influentially discussed a long, long time ago) which, more than that any other single blogger, made the blogosphere seem like an attractive and interesting place to me. So thanks Jacob; I hope we'll see your signature around in blog comments here and there as the months go by.

*This isn't really a fair claim; it's not like I've taken a survey. Just off the top of my head, Crooked Timber has Chris Bertram and Harry Brighouse, and John Holbo often wanders into political philosophy territory also. (CT has Micah Schwartzman as well, though law school keeps him too busy to blog.) Then there's Chris Brooke and Norm Geras. There are others I'm missing, of course. But I'll still maintain Jacob's was a particularly valuable voice when it came to applying the insights of theory to political matters; we'll be poorer without it.