Performing the triple

By Colin McGinn

This fall OUP will publish three books by me. They are substantial new works of academic philosophy, on unrelated subjects. How did I manage to produce three books in such a short time when one is usually regarded as quite enough by itself?

In May 2010 I began a period of research leave that would last until the end of the calendar year. My self-appointed task was to finish three books that I had in the works, in various stages of completion. It seemed like a lot to ask, and I doubted my ability to pull off the feat.

As it happens, I had just taken up motorcycling (I have a Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide-Glide) and was due to take a training course in order to obtain my license. The course involved two days in a parking lot in the hot Florida sun beginning at 8 am, so I had to get up much earlier than was my habit (I passed the course). This had a carry-over effect and I woke up very early the next morning, which meant my working day began at around 7 am. I found that I got through quite a bit that day and determined to stick with the new regime, which naturally entailed an early bedtime and a more monkish existence.

Sometimes I would start even earlier and regularly put in two or three hours before breakfast. In order to motivate myself to keep going at this level, I took to describing myself as attempting to perform what I dubbed “the triple”, in analogy with a gymnast’s triple somersault (which has never, I believe, been performed from the floor—I used to be a gymnast). Under the new regime I got through the material at a decent clip, beginning with a rewriting of the first two books, which took me till September, and ending with writing the third one from scratch, finishing in late November. (The books are The Meaning of Disgust, Basic Structures of Reality, and Truth By Analysis).

It wasn’t easy, I can tell you, especially since the books were on quite separate subjects. But it was the motorcycling that put me on the right track and the gymnastic metaphor that kept me going (and having no teaching was essential). I would usually break for tennis around 11am and then resume work afterwards, which prevented me from getting too burned out (I would usually get down to the beach and do some paddle-boarding in the late afternoon, which also helped). You do need your fitness. I wouldn’t want to live like this forever, but to achieve “the triple” it was worth it. Now that the finished products are arriving in the mail I think back on those dawn mornings, and the long hours, and the early evening fatigue, and the feeling of anxious semi-elation that was my constant companion. Triples don’t happen by magic.

Colin McGinn teaches philosophy at the University of Miami, specializing in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophy of language. He has taught at Rutgers University, Oxford University, and London University. His three forthcoming books are The Meaning of Disgust, Basic Structures of Reality, and Truth By Analysis.