This summer, I had the pleasant surprise of being contacted by the editor of the “Journal for General Philosophy of Science” asking me if I would be willing to review a manuscript dealing with one of the Zenon paradoxes. I did not at all expect to be (already) solicited for this kind of activity since I have only one publication to my credit in the field of history and philosophy of science (HPS) and I have no (current) academic affiliation.
I gladly agreed to give my opinion on the manuscript in question; but as it was not exactly the Zenon paradoxes that I had already examined in detail, I had to (re)immerse myself in the bibliography concerning specifically the paradox under discussion (i.e. either read again in detail articles that I had previously read diagonally, or discover other articles). In short, after a full week of work on this subject, I have produced 8 pages of comments (which I tried to be as constructive as possible)!
This little experience encourages me well to continue my (solitary) work in HPS, with as a bonus a thanks from the editor (below) that I see as a little extra encouragement.
“Dear Mael, thanks so much for your detailed referee report on the Zeno manuscript for JGPS. Your comments are very much appreciated and will greatly help the author(s). Thanks for the efforts you have put into this.”