Hyunh, Hyunh! Welcome to Houyhnhnm Land, the one-stop online portal for early modern thought, specifically designed for rational animals!

Frequently Asked Questions

(1) What's a Houyhnhnm?

The Houyhnhnm are a race of intelligent talking horses in the fourth book of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. They live with Yahoos, which are their human-like domesticated animals, and so are puzzled about Gulliver, who seems to be a Yahoo, but who is a rational animal -- and their notion of a rational animal, of course, is a Houyhnhnm. How to interpret the book is a matter of contention. Perhaps it might be fair to say that the Houyhnhnm represent reason without humanity, as the Yahoos represent humanity without reason, and thus they stand as a reminder of the importance of a genuinely human rationality.

(2) How do you pronounce 'Houyhnhnm'?

It's anyone's guess. Since the name is supposed to sound horse-y, it probably should be pronounced "hwinnimn" or "whinnim". I usually use the latter.

(3) Who is Brandon Watson, and what is Houyhnhnm Land?

Brandon Watson is the owner, administrator, and moderator of Houyhnhnm Land, which he created primarily to serve three functions:

First, to provide a site for helping people sort out the information on early modern thought that can be found online by providing recommendations, tips, and the like.

Second, to be a forum where new and interesting ways of approaching the thought, and especially the philosophical thought, of the early modern period can be explored. We're interested in seeing how the study of early modern philosophy can be extended, developed, and enriched on every front.

Third, to help those teaching early modern philosophy by giving them a broader range of resources from which to draw.

People who are interested in being guest bloggers at HL can contact me by sending me an e-mail at branem2 [at] branemrys [dot] org, placing the tag [HL] or [Houyhnhnm Land] in the subject line; or by commenting on any post here (the comments go into moderation first and therefore do not show up in public at once; if you don't want it to show up at all, put the tag ***PRIVATE*** somewhere in the message). Depending on the time of year and events in real life responses may sometimes take a week or two.