Category: Autobiographical
-
Richard Peck, Seeker of Lost Gold
(A re-post, with corrections and additions, from 13 January 2010) Living as I do in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains, I am familiar with the legends and lore of the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. Out on the trails or around town I sometimes run into those characters called Dutchman Hunters. One I came close to…
-
I Introduce Two New Friends to the Superstition Mountains
One of the great boons of blogging is that the blogger attracts the like-minded. Below are two medical doctors I had the great pleasure of spending the day with in a satisfying break from my Bradleyan reclusivity. Dave K. found me via this weblog and initiated correspondence, so I knew he would be simpatico. I…
-
Halcyon October in the Western Superstitions
Photo credit: Barbara Caffaratti
-
A Couple of Venice Characters I Met While Working for Manpower
Bill Keezer e-mails re: my Manpower post: I think it would be good for all young men somewhere in their early years to have to work for Manpower. It might give them more appreciation of what they have. It also might teach them something useful. I remember my various Manpower stints with some pleasure. I…
-
Old and Jaded
The trick is to get old without becoming jaded. My valued colleague H. N. couldn't pull it off. He had a certain depth and a certain wisdom, and we were on good terms. He knew how to take my intensity and he wasn't threatened by my intelligence: his was a healthy self-confidence. But he had…
-
Of Apples and Sparkplugs
All too frequently people say, ‘You’re comparing apples and oranges’ in order to convey the idea that two things are so dissimilar as to disallow any significant comparison. Can’t they do better than this? Apples and oranges are highly comparable in respects too numerous to mention. Both are fruits, both are edible, both grow on…
-
Maverick Philosopher 15th Anniversary Celebration and Renewal of Vows
Today is my 15th 'blogiversary.' I look forward to tomorrow and the start of Year 16. Operations commenced on 4 May 2004. Can you say cacoethes scribendi? I've missed only a few days in these fifteen years so it's a good bet I'll be blogging 'for the duration.' Blogging for me is like reading and…
-
The Seductive Sophistry of Alan Watts
Here. (An entertaining video clip, not too long, that sums up his main doctrine.) Alan Watts was a significant contributor to the Zeitgeist of the 1960s. Just as many in those days were 'turned on' to philosophy by Ayn Rand, others such as myself were pushed toward philosophy by, among other things, Alan Watts…
-
On Suicide
My knowledge of my ignorance regarding the ultimate disposition of things keeps me from viewing suicide as a live option should the going get tough. I lack the complacent assurance of those atheists and mortalists who are quite sure that there is no afterlife. I also lack the complacent assurance of those theists and immortalists…
-
On Roderick Chisholm
It was my good fortune to be a participant in Roderick Chisholm's National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar at Brown University in 1981. My summer digs were in Boston in those days and I would drive the old VW bus down Interstate 95 three times a week to Providence. Here you will find a…
-
Apologia Pro Vita Mea: A Reply to a Friendly Critic
Vito Caiati responds to yesterday's Could it be like this? In yesterday's post, you write, “So I say: if you have the aptitude and the stamina, you live best by seeking the ultimate truth about the ultimate matters with your whole heart and mind and soul, with everything else you do subordinate to that quest…
-
The Presumptuousness of Blogging
Immanuel Kant, The Conflict of the Faculties/Der Streit der Fakultäten, tr. Gregor (University of Nebraska Press, 1979), p. 177: To want to entertain others with the inner history of the play of my thoughts, which has subjective importance (for me) but no objective importance (valid for everyone), would be presumptuous, and I could justly be blamed…
-
Facebook Update
I'm on a roll over there as things heat up and the mid-term elections loom. Yes, we've spoken of watershed elections before, but this is the Big One, at least until the next one. If you want to hear me rock, roll, and rant, send me a friend request, but only if you are a…
-
Facebook
I am posting more frequently over there now. Shocked? Well, I do draw the line at Twitter. My FB page is listed under 'Bill Vallicella.'
-
Kerouac Alley
A Northern California reader sends this photo of a street scene in the vicinity of City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco. I made a 'pilgrimage' to Lawrence Ferlinghetti's famous bookstore in the early '70s. That was before the Kerouac street sign was up. Some of Ferlinghetti's poetry can be read here. To my surprise, Ferlinghetti is…