Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Questers and Other Oddballs

  • Klavan on Experience

    I am now on p. 118 of Andrew Klavan's memoir, The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ. Thomas Nelson, 2016, 269 pp. As I reported a few days ago when I was on p. 18,  If you are a tough-minded American Boomer like me on a religious/spiritual quest you will probably be…

  • The Eremitic Option

    Monks come in two kinds, the cenobites and the eremites or hermits.  The cenobites live in community whereas the hermits go off on their own.  Eremos in Greek means desert, and there are many different motives for moving into the desert either literally or figuratively. There are those whose serious psychological conditions make it impossible…

  • Monasticism and the Monks of Mount Athos

    In April of 2011, 60 Minutes had a segment on the monks of Mt. Athos.  It was surprisingly sympathetic for such a left-leaning program. What one expects and usually gets from liberals and leftists and the lamestream media is religion-bashing — unless of course the religion is Islam, the religion of peace – but the segment in…

  • The Strange Tale of Chris Knight, the Central Maine Hermit-Thief

    A hell of a story.  This one goes into the Questers and Other Oddballs file. Anyone who reveals what he’s learned, Chris told me, is not by his definition a true hermit. Chris had come around on the idea of himself as a hermit, and eventually embraced it. When I mentioned Thoreau, who spent two…

  • The Quester

    What is the quester after? What does he seek?  He doesn't quite know, and that is part of his being a romantic. He experiences his present 'reality' as flat, stale, jejune, oppressive, substandard. He feels there must be more to life than work-a-day routines and social objectifications, the piling up of loot, getting ahead, "competitive…

  • The Strange Saga of the Last True Hermit

    Peter Lupu has called me a recluse.  I have referred to myself as reposing in Bradleyan reclusivity.  But I am a hermit only  in an analogous sense.  For my hermithood is but partial and participated in comparison to the plenary hermithood of this dude.  He approximates unto the Platonic Form thereof.  Compared to him, Seldom…

  • 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 and…

  • Jim Ryan’s Story and Mine

    Let me start off by recommending Jim Ryan's infrequently updated but very old (since 2002!) Philosoblog, the archives of which contain excellent material  worthy of the coveted MavPhil  STOA (stamp of approval).  The following entry (originally posted February 2005 at my first blog) is in response to my query as to why Ryan left university teaching. JR:…

  • Into the Wild Update: Hunter Who Found McCandless’ Body Shot by Cops

    Story here. Some of my McCandless posts accessible from this page. Related articles I am Reminded of Christopher McCandless Man killed by authorities 'Into the wild' hunter

  • The Lonesome Death of Chris McCandless

    Jon Krakauer's latest on the McCandless saga.  Companion post:  I am Reminded of Christopher McCandless

  • 56 Years Ago Today: Gilbert Millstein’s Review of Kerouac’s On the Road

    Here.  Millstein's NYT review brought Kerouac fame, but fame contributed to an early death at age 47 just a bit more than 12 years after the review.  Fame brought death, but no fortune, leastways not for Jack.  Last I checked, his heirs were battling over his estate. By the way, the Telegraph article to which I…

  • I am Reminded of Christopher McCandless

    In the news this morning a story about a young man, 18, who lived not far from here in Apache Junction, whose body was found dead near his abandoned SUV in the woods of southern Oregon.  According to his father, Johnathan [sic] Croom was "a young man who had a broken heart."  He was grieving the end…

  • Rasputin

    The tale of how this semi-literate Siberian peasant insinuated himself into the highest precincts of throne and altar in imperial Russia is told by Joseph T. Furhmann in Rasputin: The Untold Story (John Wiley & Sons, 2013).  It held my attention to the last page. Contrary to popular belief, Rasputin wasn't a monk and, though hard to…

  • The Killer Mountains Strike Again: Jesse Capen’s Remains Found

    The Superstitions are not called the Killer Mountains for nothing.  Many a man has been lured to his death in this rugged wilderness by lust for gold. A few days ago, what appear to be the remains of Jesse Capen were finally found after nearly three years of searching.  Another obsessive Dutchman Hunter in quest…

  • Escapism

    Escapism is a form of reality-denial.   One seeks to escape from the only reality there is into a haven of illusion.  One who flees a burning building we do not call an escapist.  Why not?   Because his escape from the fire is not an escape into unreality, but into a different reality.  The prisoner in Plato's…