Category: Tributes
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Lynne Ballew
At the time I knew her, in the mid-'70s, I had no idea what a remarkable person she is. I was a graduate student and she was a young professor. We spoke a few times in the hallway. A while back I was re-reading some Plato and I came upon a marginalium of mine: "Ask…
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Who is Dave Lull?
If you are a blogger, then perhaps you too have been the recipient of his terse emails informing one of this or that blogworthy tidbit. Who is this Dave Lull guy anyway? Patrick Kurp of Anecdotal Evidence provides an answer: As Pascal said of God (no blasphemy intended) Dave is the circle whose center is everywhere…
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Not Uxorious, but Appreciative
Having paid tribute to WD-40, the least I can do is pay tribute, once again, to my wife. She may not be a solvent, but she contributes mightily to my being solvent. As for marriage, it is a good thing if one enters into it for the right reasons, at the right time, and after due…
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Tribute to Morris R. Cohen: Rational Thought as the Great Liberator
Morris Raphael Cohen (1880-1947) was an American philosopher of naturalist bent who taught at the City College of New York from 1912 to 1938. He was reputed to have been an outstanding teacher. I admire him more for his rationalism than for his naturalism. In the early 1990s, I met an ancient lady at a…
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Three Friends
The blogosphere has been good to me, having brought me a number of friends, some of whom I have met face to face. For now I will mention just three. Having read my announcement that PowerBlogs will be shutting down at the end of November, Keith Burgess-Jackson kindly sent me a number of unsolicited e-mails…
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Bryan Magee’s Tribute to Brand Blanshard
Brian Magee spent a year at Yale University where he attended a seminar given by Brand Blanshard on empiricist epistemology. In Confessions of a Philosopher, p. 124, Magee remembers Blanshard: He was reminiscent of Bertrand Russell in his commitment to rational analysis and argument in forms that did not subordinate them to considerations of language.…
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Jim Fixx Remembered
It was 25 years ago today, during a training run. Running pioneer James F. Fixx, author of the wildly successful The Complete Book of Running, keeled over dead of cardiac arrest. He died with his 'boots' on, and not from running but from a bad heart. It's a good bet that his running added years…
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In Praise of a Lowly Adjunct
The best undergraduate philosophy teacher I had was a lowly adjunct, one Richard Morris, M.A. (Glasgow). I thought of him the other day in connection with John Hospers whose An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis (2nd ed.) he had assigned for a course entitled "Linguistic Philosophy." I also took a course in logic from him. The…
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Tribute to WD-40
I'm a list maker. I have lists of all sorts of things, including one entitled, Lithuanians I Have Known. It sports names like Mickus, Mickunas, Dauciunas, Klimosauskas, et al. If I ever start a list of solvents I have known and loved, first on the list would the legendary WD-40. This stuff is amazing.…