ON PHILOSOPHERS Of a life of luxury the fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture, or commerce, or literature, or art. There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor…
What do I owe future generations? That was the question of the evening for the Socrates Cafe group. We met again at Barnes & Noble. Everyone around the table wore a mask. It is yet unclear how truly effective the vaccine will be to protect us from the more contagious Delta virus. Surely this…
I moved. Today at breakfast I moved as far as possible from the droning of Good Morning America television, a mindless going on about how the quiz show Jeopardy. The show now will have two hosts… Who in his/her right mind should care? Clearly inhabitants of our media culture do care. The world is burning! …
Organisms soldier on unwittingly. The difference between how things seem and how things really are is just as fatal a gap for them as it can be for us, but they are largely oblivious to it. The recognition of the difference between appearance and reality is a human discovery. False belief = getting it…
Yesterday was our last full day in Eagle River. We visited Lucy’s Diner for breakfast. Yes, Lucy’s is a bona fide diner, a diminutive dining room of perhaps eight tables, and a counter with a row of stools. We sat at the counter affording a view of the kitchen. My interest was captured by…
How beautiful indifference was in a world that was not indifferent, in a world that was different, convulsive and contradictory, with stakes and passions. Back then, the indifference of the mind could turn into a stake or a passion, in total opposition to the world. It could anticipate the indifferent future of…
Saturday morning is overcast in Eagle River. I anticipated writing from a coffee shop in town. I arrived and read a sign that said open 7 till 2PM Monday through Friday. Disappointed, I returned to the Best Western lobby. I settled into a chair at a corner table. Yesterday the manager of Inn described…
We are spending several days in Baraboo, Wisconsin. We plan to visit with relatives living in Eagle River Wisconsin, and then on to Willmar Minnesota, to see family that we’ve not seen for many months. For the most part our stay in Baraboo has been delightful. There have been bare glimpses of the ideological…
This morning I am processing the discussion of last night, an exchange of ideas within our amateur philosophers group about the work of Paul Feyerabend. Feyerabend was Austrian. He taught philosophy at the University of California at Berkley for three decades. He passed in 1994. Attracted by Feyerabend’s anarchistic view of the methods of…
Another day East of Eden. There are times, when for a moment I think this is paradise, or better that it could be. Those are the times when my body and mind registers beauty or meaning. Almost always I am taken by surprise. If I am lucky, I have a pad and pen at…
