I chanced upon this old review of Essays for David Wiggins: Identity, Truth and Value and was pleased to find that others are aware what a treasure this man is, not only in terms of his philosophical writings, but as a person. Speaking of the former, one of my favorite reads of all time is his Sameness and Substance Renewed (2001), a reformulation of his Sameness and Substance (1980) and even before that Identity and Spatio-Temporal Continuity (1967), his metaphysics being far more familiar and compelling to me than his ethics.
But his philosophical style is at once exciting and infuriating, tantalising and off-putting.
So true but well worth the effort and has been somewhat ameliorated in Sameness and Substance Renewed.
Regarding the man, David-Hillel Ruben captures the man I remember so fondly, a kindly gentleness that also infused his work:
Wiggins’s replies are suggestive, diffident and lacking in any sort of the I-was-right-all-along arrogance …
So at odds with the prevailing vulgarity and ideological heavy-handedness of the public intellectual that so many philosophers are clamoring to be.
manwithoutqualities 