My Cousin, Ludwig Wittgenstein — a lovely memoir (see family tree below). The first extract below (The New Yorker) reminded me of the Percy legacy (second extract). Wittgenstein, once asked a pupil if he had ever had any tragedies in his life. The pupil, evidently well trained, inquired what he meant by “tragedy.” “I mean suicides,…
Both time-related (metaphysical) songs from pretty much the same period (’72-’73). Thinking about time also brought to mind one of my favorite (or at least at least in the top three) philosophical papers — later picked up by Dummett. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day You fritter and waste the hours…
This from Cogito, Volume 8, Issue 1, 1994, pp. 3-19 Cogito: Perhaps you could start by telling us something about your own philosophical background. How did you come to study philosophy, and what have been the main influences that have helped to shape your thought? Williams: I started learning philosophy formally at Oxford, where I went, in the…
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This from the New York Times. Yet another player on the externalist bandwagon but at least he seems rather more distinctive given his background and interests. Mr. Crawford skips quickly past smartphones and other devices to what he sees as the deeper problem: the Enlightenment notion of the autonomous self. To make sense of it,…
The intro to the final chapter — by Craig Smith There was a time when many commentators thought that there was a problem with Adam Smith. The tendency to read Smith’s thought as marred by supposed tensions between the ‘sympathy’ of The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) and the ‘selfishness’ of The Wealth of Nations…
The very excellent Paul Oswell reports. Literaturenew orleansPaul Oswellshelby footeTennessee WilliamstheatreWalker Percy
Being of both a scientific and a superstitious turn of mind and therefore always on the lookout for chance happenings which lead to great discoveries, he had to have a last look—much as a man will open a telephone book and read the name at his thumbnail. ~~~~~~~~~ It did not take him long to…
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From Advances in Austrian Economics PROLOGUE It is probably no more justified to claim that thinking man has created his culture than that culture created his reason (Hayek, 1952/1979, p. 155). For Hayek, intelligence is manifest through a reciprocal coalition with the artifactual (social and physical), a causal integration that can take ontogenetic, phylogenetic, individual,…
manwithoutqualities 