In 1926, Lawrence Buermeyer, who taught philosophy at New York University, resided at 1232 Madison Avenue, where he was soundly beaten by his friend Joseph Carson, who taught philosophy at Columbia University.
“The orator need have no knowledge of the truth about things; it is enough for him to have discovered a knack of persuading the ignorant that he seems to know more than the experts.”
When Mr. Wallace was a brand new professor, students actually threw rocks at him, mistaking him for a fellow student sufficiently geeky to carry a briefcase.
“Do you want to know why your running away doesn’t help? You take yourself along. Your mental burden must be put down before any place will satisfy you.”
“I devoted myself to the liberal arts. Although my poverty urged me to do otherwise and tempted my talents towards a field where there is an immediate profit from study, I turned aside to unremunerative poetry and dedicated myself to the wholesome study of philosophy. . . .”
Joseph Pieper: “To perceive all that is unusual and exceptional, all that is wonderful, in the midst of the ordinary things of everyday life, is the beginning of philosophy.”
If I doubt the reality of Donald Trump’s lost “great” America, it’s not because of “critique.” It’s because I’m aware of too many elements in our history — call them facts — that contradict any simple claim to greatness.
Getting rid of philosophy, etc. The present (manufactured) budget crisis in Illinois offers an easy excuse for “flexibility,” really another name for destruction.
Paul Horwich on Ludwig Wittgenstein: “[T]he usual view these days is that his writing is self-indulgently obscure and that behind the catchy slogans there is little of intellectual value. But this dismissal disguises what is pretty clearly the real cause of Wittgenstein’s unpopularity within departments of philosophy.”
Philosopher Harry Frankfurt: “For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false.”