In a perfect world, I would never give a written final exam in any class that I am involved with. Since I frequently team-teach with colleagues who do not share my vision of a perfect academic world, many courses I am involved with have traditional final written exams. But in my own classes, at least those past the introductory level, final exams are oral. As I often tell my colleagues who are skeptical of the value of oral exams, I... Read more
That’s a wrap for another academic year, number 34 since I walked across a stage in May 1991 and received my PhD diploma. Where has the time gone? Commencement exercises were last weekend, final grades were submitted the weekend before that, I’ve even managed to set up the on line sites for all three of my classes next fall. Summer and returning to my book project awaits. The last academic event of the semester (other than commencement) is often a... Read more
Dear Graduates… Today is graduation day at Providence College, where I just finished my thirty-first year on the faculty. I have never had the privilege of addressing the graduates on their special day; if I did, I would say something like this: Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the most important, yet enigmatic and difficult, philosophers of the 20th century. The family into which he was born was fabulously wealthy, one of the most successful families in fin-de-siècle Vienna. Ludwig was... Read more
It was about five years ago, in the height of the pandemic during the closing months of his first term, that our current president reported that he had just passed a cognitive awareness test with flying colors. In case you missed it or have understandably forgotten about it, here—in the president’s own words—is what he had to say about the test and why he is so proud of himself. Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV. For the sake of argument, let’s assume... Read more
Oral Exams and Conclaves Last week was final exam week–I administered 32 written exams and held 34 oral exams (25-30 minutes each) in my office. I greatly prefer oral to written exams and would love for all exams in my courses to be oral. But one week doesn’t provide enough time for that, so I made oral exams optional in two of my three courses. Oral exams tend to run together when you have seven or eight of them per... Read more
An Ovine Faith One of my prized possessions, purchased when Jeanne and I were on vacation during the Summer of 2018 in Scotland, is a Harris Tweed wool cap. I bought it in a small shop in Oban, a beautiful port on the west coast of Scotland that is the gateway to the Hebrides islands (where they make Islay scotch whisky, the real reason we went to Scotland in the first place). I wear this cap to work frequently, and... Read more
One of the downsides of the liturgical calendar is that, since it runs in a three year cycle (A, B, and C), some of my favorite gospel stories only show up in the Sunday lectionary once every three years. Today is no exception. The Year C Third Sunday of Easter gospel reading from John is an important one, with Jesus performing a post-resurrection miracle and having an important conversation with Peter. But the Year A Third Sunday after Easter gospel... Read more
I tend to have a difficult time falling and/or staying asleep at night when Jeanne is away. She’s been away the past week for work—I’ve found that sometimes playing a podcast on relatively low volume on my phone often puts me to sleep within ten minutes. My phone automatically shifts to an unplayed episode of either the same podcast or one of the other twenty or so podcasts I have bookmarked and listen to semi-regularly. I usually partially wake up... Read more
There may be no need to reconcile all one’s beliefs with all one’s other beliefs—no need to attempt to see reality steadily and as a whole. Perhaps our beliefs can be compartmentalized, so that there is no need, for example, to reconcile one’s regular attendance at Mass with one’s work as an evolutionary biologist. Richard Rorty This passage was part of the final essay that my American Philosophy students and I considered in our final class of the semester yesterday.... Read more
Doubt is Next to Godliness Last Friday’s post imagined a conversation between Karl Marx and Jesus in which they discuss a passage or two from Richard Rorty’s essay “Failed Prophecies, Glorious Hope,” an essay that just happened to be the focus of class discussion in my American Philosophy class last week. Why “Christian Socialism” is not an oxymoron One of Rorty’s many interesting and controversial claims in that essay is that “We should read [The Communist Manifesto and the... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In