Re: World well lost

1

Oh, that's sad.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 12:03 PM
horizontal rule
2

It is a loss.

On a lighter note, Nicolas Sarkozy drunk (warning: French language): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4u3449L5VI


Posted by: Yeho | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 12:38 PM
horizontal rule
3

Link?


Posted by: Greg Greene | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 12:47 PM
horizontal rule
4

You'll have to take my word.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 12:52 PM
horizontal rule
5

Alright -- sad news ...


Posted by: Greg Greene | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 12:55 PM
horizontal rule
6

That is sad news. I read most of what he wrote in college, and enjoyed it a lot. Haven't looked back at it in years, though. I should.


Posted by: Dan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:08 PM
horizontal rule
7

Wolfster, is this for values of "dead" that include "has accepted an honorary degree from Harvard" or what? None of the vast number of tubes which forward packets of information to my computer can provide any evidence of the actual, corporeal "death" of RR.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:11 PM
horizontal rule
8

These things often don't get officially announced for a few days, especially on the weekend. I'm sure obits will be flowing by Monday.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:14 PM
horizontal rule
9

See http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519207

The June 6 article "Gates, Summers To Receive Honorary Degrees" incorrectly stated that philosopher Richard M. Rorty would receive an honorary degree from the University. In fact, Rorty was unable to travel to Cambridge to accept the award and will not receive a degree, according to a Harvard spokesman.


Posted by: Dan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:16 PM
horizontal rule
10

I'm unable to travel to Cambridge too. Does that mean I'm dead?


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:17 PM
horizontal rule
11

Oh shut up. It's sad news; you don't really doubt it, do you?


Posted by: Dan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:18 PM
horizontal rule
12

Wikipedia has not yet been updated.


Posted by: Michael | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:21 PM
horizontal rule
13

Ok, minneapolitan, the intertubes (which are bigger than the interweb, mind) have delivered to me reasonable evidence of the actual corporeal death of RR, in the form of an email from the department chair. What is the actual point of this recalcitrance? Do you think I'm pulling your leg?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:23 PM
horizontal rule
14

At a lecture a month or so ago, Hilary Putnam mentioned that RR was very very sick, and probably wouldn't remain for long. So.


Posted by: Jared | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:26 PM
horizontal rule
15

An elaborate ruse. The only question is, for what ill-gotten gain?


Posted by: Yeho | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:26 PM
horizontal rule
16

I think the actual point is that we're all supposed to be impressed that somebody has a friend in Minsk, who has a friend in Pinsk, whose friend in Omsk has friend in Tomsk whose friend in Yakmolinsk passed on to him the early news of Rorty's death, because he's one of the elect.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 1:56 PM
horizontal rule
17

What the fuck is wrong is with you, minneapolitan?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 2:01 PM
horizontal rule
18

Happy now?


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 2:12 PM
horizontal rule
19

Minor T/J: Sending letters to people's place of work/institutions calling them white supremacists is not cool. That is all.


Posted by: SEK | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 2:16 PM
horizontal rule
20

SEK: Yeesh. Although it's a little hard to tell from the way you've formatted it, the guy sounds like he should be signing his letters "PS, I am not a crank."


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 2:28 PM
horizontal rule
21

This is very sad. I just re-read Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity last month, and it reminded me how much I liked Rorty. Shit.


Posted by: Felix | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 2:29 PM
horizontal rule
22

20: I copied it directly from the letter itself. I can only hope its crankiness shines through.


Posted by: SEK | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 2:35 PM
horizontal rule
23

In minneapolitan's defense, I had a similar initial reaction, thinking this was some weird joke I didn't get, after not being able to find a news story confirming Rorty's passing. Very sad news.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 2:55 PM
horizontal rule
24

i've never much liked his work, but i do have to acknowledge that a remark of his inspired my handle.

he was an odd guy in person; somewhat taciturn and bearish. not scintillating as e.g. parfitt or cavell. watching him engage with others in debate was a let-down; he was unforthcoming, not light-footed.

a colleague of mine who knew him more closely than i did told me that his diagnosis was that rr was emotionally predisposed to avoid personal confrontation. on paper, he was an avid controversialist; in person, he didn't really enjoy mixing it up. he found no competitive relish in the give and take, which for some philosophers is their highest joy.

some philosophers are better viva voce; some do their best work on paper. the essayist addison was a notoriously poor talker, who defended himself by saying "I have but nine-pence in ready money, but I can draw for a thousand pounds."

i think that rr was like that.

in any case, rip.


Posted by: kid bitzer | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:05 PM
horizontal rule
25

I express the following sentiment of irritation: it is common knowledge that Rorty and w-lfs-n share an institutional affiliation. We have ample reason to think that w-lfs-n has the good sense not to make a joke of this sort, which would be in exceedingly poor taste. Putting two and two together, I see overwhelming warrant for thinking that this is what it appears to be, namely, an obituary for a famous and influential intellectual-- one that now has a distasteful comment thread attached to it.


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:08 PM
horizontal rule
26

25: I'm already drafting a letter to everyone in his department, as well as everyone else at his university.


Posted by: SEK | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:15 PM
horizontal rule
27

25--

i don't know minneapolitan, but i think his skepticism was not ill-grounded, nor distastefully expressed. i didn't share it, but then i got here late enough to see the doubt laid to rest.

look--if you had wanted unfogged to be a decorous web-site in which no comment thread was distasteful, you would have done a lot of things differently a long time ago.

read over the last few hundred threads, and you will find that nothing is out of bounds--no topic, no matter how sordid, offensive, or distasteful, is treated as anything but more fodder for bad jokes.

that's the climate you guys have worked hard to create. i can hardly see why you are clutching your pearls about it now.


Posted by: kid bitzer | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:15 PM
horizontal rule
28

KB, I feel the force of that complaint, but in this case...feh, I don't want to get into a big thing. Maybe I'm just being cranky. But it seems like a straighforward obit from a guy sorta in Rorty's department ought not spark "how do you know?" and "you're just showing off!" Could be I'm being a pill. Duly noted, and I'm out of here.


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:21 PM
horizontal rule
29

thanks, FL

i'm not saying we shouldn't inform sek's administration about it, though. in fact, i think we should complain to sek's supervisor, and minneapolitan's, and w-lfs-n's too, just for good luck.

hey sek--i read the story at your site. oy, what a headache for you. but could i ask--would you try to reformat that whole thing so it is clearer what is "ghost"'s contribution and what is yours? i found it very hard to tell who was saying what.


Posted by: kid bitzer | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:30 PM
horizontal rule
30

I guess that it would be even more distasteful to ask whether St. Rorty is going to be parted out into relics for relativist houses of worship.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:36 PM
horizontal rule
31

Done. (Here's a direct link just to his letter.)


Posted by: SEK | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:36 PM
horizontal rule
32

31--

thanks, sek. wow, that whole long thing. and it didn't make much more sense this time i read it, either.


Posted by: kid bitzer | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:39 PM
horizontal rule
33

It really makes little sense. I'm a little worried someone will fall for his gambit and assume I'm the one who wrote the racist obituary, but what can you do? When you engage in a civil, honest debate with dishonest idiots, you take your chances.


Posted by: SEK | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:45 PM
horizontal rule
34

I have to admit that I had to double check who Rorty is but right, that guy. And cancer, acc. to Wikipedia. Sad.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 3:58 PM
horizontal rule
35

And it was pancreatic cancer, which also killed Derrida. I'm not being flip, just noticing the coincidence.


Posted by: SEK | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 4:02 PM
horizontal rule
36

In Minneapolitan's defense (we are known to each other off the tubes) we were both looking at stuff about Rorty and saying that he was only seventy-six and therefore perhaps this was all a misunderstanding, especially since Minneapolitan couldn't find an obituary and Rorty is pretty damn notable. I don't think churlishness was intended. And I suspect Minneapolitan didn't know the w-lfs-n/Rorty department thing.

But jeez, I just picked up the Solidarity one a couple weeks ago. People seriously need to stop this dying thing.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 4:06 PM
horizontal rule
37

Pancreatic cancer is awful. I've never heard of Richard Rorty before but it seems like he accomplished everything a philosopher can, with very few enemies and many proteges. Good for the world.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 4:16 PM
horizontal rule
38

I would also note, in defense of the confusion on the thread, that there are people reading this site who don't know that w-lfs-n and Rorty worked in the same department. Like me.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 4:20 PM
horizontal rule
39

Rorty's primary affiliation was with comparative literature, actually, not philosophy, though he had a courtesy appointment there.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 4:22 PM
horizontal rule
40

And SEK, that whole stupid letter thing is, er, stupid. I hope it doesn't stir up any trouble for you.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 4:23 PM
horizontal rule
41

Rorty's work was a tremendous influence on me. I'm very sad to hear of his death.


Posted by: DaveB | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 4:24 PM
horizontal rule
42

that's the climate you guys have worked hard to create. i can hardly see why you are clutching your pearls about it now.

You're a stupid shit, kid bitzer. Most other people seem to understand the norms here; nothing but your nearly complete inability to judge the tone of this place can explain your statement or your consistently clanging comments.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 5:02 PM
horizontal rule
43

that's not as witty as your usual, ogged.


Posted by: kid bitzer | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 5:09 PM
horizontal rule
44

On the advice of a confidant, I am going to refuse to rise to take this particular bait.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 5:10 PM
horizontal rule
45

It doesn't count as virtuous if you announce it, minnie.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 5:12 PM
horizontal rule
46

42: that would certainly explain the odd failure to capitalize correctly.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 5:13 PM
horizontal rule
47

eh, i capitalize correctly in my day job. why give it away for free.


Posted by: kid bitzer | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 5:17 PM
horizontal rule
48

Someone could have embedded the Stanford Richard Rorty entry in the post, although Wikipedia, which has a link to Stanford and other links might have been even better. Someone who doesn't use comma splices.

SEK, I almost commented on the thread at your place, but wasn't sure you needed your name added to the vast subterranean Poindexter-managed database of my connections being built in Langley.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 6:10 PM
horizontal rule
49

But Langley is easily tricked by your telling him that here? We're more fucked than I knew. Otherwise, this thread is truly bizarre (a number of people behave in ways which I find odd given my past experience with them), and I've never read any Rorty, but: my condolences to those bereaved.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 6:43 PM
horizontal rule
50

37:

For Rorty's accomplishments, while I can't speak to the number of his protegés, you can put him down for many friends and many enemies.

Give the man his due -- he worked hard to earn them both. I'm sad to see him go.


Posted by: Brian | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 6:44 PM
horizontal rule
51

For me it's shocking and demoralizing--I feel like a disproportionate number of people whose work I admire, people who I thought still had years in them, have died in the past eighteen months or so. (Edward Said (although everyone knew he was pretty sick), Derrida, Octavia Butler--just to name the most famous three). With Rorty--I'd always pictured him as this very vigorous guy who would be around forever. (I don't know why; that's just how I thought of him).

Seriously, when Minneapolitan and I were talking about this, because I didn't know that Ben was at the same school I thought it was a mistake, just some random internet rumor.

(I didn't read the post, though; the post is pretty obviously serious.)

It makes me realize how many people I've grown up reading are, well, old. I've grown up reading them and all, and I'm not as young as I was, and I find myself very aware that there will one day be the horrible news that there will be no more Samuel Delaney novels, or no more Doris Lessing novels, or no more acerbic comments from Immanuel Wallerstein.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 6:54 PM
horizontal rule
52

That's sad. I didn't read a whole lot of his stuff, but I liked Contingency, Irony, Solidarity a lot, especially the article called "The Barber of Kasbeam", about Lolita.

My first supervisor for my Master's thesis had been a student of Rorty's and he always spoke well of him.


Posted by: alif sikkiin | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 6:59 PM
horizontal rule
53

51: It's almost as if one's past is disappearing. There are fewer and fewer people around who remember what you remember and can talk about it absent that feeling of unreality to the conversation that always exists when talking to someone who didn't live the events.

That's why old folk read obits to each other.


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 7:20 PM
horizontal rule
54

I honestly thought that Doris Lessing was dead. I think there's a little mental clock in my head, so that if I don't hear someone's name actively mentioned as alive for more than ten years, I start to assume they are dead.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 7:52 PM
horizontal rule
55

It makes me realize how many people I've grown up reading are, well, old.

What's worse is when all your doctors are younger than you. What's worse than that is being one of those old ladies who finds that disturbing.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 7:54 PM
horizontal rule
56

54: I thought Sandy Koufax died like 25 years ago. Not that he cares, of course.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 7:54 PM
horizontal rule
57

55: What's nice is the gentile dementia that prevents little old ladies from recognizing they're little old ladies.


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 7:57 PM
horizontal rule
58

er.. "gentle". All that talk about blondes, I guess.


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 7:58 PM
horizontal rule
59

But not the Jewish little old ladies.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 7:59 PM
horizontal rule
60

So is someone mailing your superiors letters in which they claim you are a white supremacist defamatory in a legal sense? Libel or slander or something?


Posted by: Grover Cleveland | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 8:05 PM
horizontal rule
61

60: Even if it was, it would be a civil matter, thus requiring SEK to hire a lawyer. It sucks, but as I reflect upon it, I'm glad that libel and slander aren't criminal offenses.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 06- 9-07 8:33 PM
horizontal rule
62

One of the weirder posts on Rorty.


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 06-10-07 2:41 PM
horizontal rule
63

What's so weird about that?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 06-10-07 2:46 PM
horizontal rule
64

I had imagined that GR and RR were a few more degrees of separation apart.


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 06-10-07 2:47 PM
horizontal rule
65

If anti-foundationalism led to Glen Reynolds, I'm now a foundationalist I guess.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 06-10-07 3:13 PM
horizontal rule
66

Insty's dad was all progressive and decent, right? I thought I remembered something like that.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-11-07 7:15 AM
horizontal rule
67

Kotsko sent me this link to Habermas's obit of Rorty.

After three or four paragraphs of sarcastic analysis came the unexpected sentence: " Alas, I have come down with the same disease that killed Derrida." As if to attenuate the reader's shock, he added in jest that his daughter felt this kind of cancer must come from "reading too much Heidegger."


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06-13-07 9:54 AM
horizontal rule