Yanks and Euros
(Warning: unwarranted generalizations ahead)
Went to a lecture by John Searle tonight. The guy’s amazing: he’s ancient but more agile than half of the folks in the room. (Not difficult since they were mostly Germans.) He spoke for an entire hour without notes, walking around all the time with one of those little mikes pinned to his chest. He talked a lot about his Bernese Sennenhund named Gilbert. (Previous dogs were named Frege, Russell, and Ludwig, in that order.) Gilbert is a likeable fellar but dumb as a tree trunk — a real beast with no language. He (Searle) kept 900 Germans on the edge of their seats. How come half of the room was sound asleep after twenty minutes last time I heard Habermas? Anyway, it made me want to go back to an American graduate school. I know it’s delusional and don’t worry, won’t happen, but I sure feel like it. This guy could even drag me back into a philosophy seminar.
