"Colin McGinn is a wanker!" an Australian philosopher told me a few months ago. I had asked his opinion of McGinn during a class break, and his vehement reaction surprised me. (He did smile, however, when he said it.)

So not long ago when I chanced to see a multi-CD set of audio lectures by Professor McGinn titled Discovering the Philosopher in You: The Big Questions in Philosophy on the library bookshelf, I knew that I had to check it out — and I wasn't disappointed. Colin McGinn is an engaging speaker, and his brisk tour through the universe of classically ponderable issues was both provocative and rewarding. As anticipated, I still disagree (though less wholeheartedly than last year) with the "Mysterian" thesis that mind is a great incomprehensibility. But McGinn's musings on knowledge, truth, ethics, God, and the meaning of life are constantly entertaining. And even when he's wrong, he's somehow wrong in a way that illuminates.

(cf. TheMysterians (2 Aug 1999), ManOfMystery (12 Aug 2004), ...)

TopicPhilosophy - TopicLiterature - TopicHumor - TopicPersonalHistory - 2006-11-17

(correlates: MainGoal, BeTheChange, MovementForeAndAft, ...)