beards and glasses everywhere--(1/10)

So I spent the weekend at the Western Canadian Philosophical Association annual conference, held conveniently right here. It was a fantastic time and occasionally over my head, but hey--I think I learned more in three days than over the past two months of school. I'm not going to get into many details because, well, most of you will find them boring. A while ago I wouldn't have recognized that and would've gone into a little story about contrastivism, I guess I'm growing.

Ok, now I have to at least sketch out what contrastivism is because I'm no fan of cliffhangers. It's the statement 'S knows p rather than q' as opposed to 'S knows p'. Basically, it's a claim that all knowledge is in relation to what it's not. So when I look at water, I know it's water because it's not cola.

This stuff is fun once you get into it.

Two things have happened as a result. Firstly, I've gotten off the fence and decided that, after China, I will go to grad school and become a philosophy professor. It feels nice to finally have made a decision about the direction of my life and while there will be a lot of work, the best of life requires it. Plus I already have a beard to stroke while pondering.

Side note: so many beards. At least half of the men there had one.

Secondly, I was also inspired to start my living heroes project with one of the few heroes that I've actually met. So here's Adam Morton.

Morton is a professor of philosophy at the University of Alberta. Before that he taught at Bristol and received his Phd from Princeton. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (a big deal), chairs the Canada Research Council on Epistemology (another big deal) and is a past president of the Aristotelian Society (a huge deal). The man even has his own Wikipedia page, much harder than it seems. Point is, he carries a large stick in modern philosophy and I'm fairly certain he's the cleverest man I've ever met.

Now, I said cleverest, not smartest. While I'm sure he's way up there in terms of IQ, what always impresses me more is his razor sharp logical facility and unending thirst for knowledge. He didn't present any papers at the conference, but instead was content to sit and learn.

Being in his sixties and with the reputation he does have, Professor Morton could easily rest on his laurels. Yet he is still publishing papers and writing books. I've only taken one class from him way back in my first year, but I've never forgotten his incredible thirst for knowledge and the sheer delight he takes in teaching and researching the same subject he has been for thirty or forty years. The awe and humility he approaches philosophy reminds me of how Master Brinker always insists (and exemplifies) that we should never get tired of kung fu and also never stop having fun with it.

He's also legendarily absent minded, probably because he has so much to think about. Plus the guy can unicycle, how cool is that?

Super cool, for those of you wondering.