Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
And the wonderfully annoying world of philosophy
Back in the day I was busy on my first degree. As I was working full time it was a six year stretch. One of the modules that I studied was called ‘Philosophy of the Arts.’ It was my first venture into this particular form of academic torture and, damn, it was agonising at times. Yet it was deeply rewarding. Sometimes. I guess I discovered I was a masochist, after all.
My tutor was from Poland. She had a scary intellect and always seemed ready to seek and destroy all presumed passengers opting for a scenic route through the course. One of her phrases she never tired of repeating was in deploying her own definition of philosophy.
The object of philosophy is to separate sense from nonsense.
The last word she always emphasised with a stentorian voice that jolted awake any wannabe sleepers in the room. Being able to successfully execute a fatal cutting phrase at fifty paces, she was not to be messed with. During my year with her I got my lowest mark and also my highest.
For the so-called summer school I opted for the London University on the Mile End road. My tutor during this residence was philosopher, author and broadcaster, Nigel Warburton. Evenings at the bar we…
