(On) Self-Presentation

Abstract

I first encountered phenomenology as an undergradute at Northwestern in the Sixties. Only, I was a student of engineering, majoring in mathematics. In the midst of my junior year I looked at the text my roommate was reading for a course on perception (I still have this text). On the back of the book was an ad for Bertrand Russell’s Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy. I popped around the corner to the nearest bookstore and of course found a copy (that being Great Expectations Bookstore). I read it on the train home for spring break, and by the time I got home I was going into philosophy. It was a conversion experience, only I felt as if I were simply coming home.

Date of birth: May 7, 1944.

Place of birth: Cincinnati, Ohio.

Ph.D., Stanford University, 1971.

Academic appointments: Indiana University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Universität Salzburg; University of California at Los Angeles; University of California at Irvine.