[wardaddy]

Erwin despised publishing. He was there to teach and the LA college tolerated him. He would have been the chair of Poli/Sci had he been willing to publish no doubt.

He was very very defined in his approach. He touched on Zeno and the other pre-Socratic guys but really keyed on Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.....then he would move onto Hegel, Hobbes, and all the "Enlightenment Guys" and then onto the later day folks from Marx, Camus, even Erich Fromm.
You get the picture. Oddly, he always treated Shakespeare as noteworthy in this field as well. In latter 500 or 600 level courses, it got very technical. I chose that major towards attending law school and even did nicely on the LSAT but opted for a life of adventure instead. No regrets.

There was always an unsubstantiated rumour that Erwin was indeed a child of Nazi Germany sent off to the "Forest Schools" as a boy. If true, he obviously wholeheartedly rejected that brainwashing experience. He caused a stir on campus a few years ago by openly criticizing Clinton's pathological dishonesty and took heat for it. I think he retired recently in his mid 70s.

Oddly, in 1990 while in Kingston Jamaica on business I ran into his daughter at a party at the US Ambassador's residence. She was in the foreign service and stationed there. When I heard that Southern drawl and she gave her last name, I knew instantly who she must be.

He was a good man....a bit on the esoteric side but a rare classical thinker for his field....besides he taught us all those great German words to describe philosophical ideas for which their is no real English equivalent...lol

[TopQuark]

Interesting character and a good teacher...

You are very true to life, WarDaddy, in whatever way you live it at any given moment: when you were a pilgrim, you were one to the fullest; and, when it came to education, you've got a rigorous and broad one as well.

Regards, TQ.