December 17, 2004

And Have You Been a Good Little Epistemologist?

By CARLIN ROMANO

What to get the cranky philosopher on your list? It's tough. Beguiling etchings of supervenience and "the Absolute," like colorful pet "noumena" and "phenomena," just can't be found. Surprise trips to Pythagorean Sicily or Kantian Kaliningrad run into an occupational hazard: Philosophers, control freaks hyperattentive to every twitch on their personal horizons, hate to be radically surprised, even by loved ones.

No matter what you come up with, you'll be trapped in that closed circle