Last year I gave away my trad climbing gear, some of it new, some of it by then almost 25 years old. Not the end of the world: I would still be able to go sport climbing, where the bolts are all already installed, and of course continue in the climbing gym. And yet …Continue reading “In the rock I trust”
Author Archives: Bas van Fraassen
Hollywood and the baroni dell’università
I am no Foucault nor was meant to be. If I give my impressions of power structures in academia they will be like, let us say, the impressions of an ant vis à vis an orange. When I first came to Italy I was soon told about the university barons: old professors who held all the power, eachContinue reading “Hollywood and the baroni dell’università”
Writers in seclusion
As I was recently re-reading Nabokov’s The Real Life of Sebastian Knight I found myself in a strongly felt connection to a phenomenon — though it is one I have never witnessed, involving people I have never known. When novels become famous they are often reprinted with an introduction. I never read it (or ifContinue reading “Writers in seclusion”
The Spirit Has Two Wings
Long before I came to California I was aware of it as a center of spiritual life in many forms. When we had landed in Edmonton in 1956, our first house was on 92nd Street, near the disreputable part of downtown. I had my bed in the attic. There, in a closet, I found a stackContinue reading “The Spirit Has Two Wings”
A Razor’s Edge
When I was 17, working part-time in the Edmonton public library, I was allowed to take home any books slated for discard. One, which I still have on my shelves, was Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge. It is the story of Larry through the eyes of a narrator, ostensibly the author himself, who catches glimpses of Larry’s quest overContinue reading “A Razor’s Edge”
Students
Sometimes, along the way, unexpectedly, there is a sign of some student from long ago. At one point I wanted to get one more physical copy of my book on formal semantics, which had been out of print for some time. There were second-hand copies for sale on Amazon and I wrote for one ofContinue reading “Students”
Californians
In the spring of 1974 I went to Adelaide, in Australia, to give a four-week seminar. I arrived several days late, and had to explain to Graham Nerlich that on my stop-over in California I had been with friends. I had missed my connecting flight, and had to rebook. Nerlich was very gracious about this.Continue reading “Californians”
Yosemite and Cuisine
In the spring of ’92, on a walk by the Santa Cruz shore, Ric Otte asked me if I would like to come rock climbing with him and his friends, in Yosemite. There was another of those things you should do at least once in your life … I thought. Actually it was another of thoseContinue reading “Yosemite and Cuisine”
The Prima Donnas (2)
What exactly counts as an intellectual prima donna? Thomas Kuhn and Richard Rorty were still in Princeton when I arrived there. Both were famous in the world beyond Princeton, both had enjoyed impact well beyond their own discipline, both were courted for endowed lectures and international conferences. But that could be said about such reclusive figures asContinue reading “The Prima Donnas (2)”
The Prima Donnas (1)
When I was sixteen our family acquired a black-and-white television set and for a while I was spell-bound. With my little sisters I would watch Miss Pam show for children, and shows that featured songs like “Remember the Red River Valley” (“and the cowboy who loved you so true”). There, on television, is also where IContinue reading “The Prima Donnas (1)”
Bas van Fraassen's Commonplace Book 