Tuesday, March 18, 2008

identity of the "Profs." in the ITOE appendix

Prof. A - Harry Binswanger
Prof. B - Allan Gotthelf
Prof. C - Nick Bykovitz
Prof. D - Ralph Nelson
Prof. E - Leonard Peikoff
Prof. F - George Walsh
Prof. G - Fred Weiss
Prof. H - Mike Berliner
Prof. I - Gary Lockman
Prof. J - John Allen
Prof. K - Al Jakira
Prof. L - Tony Plasil
Prof. M - Larry Gould

6 comments:

Neil Parille said...

Hello,

This is quite interesting. How did you come up with this list?

-Neil Parille

Cavewight said...

The list was posted to Objectivistliving.com. I'm not certain on the spelling of "Bykovitz," some who probably know better spell it "Bykovetz."

http://www.objectivistliving.com/
forums/index.php?s=6ea0a83573dde6889
ecea4d583a9f3e4&showtopic=614&st=40
&p=5826&#entry5826

There have been questions as to the nature of the abbreviation "Prof." used in the appendix discussion in ITOE. If it stands for "professor," then it is a case of pure fraud, as hardly anybody attending the discussions were professors, many indeed were undergrads. Some Objectivists will try to claim
that it actually stood for "professional," based on something Peikoff wrote in ITOE2, 125. However, there is this evidence to dispute that claim:

"Prof. D: I misunderstood, then, something that Professor B said." ITOE2, 156.

And: "AR: It's totally wrong. Professor F is entirely right to bring it up in connection with my statement on causality from Galt's speech." ITOE2, 185

Professor F, who was George Walsh, was no professor at the time of these discussions, circa 1970.

Neil Parille said...

Peikoff does say they were "professionals" in philosophy, physics and mathematics. I guess that would cover professors and perhaps people employed in scientific professions. It would be odd to describe a graduate student as a "professional," although most grad students teach courses so maybe that would make them professionals in a certain sense.

The impression given is that we have a bunch of philosophy professors sitting at Rand's feet. I doubt that was accidental.

Cavewight said...

"The impression given is that we have a bunch of philosophy professors sitting at Rand's feet. I doubt that was accidental."

That was my own impression at the time of my first reading, as a naive and impressionable teen.

Impression-management would seem to be a major M.O. of this bunch.

Ellen Stuttle said...

Cavewight:

Professor F, who was George Walsh, was no professor at the time of these discussions, circa 1970.

Possibly you're mixing up the George Walsh in question with some other George Walsh.

Here's a memorial piece about the George Walsh in question. He indeed was a professor, a delightful one the thought of whom still brings warm smiles and laughter. He is missed.


http://www.objectivistcenter.org/cth--398-In_Memoriam_George_Walsh.aspx

In Memoriam: George Walsh

by David Kelley

The staff and trustees of The Objectivist Center note with sadness the death of George Walsh, at his home in Salisbury, Maryland, on Thursday, November 8, 2001, after a long illness. He is survived by his wife, Cathy, and three children. George was a professor of philosophy, an intellectual leader of the Objectivist movement who served on our board of trustees from the beginning, and a dear friend whose loss is keenly felt by everyone whose life he touched.

Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to an Irish Catholic family, George studied philosophy at Williams College and Brown University, and went on to earn his Ph.D. from Princeton University. During his long and distinguished career, he taught at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (1948-68), Eisenhower College (1968-79), and Salisbury State University, where he remained professor emeritus of philosophy after his retirement in 1989.


Ellen

Ellen Stuttle said...

The list was posted to Objectivistliving.com. I'm not certain on the spelling of "Bykovitz," some who probably know better spell it "Bykovetz."

You're correct that the name is misspelled in the list you picked up from my OL post.

It should be "Bykovetz." I think his full first name is spelled "Nicholas," though I see it one place on Google as 'Nickolas."

He's had an active career as a research physicist; I find numerous research papers (published by a group of researchers) stretching into the second half of the '90s. I didn't find anything later than 1999, thus far. However, there's still a listing for "Bykovetz, Nicholas" as a member of the New England Section of the APS (American Physical Society) as of 2007. (There might be another physicist, described in some publications as a "health physicist," named "Nicholas Bykovetz," so I'm not certain if the current APS listing is for the same person who was an epistemology workshop attendee or not.)

Ellen