Something like a c.v. or biographical sketch is available on my web page,
http://www.nd.edu/~amanier/index.html. The homepage connects to
materials for the courses I teach at the University of Notre Dame,
Neurobiology and Narrative, Mind and Brain, and Philosophy and Psychiatry.
I'm not sure if any subscribers to this list lack web access, so I'll give
you a quick resume:
1949-54 Pre-med (chem major) at Notre Dame and lst year medical student at
St Louis U.
1954-59 Graduate student in philosophy (history of philosophy) St. Louis U.
Instructor in Philosophy and Chemistry, Webster College, Webster Groves
dissertation, "The meanings of 'nature' in Leibniz"
1959- Thro the ranks to Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame.
1965-72 Philosophy and molecular biology
1972-1980 <The young Darwin and his cultural circle>, history and
philosophy of
evolutionary biology
1980-1990 Philosophy and the molecular neurobiology of learning.
1990- History and philosophy of cognitive neuroscience and molecular
psychiatry.
I joined this group because of the Percy web page at UNC and the kind
invitation of your moderator. I bookmarked the Percy web page because I
pair <The Thanatos Syndrome> with psychiatrist Peter Kramer, M.D.'s
<Listening to Prozac>, with its final chapter addressed explicitly to
Percy: "the message in the capsule" in my Neurobiology and Narrative
class. The homepage for that class http://www.nd.edu/~amanier/n&n.html
connects to my class note materials on Kramer and Percy, including a
Preface and a Conversation (Peter Kramer, Tom More and Fr. Simon Smith).
I am very interested n the significnce of language (but not, as far as I
know, semiotics) for philosophical anthropology, where I would describe
myself as an evolutionary naturalist, almost, but not quite, at home
(rather than lost) in the cosmos.
I think Peter Kramer overdoes the significance of animal models of
depression and anxiety for the understanding of religious alienation from
the world (Kierkegaard, Percy). But I also think that the critique of
liberal qualitarianism ("tenderness leads to the gas chambers") in <The
Thanatos Syndrome> can be accomplished rather easily within the
perspective of evolutionary naturalism in anthropology (ala Charles
Taylor, <Sources of the self, the making of the modern identity>, Harvard,
1989). Taylor is a decent Catholic who doesn't think the enlightenment
mired the modern world in sin and error. I'm a bad Catholic who agrees
with Taylor about enlightenment, sin and error.
I enjoy Percy's novels more than his essays on philosophical subjects
although I find it difficult to teach the novels in philosophy classes
without using the essays. I don't think the "delta factor" (and I prefer
double delta or diamond to emphasize social cognition) eludes naturalistic
explanation.
I have little or no use for philosophical theology or the philosophy of
religion, but scripture is another matter. I like the approaches to
ancient texts exemplified by the work of Rene Girard and Walter Burkert.
I prefer single malt scotch; there's too much sugar in bourbon.
You will probably call me "Windy" but my friends call my "Eazy"
Ed
A. Edward Manier, Professor
Philosophy & History and Philosophy of Science
Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values
314 Decio
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(o) 219-631-6520
FAX 219-631-8209
Dept 219-631-6471
http://www.nd.edu/~amanier/index.html