Avrum was there in the audience, I believe, in Berkeley on the afternoon in 1941 when, in conformity with the law subsequently enu...nciated by Murphy, what could go wrong, epistemologically, did. G.E. Moore was delivering the Howison Lecture in Wheeler Auditorium, which had a handsome coffered ceiling inset with glass panels. Giving a local angle to his defence of common sense, Moore declared that among the things he knew there and then was that light from the sun was streaming through the roof. Most in the audience were aware, however, that the glass panels were diffusers for electrical illumination; the roof of the building was solid and opaque. Someone had the temerity to point this out to Moore in the question period. He responded, "Oh dear me!" and went on to the next question.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
An oblong puddle inset in the coarse asphalt; like a fancy footprint filled to the brim with quicksilver; like a spatulate hole th...rough which you can see the nether sky. Surrounded, I note, by a diffuse tentacled black dampness where some dull dun dead leaves have stuck. Drowned, I should say, before the puddle had shrunk to its present size.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is nothing on earth more exquisite than a bonny book, with well-placed columns of rich black writing in beautiful borders, a...nd illuminated pictures cunningly inset. But nowadays, instead of looking at books, people read them. A book might as well be one of those orders for bacon and bran.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »