Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: The Moral and Political Philosophy of Gregory Kavka
- Some Personal Memories
- The Shadow of the Future
- A New Paradox of Deterrence
- Rethinking the Toxin Puzzle
- Toxin, Temptation, and the Stability of Intention
- The Toxin Puzzle
- Religion and Morality in Hobbes
- Contemporary Uses of Hobbes's Political Philosophy
- The Knavish Humean
- Some Considerations in Favor of Contractualism
- Justice, Reasons, and Moral Standing
- Wrongful Life: Paradoxes in the Morality of Causing People to Exist
- Gregory S. Kavka's Writings
Some Personal Memories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: The Moral and Political Philosophy of Gregory Kavka
- Some Personal Memories
- The Shadow of the Future
- A New Paradox of Deterrence
- Rethinking the Toxin Puzzle
- Toxin, Temptation, and the Stability of Intention
- The Toxin Puzzle
- Religion and Morality in Hobbes
- Contemporary Uses of Hobbes's Political Philosophy
- The Knavish Humean
- Some Considerations in Favor of Contractualism
- Justice, Reasons, and Moral Standing
- Wrongful Life: Paradoxes in the Morality of Causing People to Exist
- Gregory S. Kavka's Writings
Summary
This book commemorates the intellectual contributions of Greg Kavka. I wanted to say something to celebrate his person. He lived a life full of character, courage, strength, love, caring, and even satisfaction. And he did so despite enduring an astonishing series of misfortunes.
I met Greg twenty-six years ago, when he first came to UCLA. It was not love at first sight. I thought I wouldn't like him. He seemed boyish and oldfashioned. I saw my mistake within a week of knowing him. I had mistaken the boyishness for lack of awareness or sophistication. What drew us together was an impatience with pretension and an enjoyment of UCLA basketball. Gradually, weekends between our families became a regular matter. We developed a four-way friendship. It was just a matter of spending time together in simple pursuits. It was Greg's way. He was aggressively unpretentious in his tastes – Pepsi instead of wine, pizza rather than salmon, Sports Illustrated before the New Yorker, loafers not Guccis, basketball over Proust.
We went through some hard times. One misty winter's night in Pacific Palisades, I had to tell him that his tenure case was in trouble. He was not given tenure because a few senior philosophers saw the boyishness as I first did and failed to recognize his intellectual power and persistence. Most of his adversaries have since acknowledged their mistake. He took the news with an objectivity and dispassionateness that characterized all his responses to adversity.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Rational Commitment and Social JusticeEssays for Gregory Kavka, pp. 9 - 11Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998