Sylvia and Michael Tooley in Bled, Slovenia, May, 2007
Sylvia and Michael have two daughters - Sandra and Suzanne .
Sandra has a daughter -
Sofia.
Suzanne has four sons -
Anthony, Joshua, Donny, and Joey
Our
Time in Australia
Sylvia
and I met in Australia, where she was completing
her Ph.D. on the Frankfurt school Authority, Social Character,
and Personality.
In all, we spent over 15 years in Australia, for
about nine of which I was a research fellow at the
Australia National University, and for six of
which I held the Chair in Philosophy at the
University of Western Australia. Both of us found
Australia very congenial. It is a more laid-back
society than America, and we very much approved of
the fact that it is a society where there is
completely free, universal healthcare. I also
found the Australia philosophical society both
very congenial, and very stimulating. I had,
however, resigned a tenured Chair at the
University of Western Australia in 1988 for an
untenured research position at the Australian
National University, and as the end of that
appointment approached, I had to find a position
elsewhere, and we both are very pleased that I
wound up at the University of Colorado at Boulder
in 1992.
While in
Australia, we heard what I think is the most
impressive "national pride" song I've ever heard -
it should really be Australia’s national anthem,
rather than the rather insipid "Advance Australia
Fair." It was written in 1987
by Bruce Woodley of 'The Seekers' and Dobe Newton of
'The Bushwackers' and set to music composed by Bruce
Woodley. Here is a video by the Seekers, including
the great Judith Durham, that I especially like:
Our Visit to
Japan
One of
the most enjoyable trips that Sylvia and I made was
to Japan, in the spring of 1999. This visit was
arranged by Professor Masaki Ichinose of the
Philosophy Department of the University of Tokyo,
who had applied for a fellowship from the Japan
Society of the Promotion of Science to make possible
my visit, and who ensured that our visit was most
congenial one.
During that visit I gave three
lectures to the Philosophy Department at the
University of Tokyo, along with lectures to the
Philosophy Departments at Nihon
University, Tokyo Metropolitan University, and Keio
University, all on topics in the philosophy of time,
plus a lecture on the moral status of cloning humans
to the Japanese Society of Bioethics, at Kyoto
University. I found the critical feedback in the
discussions that followed those lectures very
helpful, and I enjoyed the very congenial
conversations with faculty, research associates, and
graduate students about a wide variety of
philosophical questions in the receptions that
followed.
In addition to my
interactions with Japanese philosophers, Sylvia
and I explored Tokyo very extensively during our
month-long visit, and found it to be a very
impressive city indeed - quite different from any
city we have ever visited. We also very much
enjoyed our trip to Kyoto when I gave the
bioethics talk. It would be nice at some point to
return to Japan.
Michael Tooley in a Seminar at Tokyo University,1999
Hobbies
My
favorite recreational activities are shooting pool,
playing golf, downhill skiing, and playing chess and
bridge.
Shooting Pool
1. My favorite books on pool are Willie Hoppe's Billiards
as It Should Be Played, Phil Capelle's Play
Your Best Pool, Ray Martin and Rosser
Reeves' The 99 Critical Shots in Pool, and
two books by Robert Byrne - Byrne's New Standard
Book of Pool and Billiards, and Advanced
Technique in Pool and Billiards. Byrne's books
are especially interesting because he had a friend
who was a physicist, and, as a result, one finds
discussions of things that are not in any other
books on pool, such as the "throw effect", which
shows that the familiar "ghost ball" technique of
aiming is not quite right.
2. I have developed a method of aiming, which
I quite like, that involves a mathematical
calculation. However, although I've explained the
method to many people, no one has yet said, "I must
use that method!" But if you’re interested, here
they are the details:
Golf
There are many great instructional
golf books, including ones by Jack Nicklaus and
David Leadbetter, but the one that I recommend to
people learning the game is Ben Hogan's 1957 book Five Lessons – The Modern Fundamentals of
Golf. What I
especially like about Hogan’s book is that he thinks
in terms of cause and effect, reflecting the fact
that he did a great deal of experimenting with his
golf swing, starting out as a left-handed golfer,
then switching to using a right-handed swing, but
with a cross-handed grip (!) before experimenting
with both the interlocking grip and the standard
Vardon grip.
It seems to me that the
only real progress that has been made in the golf
swing since Hogan's time is that most professional
golfers have a much greater slope in their upper
bodies at address - often around 45 degrees - than
what Hogan recommended, and if one thinks in terms
of the physics, it’s clear that that greater slope
will result in greater acceleration of one's arms
during the downswing.
One problem with
instructional golf books is that the writers rarely
think in terms of the physics of the golf swing. As
regards that, there are three books that I think are
especially useful, namely, The Search
for the Perfect Swing, by Alastair Cochran and
John Stobbs (1968), The Science of the
Golf Swing, by David Williams, and The Physics of Golf, by
Theodore Jorgensen. Of these, the last is the best,
since Jorgensen was a professor of physics, and
worked out equations for the golf swing that he used
to draw important conclusions.
Chess
I
played chess a great deal as a teenager, and then
didn’t play it again until I met some keen chess
players when I was a research fellow at the
Australian National University in the late ‘70s. At
that time, I switched to a tactical style, playing
aggressive openings such as the Max Lange Attack,
and gambits frequently, including the King's Gambit,
the Evans' Gambit, the Morra Gambit against the
Sicilian Defense, and a gambit version of the
Advance variation against the French Defense.
Playing such highly aggressive openings
requires, however, a very thorough knowledge of all
of the responses, since otherwise one is likely to
wind up down a pawn with no compensation. Unfortunately, I've never
had a great memory, and in the end I found playing
chess was taking up too much time.
Bridge
Sylvia
and I haven't played much bridge recently, as we
like to play with friends, and there aren’t many
bridge players in the Philosophy Department.
For those of you who do play bridge, I think that you’ll enjoy following:
One of the questions that was asked
in the PhilPapers Survey that was carried out in
2009 was this: God: theism or atheism? The result was
that 72.8% chose the "Accept or lean toward atheism"
answer, while 14.6% chose the "Accept or lean toward
theism" answer. By a wide margin, then, most
philosophers are not religious.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that
philosophers are strangely quiet with regard to
religious views. True, if one takes an introductory
course, it will often include a section on
philosophy of religion, where students will
typically be exposed to arguments for and against
the existence of God. But
if philosophy of religion textbooks are any
indicator, it is very rare that there is any focus
on particular religions, such as
Christianity, even though such religions often
involve beliefs against which there is very strong
scientific evidence, such as belief in a young
earth, or in demonic possession, or very implausible
moral beliefs, such as that both homosexuality and
all sex prior to marriage, including masturbation,
are morally wrong, or that one ought to worship a
deity who has created a world where the majority of
the human race will wind up spending eternity in
hell. Why aren't such beliefs subjected to critical
examination?
Happily, there are at least a few exceptions
to this philosophical practice of giving a free pass
to the religions of the world. David Lewis, for
example, in a posthumously published paper, focused
on the Christian belief in hell, and the final
paragraph of his paper is as follows:
"Non-believers have
been able to excuse their religious friends on the
grounds that they are probably not clear-headed
about the commitments of their worship. We can think
of them as good people who have not seen the
perpetrator's dark side. In bringing the problem of
divine evil to their attention, I am presenting them
with a choice they have previously avoided.
Ironically, I may be making it impossible for myself
to admire many whom I have previously liked and
respected."
("Divine
Evil," in Philosophers without God -
Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life,
edited by Louise Antony, (Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press, 2007.)
Some
of my Favorite Anti-Religious Literary Pieces
and Passages
Shakespeare,
Macbeth (V, 5):
To-morrow,
and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps
in this petty pace from day to day
To
the last syllable of recorded time,
And
all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The
way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's
but a walking shadow, a poor player
That
struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And
then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told
by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying
nothing.
Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe: Prometheus
Decke
deinen Himmel, Zeus
Cover your heavens, Jove,
Mit Wolkendunst
with misty clouds
Und übe, dem Knaben gleich
and practice, like a boy,
Der Disteln köpft,
beheading thistles,
An Eichen dich und Bergeshöhn
on oaks and mountain peaks!
Musst mir meine Erde
On earth you must leave me
Doch lassen stehn
still standing,
Und meine Hütte, die du nicht gebaut,
and my cottage, which you did not build,
Und meinen Herd,
and my hearth
Um dessen Glut
whose warmth
Du mich beneidest.
You envy me.
Ich
kenne nichts Ärmeres
I know nothing poorer
Unter der Sonn als euch, Götter!
Under the sun than you gods!
Ihr nähret kümmerlich
Wretchedly you nourish
Von Opfersteuren
your majesty
Und Gebetshauch
on sacrificial tolls
Eure Majestät
and flimsy prayers,
Und darbtet, wären
and would starve if children
Nicht Kinder und Bettler
and beggars were not
Hoffungsvolle Toren.
hopeful fools.
Da
ich ein Kind war,
When I was a child,
Nicht wusste, wo aus nach ein,
not knowing my way,
Kehrt ich mein verirrtes Auge
I turned my erring eyes
Zur Sonne, all wenn drüber wär
sunward, as if above there were
Ein Ohr, zu hören meine Klage,
an ear to hear my lamentation,
Sich des Bedrängten zu erbarmen.
a heart like mine
to care for the distressed.
Wer
half mir
Who helped me
Wider der Titanen Übermut?
against the Titans' wanton insolence?
Wer rettete von Tode mich?
Who rescued me from death,
Von Slaverei?
From slavery?
Hast du nicht alles selbst vollendet,
Have you not done all this yourself,
Heilig glühend Herz?
My holy glowing heart?
Und glühtest jung and gut,
And young and good you glowed,
Betrogen, Rettungsdank
betrayed, with thanks for rescue
Dem Schlafenden da droben?
To him who slept above.
Ich
dich ehren? Wofür?
I honor you? For what?
Hast du die Schmerzen gelindert
Have you ever eased the suffering
Je des Beladenen?
Of the oppressed?
Hast du die Tränenen gestillet
Have you ever stilled the tears
Je des Geängsteten?
Of the frightened?
Hat nicht mich zum Manne geschmiedet
Was I not welded to manhood
Die allmächtige Zeit
by almighty Time
Und das ewige Schicksal
and eternal Fate,
Meine Herrn under deine?
My master and yours?
Wächtest
du etwa,
Did you fancy perchance
Ich sole das Leben hassen,
that I should hate life
In Wüsten fliehen,
and fly to the desert
Weil nicht alle
because not all
Blütenträumen reiften?
By blossom dreams ripened?
Hier
sitz ich, forme Menschen
Here I sit, forming men
Nach meinem Bilde,
in my own image,
Ein Geschlecht, das mir gleich sei,
a race to be like me,
Zu leiden, zu weinen.
to suffer, to weep,
Zu geniessen and zu freuen sich,
to delight and to rejoice,
Und dein nicht zu achten,
and to defy you,
Wie ich!
as I do.
Translation
by Walter Kaufmann, 20 German Poets
(New York: The Modern Library, 1962), pp. 8-11.
Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe: Epigram 20 from “Venetian Epigrams”
Juden
und Heiden hinaus!
Jews and heathen away!
So duldet der christliche Schwärmer.
Is the tolerance of the Christian.
Christ und Heide verflucht!
Christians and heathens be damned,
Murmelt ein jüdischer Bart.
Murmurs a Jewish beard.
Mit den Christen an Spies
Christians ought to be stabbed,
Und mit den Juden ins Feuer!
And Jews consigned to the flames!
Singet ein türkisches Kind
Thus sings a Turkish child,
Christen und Juden zum Spott
Scorning both Christians and Jews.
Welcher ist der Klügste? Entsheide!
Which of these is the wisest? Decide it!
Abersinde diese Narren in deinem Palast,
But as long as these fools abide in your
Gottheit, so geh ich vorbei
palace, Godhead, I pass it by.
Translation
by Walter Kaufmann, 20 German Poets
(New York: The Modern Library, 1962), pp. 28-29.
From Edward Fitzgerald’s
Translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
O threats of Hell and
Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain - This
life flies
One things is certain and the rest is Lies,
The Flower that one
has blown forever dies.
Heav'n but the vision
of fulfill'd Desire,
and Hell the Shadow from a Soul on fire
Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves,
So late emerg'd from, shall so soon expire.
A Moment's Halt –– a
momentary taste
Of Being
from the Well amid the Waste –
And Lo! –– the phantom Caravan has reach'd
The Nothing
it set out from –– Oh, make haste!
What! Out of
senseless Nothing to provoke
A conscious Something to resent the yoke
Of unpermitted Pleasure, under pain
Of Everlasting Penalties, if broke?
What! –– from his
helpless Creature be repaid
Pure Gold for what he lent him dross-allay'd ––
Sue for a Debt we never did contract
And cannot answer –– Oh the sorry trade!
Oh Thou, who Man of
baser Earth didst make
And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake:
For all the sin wherewith the Face of Man
Is blacken'd –– Man’s forgiveness give –– and take!
Ah Love! Could you
and I with Him conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would we not shatter it to bits –– and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's desire!