Naturalized Epistemology

by Steven H. Cullinane on March 28, 2001

"Once upon a time there was a classroom."
-- Zenna Henderson, "Loo Ree,"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1953
(reprinted in Holding Wonder, Doubleday, 1971)

From Huston Smith's defense of traditional religions against the upstart religion of Scientism:

"In short, what is new here? In a word, what is new is simplification. The danger it risks, of course, is oversimplification, and I take that risk on every page. If it be wondered where I get the courage to take on that risk, the answer is from the example of Irving Berlin. Do not laugh, for in philosophy I am he."
-- Why Religion Matters, Harper Collins, 2001

From the autobiography of Reba McEntire:

"...my major field of study was elementary education and my minor was music. I received my bachelor's degree, but never taught school as my Mama and Grandma had done before me...."
-- My Story, Bantam, 1994

From "Annie Get Your Gun," now starring Reba McEntire:

"Doin' what comes naturally...."
-- Irving Berlin

From Zenna Henderson's first story of the People:

"Suddenly I felt her, so plainly that I knew with a feeling of fear and pride that I was of my grandmother, that soon I would be bearing the burden and blessing of her Gift -- the Gift that develops into free access to any mind, one of the People or an Outsider, willing or not. And besides the access, the ability to counsel and help, to straighten tangled minds and snarled emotions.... It was the first time I had ever sorted anybody."
-- "Ararat," The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1952 (reprinted in Ingathering, NESFA Press, 1995)

"And then suddenly she came in to me and my mind was flooded with a far greater presence than I had ever before experienced. My eyes flew open and I saw all the Old Ones staring at Valancy. Even the Oldest had his face turned to her, wonder written as widely on his scarred face as on the others. He bowed his head and made the Sign. 'The lost Persuasions and Designs,' he murmured. 'She has them all.'"
-- "Ararat," by Zenna Henderson

From my journal note of February 20, 1992:

"She's a natural....
When this old world is just too much
I don't have to say a word
Because her heart has already heard
Well, it must be second nature
The way she knows...."
-- Rick Bowles and Rob Crosby, song lyric, 1990

From the dust jacket of a book by Harvard's foremost philosopher:

"This is a key book for understanding the effort that a major philosopher has made a large part of his life's work: to naturalize epistemology in the twentieth century."
-- Anonymous, jacket copy for Pursuit of Truth, by W. V. Quine, Harvard University Press, copyright 1990 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College


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